This week in the Butagaya class I was teaching on the Good Samaritan. The moral of the story is simple: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” As we were discussing the Good Samaritan, across the road a family was preparing for the funeral of their 16-year-old son. He had been beaten to death the previous day for attempting to steal a machine for squeezing the juice from sugar cane (valued around $90). Mob “justice” is a part of life here.
This week we saw a real-life example of one who loved his neighbor as himself. Henry (not his real name), one of the students from Butagaya, had a friend whose wife was having complications 5 months into her pregnancy. She was having labor pain (possibly miscarrying) for three days. They had gone to the Main Hospital in Jinja which had refused to help them because they did not have enough money to pay. Instead they referred them to a hospital in Kampala. (Government hospitals are supposed to treat people for free, but don’t.) Henry had gone and visited them in the Jinja Hospital and then went with them to Kampala. He offered to care for their 1 ½ year old son while they sought to get the help they needed in Kampala. As things turned out, the mom and baby both died and the grieving husband was faced with the task of transporting the body back for burial. Henry managed to help him find a place for burial and helped with the expenses as well. He is continuing to look after his friend's son until he is in a place and position to care for him again. Henry has sacrificed his time, energy and finances this week as he has so beautifully loved his neighbor as himself.
Thank you for your prayers for our family. Please pray too for the widowed husband. He is an unbeliever and we are praying that he would come to know Christ as he is seeing selfless and sacrificial love modeled to him through Henry.
We appreciate you all so much!
Nate and Rhoda Jore
