fbpx
News Articles

Workers ready to offer ‘living water’ in Iraq


PLANO, Texas (BP)–Messengers of God’s love are ready to minister in Iraq as the Lord creates opportunities in difficult times, a Southern Baptist worker said from Jordan during a live videophone uplink with the Dallas-area Prestonwood Baptist Church March 30.

Identified only as “Brother John” for security reasons, the worker said he and others are “looking for ways to be ready to go in when the Lord opens the door,” whether after western Iraq is secure or at the completion of the war.

Southern Baptist personnel hope to make a difference as humanitarian relief workers in refugee camps on the Jordan-Iraq border and are scouting locations for relief work in southern Iraq, he said.

“It is so important for Christians to be there to bring a cup of cold water and living water as the Lord Jesus Christ flows through our lives into their lives,” he said as the Muslim call to evening prayer echoed in the background. “Compassion empowered by prayer can change the world.”

The worker asked that members of the congregation and other Southern Baptists pray that the “doorkeepers” of Iraq would allow relief workers into the country, and also that the people who have been suffering under the tyranny of Saddam Hussein over the years would be receptive to the gospel.

The live uplink between the worker in Jordan and Prestonwood, the home pulpit of SBC President Jack Graham, was the first live videophone conversation between a pastor and a missionary on the field. Graham said Iraqis needed to know “that God loves them and we love them.”

Graham asked the worker to challenge the congregation to become involved in humanitarian and evangelistic efforts in Iraq. The worker replied that his challenge to the church was the same as God’s challenge to the prophet Jonah.

“I hope God doesn’t have to do to us what he did to Jonah,” the worker added. “God is looking for willing hearts, that we will walk into terrible times, that we will walk into the grief, and as we see God’s heart and walk in obedience to him we are going to see the same kind of result Jonah saw.”

Before the videophone uplink, Graham said he believed that the war in Iraq meets traditional “just war” ethics and will rid the country of a brutal regime. He also said the war would rid the nation of its weapons of mass destruction. “He has them, and it is only a matter of time before we find them,” Graham said.
–30–
(BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: FIRSTHAND REPORT.

    About the Author

  • Gregory Tomlin