Working in northern Iraq’s Kurdish
region 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.
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?
The team director, informed the
officer that all relief items had been donated or purchased locally. “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.”
The Peshmerga colonel … whose name
is withheld for security reasons … was quick to respond. “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 is
reportedly 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. “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.”
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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