Rescue Iraq

Getting Involved

We have had so many visitors seeking to be a part of God’s work amongst the Kurdish people, just in the last year and a half we’ve helped host 15 international teams. This is in addition to having our own local friends stay with us on another 10 separate occasions. Our home has seemed like a revolving door sometimes as guest after guest pays us a visit and the shoes pile up at our front door.

God must be up to something.

One of the things that really makes this possible is the wonderful home he has provided for us. We have an entire extra floor with 3 spare bedrooms, bathroom, full kitchen, and living area so that visiting teams can feel more at home. Also, many in-country expat groups have made use of our space to hold their own team retreats, personal retreats, and even mini-vacations as we are located up in the mountains amongst some beautiful surroundings.

In addition to the extra floor we have a smaller top floor that naturally became our “Upper Room” where we hope to encourage all of our guests to sow seeds of prayer into this land.

Some of the activities that we’ve been a part of with these groups have been: prayer walking the neighborhoods, passing out Samartian’s Purse Boxes and other humanitarian aid, visiting with local Kurds in outlying villages as well as in the bigger cities, refugee camps, meeting with government officials, joining in local soccer games, hosting soccer camps and games for the children, even arranging for some simple diagnosis and treatment with the help of doctors from the States.



And now, that our community center is nearing its initial stage of usefulness with the completion of the conference room/women’s center, we have even bigger plans to reach out and help the local community with an emphasis on the widows and orphans in our region.

Please be in prayer for us as we begin to offer classes. Pray for wisdom to know what direction to take, the proper teachers for us to work with, and for God’s grace and favor to cover it all.

If you would like to take part in this ministry and get your shoes on the ground here in Northern Iraq, write us an email, and we’ll see what opportunities the Lord opens up.

Let the Nations Tremble!

Just in the past week, the news has declared of earthquakes, nuclear weapons, invasions, subversive paramilitary forces, bombings, attacks, retreats, protests, and killings all within a few hundred miles of us, in some cases just over the next mountain range.

But, more than three weeks back as I was waiting on the Lord, I felt Him speak to my spirit:

"My son there are difficulties yet ahead, but I will be with you, and give you peace. Look not to the right or to the left, focus your attention on Me. You have but 3 months remaining in this year -- world events will terrify you, but hold firm and remember I am your rock upon which you stand. Pursue Me, love me, find me through your faithful devotion to My word. Speak with Me, walk with Me, and you will live -- Fear not for I am with you. Do not give up hope!"

And now, as world events are quite terrifying for one living in this place God has called us to, I feel forced to recall His words and press in like never before.

Reading the Bible this morning I was reminded of who ought to tremble in this world. Psalm 99 boldly declares, "The LORD reigns, let the nations tremble."

When everything around us seems to be falling apart, when even the ground beneath our feet becomes untrustworthy, there is still no need to tremble. God is on His throne!

He has declared that He has given us of His Spirit, that same Spirit that has nothing to do with timidity, but everything to do with Power, Love, and a Sound Mind. This is the reality.

That we are seated with Christ in the Heavenlies and no weapon formed against us shall prosper.

Yes, we declare with the Psalmist, "Let the nations tremble" our souls are at peace!

Thanks for praying for us in these days especially as I believe the outward display of events (at least as the media report it) is only going to get worse.

But, know that no matter what the media declares or how dismal the outlook, God is still on His throne, actively involved in the affairs of men, and using every circumstance, no matter how terrible, for His glory.

There's a God side of the story that rarely gets read. I hope that through our work here, you come to see and have already seen that even in the "valley of the shadow of death" He still works miracles, He still brings salvation, and He still reigns on high!

It does not mean that hardships won't come, but that we never have need to tremble -- that's for the nations to do. Stand with us as we seek to bring peace, to share His light and His truth, and to stand up for the rights of the oppressed, in a land so raked with war and division -- the very intersection point of Turks, Kurds, and Iranians here in Northern Iraq.

Tragedy in the Village, Part 2

As we headed out of the village, the image of the old man's face with tears in his eyes kept coming back to me. I've seen few men older than him. The lines on his face seem to tell of hardships that I could never understand or comprehend. And now, he was moving again. How many times has he fled Iran's shelling or Saddam's troops, or Turkey's warplanes?

The vacated village is just one of seven that have recently become uninhabitable in our region. How many more will follow?

Keeping our eyes peeled on the road ahead we came across a couple men that told us they were part of the larger family that recently lost the woman with 5 children. We followed them another few kilometers, then cut off sharply into a canyon with a stream running besides a half a dozen tents.

Parking the car I looked up to see the man that had lost his wife just 10 days prior. I got out and shook his hand as warmly as I could.

He ushered me over to a large tent where we learned first-hand what had happened that night.

Here's more of that story:

 

  Saying 'Goodbye' - at least for now.

Tragedy in the Village, Part 1

Two weeks ago in a small Iraqi Kurdish village just 12 ½ miles from the border of Iran, a rain of mortar shells began falling all around. A mother of 35 years with 5 small children ran for shelter in her fright and was struck in the head and shoulder with shrapnel along a path between two houses. She would later die of her wounds that night.

I went to hear the story of this tragedy first hand last week with a good friend of mine who agreed to take some photos and video of our time. We had no idea what to expect, we just decided to go.

The Mayor of our community called ahead to the nearest town, called Sidikhan, and set us up with a security guard and an interpreter to help us along the way.

As we exited the town north, we immediately hit a gravel road that continued higher and higher up into the mountains, further in towards the borders with Iran and Turkey.

The drive was beautiful and we used the time to get acquainted with our new interpreter. He told us stories of how he had served in the army years back in these same mountains has they fought conflicts with the PKK. Pointing to one mountain he said, “my buddy was marching just in front of me along a trail there when he stepped on a mine… there was barely anything left of him below his waist.”

As we neared the village where the woman had died, we stopped to talk with a local man who pointed to a cache of belongings on the other side of the road. He said, “Look there, that is all that remains of the people’s prized possessions, and they will take those out today.”

The village had entirely evacuated except the owners of that last bundle of possessions lying on the side of the road.

This was a story I wasn’t quite prepared for, but knew I had to hear.

 

Iraq Video

Here's a 4 minute update on our work here in Iraq:

 

World Orphans in Iraq from World Orphans on Vimeo.

Soccer at the Refuge

With some of the teams that came through in May, we got a chance to play some real ball with the kids down at the Refuge. Amazing the frustration of seeing little boys dribble the ball in, out, and around our longer and stronger legs. Jake and Kevin really fit right in on another occasion throwing the kids up into the air -- man, these kids loved the attention.

We've been building relationships with many of the kids down at the Refuge for some time now, leading two of our teammates to decide to take up residence down there permanently greatly adding to our work. God is moving!

Distributing God's Love through Operation Christmas Child

With the one of the teams that visited in May we decided to go to a village East of us that had been bombed by Saddam on three different occasions.

Just this past year the village became linked with the road system with the help of not a few bulldozers and dump trucks, many that were still working on the 'road' as we made our way up the mountain. Apparently, the people there have dwelt in this valley for generations.

However, only in the past few years have they acquired much attention from the outside world: Saddam with his bombs, and more recently as we descended on this quaint hamlet to distribute a symbol of God's love for them through the Operation Christmas Child boxes.

First, though, we spent some time with the mayor of this region, a woman, of whom we've been able to get to know over the past year. Here we are talking in her office.

It is so interesting to see a woman with such authority in this culture as she administers over 17 villages in Northern Iraq.

As, we were making our way to the remote village, there were times when we all wondered if our vehicles would be able to handle the 'road'. Some Kurdish soldiers accompanied us on the journey.

Just in the bowl of this valley you can see the village below.

As we pulled up the whole village emerged from their homes and gathered to greet us. It wasn't minutes later that the tea started pouring...
Then, one of our group stepped up on the back of one of the pick up trucks and shared about God's love and how these small gifts were a simple demonstration of the God of love.
The mayor was also there with us and together we're thinking of ways we might better help these people, so recently connected with the outside world.

And then, the event that everyone was waiting for -- the box distribution!

The children all lined up ready to receive a tangible gift from our gracious Heavenly Father.

Here's a video of the demonstration... see if you can pick out Peter.

As we were enjoying the beautiful mountain scenes, my eye caught Halgurd Mtn. -- the tallest mountain in Iraq at nearly 12,000 feet -- and decided, "Hey, we need to climb that thing," and climb it we did just a few weeks later.

Boxes and Shoes

As we returned to Kurdistan a couple months ago, our home was immediately invaded with boxes and shoes. Samartian's Purse shipped over another dozen or so more boxes as part of their Operation Christmas Child program that we get to be a part of each year, and we had several teams come through adding to the pile of shoes already at our door.

 

And then, as suddenly as they arrived they were gone. Those shoes went back to South Africa, Jordan, Egypt, all across North America, and to other places I'm probably forgetting. And those boxes got distributed to a needy school in our area and a village that was bombed by Saddam three different times.

It's amazing how God has positioned us to help faciliate His work in this land with folks from all over the world. We're so glad and honored to be a part of God's game plan to help, heal, and restore, amongst the very least of these.

The Vicar of Baghdad

I met the "Vicar of Baghdad" two years ago while attending a conference on orphans in Baghdad.

 
I was immediately struck by his personality and his stories, one of which I'll never forget as he was being introduced to one of the leading Muslim clerics in Baghdad he asked in a booming sing song, almost fatherly kind of voice "Are you a terrorist?"

It's that kind of boldness that has probably kept him alive as over 200 of his congregation have been killed off during the past two years alone.

His story is told in a recent book just released called, Faith Under Fire. An appropriate title for his work amongst the poorest of the poor in the hotbed of religious strife and violence that we have come to know and expect from Baghdad.

Recently, the Vicar, more commonly known as Canon Andrew White, traveled to California where he found something that perhaps is best left for him to reveal.

Listen to this profoundly stirring account of the Vicar's testimonies of the amazing things that God is doing in Iraq, and what He found at Bethel Church in Redding, California.

http://podcasts.ibethel.org/system/large_files/8/original/Vicar_Of_Baghdad_032711_0830_96Kbps.mp3?1301345891

You won't be disappointed.

Kids' Games Day - Video

Take a moment to share in the wonderful experience we had with the children yesterday down at World Orphan's Community Center. Watch this.