Lights In Dark Places
As Shia, Sunni, and ISIS forces have swept over the landscape in Syria and Iraq Christians have been driven out, fleeing in the face of torture and death. Some Christian enclaves have been there for more than a millennium. It seemed as though this region would become Christian-less. But, recent news would indicate something different. This, from
Breaking Christian News:
(Iraq)—Working in northern Iraq's Kurdish
region day and night to help meet the needs of people displaced by the
threats and violence of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Mosul and other
areas, members of an Iraqi ministry team recently came into contact with
a colonel from the Kurdish forces battling ISIS.
The
colonel was serving as a division commander of the Peshmerga, the
Kurdistan Regional Government's armed forces, which have helped to slow
the incursion of ISIS in its brutal push to establish a caliphate
imposing a strict version of Sunni Islam. With the aid of U.S.
airstrikes, the Peshmerga have also slowly retaken some territory. They
are helping to secure the Kurdish capital of Erbil, where the ministry
team assisted by Christian Aid Mission is supplying displaced people with food, clothing, beds and medicine.
"In all our travel to deliver the aid and preach God's Word, we did not find anyone opposed to or rejecting our message. The challenge is how and when we will reach all those people with the message of salvation in the squares, sidewalks, roads, inside the tents and out, and everywhere"
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The colonel had a few questions for the
team members: What was the reason for offering all this aid? What was
the motivation, what was the source of it? "We spoke with him explicitly, explaining
everything to him, saying that Christ taught us to love and express our
love to the people in a practical way," said the team director, who
informed the officer that all relief items had been donated or purchased
locally.
The Peshmerga colonel, whose name is withheld for security reasons, was quick to respond. "You see the Arabs around you in the Gulf
states, which claim to be religious Muslims, have not sent us anything
but terrorists," he told the ministry team members. "But you who follow
Christ send love and peace and goodness to people every day." The conversation continued at length, the ministry team director said. "After we had a long talk with him about
Christ, he bowed and prayed, asking Christ into his life," the director
said. "And he said, ‘Today I am the happiest person—I've had the
privilege of making this decision,’ and he received a copy of the
Bible."
The colonel's experience was just one of
many taking place in Iraq. In cities of refuge like Erbil for people
displaced from their homes in other parts of Iraq, people are turning to
Christ at a stunning pace. Tent churches are springing up in the
makeshift camps. Under normal circumstances, mission strategies focus on
how to proclaim Christ effectively, but the challenge now is keeping
pace with the number who would receive Him, the director said.
"The
greatest challenge in the ministry right now is not whether these
people will accept Christ or not," he said. "In all our travel to
deliver the aid and preach God's Word, we did not find anyone opposed to
or rejecting our message. The challenge is how and when we will reach
all those people with the message of salvation in the squares,
sidewalks, roads, inside the tents and out, and everywhere."
Christian Aid Mission's Middle East
director said that as a result of this trend, some church leaders and
workers for ministry organizations are remaining in Iraq even as the
cruel practices of ISIS—beheading Iraqi children who refuse to deny
Christ in Qaroqosh and Western journalists elsewhere—gain greater
notoriety.
Those who have stayed behind are risking their lives, if caught. Pray God for their safety--and for the safety of those who, like the thief at Golgotha, seek eternal life amidst death and destruction.
"I think of workers who stayed behind in
Mosul and the surrounding areas because there are so many who are
receptive to the Gospel," he said. "They are willing to risk being in an
area under the rule of ISIS for the privilege of more and more fruit
for Christ." Forced to trust God more than they ever
have before, these Christians are growing in their relationship with God
in ways they had never imagined, he said.
"I respected them before the Arab Spring
because they were serving in Islamic areas, but now they are serving
more and maturing even more," he said. "We need to intercede for these
workers. They are all always in danger. They need God's power to show
His love to the thousands of helpless people." When Iraqi ministry workers assisted by
Christian Aid Mission obtain more funds for food, water, medicine and
other supplies, they have the opportunity to demonstrate Christ's love
in a tangible way, he added. "God has put within the hearts of thousands
of Muslims a desire to read His Word," he said. "We can be the
instruments of providing them with New Testaments and audio Bibles."
When all other lights go out, it pleases God to enable His people to shine like stars amidst a crooked and dark world. When God stretches forth His hand to save, people will run to the day of Christ's rising.
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