The father of a displaced family in Iraq recently told Christian workers how he loaded up 21 relatives onto a pick-up truck to flee Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in 2014.
“Fadhil* suddenly saw in the mirror that his daughter, Lina*, had fallen from the vehicle, and the wheels of ISIS were not far behind them,” the native ministry leader said. “He was faced with a painful choice: Should he stop for his daughter, or continue on to save the rest of his family?”
Silently agonized, Fadhil said nothing to his relatives of what he had seen.
“He continued to drive to save the rest of his family, leaving Lina behind,” the leader said.
Fadhil said that after they reached safety, his wife told him she could not find Lina.
“I told her the truth and begged her that I had no other choice, that if I had stopped, the men would be killed and the women taken by ISIS,” Fadhil said. “To this day her heart is broken, but she knows very well that what I did was the right thing.”
Workers told Fadhil and his wife that God the Father had done something similar – sent His only beloved Son to die on the Cross to save humankind from eternal destruction.
“We asked them to surrender their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ, that they may be united someday with Lina either on earth or in heaven,” the leader said.
The couple continues to consider the grace of God in a country that is less than 1 percent evangelical as workers meet people of varied backgrounds. One people group has an annual feast in which they seclude themselves in their homes for 36 hours.
“This year after their home stay, they came out and the ministry distributed Bibles to them,” the leader said. “The Lord allowed many of them to accept Christ. Today, hardly any church is devoid of believers from this background, and the Lord works among them with strength and salvation of souls.”
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*Name changed for security reasons