Today, one of my best friends set off for a long journey to Tulsa, Oklahoma with his wife and two children to begin work on a master’s degree in Biblical Studies at Oral Robert’s University.
It was precisely two years ago that we began working together. Abdullah has been the best country director I could have asked for.
Just want to entreat your prayers for him as he experiences culture shock in an amazingly new way, dropped right down into the middle of America with classes starting soon, he will need to adjust quickly. One the main things that stands out in my mind when I consider the two years that we worked together, was Abdullah’s timing. He was rarely early. Once as I recall, when he showed up at my house at 5am, instead of 6 because of day lights savings. As anyone who has had experience in the Middle East will attest, folks are rarely early risers or early to appointments. However, Abdullah always seemed to be there right when I needed him. I began to trust Abdullah’s ways as the months continued on, because things just always seemed to work out when I followed his lead.Whenever foreigners would come to Northern Iraq for a visit, Abdullah was always anxious to introduce me as his “new boss”. But, after a while I realized that I may have been his boss, but he was certainly my leader – and I would tell folks so.
Everything hinges on relationships here in Iraq, and Abdullah, coming from one of the largest tribes in this region, has plenty. Too many to count are the days when we would be driving along and Abdullah would point out someone on the street, “that’s my uncle”, or “that’s my cousin”, and if their eyes met, we always would stop and chat for a bit. Abdullah also had many friends in high places in the government. It was relationships like these that got us off to a quick start and enabled World Orphans to press through doors that we might have otherwise never even seen. Relationships form the key to working in this country, and so, it’s with mixed emotions that we send Abdullah on to America. We know that God has wonderful plans in store for him there, and perhaps we’ll see him one day again back in Iraq continuing the work he left off. We are sure going to miss him.
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