KARU, like most small children, always listened to what the grown-ups were saying! He bonged to the wandering Fulani tribe of Northern Nigeria, so he heard plenty of strange stories. One was about a man called Jesus Christ, who was also the Son of God and who had come down from heaven to die for sinful men. Karu had heard that when his family were pasturing their flocks in the east, near a mission station.
When his people moved away from that district altogether, Karu, try as he might, could find no one who knew more of that strange but lovely story.
A few years later his people moved near another mission station and, better still, met some Nigerian Christians. Karu listened hard and discovered that his new friends were telling him the same story he had heard before — that the Lord Jesus Christ had come for Karu’s sake. Convinced that the message was true, Karu believed and became a Christian.
Then the trouble began! His relives were furious with him and declared they would have nothing to do with him. So fifteen-year-old Karu had to look for another home. He found one with a Fulani couple who had become Christians. For the next two years they treated him as their own son.
When Karu was seventeen, he went to school. Although he had never learned to read he was naturally intelligent and quickly lapped up knowledge. Now he is at the top of his class and loves to read the Word of God above all else.
Karu had a holiday a short time ago. He went back among his own tribe to tell the people of the Saviour. He took with him gospel booklets in his own Fulani language. He was so delighted with the little books and so were the people to whom he gave them, that he soon had to go back for more!
ML-05/06/1973