| Dear friends, As
I write little Rahouz and his parents are just
crossing the border back into Iraq following his successful heart
surgery in Israel. They spent the Shabbat
with us in Jerusalem before
traveling, and as we visited the Narkis Street congregation and the
Garden Tomb we caught a new glimpse of what Phil Berg once referred to
as “the holy work of mending the world.”  
We first learned of
Rahouz on November 7 in an email message from his uncle: Dear
sear /madam I found your web
site from enternet search my
brother have a boy which have nearly 2 years old his heart contain many
pores ( i dont knaw what Ë?È mean in english ) and
i knew
that you aids the childrin heart deseae we live in north of iraq if you
have intest to help us please tell us what you need.
Even as our staff worked to connect Rahouz with
the Wolfson Medical Center near Tel Aviv, he weakened due to his heart
condition and, according to his parents, nearly died while still
waiting in his home city. On December 29 during our year-end drive we
received funding for surgery for Rahouz, and on January 8 he arrived in
Israel. Our Jerusalem communications coordinator
Dottie
Powell had herself just arrived in the land with her husband Ed (our
new finance director), and she spent time tracking the spiritual impact
of this journey on Rahouz’s family:
Shortly before
their arrival in Israel, Rahouz's dad, Lukman, had opportunity to read
some of the Arabic New Testament while in the home of our Jordan
coordinator, Dirk Kleinloh. Lukman later exclaimed in amazement that
God had come to earth, not for the good people, but for the bad! Lukman
leaned forward to share further, as if it were a sacred secret just
revealed, that God's peace was not for the few, but for everyone.
Lukman's spiritual
enthusiasm has continued to grow throughout the three months he's been
in Israel. He explained to me that God had put in his hands a story
about a young man who was almost blind, and how God had miraculously
healed him. Lukman felt certain that God had given him this story as a
sign that He would restore his boy's heart.
In late February,
Israeli surgeons met with Lukman to give him a realistic picture of
Rahouz's chances of survival. They told Lukman that it was to be an
extremely dangerous operation, because Rahouz had three major holes in
his heart. The next day, Lukman and his wife Pakhshan , endured the
most anxious 10 1/2 hours of their lives. God brought Rahouz through
victoriously! As Dr. Akiva Tamir met with Lukman after the surgery and
explained how they had repaired four additional holes in Rahouz's
heart, Lukman understood that God was using this information to make
clear to him that it was God who had healed his boy.
A few weeks later
Rahouz was gaining weight and playing as any normal 3-year-old. Lukman
soberly shared how grateful he was for all that God had done for him
and his family. I explained more of what I had shared before, about how
a person can know God personally. I told him that when God speaks to
our hearts, we know that it is Him because of the peace, love, and
security He gives us on the inside. I was even able to share some of my
own testimony. It was then that Lukman confided that he believed God
had given his little boy a bad heart so that he and his family could
come to Israel and discover the one true God.
As this beautiful,
gentle family leaves Israel to return to Iraq, we were able to download
the Book of John in his mother-tongue [Sorani Kurdish, which Lukman
understands better than Arabic], and we have arranged for him to
receive a complete Sorani New Testament.
I sat alongside Lukman at the Narkis St. congregation on Shabbat
morning when he was given the gospel of John in Kurdish, and watched as
he began to read. He turned to me and spoke of Jesus’ parable
of
the sower, which he recalled from his earlier reading of the Arabic New
Testament. I pointed up then to the
stained glass windows at Narkis, which depict both the seed falling on
stony ground, and in good soil.  
Lukman pointed at the good soil, and said “That’s
what I want to be!”
So let’s
pray for this precious family, as
they travel across the dangerous highways of western Iraq in the coming
hours, and as they grow in their understanding of God as revealed by
his Son. Thankfully, Jonathan
Miles
International Coordinator
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