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The Weekly Reminder for July 9, 2008
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Dear Friend of the Persecuted Church--
I heard an amazing story this morning.
Actually, as I was filming our little clinic in action this morning, I heard many stories, from children and adults alike. I was given the chance to roam from room to room, watching Dr. Clifford and Dr. McLain at work, seeing them exude Christ's love to each patient they saw, and provide skillful blessing and invaluable service to each.
Serving refugees is bound to be full of heartbreaking stories, but as nurse Lori started the particular gentleman's triage, the translator's first sentence stopped me in my tracks.
“A terrorist group invaded his house and beat him...twice.”
After his exam, I sat down with him, and heard the whole story. As a Christian in Baghdad, he was working for a private company to rebuild after the war. He and many others – Christians being targeted by the radical groups – were regularly being sent threatening letters demanding that they leave, or they and their families would be killed. Just a little more than a year ago, one group began to make good on its threats, leaving him essentially blind in one eye. His family was also attacked. A son was beaten and is now completely blind. His daughter-in-law was beaten, and the baby she was carrying suffered severe birth defects as a result.
Just a few months later, in November of 2007, his house was invaded again by a group of four armed men. They brutally beat him with a Kalishnakov rifle, stripped him, and tied him to a chair, where they began stabbing him in the legs with the rifle's bayonet.
His scars remain – visible on his legs, certainly, but evident in his mind, too. He now suffers from nightmares, from post traumatic stress disorder, and many of the physical symptoms that accompany those mental ailments. There was no bitterness in his voice or story, only the pain of fresh memory and current suffering.
His story, and the many like it in this area of the world, is the reasons that we are here to minister to our brothers and sisters in Christ. I ask that you would pray for us as we minister – I could list many requests, but pray for strength, safety, and health, and that we would radiate Christ’s love.
But even more than that, I would ask you to pray for those we serve. Pray that the Lord would grant them the grace to forgive and the power to live on for Him. It is a lot to ask, but we serve a great God, and He loves giving to His people.
Yours for the Persecuted Church,
[sig]
Gabriel J. Waddell
Executive Director
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