As some of you know, I have a missionary friend in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq and she has been sending in updates as often as she can. Here is her latest update that I just got today. Please NOTE: some information has been removed or edited to protect her safety. ....... Today I went with the cultural center (cc) (the one that I do all my work through) to distribute aid to the displaced Christians in Ankawa. They have set up a tent in my little town as a collection point and everyone is bringing clothes, dishes, food staples, formula, diapers, water, blankets, mattresses many items for distributions. We had one whole truck load. I am so proud of these guys they are all volunteers who work so hard to help so many. This week they took 3 truckloads of medical supplies (thanks to Samaritan’s Purse ) and other items to Makhmour where Daash looted the hospital there and now the Peshmerga have regained and are using it. I am so proud of what they are doing to help so many. Remember – I live in a Musl*m town. Everyone here is Musl*m. When they (the CC) t old me they were going to deliver more aid I asked if I could go with them. This time they said they were going to Ankawa the Christian section of Erbil. You may remember that because it has been in the news recently. Yall when we got there it was 120 degrees!! I watched the temperature gauge in the car as it rose! As we arrived we picked up our guide who works with another Christian organization. Back story years ago I introduced the head of the Cultural Center Naj*t the father of the little girl with the club foot remember that story (?) to the leader of this Christian Org. and they became good friends and I was hoping that he would help “influence” Naj*t and influence he did. He told Naj*t that “God would continue to bless him and his people for helping all the Christians.”) Smile Our guide first took us to one new church and as we pulled up there were 3 weddings going on at the same time! This really surprised not only me but the other guys too. So we unloaded a few things there and went to the second church. Pictured are the bride and groom and our truck right behind them. The second building was built by IRC (International Rescue Committee ) built in 2008. In it they said 2 3 families were living in each class room and they were going to put mattresses in the hall ways to help accommodate the influx of people. In the courtyard were workers with the children and they were doing like a VBS with the kids. We unloaded some things there too. Then we went to the 3rd church. They told me this church was 1,900 years old!! It is housing hundreds of families. I even lost count of how many people he said were there. He showed us a container they were using as an emergency hospital and another tent for testing blood pressure and diabetes. He showed us the sanctuary they had taken out all the pews and just put mattresses on the floor. It was wall to wall mattresses. As we were walking around I just kept praying asking God to help and do something . It was truly overwhelming. Then, one man stopped our guide and started talking to him. As he translated for me he told me that yesterday three babies were born and they all died. This man said his wife had a baby today and he feared the same thing would happen. All I could do is just pray for him and his family as the guide continued to talk to him. Then I just lost it. I tried so hard not to cry but it was all so overwhelming. My guys saw what was going on they had already unloaded the truck which had cartons and cartons of baby formula included. As we walked back to our cars our guide asked me if I knew Franklin Grahams organization. I said yes I do know it. He said with a big smile on his face...well yesterday they had about 15 million people praying for us!! He was so excited and I was excited too. Crisis creates opportunity as we headed back to our mountain I share d with our driver and the others in the car all about JC and the God we serve how He loves us died for us. You could have heard a pin drop they are seeing the difference. What I learned today....those people....in the church ....could be you and me. They look just like us
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 22:14:21 +0000