Miracle on the Mountain
The Joshua Fund (TJF) has been ministering directly inside the neighboring nations of Israel. During the current conflicts within the region, we have been privileged to send in several TJF field teams to help encourage our ministry partners throughout the area. Thank you for helping us send in teams and praying while they travel into the countries of Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. (The massive ongoing war has prevented any ministry travels directly into Syria for some time.) This article is based on events that occurred during the most recent TJF trip into the Middle East…
“For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. ‘What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?’” Matthew 18:11-12
As the temperatures soared, hope faded and the desperation of a father reached its end. Fleeing in great panic with hundreds and perhaps thousands of other families, they escaped up the mountain to a place he knew that could not sustain all the inhabitants who would soon occupy its summit. His only concern was to feed his now famished baby. The barren mountain was unforgiving and claimed the lives of many of his people during these days. Most of them, children, were tragically taken by the painful death of dehydration. This father was terrified that his baby would soon face the same fate.
Then, from amidst the clouds of dust and the thickets that dotted the mountainside, a goat miraculously strayed into his path. This became his family’s salvation. He couldn’t explain where the animal had come from. He only knew that God had answered his prayers and saved his family.
Our Joshua Fund team recently knelt with this man and his friend, both of whom had been saved from the slaughter at Sinjar. The day our team arrived, the Lord moved upon his heart to surrender to the One who had sent the goat on the mountain and would become his true salvation. He knew Jesus had sought him out and used the most dreadful situations to reveal to him that the Son of Man had come to save the lost – himself.
S AV I N G O F S I N JA R
The enemy sought to destroy all who were of Yazidi descent. Still today, the black flag-waving radicals desire to erase and “purify” the land of any who do not conform to their strict ideology. Thousands of poorly armed Yazidis trudged the face of the 62-mile mountain range in the brutal August temperatures to wait out what appeared would be a certain genocide of their people group. A mixture or syncretic religion qualified them, and the Christians living in this remote corner of northwestern Iraq and Syria, for certain extermination.
Thankfully, the international community pushed back the masked terrorists and mass genocide was avoided, although reports still cite the loss of life to be in the hundreds. Entire ancient Christian villages have been abandoned, and even now the second largest city in all of Iraq is being occupied by those who call themselves “purists.”
Today, The Joshua Fund is partnering and praying with local Believers who are ministering to the needs of those who have fled their homes throughout Iraq and Syria. Those who have been displaced and driven from the comfort of their homesteads now find themselves in the arms of desperation and are truly lost. In a physical sense, food, clothing and other basic necessities are being provided, and the message that the Lord was communicating that day to His disciples in Matthew 18 is still being heard: that the Son of Man has come to save those lost and astray in the mountain.
We so appreciate all your prayers and support and would ask you to continue to go before the Lord on behalf of our brothers and sisters from all over the Middle East:
/1/ Ask the Lord to pour out His Spirit on the Yazidi people of Northern Iraq, especially for these two brothers who gave their lives to the Lord during our recent visit.
/2/ Pray for the TJF teams that are scheduled to be sent out into the region, for wisdom, protection, health and effectiveness.
/3/ The church in the Middle East is under great attack in certain regions – ask the Lord to send boldness to speak His Word to the body of Christ as his disciples did in Acts 4:29.