Friday, October 26
Iraq
A child grew up in a Muslim home with a Shiite father and a Sunni mother. At the age of five, she began to attend Kirkuk Evangelical Presbyterian Church’s kindergarten. She experienced God’s love and care through her teachers and the curriculum. She began to take the lessons she learned in the classroom back to her home. The positive changes in her behavior caught her father’s attention and led him to compare and contrast his faith to the teachings his daughter was receiving at the kindergarten. He requested to meet with the church’s pastor, who shared God’s love and salvation with him. The father was awestruck by these teachings and asked that the family be discipled by Pastor H. The family was baptized and became members of the Presbyterian Church in Kirkuk. They now have a three-year-old daughter and the mother now teaches in our kindergarten.
Another child came from a poor family. When her widowed mother heard about the kindergarten, she was interested in registering her daughter, but she was unable to make the monthly payments. The kindergarten leadership committee decided to offer her a free education at the kindergarten. She and her mother were overjoyed.
Then, a number of women from the church began to sew clothes for her and her mother. The project expanded to become part of our Prison Care Ministry, where the women in our church, including the mother, make bed linens, towels, and bags for prisoners in the town of Kirkuk. Everything produced by the women of the church is embroidered with the phrase ``God Loves Me'' so that the prisoners know that God cares for them. This project has helped those prisoners feel loved - and it gives the mother an income to meet her everyday needs.
Let us join in prayer for:
Partners/Ministries
The Presbyterian Churches of Iraq: Rev. Haitham Jazrawi, moderator, Elder Yousif Al-Saka, general secretary * Middle East Council of Churches Relief Program, Baghdad * Assyrian Presbyterian Church in Baghdad * Evangelical Church (Presbyterian Church) in Baghdad: Elder Yousif al-Saka, lay leader * Evangelical Church (Presbyterian Church) in Basra: Elder Zuhair Fathalla, M.D., lay leader * Evangelical Church (Presbyterian Church) in Kirkuk: Rev. Haithem Jazrawi, pastor * Evangelical Church (Presbyterian Church) in Mousul: lay leaders * The Armenian Apostolic Church: Archbishop Avak Assadourian, prelate
PC(USA) Agencies' Staff
Rev. Mary Serovy, Board of Pensions
Rev. Rodney Sewell, Board of Pensions
Debbie Sexton, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Let us pray
Gracious God, thank you for your Spirit's work through your church in Iraq. We ask that you would continue to give them opportunities to serve you. Make them tools of peace and love in your hands. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
Daily Lectionary
Morning Psalms 88; 148
First Reading Micah 6:1-8
Second Reading Revelation 9:13-21
Gospel Reading Luke 10:38-42
Evening Psalms 6; 20
