“Jesus and His Word are the only ones staying.”
Lujah (not her real name) is in her early seventies. She lives with her younger sister and nephew and, until the early morning of June 10th, 2014, they resided in Mosul, Iraq. It was on this morning that friends hammered on their door impatiently, urging them to leave as soon as they could.
“We were living at our house with dignity, but suddenly, we had to leave everything behind,” Lujah shares. “I only took a bag of clothes and I grabbed my Bible. We headed right to Qaraqosh, a city near Mosul where a lot of Christians used to live.”
“We have lost all of our possessions, but we haven’t lost our faith in Jesus,” she added.
Now, she and her sister share a house with four other families in Erbil, the city they fled to after being forced by ISIL to leave Qaraqosh.
Prayer is their lifeline in this difficult situation. Through studying the Bible, Lujah discovered that it is important to keep her faith and keep praying even if she loses everything.
“Jesus and His Word are the only ones staying,” she says.
Lujah values the prayers of others but emphasizes that Iraqis themselves should be praying, as well. “It’s not enough that others are praying for us in Iraq; we should call on God ourselves and plea for our situation.”
Her hope is that all of Iraq will be praying soon.
- Give thanks for Lujah’s faith, and for the faith of many other Iraqi Christians that stays strong despite losing everything. Pray for their witness to neighbours and family to bear fruit for the Kingdom of God.
- Pray for Iraqi Christians to also catch the vision to pray for their country and region, and for Lujah’s vision of all Iraq praying will become a reality.
- Pray for peace in Iraq, as it struggles with the onslaught of ISIL, as well as continuing local instability, and for wisdom for the government.
Matthew 6 vs 9 – 10: “Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Source: http://opendoorsusa.org/newsroom
