Rebekah Reports

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Empowering those ISIS wishes to eradicate – Part 2

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You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” – Matthew 5:43-44

Jeremy Courtney and his organization, Preemptive Love, are doing that exactly. They have taken this Bible verse literally, and they are changing our world. They are bringing literal healing to Iraq – a place that so badly needs healing, and peace, and love.

***If you are just coming across this blog post, I encourage you to go here to read Part 1 first, and then come back.***

Today Jeremy, Ann Voskamp and Jennie Allen held a live stream discussion about what ordinary people like you and I can do to help the Iraqis who have literally lost everything at the hands of ISIS.

You can view their discussion below:

Jeremy has been in Iraq for 10 years in the thick of that country’s violence, and death, and pain, and yet his passion for Iraqis shines through his eyes. He seems unshaken by the scariness of it all. Today he said, “There are worse things than dying.” And let me tell you, he is living that truth out boldly.

As Jeremy and Ann spoke about Preemptive Love’s work in Iraq, the Bible verse above came to mind. I just kept thinking, “YES. THIS is the Gospel. This is the Good News. This is why Jesus came and this was His message.”

Ann and Jeremy are living out Jesus’ words in Matthew. They aren’t just loving the minorities who have been persecuted by ISIS; they are loving ISIS. Let that sink in for a second.

They are loving their enemies.

At one point Jeremy said something about Ann and the attitude she displayed during her recent visit to Iraq that’s also true of himself, “I’m made in the image of God, they’re made in the image of God, and I’m going to help all people made in the image of God.”

It’s true. No matter how much we may want to hate them, the people that make up ISIS are God’s children too. They are beautiful in His sight, and they are in need of forgiveness, and healing , and love just as much I am.

I pray more of us can learn that lesson and live it out. Oh how different this world could be if we did!

So you want to help, but what can you do?

If you’re moved to get directly involved with Preemptive Love, go here to inquire with them as to their staffing needs.

If you’d like to empower an Iraqi woman by making a donation toward a small business grant for her, go here.

If you’d like to make a general donation to Preemptive Love’s work in Iraq, go here.

And of course, the most important thing we can all be doing — pray.

Empowering those ISIS wishes to eradicate – Part 1

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Some of the 12,000 Iraqi Yazidi refugees that arrived at Newroz camp in Al-Hassakah province, north eastern Syria after fleeing Islamic State militants. The refugees had walked up to 60km in searing temperatures through the Sinjar mountains and many had suffered severe dehydration. Photo credit: UK Department for International Development, Flickr
Some of the 12,000 Iraqi Yazidi refugees that arrived at Newroz camp in Al-Hassakah province, north eastern Syria after fleeing Islamic State militants. The refugees had walked up to 60km in searing temperatures through the Sinjar mountains and many had suffered severe dehydration. Photo credit: UK Department for International Development, Flickr

How do you just sit on the floor of a shipping container and just let these women carry this kind of terror alone — how do you turn away and go back to your neat little life of Wheaties and news reels and how does the church not stand up and howl?” – Ann Voskamp

Do you feel helpless in the face of the evils ISIS is inflicting? Do you feel like you can’t do anything for the Yazidis, Christians, and other minorities suffering in the Middle East because they’re so far away? Stop. No more excuses. The people ISIS is waging war against are just that — people. They’re not simply news headlines.

There is a way to help defy ISIS. Thank you, Ann Voskamp for helping shed light on the fantastic organization that is Preemptive Love. This one, Texas-based organization is doing more to spread love and healing — literally and figuratively — in the Middle East than any other I’ve seen.

(Full-disclosure: I have donated to Preemptive Love in the past. Also — A fun fact for my Austin-area friends: The organization’s founder, Jeremy Courtney, is from Central Texas. Go here for a recent Statesman feature on him.)

I highly encourage you to read Ann’s blog post. Then I encourage you to go here and join me in doing something to help empower the women and children ISIS is trying to eradicate.

………

UPDATE: On Thursday May 21, 2015, Ann Voskamp and Jeremy Courtney hosted a live stream discussion moderated by Jennie Allen of IF:Gathering. Go here to read Part 2 of this blog post about that discussion and learn more about what you can do to assist Preemptive Love.

 

Lack of passion for the persecuted

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Kirsten Powers has done it again. She’s taken my thoughts and feelings and put them to print perfectly in this week’s article boldly entitled, “Kirsten Powers: Christians thrown overboard left to drown by Obama.”

When three North Carolina Muslims were gunned down by a virulent atheist, Obama rightly spoke out against the horrifying killings. But he just can’t seem to find any passion for the mass persecution of Middle Eastern Christians or the eradication of Christianity from its birthplace.”

This lack of response, or at best an unemotional nearly apathetic response, to Christians’ murders and torment (and other minorities like the Yazidis) in the Middle East is becoming an all-too-familiar practice for our current president and our country.

An old Christian church in Lebanon. Photo credit: n.karim, Flickr
An old Christian church in Lebanon. Photo credit: n.karim, Flickr

Don’t get too comfy on your couches with your Netflix, folks. Don’t think this persecution of Christians could come to America, the supposed “land of the free and home of the brave?” Guess again.

If a blind eye is turned to what’s happening overseas, it’ll be that much easier to grow numb to the issue and turn a blind eye to it once it’s in our own backyards. It’s time to be brave and stand up for those who are being killed for their religious beliefs. No matter your religion, you should not be murdered for it. That’s just wrong, plain and simple.

America has intervened around the globe to help the starving, the sick — those dying from AIDS and Ebola, for example — as well as the impoverished, those suffering in the aftermath of natural disasters. When do we intervene to lend a hand to the innocently hunted?

Related Story:

Go here to watch Lara Logan’s story from a March episode of “60 Minutes” on what life has been like for Iraqi Christians as of late. It’s well worth a few minutes of your time.