A NORMAL DAY in My Life Yesterday So often people ask me what is a day in your life like. People want to know what I do each day. So today I have decided to tell you. I wake up at 5.30 am, today is Monday so a normal day without services. I start the day with prayer and Bible reading. I always begin prayer and bible reading by asking the Lord what passage He would have me speak upon next. Today I am thinking about what I will speak on at the G-D TV revival meetings this coming weekend and the answer is coming to me loud and clear it is Romans 8:17-18. The reason the answer is loud and clear is because I do not want to speak on this text. I have spoke on it so many times but I might not want to but I know the Lord wants me to. At 7.15 I finish my praying and get up for the day. It is now 7.45 I am ready for the day Dina our housekeeper brings me a cup of tea this is all I will have for most of the rest of the day. With my tea I return to my writing of my next book. I have been looking at the issue of the suffering and the glory the very subject I will be looking at in the coming weekend. The challenges for us in Iraq are so great at the moment. There is a total lack of political leadership at the moment in July 2014 we still have no Government or Prime Minister. Our election was in April and we really did hope that by now we would but when the parliament met but there was a sand storm and many members of parliament could not turn up, the meeting is scheduled for later in the week. I then phone my journalist friends to se if there is anything we need to touch base on today. Things are not very clear; as is often the case we do not know what today holds. I try and phone some of the other pastors as is often the case I cannot make contact with any of them. I need to talk to them, as there is a very real fear about what is happening in Baghdad. There is a very real risk that ISIS will try and take control. If they do the risk is too great for them to stay and we need to get them out. Before things get too bad. By get them out we mean to the North, which is Kurdistan. I go to visit our School there are over 100 children from kindergarten ages until about age 7. After the school I go and visit the Clinic there we have a variety of medical specialists, general practitioners and Dentists as well as laboratory staff and pharmacy. We give thanks to God that we have been able to provide all our treatment totally free of charge. I talked to all the staff as I usually do thanking them and encouraging them in their service. Then it is off to do one of the things I really love which are visiting the very special Mother Theresa home for disabled Children here in Baghdad. This is a place that I have visited since I very first visited Baghdad 16 years ago. Over twenty years ago Mother Theresa set up a home for disabled children in need in Iraq and neglected. Children with severe physical disabilities. Severe deformities, no arms and legs, serious disfigurements and a wide variety of other disabilities. To this day this home remains serving those most in need. Visiting it is always a great joy seeing who share such joy in seeing us. Such love is shared that we are just like family we always give support to the home and aim to provide something nice for the children each time we visit. The one sad thing is that we are never allowed to take photos of the children or home. I can quite understand why because people could easily raise money for there own organizations showing they support those most in need. The sisters who run the home are mainly from India, all wearing the Sisters of Charity saris and speaking with wonderful Indian accents. The children in this home to this day are the only community in Iraq that all speak English but with an Indian accent. I remember asking one the sisters how do you get money for your work and they said that God as big enough to create the world he is big enough to meet all of our needs and He is. The next thing is that Sarah and Sally Multi arrive. I am going to mention about these people later as they are so important to my work and my life. Together we go through the plans for the day one of our top priorities was to engage with one of the top Sunni Sheiks. He is also one of the most Senior Sunnis involved in the non-existent Iraqi government so his team promise to be in contact with us as soon as possible. By mid morning people start coming to see me I see six different people they all have problems and need help. Those with medical problems we promise them help and treatment through our clinic. Several people need help with medications I go with them to the clinic to see the doctors or get medications by 1pm I had seen 6 people I had been back and forward to the clinic all the people needed financial help as well some of them really needed help and we gave as much as we could. I am then contacted by my office in the UK somebody wants me to contact an Iraqi person who they met whilst on holiday in Turkey who was a convert. I made contact with him and arranged to meet up with him and invite him to come and worship with us. Having just had a positive call there a huge explosion takes place. The building shakes, just another suicide car bomb. Each day I speak to my colleagues at the US Embassy usually this is to get a break down on the intelligence that is being gathered this is becoming increasingly difficult, as so many people have left the Embassy. I talk to one of the people I could get hold of but in reality they were more interested in what I could tell them after all I am outside in the biggest Embassy in the world behind thirty foot high wall and razor wire. I describe what I know is going on and what people are saying on the ground. From there side things are not sounding good either. They say that they are expecting a full-blown war in a matter of days. They are very worried about me being stuck out in the red zone (real Baghdad not the Green Zone). They are reassured when I tell them that I will be leaving tomorrow. I do not explain that I have every intention of being back very soon. It suddenly dawns on me that I am returning to England tomorrow to go to speak at a major event for God TV in Plymouth in the South West of England. I am also going to see my old friend and colleague the Archbishop of Canterbury. This meant that I had to do what I always do when I return for such meetings and that is go to Abu Afif’s Chocolate Shop. It is totally bizarre that in the midst of the trauma of Baghdad you can find the most exquisite and luxurious Chocolate. So I paid a quick visit to stock up on these great things to show people that there is at least one good thing in Baghdad. My next meeting was with Faiz my curate (assistant priest) he is the only Iraqi from here who has ever ordained an Anglican Priest. We sit down and talk in depth about some major problems we face. The extreme terrorist group ISIS now simply called the Islamic State has taken over much of Iraq setting up base in Mosul and Nineveh the traditional home of many of the Christians has been taken over by these Sunni terrorists. They have taken over much of the country and over a million people have moved out of Mosul. We had to talk about the reality of what we as a church now faced. They say they will take Baghdad. They are now only 20 Miles away from Baghdad. The Government assures us that they would prevent them entering Baghdad but seeing the last encounter between ISIS and the Iraqi army we are not totally convinced. We talk about what we should do. It is clear that we would be at great risk if we stayed. We talked about the reality of maybe having to move to Erbil many of our people are already there so we know we have a congregation waiting for us. What we do not have is a base, a church or a place to live but what we truly are thankful to the Lord for is that despite the terrible crisis we have faced we have had sufficient funds donated in this crisis to face the huge needs that we have been confronted with. I explained to Faiz the immense work we had done in the north to provide the needs of those who have been moved from Mosul/Nineveh. We then talked about the very real risk of having to leave everything here in Baghdad including our church, clinic and school. I then had another person family come to see me. They had a son in his late teens who was totally unable to hear. He had never been to school and was very depressed. I prayed for him anointed him and showed him that I loved him. I gave him a cross and one of my books with lots of pictures in it. It was clear that the needs of the family were and we promised to help them regularly if we could. It was now nearly sunset and we had not eaten yet at all day. Well that may seem extreme but it is actually Ramadan so there is not much eating in daylight at the moment. Sarah who is my main assistant, our Iraq director as well as being one of our dental surgeons went off to get us some food and brought me back a kebab. In moments my room is turned into a classic Iraqi dining room. Sarah and Sally Multi are sitting on the floor with a multitude of food around them. The two other honorary members of our family hare join us. Rita 10 and George 8 they are regularly join us for meals and through the day when there is nobody else with us. I need to explain about my special room in Baghdad. My room is truly multifunctional. It is our office, our meeting room, our dining room then at night my bedroom. It is always open to everybody at any time as long as I am not in a meeting. I eventually got round to eating my food and whilst eating my kebab I joined the US board of our foundation by telephone for serious meeting with serious people. Most of our US Board has served in Baghdad the group is made up of serious individuals from senior military Generals to senior diplomats including Ambassador Bremmer the one time leader of Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) itself after the war in 2003. T he Executive Director of our foundation in the US is also a retired General David Greer. He was also a member of my US Embassy congregation in Baghdad. I will never forget him. Also in our congregation was a wonderful lady Susan. David and Susan was rather an Item and on 14th November 2011 I officiated at their wedding in the Green Zone in Baghdad. It was rather interesting taking a wedding in the Green Zone with the sound of rocket fire in the background. Well at least wedding was truly unique. The day is nowhere near finished yet I have the Sunni Sheik to go and see. The meeting is short and to the point. We have a major meeting to plan; there are questions about what is happening with the Iraqi government and what is happening with the Islamic State. There serious issue about how we relate to the other Sunni leaders. I discuss the issue that I have discovered that one of my friends who is a Sunni tribal leader has in fact joint with Da ash the Sunni terrorist group. I return to write up my story on what I do in my normal day. It is now 11.30 pm and I am now going to do evening prayer and retire so that is my normal 18 hour day. The next day having written this I tell Dr Sara “I have worked 18 hours yesterday”. She assures me that I regularly do more than that and I have to admit that I do, this is the reality of this life, service and calling
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 19:37:58 +0000
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