{"id":214,"date":"2014-06-11T10:23:28","date_gmt":"2014-06-11T17:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/kirk-rogers\/?p=214"},"modified":"2014-11-25T08:07:07","modified_gmt":"2014-11-25T16:07:07","slug":"abu-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/kirk-rogers\/2014\/06\/11\/abu-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"ABU \u201cMACHINE\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the years as we have lived with the Landumas we have seen many babies born and grow up, and then get married and have babies of their own. We have also seen many who were old when we arrived get older, and many have died.<\/p>\n

Tractor Abu<\/strong><\/span> |<\/strong><\/span> One man who has always been a friend to us, always cordial and friendly, is Abu Masi. He is only about 5 feet tall, but he has always been a community leader, and when in public he is usually found somewhere near the center of whatever is going on, often taking the role of the \u201cPA\u201d announcer at public events.<\/p>\n

When Abu was a young man he used to drive a tractor for a living. One word for tractor in Landuma is \u201cmasi,\u201d i.e. \u201cmachine.\u201d So some started calling him Abu Masi, or “Tractor Abu,” and the name stuck.<\/p>\n

Hawadi |<\/strong><\/span> Abu is the husband of Hawadi, whom Ans taught to read over a year ago. One day Kirk was chatting with Abu, and he commented on how well Abu\u2019s wife was reading. \u201cShe\u2019s real smart,\u201d Kirk said. \u201cShe reads very well.\u201d Abu agreed, smiling broadly. \u201cYou know, we have lots of books for people to read, like books of God\u2019s Word, and books of Bible lessons. Maybe she could read some of those books.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Abu replied, \u201cthat would be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps Abu was just being polite, giving Kirk the answer he knew he wanted to hear. But if Hawadi ever does want to read these materials, we do hope and pray Abu, or whoever is her husband at that time, will give her his permission.<\/p>\n

Failing health<\/strong> |<\/strong><\/span> You see, Abu\u2019s health has been failing lately. He has had some serious infectious diseases, which may be what is responsible for his hip joint being destroyed. A doctor recommended an artificial hip, but it is a risky and complicated procedure, and prohibitively expensive. So Abu is now back home from the hospital, living out his remaining days as best he can.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Abu and his daughter, Kadiyetu, namesake of our coworker Ans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EYE OF A NEEDLE<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly, Abu has not shown any interest in hearing the Bible message of salvation in Jesus. He has been told all his life that his religion offers the only true path to Heaven, and that should he ever decide to take another path, he would surely end up in Hell. The standing in the community he would lose, and the great shame he would bring on his family and village should he believe the Gospel, are all factors which make it seem impossible that anyone like Abu could ever be saved.<\/p>\n

Wasting our lives? |<\/strong><\/span> But we believe such is possible \u2013 if we didn\u2019t, we would not waste our lives in Guinea.
\nJesus laid out for His disciples the stark reality of how difficult it is for a person to enter God\u2019s kingdom \u2013 as impossible as the likelihood that a camel could waltz through the eye of a needle.<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 answer to the expressed astonishment of His disciples encourages us that even a man like Abu Masi can be saved: \u201cWith man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadly, Abu died in late May, shortly after the above was written. To our knowledge he did not come to know the Savior.<\/p>\n

    \n
  • PRAY<\/span><\/strong> that Abu’s wife Hawadi becomes interested in reading Scripture and Bible lessons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      \n
    • Abu’s wives will be married to one or more other men after their 100-day mourning period is over. PRAY<\/strong><\/span> that Hawadi will be allowed to stay in the same household so she can continue to be close to our coworker Ans. Ans is hoping Hawadi can assist her in teaching Landuma literacy classes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      \u201cAnd pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.<\/em><\/span>\u201d Ephesians 6:18<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Over the years as we have lived with the Landumas we have seen many babies born and grow up, and then get married and have babies of their own. We have also seen many who were old when we arrived get older, and many have died. Tractor Abu | One man who has always been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ministry","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/kirk-rogers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/kirk-rogers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/kirk-rogers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/kirk-rogers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/kirk-rogers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/kirk-rogers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/kirk-rogers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/kirk-rogers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/kirk-rogers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}