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Mobilizer Summer 2008
Details
By Matthew Ellison
Chief Ministry Officer
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Seen from a distance the vision of Sixteen:Fifteen to coach 1,000 churches into a strategic missions focus, resulting in an incremental $1 billion invested to reach 1,000 forgotten and unreached people groups… can appear almost monolithic. But as one moves closer to the work that churches coached by Sixteen:Fifteen are accomplishing on the mission field (as I recently had the opportunity to do on a trip to the Middle East) the precious people that God loves begin to stand out in sharp relief. And, needless to say, the closer one gets to the work, the more the broader vision disappears, until all that’s left are the details...important, eternal, unbelievably significant, details.
Abdullah and Rania are Iraqi Arabs who lived in Basrah, Iraq with their four children (two girls, ages 3 and 5 and two boys, ages 7 and 9) until the war and increasing ethnic/religious tensions forced them to seek exile in a neighboring country. Abdullah’s life had often been threatened because his wife is a Sunni Muslim and he is Shia, but when the threats were directed at his children, he knew it was time to flee the country of his birth.
Abdullah quickly found work though the government has made it illegal for refugees to be gainfully employed. Abdullah considered himself privileged to be able to work, even though he was barely able to earn enough money to feed his family.
Soon after their relocation, their oldest daughter Hadijah became very ill and was diagnosed with thalassemia, a rare, painful, life-debilitating blood disease that requires regular blood transfusions and medications that cost nearly $800.00 per month. Because of Abdullah’s meager income, only one-half of Hadijah’s required monthly medications were able to be purchased. After only months of employment and having missed several days of work while caring for his ailing daughter, Abdullah was terminated from his job.
Abdullah and his family continue to wait for asylum and with it the possibility of going to a place that will provide Hadijah with the medical help and support that she needs to survive. In the meantime, a small band of believers serving in an unknown women’s center are doing their very best to care for and demonstrate God’s love to Hadijah, her family and many other Iraqi Arab refugees who have lost nearly everything.
While visiting the women’s center I had the privilege of meeting brave little Hadijah. As I knelt down so that I could look her in the eyes, I reached out and stroked her cheeks, swollen from the thalassemia and did my best to express God’s love through a translator. As I touched the face of this precious little girl, it occurred to me that those who stand with Sixteen:Fifteen in our mission to mobilize churches to make Christ known among the world’s hidden and forgotten peoples, were touching her as well.
Praise God, that Sagebrush Community Church with the assistance of Sixteen:Fifteen is now deploying a comprehensive vision to make Christ known among this marginalized people group. Please remember to pray Hadijah and the Iraqi Arabs …and also pray for Sixteen:Fifteen as we help unleash churches across the country to reach other unreached and least reached peoples. (The names in this story have been changed for security reasons).
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