Retreat to Peace
Retreat to Peace
From Village Roots to Global Impact: Betty Simon’s Story
Imagine losing your parents at the age of nine and finding solace in the warmth of a godly family's embrace. Betty Simon's journey from a small Ugandan village to the United States is a testament to the power of faith and perseverance. With the support of the Good Samaritan Ministries and a compassionate sponsor couple, Betty's life was transformed from being an orphan to becoming a beacon of hope. This episode of Retreat to Peace captures Betty's remarkable story, filled with heartfelt memories of her village, the profound impact of her sponsors, and her mission to spread healing and resilience.
From the close-knit communal spirit of her village to the bustling life in Kampala, Betty's experiences are a blend of challenges and triumphs. She shares vivid descriptions of her childhood, marked by traditional foods, daily activities, and the resilience that defined her upbringing. Her journey through loss, the emotional hurdles of being an orphan, and the unwavering faith that carried her through it all are deeply moving. Betty's transition from village life to the capital city brings forth reflections on adaptability, gratitude, and the unshakeable support of a loving family and community.
Betty's adventure continues across continents, as she navigates between Uganda and the United States for education and eventually settles down, inspired by a profound spiritual calling. This episode highlights her endeavors, including her YouTube channel "God's Word for Us by Betty" and her upcoming book that aims to inspire hope through her personal experiences. Betty's heartfelt message encourages listeners to extend compassion and support to those in need, underscoring the transformative impact of kindness. Tune in for an uplifting conversation filled with words of encouragement, hope, and a powerful reminder to hold on to faith, no matter the challenges life presents.
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Welcome to Retreat to Peace. I'm so glad you found us. My name is Catherine Daniels and one thing we know is nothing is permanent except our souls and as we travel through one another's countries and we create a bridge as one people living in this one world, I invite you to listen to our signature talk today and hear all about the special, unique possibilities that you may have as you journey through your own life. We welcome you to go to https://catherinedaniels. com to learn, get comfortable and cozy up as we dive into our signature talk today. Welcome back to retreat to peace, and this is Catherine Daniels.
Catherine Daniels:Today I am super excited to welcome my dear friend, betty simon to the show. Betty and I actually met at a conference and we sat next to each other and we developed this really wonderful, unique connection and she has such an amazing testimony that I would love my audience to hear, because it just inspires so much hope and so many things that you can do with your life with perseverance and having faith and just knowing that the sky's the limit and you're unstoppable. So I am so, so happy to share Betty to the world stage here on Retreat to Peace. So, betty, from one side of the country to the other side of the country. Welcome to the show.
Betty Simon:Thank you so, so much. Thank you for having me. I'm so grateful to be here. My name, like you said, it is Betty Simon.
Betty Simon:I was born in Uganda in a very, very small village in the remote of Masaka, and at age nine I had lost both my parents. I was an orphan and I was taken in by a family that raised me up and helped me to know God more, because it was a godly family, and they educated me through an organization called Good Samaritan Ministries. With a help, and then, through Good Samaritan Ministries, I got sponsors who are here in America and they are the reason I even came to the US, and they are the reason I even came to the US. And when I got older and ready to get married, god brought a wonderful, wonderful man. His name is Shane Simon and we've been married going on to 10 years and we have twin boys who are eight years old eight years old, and I'm just grateful for all that God has done for me, for an orphan who was helpless, to be hopeful. Now I want to help the world to be hopeful, to be to know that no matter what you're going through, god can come through for you.
Catherine Daniels:So that's why yeah, and that's why we've been brought together, because that's the mission that we have. For everyone that is listening to the show, it's a lot of hope and healing and all the things that come to give you that greater peace and joy. So, thank you for sharing a little bit about your journey to the US, and you know what you've gone through, but I know you didn't even like touch, really touch on your journey, because you've had an incredible journey. So I think, um, one place we'll get started is let's just go back to the very beginning. I mean, as you, you were in Uganda. You had this remote village. So for somebody who's listening to the show, maybe they're in Australia or in Iceland or Canada. You know there's so many places Describe what that was like to be a little girl in Uganda.
Betty Simon:Yes, thank you for asking me that question. It was beautiful, it was really nice. I was born in a very small family and in the village where I was born everybody was in the same shoes. They were all the same people. It was a community, very, very tiny area, but people were loving and kind and helpful to each other. It was a community Almost. Everybody was in everyone's lives. They were knowing each other. We knew people from as far as I don't even know how to describe a little farther than even just our little village. It was a community village. So that was really good. My parents were really wonderful, wonderful people. They were really really good.
Betty Simon:The area I was born in was very poor, you very poor. We. We hardly had anything, but we had food because my parents were subsistence farmers meant that they grew food that we ate and then they would have just a little bit left over to sell and be able to buy the essentials, like salt, like paraffin which is like gas here in America, I think you would call it but to light up the little lantern that we used to use in the night and soap. We didn't have things that we are luxurious, like sugar. We didn't even have sugar. So we didn't have sugar. Sugar to us was, oh, they're like a wonderful thing. You know, now that I'm grown and people are saying don't have sugar, don't do sugar. When we were young it was something I would have once in a while. But life was good. We just ate normal food, like bananas and cassava. We have a typical banana that is called matoke, so we call, we peel it. It kind of looks like bananas here, but you, you eat it green, you peel it, you cook it and mash it and eat it or cook with beans, cassava, potatoes, sweet potatoes. But we, we grew everything. We didn't buy any food and if your food was ready to harvest sooner than your neighbor, you had to share with your neighbors. Like the corn is ready, but somebody's corn is not ready, so you shared with that.
Betty Simon:And for me as a person, I was attacked from when I got into my mother's womb. That is what I can say, because when my mother was pregnant with me she got so, so sick the entire pregnancy. They were so afraid that she was going to pass away, and of course I would have passed away with her. But to cut that whole story short, I was born, you know, and then, when I was born, I was so sick for the first two years of my life. But God was working behind sins and even when the doctors lost hope, my father lost hope, my mother held on to the hope that I'll be all right, you know. And then by miraculous, I got healed at some point and things started coming in here and there, here and there. But I'm grateful that I had my mom who held on to hope. My father held on to hope until the doctor said you know what? There is nothing that we can do, just wait for the day she's going to go. And he kind of lost a little hope. But my mom told him she wasn't going to lose the hope. So anyway, I got over that and I got well, I flourished. But then when I was eight years old, my dad died. When I was nine, my mom died and then it was kind of now really hopeless, because at first I was like, oh, I have my mom, I have my dad, you know, like a little young girl running around, going to the neighbors, playing with kids, going to fetch water. We cooked our food on firewood, so we had to collect the firewood. So I loved doing that. I love to go, like in the forest or in the garden and just get some dry pieces and cook food, and I enjoyed.
Betty Simon:As a little girl I enjoyed my life because I didn't know any better. I didn't know that I had to have shoes, you know, because everybody didn't have shoes, I didn't. I had to have nice clothes because everybody in the village had no nice clothes. So it was just, um, if anybody ever travels to like a third world country and deep in the village, they can understand't like good water. You know, it was really not good water, but that's what we had and that's what we used and we didn't even get that sick from the water. Of course there is malaria and people get sick and people get, of course, die. But it wasn't like, oh, as soon as you drink water you're going to get sick or you're going to die right away. But that's how the life was.
Betty Simon:It was a simple, simple life but enjoyable, because you didn't have anybody to compare yourself with. You didn't have to worry that, oh, so-and-so has a car, but I don't have a car. Or so-and-so can afford sugar, but we can't. We didn't have that. Everybody was like that. And if you run out of salt you can go to the neighbor and ask for a little salt. They will give it to you, they will share and they will do the same thing. They will send us the little one. Go to Mrs So-and-so and tell them to give us a little sugar. Sorry, salt, we didn't have sugar. I don't know why I kept saying sugar but salt. So it was really beautiful. Yeah, I loved it. I loved it until I learned about death, and but even when death came, god paved the way for me to be in another family that took care of me, so I enjoyed my childhood well, I'm listening to you and, first of all, there's people listening.
Catherine Daniels:They don't see you. I see you and your energy is so like light and beautiful.
Catherine Daniels:And I mean you have this beautiful dress on with the Uganda colors and it's so vibrant and it just really, you know, really emulates who you are and how you, you know how you present yourself to the world, and it's really beautiful and I see, I see so much joy as you're sharing all of that, which is just so beautiful in itself and it's just sounds like a much simpler, sounds like a much simpler, freer time in your life, and it's just wrapped in love and you can feel all that. So, as I'm listening to you, I'm also thinking. There's so many questions I have because you're no longer living in your home country, you're now living in the United States, and what a different life. That is because I'm thinking also in the US, like, we have things to our disposal that we can just, you know, go and get, and it's a very different culture, it's a very different lifestyle, and I don't know the last time a neighbor has offered something.
Catherine Daniels:Really, you know, like it's just in today's society and the way people live, I mean, people don't really talk to their neighbors anymore, they don't engage with each other and there's so much fear that has been driven into society that people are very, very isolated. So when I was listening to you share all of that, it just, it just reminds me of, you know, how much is missing in communities today, because people should be taking care of each other more often and doing things for each other. So that there was a very stark contrast, you know, as you were sharing your story but then you left us hanging because, as you said, then death came in and you know your voice changed and you could feel that it was a very hard thing for you to experience. So are you comfortable in talking about any of that?
Betty Simon:that about the death. Yeah, yeah, um, death in Uganda is very uh it's. There is a lot of death. You know. There is a lot of kids that have lost their parents. There is so many orphans in Uganda. Because the life span is very short, people don't live too long. So if you have your grandma, you thank God if you still have your grandma. I had my grandma for a long time. She's the only person that lived a long time that I knew when I was growing up. But other than that, most of them were dying younger and it is a very scary thing, especially for a child.
Betty Simon:The first time I experienced death was a friend or somebody that meant something to me. When I was young, I was baptized in the Catholic church and when they baptize you, you have like a godmother, somebody that holds you, and I was a baby so I don't know a whole lot about that, but that is what I was in that, and as a child I was baptized in the Catholic Church. But that person, who was my godmother when she passed away, was the first time I experienced death and they told me. So I went over and I saw her body, because the culture there is different from the culture in America, like when my adopted father died here, the funeral people came over and took his body and took it away. In my culture the body is laid in the living room for everybody to view the body for like a couple of days before they bury that person. So I saw that lady for the first time and then after that I saw somebody when it came to my own. It was really, really scary.
Betty Simon:My father died really abruptly. I want to say, now that I'm older, that maybe he had a heart attack or he had a blood clot or something you know, because it was sudden. He just fell one day and he didn't wake up, he didn't move or anything Like. A couple of days before he was feeling kind of not feeling well, not feeling well. Couple of days before he was feeling kind of not feeling well, not feeling well. But then the following day he's laying out there in the sun, because sometimes when you're sick they take you out there in the sun and just stay on the mat and just soak in the little sun until you're like I can't take it anymore. Then you're going to the house. But as he was going in the house, um, my mom was helping him and he was a pretty tall guy. He put his one foot in and the second foot in. He just fell in the house and that was the end of my dad. The following day he passed away.
Betty Simon:So that was very scary as a young child. And even when I saw people like coming in the house, running in and like he has, daddy has died. I'm'm like how can he even be dead? You know he was laying down there. I know he wasn't talking, wasn't moving.
Betty Simon:Um, they, they had given him some medicine, like because I didn't say this but as uh, in my country when I sorry, in my village, when I was growing up, we didn't really do uh, modern medicine, people did like herbs from the garden. They'll mix it with water, give you if you have malaria or if you have a cough or something, and you just drink it and get better. That giving him some of that stuff we're not even going through his mouth, but I wasn't thinking that he can die. So dying for him was very scary. And then they put his body in the living room until he was buried in a couple of days. That was also scary. And then they put his body in the living room until he was buried in a couple of days. That was also scary because everybody who came in they would open his face and everybody would see. And then when my mom died was the same thing.
Betty Simon:I'm like what is going on? You know, it was really, really tormenting, even up to now as an adult. I'm in my forties now. Tormenting Even up to now as an adult. I'm in my 40s now. I'm still tormented with death. I hate death. I'm scared of death because I saw it as a young child and it wasn't pretty at all. And then you see them wrapping this person up and putting him in the grave and putting the dirt on the person. I was just up to night, kind of yeah, I don't like death, I hate death. I wish I can cast death in the pit and death go away. You know it was yeah, it was yeah.
Catherine Daniels:So as an adult, I mean that sounds very traumatic for a small child. And how old were you when that happened?
Betty Simon:When my dad died I was eight and when my mom died I was nine. I think she died of a heartbreak, so of course she got sick, but I think she was heartbroken, you know, and they told us because one of our relatives managed to take her to the hospital far, far away, because we didn't even have a hospital in the village, and they say she had ulcers that had eaten all her intestines. So I don't know, I don't really know, because they don't do a lot of diagnosis, because, especially then, now it's a little better. You know, know, because, like I said, I'm in my 40s now and that was a when I was eight, when I was nine, and yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it sounds very traumatic, especially to lose them so close in time.
Catherine Daniels:You know, together, um and I. I feel like as an adult now you probably look back on it and it probably feels and looks a little bit different because you're able to articulate it through an adult vision and lens. So, like, how has that experience changed at all for you? Like, do you feel a little bit more at peace or do you still struggle with that?
Betty Simon:oh, no, I feel more at peace now. Yeah, it has been a long time. That is what, like um, over 30 years ago. So I'm at peace and God has paved a way for me that so many people, wonderful, wonderful people, have been in my life, people who have changed my life. I wouldn't be what I am, you know, because I would have stayed in the village, I would have got married at a young age, I would have had so many kids, just like everybody was doing over there.
Betty Simon:So for me to have this life, that is different. I'm grateful and I'm at peace, you know, because I can't change anything. I can't, even if I would have loved my parents to be around, but they're not, you know and I'm at peace. Yeah, I'm at peace and I hope they're with Jesus. You know and I'm at peace. Yeah, I'm at peace and I hope they're with Jesus. I hope they are. Yeah, of course, at first, when it had just happened, it was pretty hard, but as time goes on and time goes on, you get to the point and you're at peace and I feel that way.
Catherine Daniels:Yeah, that's good, yeah, that's good. I know for myself. You know, losing my grandmother and my grandfather so close to each other, they were like so deeply and love to mourning the loss of two people and that that gaping hole that's in your heart takes a long time, in long, long time. But then you know, as you start, as you start moving through the grief process, you start to become very aware that you were so blessed by these people and the blessings that they bestowed into your life and what they've done for you, and it's almost like you've graduated, because now it's your responsibility to bestow other people with those blessings that they gave to you. So you almost feel like you know you've graduated and you've become into a sacred place of honor and grace to you know move forward for other people.
Catherine Daniels:So I think it's a beautiful testimony of life. You know how we can all learn from each other and as we're talking right now, I'm very aware that we're talking to a global audience of people that have lost loved ones in recent years and continue to do so as a result. So I think it's just an opportunity, you know, to be in gratitude of the blessings that you have with the people that you surround yourself with and that you love, and it's a gentle reminder and nudge for everyone just to continue to look at those blessings and love those people and give them that love, even sometimes when they don't even want it or deserve it, you know, just give it to them anyway yes yeah, if you're a mother, you understand very well oh yes, yeah, I am a mother, so I really understand that so this little girl, this little girl who's now nine years old, is now without parents.
Catherine Daniels:And was your grandmother still alive at this point or no?
Betty Simon:yes, she was. She was still alive, but she wasn't really having the means to take care of us or me. So I was blessed. I was blessed to have her because at least I knew I have a grandmother and I'm grateful that she lived a longer time, because then I can and as I'm praying to God that he gives me life, I'm also referring my grandmother lived longer, so it's not that everybody died young. At least I have a grandmother, because there are times when the enemy comes in and whispers words that are not good.
Betty Simon:Because I look at my boys. They are eight, you know, and I'm like God, please give us life, that my boys are not orphans like ours. That has always been my prayer. And then I'm like God, please give us life, that my boys are not orphans like ours. That has always been my prayer. And then I'm like you gave my grandma life, so give it to me too, like you gave it to them and you gave my adopted dad and mom longer life. So I have that, but my grandma wouldn't have been able to educate me.
Betty Simon:She didn't have money to educate me. She was not educated herself, you know, even my parents. They didn't even know how to read or write. So the life I would have had if I was to go and live with grandma would have been completely, completely harder, you know, of course, because she already had some grandkids living with her and adding on me and my young siblings would have been a little bit difficult. But we were grateful. But of course, if I didn't get help, if I didn't get this gentleman with his family taking us in, of course I would have lived with grandma, but I was grateful that I was taken in. But I lived with half a little bit and then I was taken in with this family. Yeah, because grandma just tilled the land. So that's what we would have done just till the land and get food and grow up in.
Catherine Daniels:So, just because I'm not fully aware of what your village was like when you were a child, I know you said that you were brought up with Catholicism. Was that something that was very strong in the family, that you would, you know, go to church, or was that not as strong?
Betty Simon:No, it wasn't as strong. My parents were not really into church for some reason. They considered themselves. My mother considered herself Catholic. My dad considered himself not Pentecostal. What are these people?
Betty Simon:Now, I'm forgetting the name Protestant, okay, yeah, sorry, protestant, yeah, protestant, but I never really saw my dad go to church. I never really saw my mom go to church, but I was told that I was baptized in the Catholic church. I never really saw my mom go to church so, but I was told that I was baptized in the Catholic church and I went to church as a young child, here and there with other people, here and there, but not much. So church wasn't really a big deal to us. My grandma wasn't really into church, but I remember going to church here and there, but not a big deal.
Betty Simon:So I was grateful that the people that took us in were Pentecostals, were on fire for God. They even had a church on their property. So that's where I learned more about God. You know, I gave my life to Christ and I just soaked it all in, but as a young child it was just go to church here and there, come back. I didn't really learn a whole lot about God in my first nine years of life, but I knew there was a God Right.
Catherine Daniels:So how did you get from nine years old to going to this family?
Betty Simon:so my mom had asked. There was an evangelist in the village that was doing evangelism and he was part of the organization called Good Samaritan Ministries, which was based here in the US, but they were helping kids all over the world can help us and give us a better life. And when she died, that's how we got to be with this gentleman, and he was a young man at the time also, and he didn't even have a family of his own, but he was still living with his mother and siblings. So that's where he took me with a couple of my young siblings.
Catherine Daniels:Yeah, Wow, I mean what, what an incredible story that is that this young man had it on his heart to you know, take all of you in. I mean, that's really astounding, not something that you hear often. So it sounds like. It sounds like it was on his heart to do something and get back in such a profound way. So where, where were you living at this time?
Betty Simon:So I was still living in the village before he took us in. But when he took us in he brought us to the big city, to the capital city, which is called Kampala. So they lived a little bit outside the capital city, in the suburb of the capital city, in an area called Machindi. So it was a different life there. The church was right on their property, they had a bigger house, a nicer house than where I came from, and there were so many at the house because he had so many siblings and his mom. But they were all kind and all nice and loving and they just embraced us. They embraced me, they embraced me, they loved me and my life changed. You know, then I was able to be to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Betty Simon:Let me say that you know from the hopeless situation, because when my folks died I was in my mind I didn't know my mother had planned this, had asked somebody. I didn't know that. I was just thinking, okay, I guess we are going to go to grandma's house. You know, I didn't even know whether maybe another relative or I had a couple of older sisters that had married really, really young. So they were in marriages that were also very, very poor and they didn't have the ability. Of course, we would have maybe lived with them if we didn't have any choice, if we didn't live with grandma, we would have lived with them, but it was also really like tight quarters, really tiny homes. They have their kids and it was just a blessing that I didn't get to stay in that situation, you know.
Betty Simon:So now the life in Kampala, or the life with my new family, was better, was much, much better, and their love and their dedication to us and their willingness to help us be better people and to learn more about God. I remember everything that I know about God. I learned from there because they were big on God and they were big on gathering and praying and teaching us the word and even getting us involved, because some days it'll be like yo, it's your turn to share the word of God and as a young child you're like I don't even know how to share. But we had to learn. You know we had to learn and that was a blessing and we had food to eat. We didn't have to worry that where is food going to come from. We didn't have to worry that if I'm sick, am I going to be able to be taken to the doctor.
Betty Simon:And now in the capital city there were nurses and doctors and hospitals and clinics that you could be able to go to. In the village there was none like that. If you had to go to the hospital you had to go a long, long distance and the means of transportation were not there. So there was a lot of walking done or like borrowing a bicycle from someone who had it. But here it was easier and the clinic was not too far away. If you're sick you could even just walk over there and they would pay for you to be seen. So life became better. Life became better, of course, at the back of your mind. You know you're an orphan. You know this is really not your family, they're just helping you. You had to behave yourself. I don't mean don't behave, but you had to be really like watching everything because you don't want to be thrown out of the home.
Betty Simon:You know they're just helping you so, but they were wonderful people and they have done a lot to change my life. I wouldn't be what I am without them, so I'm so grateful yeah, it's, it's beautiful.
Catherine Daniels:I mean, there's someone listening right now to your journey and they're probably thinking a couple of things. Like you know, do you still have a relationship with your siblings because you moved away. So at that time, was this family willing to bring you all together? You know, because now you've been displaced from your village, from your village, so I mean that also is a loss, because you're grieving your parents and your grandmother and now you're removed from more family. So that must have been hard too. Were they aware of what that must have felt like for you?
Betty Simon:Yes, and they were fine with us going back and visit. It was fine for me to go back and visit, so that opportunity was there. It's not that I was pulled out and never going back. Yeah, I had the opportunity and they would give me transportation to go back and visit them when I was not in school. So that part was really good. I stayed in their lives and they stayed in my lives. I was just not physically with them, but during holidays, like time out of school, I would go and spend some time with them.
Betty Simon:so that was good you know of course, as a child, at first it is kind of hard because you're not used to that other environment. You're used to this environment where you feel comfortable, where you know everybody. But then we had to learn to learn to know everybody and to learn to live how they live. Like they're saying that when we have a saying that when you go up to a place where they eat a dog, you have to eat a dog. It is just a saying. Of course you're not going to eat a dog, but I think the message in that is that you conform to what is going on.
Betty Simon:Just like when I left Uganda and came here, there were so many changes but I had to learn and appreciate. So that's how it was, that initially you're like, oh my goodness, you know, because it is different a little bit. But then with the time you learn and you adjust and you appreciate it and I was very, very grateful because I knew my life is better now, you know, and it is going to continue to be better. So that was good, that was okay.
Catherine Daniels:I love, I love that, that whole analogy that you gave, because it reminds everyone to be fluid. You know, kind of like water, like things are going to change, and there's a saying that change is the only constant in life, right? So if, if people can learn to adapt and change as things move and that really goes for anything, it goes with. You know your environment, your relationships, the political atmosphere, whatever it is. You know it's like you have to learn to adapt and be fluid. You have to learn to adapt and be fluid and that's the thing that I think is really coming through with your testimony is this beautiful ability of you being able to be adaptable and just be fluid like water and move through the changes, and gratitude, a space of appreciation of what it is that is happening and understanding that it could be very different. Like you said, there's always two sides of the coin, right? That's what they say.
Betty Simon:Yes, that's true.
Catherine Daniels:Yeah, so it's really great that you're able to really see that. But somehow you go from that life and you land in the United States. So what was your journey like that brought you to the US?
Betty Simon:So when this gentleman was taking care of us it was through an organization I mentioned before Good Samaritan Ministries and with that they usually have people who sponsor kids, who decide, just like we are doing now, we sponsor children. That's how I got somebody to sponsor me. That's how I got somebody to sponsor me. So this gentleman came over here and was visiting with the organization and talking about the work that he's doing over there because he's the head of the Good Summertime Ministries down there in Uganda and he was asking for people to sponsor children and to also sponsor these kids that he had brought to his house, because he had brought even other kids. And a gentleman and his wife from a little town here in Oregon called Talent they decided to sponsor me through school. So they were giving me tuition because in Uganda you pay away. As soon as you go in school you pay. We had to pay for tuition, you have to pay for books, everything you have to pay. So it is hard for some kids to go to school because if they don't have anybody to help them to pay, then they can't go to school. So I was really fortunate that this couple they were older, they just wanted to help me and they told me that God, because there was a list of all these names and God told them. After a while, of course, they listened to the speech and then they went home, thought about it and prayed about it. They were Christian people and at some point God spoke to the gentleman and said pick the name that is on the top to help. And my name was on the top. He didn't know me nothing.
Betty Simon:And then they started sponsoring me. They came to Uganda to see me. So they are the reason they brought me to the US. You know, that is how my journey was and I was really grateful that that opportunity was extended to me for me to come over. Yeah, I used to come and visit and go back and come and visit and go back because I did most of my education over there. But once I finished they were like, yeah, just stay, there is no now reason to go back and forth, back and forth, yeah, so I'm grateful for that.
Catherine Daniels:So, betty, if that's the case, then what happened to your siblings?
Betty Simon:They are still there. They're still in Uganda, yeah, but the young ones, they also got opportunities to go to school.
Catherine Daniels:Okay, so they were part of the Good Samaritan program as well. Okay, yeah, okay. So that's really incredible, but they chose to stay in your home country, and how were they feeling?
Betty Simon:They didn't choose. It's just that the people who helped them didn't give them the opportunity to come. Oh, ok, yeah, and they were not being helped by the couple that was helping me. The couple just picked me just by myself. Ok yeah, now if they had a choice, they would also choose to come over here, but they didn't get the opportunity.
Catherine Daniels:So how are they doing now?
Betty Simon:They're doing pretty good. They're doing really good. In fact, one of them is a doctor now. But, of course the organization helped them too, educated them, and the other one is just a businessman doing his own things. So they're doing pretty good, they're doing well.
Catherine Daniels:So it's really a beautiful testimony of how you go through all this loss and then you move into a space of abundance and I know it's not the same, but it really. You know, in the thick of the darkness, when you have no idea what's ahead and how everything unfolds for you, you it just becomes so beautiful, and the blessings that were bestowed on you, it's just really remarkable. And seeing you here right now, like you are on the precipice of doing so many important things because, as, as you told me prior to you know our recording this god has put an assignment on your life to do yes, so 2020.
Betty Simon:God asked me do you know that still voice in you? Because sometimes when you say God asked me people like, how is that like? But that still voice. If you let the Holy Spirit speak through you, you can tell that this is from God. So I had just joined a group. You know how 2020 was. We had COVID going and everything. We were confined. We were in the home. I had joined a group of my friends to pray. We had a prayer line. They live in Germany, but we could meet online and pray and share the word of God and take times to share. We had Bible study and all that.
Betty Simon:So then after a couple of months, I got this still voice that I should do videos sharing God's word and put it on YouTube. Of course, I didn't know anything about recording myself and this and that, but to cut the whole story short, I started a YouTube and its name is God's Word for Us by Betty, and Betty at the end is spelled with I-E, and then I started putting I didn't start right away because I had all these excuses, I didn't know how to do it and my twins were four and a half at the time. I was busy with them and this and that. Anyway, I procrastinated until 2023, but I started doing them. So I'm bringing that because one of the reasons another calling came on my life is because of that.
Betty Simon:So last year, 2023, november I remember very well it was November 30th I was sitting here on my dining table preparing a message and the title was Counting your Blessings. So I'm writing things down. I'm writing things down, then I say writing things about me, what God has done for me, and then I started writing things that I have survived death, that there were close calls I would have died, and I started listing and listing. I got to number 10, this small voice again came to me and said write a book about these close calls, just that, not all the other things God has done for you. That, and the reason is to give hope to people.
Catherine Daniels:Wow.
Betty Simon:That was very clear to me. I get out of that and I'm like I've never even thought of being an author. I've never thought about writing a book. English is my second language. How do I even start, you know? But I know I won't go too much in details, but I'm writing a book and I also want to be a speaker to share the message of hope that God wants to reach people. So whoever will read this book the message is in there is to give hope. So God is putting this calling on my life to be a message of hope, sharing what I've gone through, what I've experienced, the things I've survived, the things I've seen, are the miracles in my life, and the reason is to give hope to people.
Catherine Daniels:Wow, it's really, really remarkable All of what is transpiring in your life and what God has pulled you and called you to do, and I know, once this airs and gets out there, that you're probably going to have something at work, so I'm encouraging the audience to to look for you. Um, so do you have a website, or do you have anything set up yet that people can find you?
Betty Simon:It's going to be from orphan to inspiration. Here I am on the journey of inspiring others, on helping others know that there is light at the end of a tunnel. Just because you're from a tiny, tiny village that doesn't even it is not even on the map, doesn't mean you cannot come out of there and be in the place that was on the map when I was born. It's not even on the map. Now I live in Oregon, usa, which is on the map. The guy can bring that up to there.
Betty Simon:It doesn't matter what it might be that somebody is stuck in or is going through. We all go through a lot. We all go through different things. A friend that has become my friend. I met her. She suggested it. When she suggested it at first I was a little bit scared because I didn't want people to think you know, maybe labeling myself or something, but that's who I am, am you know, I was an orphan and I'm still an orphan because I don't have parents. But now I'm older maybe I don't think about it much that way, but she suggested it that that would be good because then you can tell your story as an orphan and other things and then you can inspire people. It's beautiful.
Catherine Daniels:Everything about your story is so inspirational, and I've heard about the good samaritan. What's the? The last word?
Betty Simon:I'm missing it's called good samaritan ministries. It was, yeah, ministries. It was started by a lady her name is betty mitchell, but she's going to be with the Lord a couple of years ago and it is based in Beaverton, oregon so the interesting thing about that is, like I've heard about the Good Samaritan.
Catherine Daniels:You know um purse, I've heard about Good Samaritan. There's like different, the last piece of it is like different so that's why I was asking for clarification of what the last piece was for your particular ministry.
Catherine Daniels:As you said, and it's so inspiring and wonderful to hear of a person who was on a card on a church table, that has grown up and been able to share the journey and what it was like and how someone else you didn't even know, but how someone else blessed your life and gave you an opportunity to thrive where you would not have had one. Yes, and I think, if anything, you're a testimony of the good that people can do for another person. You're a testimony of how, in a hopeless situation, someone gave you a lifeline, someone gave you hope, someone gave you opportunity to grow and thrive and become something Like you said. Your brother's now a doctor. I mean the lives that he is touching, the lives that he is impacting with his life assignment and being able to just really pursue the blessings bestowed on him and give back is so beautiful and you're doing the same thing and I encourage everyone who's listening, if there's an opportunity for you, to volunteer or to donate or to give back or to do something that can help a small child that is in need. Yes, and god is tugging at your heart to do that, just like betty was talking about. Please, you know, look into that opportunity to help a child because, especially now more than ever, the children of the world need you to help them. So I just encourage you to listen to your heart, listen to that still voice and give a lifeline to a child if you're, if you're able to a child, if you're, if you're able to and, betty, I mean I'm, I'm just so in awe and inspired by you and knowing that you have gone through so much, I mean even just moving countries.
Catherine Daniels:I've interviewed other people on the show and they've shared about, you know, their journey, moving to a new country and how, all the changes of even that. And, like you know, it takes a while to get acclimated and there is a mourning process that happens leaving your old country because you are starting something new country, because you are starting something new, and it takes a fierce amount of courage and bravery to be able to do that, to go out into that space. If there's someone and maybe there's a child that is in a kitchen somewhere that's overhearing this right now, if there was something that you could say to that little girl or little boy that may have gone through and experienced a lot of adversity. What would your advice be to them?
Betty Simon:What would your advice be to them? That little girl was me and I want that little girl to know that I'm not in that situation anymore. So if that little girl is in that situation, I will say to her that there is hope Also to pray. Even if she doesn't have a family that is prayerful, she can start her own prayer herself. She can learn to pray to God and not to pray to idols, not to pray to little stones or little trees, but to lift her hands to the heavens and call God and say Lord, I need your help. I need your help and also to continue behaving well, to behave herself, to continue behaving well, to behave herself, so that people who might help her will desire to help her, because sometimes kids can be a little bit difficult, that the desire to help such a child is a little bit lost. You're like she is too much.
Betty Simon:So I would say that behave yourself, pray to God, have hope. Don't lose hope. We don't know where the help will come from. I didn't know how I was gonna be helped. I didn't even have an idea that I was going to be helped. I just thought that's the end of me having parents and now the next chapter is just to be wherever I will be and grow up and, pretty soon, just get married, because that's what I was seeing with the little girls in the villages doing getting married like at 14, at 15, you know, that's what I thought I didn't know, but God was walking behind sins and if you don't lose hope, god can orchestrate something that you might not even know where it's going to come from. How is it going to come? Who is it going to come through?
Betty Simon:So don't lose hope, little girl. Life is still ahead of you. That will be good life. I'm not going to sit here and say, oh, everything has been glamorous. I'm not going to sit here and tell you, oh, as soon as I got help, everything worked out like I've been on a smooth road. No, I've had some bumps here and there, but if you keep the hope, if you keep the faith in God and continue to behave well because even the help that I still get, even in my old age, is because I have still continued to be a good person, to behave myself and not to like just be crazy and running around doing crazy stuff. So even if you get tempted by friends and you have some friends are like, oh, let's do this, let's do that. You know, please don't, especially if you know it is not something good. I have heard about little kids that they lose hope and they start smoking, they start drinking, they start doing drugs because other kids have told them that.
Betty Simon:No please don't do that. And also, if you get some help, somebody decides to help you, be appreciative, thank the people who are helping you. Behave yourself so those people can continue to desire to help you and not be like, oh my goodness, we didn't know what we were bringing ourselves into. You know, because some kids are brought into families and they have just made the families almost wish they didn't even bring him, you know. So I would say to that little girl behave yourself, trust God, continue to have hope that you're not gonna stay in that situation forever.
Betty Simon:It will change. You know, like you said, change is the constant. It will change. You might be in it for a little bit and sometimes we are in situations for a certain time and you feel like it's like a year or two years and it's been like a week or two, but it feels like it's taking forever. But at some point breakthrough will come, something good will come. Something good will come because it is there. It just needs time. You know, because I also didn't come from oh, everything was great, things had to take time, things had to like. I've gone through things that have taken time to to to get to change, but change comes. So, my little girl, my little friend, my little girl down there, or even a little boy somewhere, please hang on to hope and to good behavior.
Catherine Daniels:I love that. Thank you for sharing that. And I do have one last question. If I were to pick up your earth angel feather off the ground, what would your message to the world be?
Betty Simon:Message of hope. Message of hope. God gave me that message and I also want to pass that message of hope. It's a message of hope Even if you feel like you're drowning, you will come through at some point. Don't you lose hope. And I want to share my message that hope is real. You hang on to that hope. You will float, you won't sink.
Catherine Daniels:Thank you so much, Betty. I appreciate you being on the show and I'm just so grateful. So thank you, thank you, thank you.
Betty Simon:Thank you so much for having me. It has been an honor to be on your show and I hope that the world will learn that there is still hope no matter what. So God bless everyone. God bless you. I am so grateful that you've had me come on and talk to you. Thank you so much.
Catherine Daniels:Thank you. God bless you as well and your family. For my audience, this is Catherine Daniels, reminding you to live your authentic life in peace and, as always, we create the peace in you.