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Thus far: Faruki’s influence and ministry spread across the country, but persecution followed. Faruki and his followers left their homeland to find a safe haven in a big city. There they studied a little black book full of truths about God and His holy day. Now we backtrack to tell another part of the story.
In a far-off place in Africa, there was a doctor who was known by his friends as Abed Majid. He and his family ran a clinic.
One day, many years ago, a man and his several wives and many children came to the clinic. One of the man’s wives was nearly dead. The kind doctor and his wife cared for her, trying their best to help her.
But they could not save her life.
Sequi, the little son of the dying woman, never forgot the kindness of this doctor and his family.
As time passed, unfortunate conditions in his country made it necessary for Sequi to flee from his home and live in a refugee camp. There he met some kind people, whom he soon learned were of the same faith as the doctor who had tried to save his mother’s life. If this faith could make people so kind, Sequi too wanted to have a part in it. He made a commitment to God and was baptized.
In search of a better life, Sequi traveled to another country to work and obtain an education. He enrolled in a language institute to learn English.
A shared faith
Before the first week of classes was over, Sequi timidly went to the teacher and said, “Sir, please forgive me, but I can’t come to class tomorrow.” Ahmed, the teacher, asked Sequi why he couldn’t come to class the next day. Sequi very nervously said that it was his holy day, and he could not study on that day.
Ahmed nearly fell over backward. He could not believe his ears. “You keep God’s holy day?”
“Yes,” Sequi said.
“Please don’t be nervous for I, also, keep God’s holy day,” Ahmed said. “Someone else comes to teach my class tomorrow.”
This time it was Sequi who was dumbfounded, wondering how it could be that his teacher kept God’s holy day.
Sequi and Ahmed became close friends. Sequi met Ahmed’s family, including his Uncle Faruki. Soon Sequi was studying with Ahmed, learning from the little black book.
About this time, Abed Majid, the kind doctor who had tried to save Sequi’s mother years before, decided to go to the city where Sequi lived to visit some old friends he had not seen for many years.
Abed no longer practiced medicine. He was now fulfilling his lifelong dream of teaching people about God. He explained things in a way that was meaningful and understandable to people.
Abed’s friends told him, “We have some people that we think you should meet.” So Abed spent the next week teaching Faruki’s group about what it means to be God’s end-time people. Twenty-two people made their decision to be baptized.
This group now numbers 90 people. Recently, I was there to encourage them and also learn from Faruki and his people. Faruki and his family told me the story that I’ve shared with you.
Jesus is coming sooner than we think
“You know,” Faruki said before I left, “if we had a place to worship, we would not only have the 20 people who were here today, or the 90 of us who are already believers, but there would be somewhere between 300 and 400 people.”
His last words to me were, “Isa [Jesus] is coming soon. Sooner than any one of us believes. We must hurry—hurry to the harvest before it is too late. Our people are ready. We just need a little help so that we can finish the work in our country.”