Motley Crew of Redemption

The Elders of our host indigenous church here in Iraq are quite the assemblage of former lives.

A past assassin killed "many people over many years." The targets included the political and business opponents of a variety of clients. For the right price, the offending person was "taken care of" within an hour. No questions asked. No advance planning necessary.

Another was a smuggler, transporting everything from drugs to humans. "Goods" were trafficked across the amorphous regional borders but also as far as Europe and Canada.

Among them too is a person whose previous call in life was the advancement of terrorism. He used to passionately speak at local mosques to recruit and prepare fighters and suicide bombers. He now goes into those same mosques with the Gospel of love, knowing that each time might mean his death at the hands of the very same people he used to mobilize for hatred.

Assassins, smugglers and radical Islamic killers...God’s love knows no limits or boundaries. These characters weren’t just reconciled to God. They were called into leadership for Him and now oversee a thriving church in the Middle East, a church that wants to respond to the call to take care of widows and orphans.

As one of them so aptly put, they now lead a church that is "shoveling the first dirt of the grave of Islam" in Iraq.

Saul, one of the greatest persecutors of "The Way," became Paul and was used to change the face of the world. God uses such redeemed souls as these.

(Image: One of many murals in Iraq depicting violence and suffering)

Comments

[Daleea]

Amazing Grace...
God's promise in Romans 8:28...
He is faithful...