Sauda and little Christopher

Little Christopher a couple months before he died

A few years ago Sauda (a former Muslim lady from the village) started coming to my mom's Bible study.  God saved her soon after. When her family heard of her new faith they told her to leave her new beliefs as well has her Christian husband or else they would disown her.  Her husband, Fred, worked for SOS.  She ran to my mom who showed her what the Bible said about it. She decided to obey what the Bible said and to stay with her husband and her new belief even if her mother and father would reject her.  On a Tuesday morning in August, 2010, Fred (who had HIV) died,leaving her behind with four children. The youngest, Christopher had been born the day before his death, but his dad never met him.  Sauda was heart-broken, but she trusted in God for strength.  Two years have passed and other sad things have happened in Sauda's life: she found out that little Christopher, like his father has HIV, and she also found out that her Muslim sister died. One of the worst trials of her life came this past Tuesday night at 10:00.  Little Christopher, her little baby passed away at a Ugandan hospital.  When my parents got the call from SOS's estate manager, they quickly called the heart-broken Sauda.  What they heard from the other side of the phone was the miserable, "Christopher, afude! Omwana wange, Christopher, afude!" ("Christopher died, my baby, Christopher died!") She came back to her small village hut holding her little baby's dead and frail body in a plastic bag.  My parents went to see her at 1:30 am.  She gave my mom a hug and wept in her arms.  My mom lay down with her trying to help her sleep.  Finally the exhausted Sauda fell asleep.  My mom came back home at 5:00 am.  She had to get ready for the funeral that was at 4:00 pm.  She went back to Sauda's house at 8:30 am.  She tried to help as much as she could.  When it was time for the funeral Sauda could hardly walk to the grave site so my mom had to support her as she wept (I was unable to go because I had to stay home and watch my little brothers).  Today, Thursday, I went with Bekah (SOS intern and our tutor) to visit her.  She greeted us with a big, warm hug.  We sat down and just chatted.  We talked about Christopher, God's sovereignty and just general life.  I told her that God is good and that He knew exactly what He was doing.  She said "I know.  God was the one who gave him to me so He has every right to take him away. I know that God loves me and will take care of me and I will trust in Him to help me. The least I can do is to give Christopher back to Him. God is good." (By the way, all of this was in Luganda; she doesn't know much English.) God's work is so evident in Sauda's life.  Her response was challenging to me.  I asked myself, would I trust God like Sauda?