A Dream, Accompany, Equip, Middle East
My mind reeled; my heart recoiled. Why would a mother plead such a tragic prayer? A friend of that mother explained. “Her prayer is not unusual. There are no lifelong options for mentally challenged orphans.” She went on, “Let me share one family’s story. When...
Hard Place, Middle East, Values
I couldn’t help it. I burst into tears. Exactly a year ago in Iraq, our dreamer had shared the cruel facts filtering out. But now was the final blow. Their homes had been ransacked. And occupied by fighters. Their belongings dumped into the street. Two months before...
Accompany, Hard Place, Local Visionary, Middle East
The Desert Within… “Each one of us has a desert inside. An aching emptiness. A dry wasteland.” We sat next to a tent village overcrowded with families taking refuge from genocide. But our homeless Iraqi dreamer wasn’t just describing their agonizing...
Accompany, Equip, Invest, Middle East
Last summer, over 1.4 million Iraqi civilians fled for their lives across the Ninevah plain. They were halted at flash checkpoints. Ordered at gunpoint to drop every possession. To walk on empty handed. “Out of suffering have emergedthe strongest souls;the most...
Hard Place, Local Visionary, Middle East, Recognize
After a two-day flurry of emails, phone calls, and text messages, David and I confirmed our maiden voyage to Iraq. Less than 48 hours after David had arrived back home from a trip, we were back on the road and on our way. Into the Unknown It didn’t really hit me...