A Day of Prayer for Iraq

Listen: Norman from Open Doors Australia on Open House

http://downloads.hopemedia.com.au/webstories/oh_normanopendoors_2014-08-22.mp3

In Iraq, more than 100,000 Christians, and many more individuals and families from other ethnic and religious minority groups, have been driven out of their homes into the Kurdistan region.

Many are living on the streets of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region, with access to basic humanitarian aid, while some have found shelter and support in local churches.

“One church in Erbil is looking after one thousand people, with two-thirds of them sleeping in the courtyard,” says Norman from Open Doors Australia, an organisation that supports the persecuted church all around the world, including Iraq.

Since 2003, the Christian population in Iraq has dropped from 1.3 million to just a few hundred thousand.

Hope 103.2 is proudly supported by

“For these people, their faith is very much their identity,” says Norman. “One man said, ‘My faith is all that I have left; I have lost everything but I will not convert to Islam.’”

“We need to pray for the church to survive and flourish in Iraq.”

Open Doors Australia has organised a Day of Prayer for Iraq, with church congregations across Australia coming together to pray for brothers and sisters in Christ who are facing persecution in Iraq, and for world leaders who are responding to this crisis.

“We’re also praying for the members of ISIS, that they’re eyes would be open and they would come to faith in Christ,” Norman says.