Ugandan widow nearly takes her own life but instead finds comfort in the biblical story of Ruth.
Pastor Herizon was riding his motorbike when he heard her. He was headed toward Hima, Uganda, to share Scripture books with local communities, a routine part of his work as a Lhukonzo-language Bible translator. A small box sat balanced on his motorbike, the books inside rustling with every bump on the way. As he rode, he wore a T-shirt that read, “Ask Me About the Bible.”
And someone did.
“Imba Rusi!” (“Give me Ruth!”) a woman shouted at him. Herizon stopped his motorbike, and she ran toward him. “Are you the one who has the book called Ruth?” she asked.
Herizon smiled—he was carrying copies of that exact story. He told her about his work with the Bible Society of Uganda, and she leaped with excitement. She had been praying that God would bring her the book of Ruth. “He has answered my prayer,” she said.
Handing her a copy, Herizon asked if she had heard the story before. And he learned that God had shown her His Word when she needed it most.
The woman explained how she related to Ruth—the biblical widow who clung to God in her grief. Similar to Ruth, after eight years of marriage, the woman lost her husband to hepatitis. One night, her sorrow overwhelmed her so deeply that she considered taking her own life. But she said that “by God’s grace” she made it through the night unharmed.
The next morning, she visited her brother in Kasese, Uganda, and saw a book in his house titled Ekyitabu kya Rusi (Book of Ruth). Seeing the cover decorated with pictures of wheat, she confused it for a farming book. But once she opened it, she couldn’t put it down. She read it several times that day.
“It became my counselor,” she said. From that day on, thoughts of self-harm fled from her, and her heart began to heal. She now trusts the Lord with her life, just as Ruth did. “I am convinced that the God who took care of Ruth will also take care of me.”
She parted ways with Herizon, holding Scripture in her hands, excited to learn more about the God who sees her, loves her, and speaks her Lhukonzo language.
