Several days ago, Richard Otim, HAN Bible translator, requested a day off to handle an important matter and was willing to miss a day of his pay to do it. We had no details of what he was planning to do.
A few nights before his day off, near midnight, Richard was suddenly awakened by a barking dog nearby. As he left his hut to see what was disturbing the dog, he was surprised to find a young man, who had wandered into his “compound”. (the word Lango people use for the area where a family lives, consisting of several huts, a latrine and areas for cooking and eating)
He appeared disoriented and frightened with a possible mental disability. In Richard’s neighborhood, anyone out at night is considered a thief. But Richard is a believer in Christ, covered with the Armor of God, and he gently questioned the young man, to find out how and why he had come to his home.
What he found was that the man, spoke only limited English and his tribal language, Ateso. He was 24 years old, named Ewoyot Patrick, and was from a neighboring tribe in the town of Katakwi about 4 hours from Richard’s village. Due to his mental limitations, he had been tricked into riding with a stranger who promised to take him to the nearby town of Soroti approximately 15-20 miles away. Richard believes that the stranger might have been intending to use Ewoyot for human sacrifice. When the trickster discovered that Ewoyot was “mentally preturbed” he most likely decided that he would dump him out as he would not be a worthy sacrifice.
Hours later, at night, in the dark, they arrived in Lira, the headquarters of HAN, and Ewoyot was left there, alone, stranded, without money, a phone, or knowing even where he was. The road out of town going North apparently looked similar to the road that leads to his home town, now many miles away. So he started “footing” (walking on foot) down that road which led to Richard’s village, 6 miles from Lira, wearing only a ragged shirt with blue “trousers” and barefoot. The man had seen a group of people with guns and quickly “branched” off the road onto the forested path to Richard”s home. Armed police are out at night, so Richard surmised he had avoided being caught by a nearby Police patrol, as he ducked into the trees at Richard’s home. As Richard questioned him, he prayed and felt that the young man was not harmful, and allowed him to stay the night in a small mud hut on the property.
Richard and his wife Hannet allowed Ewoyot to remain with their family for 3 days while contacting his family who had feared the worst for their son. Eventually, arrangements were made for Richard and Ewoyot to travel by bus and taxi to Katakwi to return the young man to his overjoyed family.
The next day, Richard and Ewoyot, boarded a bus to Katakwi and arrived to a large group of family members and “well wishers” who came to see who the man was that was willing to bring home their mentally disabled son who they feared was lost forever. It was a shock to them, that Richard was also a “disabled”, who was missing his right arm! 3 times they asked if he was the “very one” who had contacted them about their son. He answered 3 times that he was that very person, and invited them to call the phone number they had used to communicate with him. As his phone rang, they all erupted in exuberant shouting, crying for joy, singing, dancing, stick shaking, blessing Richard and praising God for the safe return of their son by this “Good Samaritan” who would not take anything for his services. Unfortunately we have no photos of Ewoyot and his family with Richard.
As Richard was questioned about his family, ancestors, and why he did this wonderful thing, they found that Richard’s grandfather who was a well known evangelist for the Pentecostal denomination, knew their grandfather very well, and they had much in common. For hours they celebrated and finally allowed Richard to leave on the bus to Lira late in the evening. Once in Lira, he was able to contact a trusted motorcycle boda (taxi) well after midnight who was willing to take him back to his home. God is good!
Today, we discussed this living example of the scriptures in Matthew 25: 31-46 about Jesus rewarding people for “doing for the least of these my brothers and sisters”. We also discussed the story of the despised Samaritan man who took care of the man who was beaten, stripped naked, robbed and left for dead, though a priest and a Levite (temple priest) had walked past doing nothing. Those words came alive, and the immense joyfulness we all felt at seeing the results of stepping out and DOING what God asks us to do was tremendous!
Yes, it takes us out of our comfort zone. Yes, it is very inconvenient sometimes. Yes, it costs us something to be faithful to Jesus’ calling to “loving our neighbors as ourselves”. Yes, they might not even be thankful for our efforts. And because we do it for these people, we are doing it for Jesus and He is the One who will say,
“Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Just so you know, Richard did not lose his day’s wages.
