Last year, we shared the story of Farrah – a Yazidi refugee living in Iraq who fled ISIS in 2014. In 2021, she signed up for World Compassion’s salon skills training, and while there she received prayer, heard the message of Jesus, and gave her life to Christ! Since completion of the training, Farrah has continued to be discipled by the leaders of the program, even witnessing to her brother who also gave his life to Christ. In addition, she went on to start her own salon business.
Farrah has now taken the place of her instructor who had to leave to go to another camp. Now, she is the one serving the other ladies while also actively sharing Jesus and making disciples along the way!
This program is making discipleship makers – disciples making disciples.
Seeing Farrah’s 180 degree turnaround reminds me God is in the business of taking what the enemy meant for evil and turning it around for good.
Our mobile medical clinic has served 1,887 people in the first quarter this calendar year and
to-date has served over 18,913 since starting the outreach! Averaging 630 patients every month, each patient receives medical care but is also offered the opportunity to be prayed for in Jesus’ name. This is frontline evangelism in a Muslim nation.
This year alone, 62 people have given their life to Jesus as a result of our Mobile Medical Clinic. This is incredible news in light of the spiritual climate and the current political tensions in the Middle East. Our mobile medical clinic is an effective compassion evangelism model that continues to shine light where people need it the most.
As a result of partners like you, World Compassion is continuing to empower women not only to start their own businesses but train others to do the same. We empower the local church in northern Iraq by equipping them to run vocational training programs. Christian women teach new skills to other women in the camp, empowering them to make money to support their families. This time also gives them opportunities to get to know their stories, pray with them, share the Gospel and invite them to be a part of their church family.
As of this writing 1,245 ladies have completed these programs – 120 already this year!
This summer marks the 10-year anniversary of the destruction caused by ISIS in northern Iraq. World Compassion had already been actively working in Iraq for over 10 years when ISIS began their reign of terror.
Dating back to the Iraqi War of 2003, we focused on serving the Iraqi people with timely aid while sharing the Gospel message in the midst of war. This effort later shifted to a focus on the refugees that were flooding into northern Iraq due to the Syrian Civil War and the destruction caused by ISIS. The destabilization in the Middle East threw a country that was already in turmoil into further crisis.
Families with nowhere to go were left to live in temporary tent camps. We began to bring aid and relief to the area, but as time went on we realized that something greater was needed. People needed not just immediate relief but opportunities to help them rebuild their lives in their new realities.
Over the last several years we have responded with programs like our vocational training and small business grants. These ministry programs have brought restorative hope and healing to refugees of northern Iraq all while helping them rebuild their lives on the foundation of Jesus Christ.
Here we are 10 years later, and these camps are still there. I think about my kids who are now 12 and 15. Yet, at the time ISIS invaded they were 2 and 5. I think about the life, experiences and opportunities my kids have had and then consider the refugee kids who have spent the last 10 years living in tents and playing on dirt streets.
Families have spent the last decade being warmed by kerosene heaters during the winter months, whose lives once resembled something closer to what you and I probably live today yet destroyed by terror. I’m thankful for the life my family has, yet we are compelled to show God’s love to them by continuing to help rebuild theirs.
Together we can continue to transform their lives through Jesus
Will you help share the message of Jesus with families in the Middle East?
For just $45 (£36) you can provide a family with food, personal/household supplies, along with The Story of Jesus booklet.
Will you help us transform more lives of refugee women in northern Iraq?
For just $115 (£92), you can provide skills training for refugee women.
Will you help us to reach thousands of families through medical care?
It costs $33,900 (£27,132) to operate the mobile medical clinic for a year or $2,825 (£2,261) per month.
World Compassion Terry Law Ministries d/b/a World Compassion and its affiliates are not a part of nor associated with Compassion International. Your gift will be used for these projects and many other outreaches of World Compassion.
God has empowered His people, including you, to change the world.
You can help empower a Christian in a nation restricted to the message of Jesus from right where you are.
Your giving is what helps transform the spiritual and physical lives of people around the world.
