Just Two

A= Abu

Abu is sick. He went back to his grandmother a couple of weeks ago, but whether from neglect or ignorance...probably both...he isn't cared for. He could be healthy. He could be strong. 

Esther still checks every week to make sure he is gaining weight. Last week, Esther called me and told me that in their last check she found him very sick and almost completely unable to breath. Her helper didn't think they'd make it to the hospital.  They did and have returned daily to get treatments. I've seen him almost every day since then and it doesn't seem like it's working. He struggles to breathe and struggles to eat.  He sounds terrible.  My friend J, a missionary doctor, saw him on Friday at Bible study and said if this were the States, she'd put him in ICU right away.

But this isn't the States. It's Guinea. I find myself saying that a lot.

Esther's working off very little sleep and never leaves him.  She came over last night to spend the night so she could sleep while I took a shift. Two hours later I burst into the room where she was finally getting some rest, flipped on the lights and handed Abu to her---he was gasping for air and fighting for breaths.  I was scared.

My Man drove them to the hospital where our little buddy has been on some form of a ventilator through the night.

After they drove off in the dark, Little Aggie woke up and stumbled into the living room. Something had woken him.  I took him back to his bed and laid beside him. Next to my healthy, strong, little man, I pondered a world where a little baby like Abu struggles to live, and has no family who even seems to notice and at the same time, little American boys like Little Aggie don't know hunger or need.  He won't have a single hurt or sickness that doesn't immediately have the attention of medical professionals. He knows love and attention and so many people care.

The only ones whose hearts are entwined in the welfare of Little Abu are a small band of missionaries, and me... and you.

B= Boiro

I meet with two amazing women to pray over the KING's matters in Guinea.  I'm not in their league, but I am not going to miss any chance to be among them and learn.  Following the LORD, we have specifically taken up praying about the corruption in the government.  Since then, one thing after another has come--lice infestations, sicknesses, even deaths.   Then, a couple of nights ago as I was just crawling into bed, gunshots rang outside our house.  

I didn't know then that one of  two women I pray with had just lost her dear, long time friend and walking buddy. A woman who was a warrior for truth within the government = Aissato Boiro.  

Official: Guinea treasury chief assassinated, amid probe into misuse of state funds

By Associated Press, Updated: Saturday, November 10, 3:00 PM

CONAKRY, Guinea — A medical official says the head of Guinea’s treasury has been gunned down as she was driving home.

The forensic doctor who examined the body of Aissatou Boiro after she was brought to the morgue Friday night said she had two bullet wounds to the chest and died of internal bleeding. He requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the subject.

Her colleagues say that she had made enemies by launching an investigation into the 13 million francs ($1.8 million) that went missing from the state coffers.

“The national Treasury is a sensitive department.  We don’t name just anyone to lead it.  She was an honest woman who was against all forms of corruption.  But in Guinea all of the cases of large scale embezzlement happen at the treasury department.  She became inconvenient for certain predators who are in the government” said Idrissa Camara, a former official at the treasury.

Boiro was named to head the country's treasury eight months ago by President Alpha Conde. Guinea has a long history of allowing officials to pillage its treasury. During the last years of ex-President Lansana Conte's rule, employees of the treasury said they would routinely see the president's convoy drive up to their building and leave with bags of cash. Boiro had zero-tolerance for corruption and was intent on putting an end to the mismanagement of state funds, say two of her colleagues.

Aissatou Boiro worked tirelessly against corruption in our young democracy," said  President Conde, elected in 2010 on promises he would tackle endemic corruption in the world's top supplier of the aluminium ore bauxite.

"Even though she was taken from us in a terrible way, her work will not be in vain. Despite the difficulties, our fight against corruption will continue. Our country has come too far to turn back now," Conde said in a statement.