Iraq (MNN) — Amid war-wrought devastation in the Middle East, God's love compels the hearts of believers to minister to the hurt and abandoned.
The constant fighting between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in Iraq has widowed countless women and left many of them childless. World Bible Translation Center is stepping in to care for the widows and orphans by providing them with food aid and the Word of truth. One testimony speaks of the work that the team is doing there.
"We met a woman whose name is Um Shalam, which means ‘Mother of Peace.' But there seems to be little peace in her life. She has five children, but her husband and three of her children were killed. She was thrown out of her home with two young children."
The WBTC team was able to help her with some food aid and give her an Arabic ERV New Testament. They praise God for the chance to care for widows and orphans who need help. The teams don't have permission to continue their work, and two team members have already been sent home due to threats on their lives. Nonetheless, God's grace continues to uphold them.
Arabic Christian literature was distributed in June: over 7,000 ERV New Testaments and 4,130 children's Bible storybooks, bringing the total to almost 12,000 books. The translation of the Old Testament is complete, and after being proofread and field-tested, the Arabic Old Testament will be ready for typesetting and publication.
The hope and prayer of WBTC is to print and hand-deliver 108,000 copies of the full Arabic Bible in the heart of the Islamic world. The cost to do this would be around $516,000 but $250,000 has already been committed. If you'd like to help WBTC reach this goal, please click here.
