Before I left for Iraq, I asked God to impress the people there upon my heart. He did and has given me a new drive to pray much harder. Here is an excerpt from my summary letter …
Almost every person we cared for
had fled their homes for fear of death. The time was split between caring for
Muslim refugees (most of whom fled the war in Syria from the Northeast) and
ethnic Christian refugees who had fled ISIS from the South. The last 2 days we
held clinics in the cement skeleton of half-finished malls, where between
700-1,000 people now lived. One man stated to me, “this place is like a prison
to me, but I have nowhere else to go.” As I saw patients each day, I would ask
how their family was doing and what gave them hope to keep going. Here are some
exact quotes that people said to me. “We have lost everything,” “God has
abandoned us,” “It all happened so fast,
we had to leave my grandmother behind” “My son was killed as we fled” “All my
savings in the bank is gone, I left with only the clothes on my back.” Some had
young children who had been kidnapped, and many others had family that had been
killed.
It has certainly been the most sobering and eye opening trip I have ever taken. But God is at work there in ways I can't write here… and I hope to go back again someday…
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