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God Moving in Iraq
By Ken Horn | February 5, 2008
I’m feeling pretty unworthy right about now. This morning, our guest speaker at our weekly chapel service at Headquarters was an Iraqi pastor who leads a church in Baghdad, Iraq. Conditions are much better for believers there since the fall of Sadam Hussein, but there is still significant persecution, so I will not share his name.
Under Saddam, their church met secretly, moving from place to place and changing times. It became more difficult to keep from being noticed as the Lord saved Iraqis and the group grew.
Then, this pastor felt the Lord tell him to witness to a high official. Though he was afraid at first (it could have cost his life), he obeyed, and while the official did not become a believer, he made concessions for this pastor and his group.
In 2003, the pastor was arrested and taken to the “Red Building” — a prison of horrors from which people seldom returned. Guards took his glasses. When he said he couldn’t see without them they told him he wouldn’t need them. His tiny cell, which he shared with six political prisoners, had no light and only a tiny tube to receive air.
He was tortured during his time there and did escape with his life to continue ministry. Today he pastors a church of 600 and has a ministry to 275 street kids. He lives in a “very safe” neighborhood in Iraq, and still has had 5 bombings close to his house, as well as bullets fired into his home. Three of his members have been kidnapped, at least one murdered.
Despite the risks, he and his family continue to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit. He has high goals for reaching souls and children, and for sending other ministers out.
Testimonies like this make me feel so unworthy. It also puts things in perspective. The troubles that seem so large to us are usually pretty small compared to what believers in countries like Iraq are willing to suffer to serve Jesus.
The pastor shared this verse: “we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18, NKJV).
Amen.
Ken Horn
Topics: missions, death, salvation, Christian living |
