PROJECT:  15 passenger van for IM work in Northern Iraq

Amount needed: $25,000.   Already raised: $6,100

There is more info available online about this vital project. If your church would like a bulletin insert, contact our office and we’ll email you one. Thank you for being the hands and feet of Christ to these hurting children and their families!    You can donate on our website to this fund on the right side under “Donate.”

Kurdistan Iraq – The day broke with clear blue skies and the 111 degree heat soon followed. That afternoon in the week of July 23rd, the IM Iraqi team arrived at a refugee camp for a time of worship, songs and a message from the Word.

Since 2014, the relationship between the church and the camps has been growing. IM has partnered with them both, bringing them together through many relief supplies over the years to several camps including this one. With so many families’ fate still in the balance and nowhere to go, they welcome the friendships, encouragement and the help for their children through the Refugee Child Sponsorship Program.

Pastor Sabri shared about the feeding of the 5,000, and how the faith of the little boy was used by Jesus to bless many. Our faith must be like that of a child, he explained, and then after sharing the Gospel, asked for those who wanted forgiveness for their sins and ask Christ into their lives to stand. Every one of the approximately 125 in the room stood. Men, women and children who live together in this refugee camp found salvation that day.

An hour later as the team called the IM Colorado Springs office to share this news, we were overjoyed! What a day of rejoicing and praise at seeing so many respond to the message! Would you pray with us over their new spiritual journey? The church team is working on meeting with the new believers in Bible study as often as logistics and resources will allow.

This is exactly why we felt God was leading us to start this Refugee Child Sponsorship Program: to engage the national pastors and church in a relationship with refugees together in the Lord.

Are you sponsoring a refugee child? You’re part of this Day of Salvation! Have you contributed towards a Trauma Kit of a plush animal and a solar powered player with the Bible in their language on audio? You’re part of this Day of Salvation! Now these families will be able to listen to the Bible in their own language. Are you sponsoring a national pastor? You’re part of this Day of Salvation!

Jesus Christ came to bring healing and hope to a hurting, broken world. God uses people like you and our teams in Iraq to be the hands and feet of Jesus to these refugee families. Listen, we all enjoy eating out…the cost for two people at dinner now is about $40…or, what it costs for one month of sponsorship. Why not cook at home just one night a month and change a life? The heat is on…we have 160/1000 children sponsored!

Syrian & Iraqi Refugee Child Sponsorship Program:

160 Precious
Children Sponsored!

Yosif, Rita and their parents have moved back to their home village just east of Mosul. After living in a refugee camp for almost three years, they heard the government was closing their camp and packed up. Like the other kids in their neighborhood, Rita and Yosif are on summer break, but soon they and many other children in this town will begin a new school year. While they look forward to it, these kids struggle with PTSD from the war with ISIS and tough adjustments since they lost everything and fled their homes.

This is where you, our sponsors are making such a difference; when these kids and their parents register into our program, excitement runs high because they know someone will be sponsoring and praying for them. If you can believe this…the kids are just happy to know their sponsor will be THINKING about them!

The monthly sponsorship you share really helps! The food packets, visits, meetings and biblical teaching all mean someone cares. With school beginning soon, please consider an extra gift for your child to ensure he or she has a backpack (with school supplies inside), school uniform, socks and shoes. You can help your child with first-day-of-school-jitters and get them off to a successful new school year.

Would you like to sponsor one of these precious kids today? Stop by our website and on the right click “Sponsor a Child.” For $39/month you can greatly help a child, $78 for two and $117 for three!

 

Help your sponsored child get ready for school!

School Uniform:  $45

Shoes and Socks:  $20

Backpack: $18

 

Welcome New Sponsors!  We’re excited you are part of this growing community of IM Friends who are putting their hearts of love into action. Thank you!  Help more kids with the Gospel; we’d love to share in your church effective ways to impact lives.

If you have questions on your sponsorship, Sarah will be happy to assist you at 719-302-3028.

 

Have you joined our growing team of child sponsors? You may have had a typical spring planting flowers or breaking out your bike, but here at IM, our spring has been…well, a bit crazy! And it’s really just begun.

Last fall we began our Refugee Child Sponsorship Program helping Iraqi and Syrian Refugee kids with an initial goal of getting 125 kids sponsored. In May we celebrated reaching that goal! That means more kids are receiving nutritious food, being encouraged, mentored and hearing the Gospel every mont

Thanks to our amazing sponsors and our team in Iraq, we are thrilled that 140 kids are now sponsored. One thing we’ve learned in working with refugee families is that they truly appreciate the monthly visits, food packets and meetings for the kids. They are truly grateful to you.

We’re now on our way to the next level of 300 kids in the program being sponsored. Word is getting out! KLOVE Radio has shared Indigenous Ministries’ ministry, we’ve been on TV, multiple churches across the US have launched the Refugee Child Sponsorship Program, and this month IM teams will share at IFCA National Conference in South Bend, Indiana and the Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference in Denver.

On June 30, look for us at the FishFest Concert in Anaheim with over 16,000 in attendance; we are one of 20 booths. If you’re there, stop by and see us!

Sponsor one of these precious kids today! Stop by our website and on the right click “Sponsor a Child.” For $39/month you can really help a child. For $78, you help two and for $117 three kids are better off!

Highlights: Last month was a busy month in Iraq with the ministry. First, we’re excited to announce that the Indigenous Ministries office in Kurdistan is complete. John and our team found just the right amount of new and used furniture along with office supplies for use. Next, additional staff was hired for administrative and video work and intensive training went on for days. A special joy was a large food distribution at one of the refugee camps, and John and Dee met with refugee families under our sponsorship. There were four women’s meetings held. The men of the church had a BBQ fellowship where John spoke. There were meetings with ministry teams reviewing past projects, working on current projects and planning future direction together. There were times in prayer together, times around the Word as John preached, and of course we ate good Iraqi food together celebrating the Lord’s goodness.

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Refugees return to a war zone: It was, however, visiting the areas where refugees are going back home, that was one of the toughest sights to see. Street conditions range from half decent to horrible dirt roads with holes. Post-war debris of burned out cars, tanks, building rubble, pipes and other miscellaneous junk lay piled up outside of town, and the schools and buildings that are operational look bleak. Out of every 10 homes, 4-6 are either totally destroyed, greatly damaged or deserted. For those with resources, the reconstruction is going well; there are big piles of sand, rock and building supplies in the driveway and street. But for the majority, it’s not going so well. Many people will never return; they simply don’t have the heart or desire to. Others don’t have jobs or resources to rebuild. But, there are some who are doing both.

How long until normal is restored? Life in these neighborhoods is slowly coming back online with the sounds of backpack ladened children chattering together walking home from school. Dogs bark and women hang up clothes, and neighbors chat in the streets. The outside farmer’s markets, once massive and a supply channel for the large city of Mosul, struggle to supply locals with what they need now. This is farm country, and we met with one of the residents who had joined our church plant after fleeing ISIS with his family in 2014, living in refugee camp in Erbil. Recently he and his family moved back to their home town. He took us five miles outside of town to his verdant green farm plot. Straddling overgrown rows, he picked armloads of sizeable onions, peas, carrots and cabbages, which soon filled our vehicle with their just-picked aroma. God has His hand on this country for blessing, not for war or disaster, but it will take a lot more than vegetables to bring back “normal.” Other seeds must be sown.

Ministry future: Pray with us as plans are developed and prayed over with national ministry colleagues for integrating fellowships in these post-war areas. More to come on that later.