Dear Friends,
Greetings from the UK. I am now back in cold, but sunny England.
We had a truly wonderful time in New Jersey. Philip, one of my assistants, met me there; I had travelled directly from Iraq. The two churches we went to were more than wonderful and utterly hospitable.
Meanwhile, news from Iraq is not good. Every day Christians are being killed in the lead up to Sunday's elections. In the past few days there have been several Christians killed in the Niniveh/Mosul area. Security has also diminished in Baghdad and things are now very bad.
The other major problem is our financial situation. As you know we have been in a bad financial situation before and the Lord has always helped us. After the recent bombing the help was incredible and we were able to restore the church and clinic so quickly and many of you helped us.
Maybe because of the high income at the end of last year, our income this year has seriously fallen. Each month we need to raise £55,000. Last week we only raised £1000. The fact is that we do not have the money to provide people with food or to run the clinic and church in the coming month..
We had to tell all the staff in Baghdad that there may not be enough to pay them this month. And we usually provide nearly 4000 people with food each week. So things are very very difficult at the moment and we really ask for your prayers. We do not like to ask for money, it is your prayer we need, but practical needs must also be considered.
At the moment we do not have the funds to bring over any of the young people from Iraq this Summer or even to fulfill our commitments in the US next month.
So we ask for your prayers for the protection of the church and its members in the coming week and for our dire financial state.
Blessings
Andrew White
Rev. Canon Andrew White
"Thank you for visiting our website. There is no place in the world that has the profile of the Middle East - constantly in the news and constantly the scene of war. Yet amidst the tragedy of the region there are few places that have such wonderful people. I love the people of this region and so do we as an organisation. This includes all peoples of the region: Muslims, Christians and Jews. In the midst of these conflict situations we seek political, diplomatic and religious solutions.”