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By Mark Kelly
PHOENIX, June 16 (BP)—Southern Baptists have an opportunity to
change history if they are willing to meet the challenge of being Kingdom
Families for Iraq, a missionary just arrived from that country told Southern
Baptist pastors during their June 15-16 conference in Phoenix.
“The greatest need in Iraq right now is for five Kingdom Families
who will go and plant their hearts and their lives among the Kurds of
the north, the Turkmen of Mosul and Kirkuk, the Sunnis around Tikrit,
the ancient church that lives in that area, and the Shiite villages round
Karbala and Najev,” said the missionary, whose name was not revealed
for security reasons.
“We need people who will not only go for a little while but will
go and plant their lives and be the kind of families that reach other
families and cause the kind of church-planting movements that will truly
change history there.”
The next three or four months represent a crucial moment to change the
future of Iraq, Pastors Conference President Mac Brunson said.
“Right now we have a 90-day, maybe a 120-day opportunity to get
into Iraq. Everything is open to us,” Brunson said. “If we
will give, and if we will go, …if we are willing to sacrifice in
these economic times, we may very well see God do something we’ve
always dreamed about.”
Brunson reminded the pastors that their International Mission Board has
“almost 200 missionaries right now, ready to go, who can't go because
we don’t have the money.”
He led the assembly in prayer: “Father, move on the hearts of Southern
Baptists in a way that you have not ever moved before. Give us a hunger
and a passion. Help us pastors to …go back to our churches and challenge
our people and say, ‘These are days we must give. These are days
we must sacrifice.’”
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