Dear Daniel

The prayer one often hears by the beleaguered and hard-pressed followers of Jesus in the Middle East is: “How long do we have to endure such suffering Lord?”  Christianity existed in Iraq uninterrupted for the past 2000 years!  At one time, there were 1.5 million Christians living in Iraq, out of a total population of 40 million. But with wars and brutal persecutions by Al Qaeda and ISIS, the Christian population in Iraq has been reduced to just 225,000 people.

The continual existence of the Church in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, is a topic of great concern for many. We may have our own thoughts and perspectives on it, but at the end of the day, it comes down to those courageous champions of faith who are choosing to remain in their countries to make an impact.

Ara and his congregation from the First Baptist Church in Baghdad are praying
for the light of the gospel to shine, and the power of Jesus to transform their communities. Ara encourages his members to stay focused on Jesus, witness to His power without fear and remain in Iraq.

While Ara serves as the pastor, his wife Noura has a very successful ministry among the young people. She is a leader of the Awana ministry not just in her own church, but all across Iraq.

Like many other churches we have found in the Middle East, the amount of children often outnumbers the amount of adults!

The year 2024 is a very significant year for Ara and his congregation, as they celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishing of the First Baptist Church in Baghdad.

Although his church is not yet officially recognized by the Iraqi government, Ara feels that the path toward recognition is continuing to move forward. He is hopeful that legally recognizing the evangelical churches as part of the body of Christ in Iraq will eventually happen! This should also be our prayers for the beleaguered believers of the First Baptist Church in Iraq!

Amongst the other things to celebrate this year, we celebrate a new church that was planted by Pastor Ara in Dahouk, north of Baghdad, in the region of Kurdistan. Once again, it is also the first Baptist church in Kurdistan.

Distributing Bibles Across the Country:

Distributing Bibles at a book exposition.

In addition to the work he does at the church, Ara is also keen on making the Bible accessible to the public in Iraq. He actively participates in yearly Bible exhibitions in major cities in the country. The most recent book exhibition was in the city of Najaf. This is also the seat of the most sacred Shite Mosque, the Imam Ali Mosque. Todd and I stayed in the guest house of this Mosque when we visited Iraq a couple of years ago!

Country Update and the Baghdad Church:

At the beginning of June of this year, as a consequence of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, there were some violent reactions in Iraq. A KFC restaurant, just 100 meters from the church in Baghdad, was the target of a violent explosion.

These random acts of violence in the country triggered among his congregation a great deal of fear. It brought to their memory the traumas of the past years when hundreds of Iraqis were killed and thousands left the country as refugees. We pray this will not happen again.