IRAQ, January 31, 2007 — Sad news has reached Iraq Program Coordinator Nabil Omeish about an official he met at a security post in Baghdad last year. This man has been murdered, probably as a result of his faith, having become a follower of Christ.
“God alone knows our difficult circumstances now my husband is gone,” wrote the man’s wife in a message to Mr Omeish. “I miss him dearly and my eyes are never dry from the tears. The situation is very difficult and I am very tired. I have nowhere and nobody to turn to except you (the Bible Society).”
“We are all saddened by this news,” said Mike Bassous, General Secretary of the Bible Society in Lebanon, which oversees Bible work in Iraq. “Especially Nabil, who has been in regular communication with this person.”
It was seeing samples of Children’s Bibles and Scripture calendars in Mr Omeish’s luggage and hearing that he worked for the Bible Society that prompted the official to tell his story.
“He explained that he had been unemployed until about nine months before,” Mr Omeish recalls. His 10-year-old son was playing one day near a church compound. He saw local families going into the compound and coming out again with food and illustrated Bibles. He followed some families into the compound and was given food and Scriptures, too. When he arrived home, he told his father where he had received these items.
“The family were in desperate need and extremely grateful for what the boy had been given. The next morning, the man went to the church and thanked the pastor for the gift. The pastor gave him another Bible and he started reading it every day and listening to TransWorld Radio. Through receiving God’s Word in this way, he came to faith.
“Wiping away his tears, he asked me to pray for him. I hugged him, thanked him for encouraging me with his testimony and assured him that we would pray for him and his family. As he showed me out of the office, he said, ‘Remember, you have a brother here’.”
The widow’s message ended with a request for prayer: “My husband left me the two most precious things in life: our son and our Bible,” she said. “I miss the times we used to go to a secluded place to read the Bible and pray. We really need your prayers now. I am sure that Jesus will never leave us.”
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