I completed my sixth 'listening/hearing' of the New Testament in twenty weeks and will begun #7 today; hopefully, my faith has increased (Romans 10:17).

For the past 89 weeks (since September 2002) a lot of you have been praying for our visas to be issued and, would you believe, they were finally issued? Talk about an 11th hour miracle. Thank you for your persistent prayer on our behalf. We'll start again in about six months.

I was stirred when I read a recent article on the Great Commission, and I hope it will stir you as well: TEXAS--American church in jeopardy over missions, Patterson says The American church will suffer if it doesn’t begin directing more of its resources to fulfilling the Great Commission, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson said during a live broadcast from the seminary’s Fort Worth, Texas, campus June 11...“The church has been very generous and great numbers of people have gone ... but it is always wrong and will never be right that 95 percent of the world’s resources are spent on 5 percent of the world’s population,” Patterson said. The church’s failure to expend the appropriate resources on international evangelism is “something for which God will judge us,” Patterson said.

Another stirring moment came as I read an update and invitation from Jonathan (some of you West Virginians went with me to his home a few years back and had a glorious opportunity of praying over a little boy in need of surgery). I'm enclosing that update and invitation at the end of this page and hope you'll take Jonathan up on his offer.

Matthew 24:14

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+ You prayed with us that a meeting last week with the director of a local girls school would enable Jasmine to attend that school next year... Thank for your prayers as Jasmine is now set to attend school this next school year.

+ You continued praying for the ladies Bible study in the Old City, especially that God would teach the women His ways and that they would reject worldly ways... Last week the meeting was rescheduled for this week due to some attendees travel schedules. We appreciate your ongoing prays for the ladies in the Bible Study.

+ Thursday was supposed to have been the day the visa issue came to a close, so you prayed that it would be issued... "We're not doing those today" was the answer I was given; needless to say, I was not happy with a broken promise. I was told to come back but, believe you me, I was beyond gun shy and far from willing to believe anything would really happen. I was able, however, to lay the burden on the back of a co-worker who willingly did for me what I don't think I could have done for myself. I hope all of you have someone in your workplace like that. Thanks, Joe : -)

<T H I S  W E E K><

<>< I'll be helping a co-worker with annoying computer needs and will be away from Shirin and Jasmine for about 24 hours, so pray that the computer needs of our co-worker will be met and that Shirin and Jasmine will have a great learning time together.

<>< Continue praying for serenity as we move into the last few weeks before leaving for a short assignment in the US.

<>< Begin praying for the group of 4-6 people coming to the Prayer Center at the end of the month. May they receive His vision and heart for the peoples of the land and for the world.

>< Pray for the people of Chongqing. >

CALENDAR UPDATES

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12-15, With less than a month before our Stateside Assignment begins, pray with us that we can tie up loose ends and prepare properly while keeping focus on opportunities to share Jesus.

* Wow, have these been some tough days! your intercession is helping a great deal, and we thank you for keeping our focus.

16-18, Continue praying with us that the International Prayer Center of Jerusalem be a place where God’s people can change the world through intercessory prayer.

* It is an honor to know that God wants to use us in this capacity, and I believe He has begun to change us first.

** from Jonathan...

Dear friends,

When I last updated you, I was waiting in Amman, Jordan for visas to enter Israel with four-year-old Mustafa (pictured above), and 15-year-old Janan, the two Iraqi children who came out with me from the Baghdad airport after I flew in with Thafir’s parents.

Shevet Achim has rented an apartment in Amman, where for three nights I attempted to host Janan and mother, and Mustafa and grandmother. It was a challenge! These families have probably never had a male serve them anything in their lives, much less a foreigner. So each time I offered them something to eat, I was politely told, “No, we’re not hungry.” And only on our second day did I realize I had not given them any sheets for their beds. I phoned my wife Michelle in the US to tell her that her gift of hospitality is sorely missed. Finally for the last two nights of our wait they went to stay with our friend Lisa and her baby girl Michaela. Lisa’s husband was conveniently away in Baghdad, so at last everyone could relax and open up.

Early Tuesday morning we were able to leave by taxi for Israel. Things went smoothly at the border crossing, and I was blessed to realize that people on both sides are getting used to the idea of Iraqis coming to Israel. At the hospital Mustafa fit in right away and began playing actively with other children. But echocardiography and then catheterization revealed his heart condition is much more difficult than first thought. The artery to his left lung is missing, so he is living off one lung. Surgery, if attempted at all, is high-risk and the hospitalization could be lengthy, just what the doctors in Israel did not want after their trials with Bayan and Thafir. But rather than turn Mustafa away, they are sending his data to Germany and hoping to refer him to a center there.

Janan and her mother struggled with fear. Even before arriving at the hospital, I heard many times the proposal that “we go back to Iraq.” The first night in Israel we stayed at a children’s home near the hospital along with a large group of children from African countries. Janan wouldn’t enter the home until all the others had gone to sleep, and even then she sat up all night for fear, she said, that she would be attacked.

But Janan’s medical exams were in fact encouraging. She is very weak and blue, and doctors judge that her long-neglected condition would likely take her life within the next year if untreated; but with surgery they believe her life can be saved and in fact dramatically changed. They’ve spoken with her of the hope that she can marry and have children, something Janan (who has practically never been outside of her home) could scarcely have dreamed of. Her heart condition is part of a syndrome that has also left her with a severely deformed left ear, and we’ll need to look into options for restorative surgery in order to complete this touch of God’s grace on her life.

I hope you can sense what a life-changing experience it is for us to be messengers of God’s love into life situations that seemed to be hopeless. During the summer months we have invitations for up to 15 Iraqi children to travel to the US for donated surgeries, and God willing we could see that many travel to Israel as well. Each of these families will need someone to walk with them through the process I’ve just described. How will you invest your summer vacation this year? With support and guidance from local Christians, you could fly into the Baghdad airport and bring out a child and mother.

A minimum of two week’s time is required, as well as finance, not only for personal air travel to the region (approximately $1500) but also to fly child and mother to the US (approximately $2000) or to help underwrite surgery in Israel ($2500).

I do hope that many will consider this seriously. The opportunity is so great that only a collective effort of the body of Christ can effectively respond. Please write to me for further details.

“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works” (Hebrews 10:24).

Jonathan Miles

Coordinator

Shevet Achim/Brothers Together