Sunday, March 24
We arrived at Erbil at 3:40 AM, but by the time we got our luggage, it was past 5. The temperature was about 50F, quite cool. We were met by Aram, a young man only 20 who works for Habibi. This winsome articulate man, whose father is an Iman, was raised as a Muslim, but found Jesus by reading the Bible himself. As a result, he was persecuted by his father and left his home in Erbil 2 years ago (to avoid being killed) and started working for Habibi 4 months ago. The drive from the airport to Duhok on a 24 passenger bus hired by Habibi took over 3 hours, initially on a three lane freeway which degenerated to pothole dirt roads where the top speed is 5 MPH, and then back to a superhighway. We dropped off Aram at the house rented by Habibi since he had work to do and the bus drove us to Zakho, about 40 minutes away on a beautiful 3 lane (each direction) freeway, arriving at Nobel Hotel 9:40 AM where we were greeted by Willy Tan. We went to eat a buffet breakfast at the hotel restaurant, checked in and rested until 3:30 PM. By the way, Aram and the bus driver drove from Zakho to Erbil to get us, sacrificing their sleep Saturday night. Since it is spring, the country-side is beautiful, gently rolling hills, and because of the rains, lushly green. We could see sheep in several
several places, contently grazing in the green pastures. But in the summer, it is unbearably hot, Aram said several consecutive days of 50 C (122 F). The Noble Hotel is suppose to be the best in Zakho, 4 star rated. Indeed, our room, where we will meet as a team for daily devotions, is a three room suite, living room with two couches, bedroom and bath, and a separate kitchen. The bed is comfortable, each room equipped with a heat pump to provide cooling in the summer and heat in winter. It has good amenities, but like many Indian and Asian hotels, there is no shower curtain or door so the whole bathroom gets wet when one showers.
We rested and were to meet at 3:30 to drive back to Duhok to the Habibi house to have our devotions, but Kenny overslept and we had to wake him via hotel phone. Jason Gemmer joined us soon after we held our first group devotion in the Habibi house living room, Jason briefed us on Arabic and Yazidi cultural issues, we ate some sandwiches that Aram bought, and left to attend our first Arabic service at a Christian Missionary Alliance church. The room. was quite filled with a crowd of about 90, including many NGO workers from all over the world. The singing was lively and the tunes somewhat exotic; the only tune we recognized was How Great Thou Art but sung in Arabic. We sang The Name Above All Names, Psalm 121, and In His Time and listened to a visiting pastor from Canada share about the feeding of the 5000 from John 6. Although the message was good, we all had a hard time staying awake. We then returned home to the hotel to collapse on our beds (except for maybe Kenny who seemed most energetic after his long nap
Location of Zakho relative to surrounding countries. Note proximity to Turkey border.
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