On Wednesday, July 30, 2014 1:10 AM, "ANS@Assist-Ministries.com" <ANS@Assist-Ministries.com> wrote:
| ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com Tuesday, July 29, 2014 Escape from Mosul  Amie Cotton, APR (256) 426-4543 Christian Aid Mission amie@christianaid.org CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (ANS) -- After nearly 2,000 years of Christian heritage, Mosul was emptied of the remnant of its faithful believers July 19 by order of militants who seized control of the Iraqi city last month.
Several hundred Christian families were believed to still be living in Mosul just two weeks ago. Most Christian residents had already escaped the city, heading north to the Kurdish-controlled region of the country. Those remaining families who were part of the final exodus left with only the clothes they were wearing. Some were stopped at checkpoints at the edge of the city, where armed men confiscated their cars and any personal belongings, including cell phones and money. Elderly or sick believers who cannot travel out of the city face a very different challenge. According to the Assyrian International News Agency, 15 Assyrian families with members who were not healthy enough to flee opted to convert to Islam. The New York Times reported that five Christian families consented to a forced conversion to Islam because they have members who are also too ill to venture away from Mosul. A ministry based in the Middle East has helped 40 families escape from Mosul during the past six weeks. Christian Aid Mission has supplied funds to provide food, clothes, medical assistance, and shelter. All of the families are Muslim-background believers (MBB) who have faced great peril due to their conversion to Christianity. The ministry leader sent this first-hand account to the Middle East area director for Christian Aid Mission: I picked up eight new families from Iraq last week. Things are extremely hard on those who stayed and don't want to leave. Those MBB families that arrived looked like wounded soldiers coming back from the battle. Of course they had nothing wi th them except some clothes. They couldn't talk much. Even when we reached our destination where they are currently staying, they were too frightened to talk. They were in shock. In Mosul they had been living through hell-trauma after trauma after trauma, taxing them beyond what they could endure. They left everything behind. They have been emotionally and physically abused for the past month. They were permanently scarred by barbarian tactics. They love Jesus and wanted to stay in Mosul to be a witness, but beatings and killings were more than they could endure. We had a cup of tea together before I left them at their temporary living quarters. I said, "Sorry, but I need to go now. It is late and you need to rest." One man grabbed my arm and said, "Please stay. Don't leave us." You could see they were scared. I was their only human source of security. As I started to pray, tears started ru nning down my face. I couldn't finish praying. I looked at them and could see that they had been through a lot. I decided to stay with them until almost everyone went to sleep. One brother asked that we pray for some MBBs who refused to leave and want to serve the Lord in Mosul, even with all the threats they are getting. Please pray with us for these new families. Pray especially that we can find a place for them to stay. We only have this current place for a week, and we need to find them another location. Pray for the kids, as they are still in shock. Pray for two of the women. We could see that they were deeply wounded, even on a physical level with rape and extreme abuse. Pray that the Lord will give them strength during these difficult days. Without God's help, they will never recover from this trauma. These new families are now with us. We have no choice but to care for them. They ne ed rest, a place to live, food, prayer, and much, much, much grace from God. A decade ago, an estimated 60,000 Christians lived in Mosul. Those numbers plummeted after several waves of attacks on Christians following the 2003 American invasion and ousting of Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein. The Christian population in the city prior to the ISIS takeover in June numbered around 35,000 people. Mosul is the capital of the Nineveh Province of northern Iraq, located across the Tigris River from the ancient Assyrian city where the Old Testament prophet Jonah preached around the 8th century BC. The Mosque of Prophet Younis (Arabic word for Jonah), located east of Mosul, houses a sepulcher that is believed to be the burial place of Jonah. Earlier this month there were unconfirmed reports that ISIS militants destroyed the tomb, along with many other ancient shrines in the region. For more information, visit www.christianaid.org/News/2014/m ir20140723.aspx Learn more about indigenous missions around with world by signing up for Christian Aid Mission's weekly e-newsletter, Missions Insider, here (christianaid.us7.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=ad362c05e7e320f66e6a44d00&id=f17b618e6b.) About Christian Aid Mission Christian Aid Mission is an evangelical missionary organization that seeks to establish a witness for Jesus Christ in every tribe and nation by assisting effective indigenous or native ministries through prayer, advocacy and financial support. Our focus is on reaching the unreached for Christ in areas in the world where there are few Christians, where Christians suffer because of poverty or persecution, or foreign missionaries are not allowed. We currently assist more than 500 ministries overseas that have tens of thousands of indigenous or native missionaries in the field. These ministrie s are engaging more than 1,000 unreached people groups in more than 100 countries around the world. For more information, please visit www.christianaid.org. Facebook: www.facebook.com/CAM53 Twitter: twitter.com/christianaid53 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/christian-aid-mission?trk=company_name Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/christianaid53/  See all ASSIST News articles at www.assistnews.net** You may republish this story with proper attribution. Send this story to a friend. If this story has been forwarded to you, click here for your own subscription to Assist News. If you no longer wish to receive Assist News via e-mail, click here to unsubscribe. Note to our subscribers: We are conducting a survey to find out how each of our stories are being used around the world. So, if you publish or feature any of our stories, could you shoot Dan Wooding a quick e-mail at assistnews@aol.com and tell him which story you have used, and how it was used. If it is run on your website, could you send the URL for it, and if was on radio, TV or print outlet, could you tell us which one. Many thanks!
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