Thursday, April 4
Today is our last day here in Iraq and it is turning out to be a beautiful sunny day. Northwest of the Darkar camp, beyond the hills above the school, there is still snow on the mountain tops. It is hard to believe we have been here for 12 days already. We sang The Lord Bless You and Keep You to the audience and Kenny said farewell on our behalf and told the story of the Good Samaritan. Our doctors started their day, and we plan on visiting families with whom we made connections in the last 4 days here. Surprisingly, no ladies showed up for crocheting even though they said they were coming and we had planned to give them a set of crochet needles (eventually 4 ladies showed up) Christine and Mei went with Araz to visit two homes and were able to pray at both homes. The second home had a child with cerebral palsy and Christine suggested she could qualify for a special wheelchair so she could get around. In between, they met a man who complained our doctors couldn't do anything for her daughter who had a toothache so bad she could not sleep. Fortunately, Habibi is bringing in a dental team next week to Berseve1 next week and we were able to get his phone contact to ensure a dentist could see her. Cabri asked Marshall to see Baran, his cousin, who lives with her uncle, so she could go to school here. Her parents are still in Shinjar. Baran is an 18 year old girl who is a talented artist. Some of her work is shown below, including a sketch she made of a Marshall in a few minutes. Cabri works for a German NGO, WFP, to provide aid to his fellow IDPs and also a believer who attends the church we sang In last Friday. Lily, Sharon and Araz joined the group which made communications easier. After praying, we went to Cabri's home to pray for his family. Pastor Fadeheel, whose church we attended last Friday drove to the camp. He accompanied Zmei and Christine to visit the girl Kenny, Marsha and Araz prayed for Tuesday who had trouble sleeping, Sara. Praise a God she has slept well every night since. Her mother is Shabak, a small minority unreached group from Mosul who are Shiite Muslim. But she showed us in the Quran that the prophet Isa (Jesus) is important to her Muslim faith, and now after seeing prayer work on Sara, she now believes He is the only way to God the Father, as we sang In John 14:6 a few days ago. We encouraged her to read the Bible too, but she said that is very difficult in her culture. Pastor Fadeheel invited her to attend his church tomorrow (Friday night) and would send a car for her family to come and she said yes. Pray for her to grow in her new-found faith. This all happened because our bus was an hour late arriving at Darkar, God's timing that allowed this visitation to occur including Pastor Fadeheel arriving just in time. Here is a picture of Marshall with Sara's young sister, a darling in any culture. Brandon meantime observed how cruel the Yazidi boys were to another boy with a physical handicap. Glenn mentioned how many kids he saw with genetic problems probably caused by inbreeding within the Yazidi community.
We returned to the hotel to host a luncheon with all our helpers and give them the gifts we had brought from the US as well as say our farewells. This was a late, late lunch, eaten about 3 PM. We then asked Johnny and Christine to share what they learned as he is leaving in a few hours and Christine is staying longer to join Jenn Tam and the OT rehab team also coming next week. We will be leaving our hotel about 4 AM tomorrow morning to catch our 9:30 flight from Erbil to Istanbul. Today was a great day, praise God!
Baran's drawing of captured Yazidi women
Baran's creative drawing using birds and horses for lady's hair
Baran giving her drawing of chained woman to Lily
Baran's sketch of Marshall
Sara's younger sister, she will break many hearts when she grows up
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