Life and Death

As time draws to a close here again, I was once again reminded of the hardships and cruelty that so many people here grew up with and saw as completely normal. Last night, Alex and I went out with half of our english class to a cafe. It was a great time to be able to know the students better. Many of them are older than us so its great to hear about their professions, their families’, their children and their lives’. After a good time at the cafe a few of the guys took Alex and I out for dinner, to our favorite place, Sara. Its by far our favorite place. Its the king of sada, which is rice, beans and various other vegetables; all of which are cooked in excessive amounts of oil. But its so delicious. They also serve some great kebabs and chicken. I digress. We found out in the course of talking over dinner that one of the guys grew up in Baghdad. His stories cannot be told fully through by weak writing. But they are some of the most powerful comments I’ve heard about living in Baghdad during the invasion. He said he remembers the very night that the U.S. army came. He has pictures of the city from that night. I asked him about life after Sadam’s regime was overthrown. He was glad that he was taken out but he said life didn’t get easier. He said, “we sat around and waited to die”. I cannot even imagine. Eventually, he and his family fled to Syria because one night he received a call in which he was told, if he didn’t leave his job he would be killed. He worked for the Red Crescent (the equivalent of the Red Cross). Another of the guys at dinner grew up in here in the city. He is also knows the pains of death well. His entire extended family lived in Halabja when the Anfal campaign was carried out against the Kurds. All of his uncles, aunts and cousins. Killed. Stories like these seem to be repeated over and again with each having its own personal tinge that hits me in the face. I know nothing of what they’ve experienced. Nothing even close.

On another note, I had some quality time with Aso again tonight. Please continue to pray for him. I asked him what I could pray for him about and he said, pray that he would receive great scores on his tests so that he can go to a good university. Also, please pray that he would know God, through the perfect blood of Jesus Christ. For there is no other way! There are also a few other guys that you can be praying for as well to know Christ in the fullness of who He is.