Why I build Hope
in God part I
I received many messages today asking me why of all writings and preaching I refer to Hope. I have shared my two testimonies many times but the biggest part which was my turning point is the following testimony which I love to call part one. I build Hope because I needed Hope one day as a lonely young girl at the end of her Rope. It was only Hope in God that I had to survive alone as a vulnerable young girl with no relative in the big city of Kampala.
I am a
last born and by the time I joined primary school I had a chance to have big
brothers to take care of me and my edecation. I may say that my childhood was full of joy and I was one time the District Commissioner’s daughter.
However, my
saddest turning point was in S. 3, when one of my brothers died of HIV/AIDS. In the same way, while in S.4 my other brother who was paying my school fees got very sick and I had to
care for him alone in Kampala since his wife died earlier. He later died too
immediately after I had finished my S.4 exams. That was the beginning of my misery
and agony because I had no body left in Kampala so I had to go back to the
village.
After burial
that left me empty I came back to our rented house in Entebbe and sold some of
the items to get transport money to transport the household items to the
village. I came in the morning from the village, we packed the items on the
lorry. Because I was in the hurry and could not get market easily, I sold few
items that made money for the lorry to transport items to my village in
Mbarara. I was left with only bus money and few coins to take me to the bus
park in Kampala. I could not travel that evening to the village because the
buses had gone and the lorry was too full to jump on top in the night wind. So
I had to sleep over and go the following day.
When the lorry
moved, I was left alone in the empty house where people had recently died with
no curtains, I felt so scared and lonely. I cried to God to help me. I was
hungry because I had not eaten the whole day. I cried to God to send me a
helper but there was none. I prayed to God in sobs to protect me in the scary
house. I remembered my grandmother Tabitha the strong lady who started our
first Protestant church in my village telling me that in trouble remember Psalm
91. I recited it. I had no power to even open my mouth but amidst sobs of
crying I called on God to be my protector, I prayed to God to get me a Good
Samaritan to pay my fees and bring me back to Kampala. I prayed to God to one
day give me a family, house and Ministry to look after vulnerable children. I
prayed to God to keep me safe that night in an open lonely house without
curtains.
I got a corner
of the inside cold bathroom and coiled myself. Because of hunger and too much
crying I slept off. I found myself in a corner of an empty house on the
bathroom floor the following day so weak and frail to even lift my legs.
There were no
mobile phones those days so I had no help. I closed the empty house early
morning and I was there wondering how to carry my mattress and heavy metal
suitcase with my legs shaking. God sent my first help. The care taker of the
house came to pick the keys at the nearby shop where we were to leave the keys.
Was told they went away so had come to check. On seeing me, he cried. Gerald
was a good man- God bless him. He carried my suit case and my mattress to the
nearby stage to get a taxi. He asked me if I had eaten since yesterday I told
him nothing I had eaten.
Gerald left me
at the stage and came back with a bottle of juice and katogo of meat and
matooke in Kaveera. He resurrected my soul, my mind and body with that food.
After eating I was now normal my legs and body were now firm and not shaking.
Gerald offered to take me up to Bus Park. God sent Gerald to me. He gave me my
first hope to carry on. We need to be that hope to young people and I will do
it the rest of my life.
I reached well
in the village. My exams came and I was in the local Newspaper to have passed
highly. I had put my first choice at Gayaza High school but my elderly peasant
parents could not afford to take me there. Five months passed since others
joined S.5 I was still home hoping my father would sell cows and I join any
High school in my village.
But one thing
God gave me was Hope inside me. I would cry to God at night to give me a
miracle and go back to school. I kept seeing my friends of Uganda Martyrs SSS
Namugongo where I was in S.4 in class in my dreams. When I was entering the
sixth month, I gave up and I knew my only dream is to get a good man and marry
and be like my elder sisters.
The second term
of S.5 when it reached, my late brother’s Employer asked where I had gone since
he saw me in the Newspapers. He was told I could not continue with school
because of school fees.
The man felt bad
and drove his car to come to the village and see the problem. He saw me now
barefooted with dirty clothes I was already a village girl and had given up on
school. He asked me if I wanted to go to school I told him it was my prayer to
God each day but my parents can’t afford.
The second
Samaritan God had sent to me picked me in the biggest car I had ever entered. I
kept checking my body to see if am ok or dreaming. It was the reality. He had
asked a family to take me in as their foster child and he would pay my fees and
needs until I finished school. They agreed.
I got a family, up to date they are my parents in Kampala and my Guardian Angel paid my school
fees and needs until I joined University on Government scholarship. I have done
many beautiful jobs up to Executive Director, travelled over 20 outside
countries, built a house and even a landlord now.
I work with an
NGO to help the vulnerable children like me with school fees mainly but of
course overwhelmed by number of vulnerable children. I have a family blessed
with children. Am in Kampala. I studied my Master’s degree in Europe. All these
God has been my Anchor in the Storms of life.
Am using my
given hopeful life to preach the good news, building hope of others and
imparting faith and love through church preaching, school outreaches, community
outreaches and discipleship- You can join me and be part of it.
But in all God
built my Hope. The Good Samaritan Gerald, my foster parents and Guardian Angel
were channels God used to build my hope further.
I want you to
keep hopeful because God is our only pleasant help and hope in times of
trouble. He answered my prayers in the lonely empty house as a young girl and
heard my cries in the darkness at night in my village. He did it for me and can
do it for you. Keep Hope in the storm.
God’s goodness
is not defined by whether life seems good. We might not be able to escape a
moment, but we can find refuge in it by remembering God’s goodness. When
hardship or sorrow visit us and cover us in pain, we can have refuge and hope even
in shame or pain because God bestows favor and honor to His children. Period.
No good thing does He withhold. No. Good. Thing. And this comes from the only
One Who is truly good. Amen!
Psalm 84:11
(ESV) “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly”. In the Bible, Job’s pain was great at one time
he lost the hope but when he admitted the sovereignty and goodness of God he
was restored. Hope was his doorway to help and happiness.
So pray to God
in whatever pain that God will replace the darkness of your sorrow with His
healing light and that the control of all life will give you hope and peace. Please
say- I am believing that am one with God of signs and wonders, and I will
worship him in truth and Spirit, I am staying in faith and trusting God to get
through the storms of my life and taking me to my destiny, I am not giving up
but keeping the hope in God and the good Lord will bring me victory in the name
of Jesus. Amen.
Part 2 loading……
By
Rose., KEISHANYU RUTETEBYA
