Please Pray

I went to see Serhang and his family today. It was really wonderful too see them and really, really sad too. His family is really amazing. I pretty much fell apart when I asked his parents how they were doing and feeling after finding out that Serhang is inoperable. His dad talked so lovingly about his eldest son and how he would do anything for him. His mother kept asking us if there was any hope for him. The medical answer is simply no, there is no hope. Our doctor in Turkey is one of the best and if he can't do it than no one can do it. I told them that we had not given up hope for him but that we believed that the God who created him is the God who can heal him. I told her that we would not stop praying for him and asking our friends around the world to pray for him as well. We laid our hands on sweet Serhang and asked Jesus to heal him. We don't know how much time he has left, only God does. But, I'm going to be honest with you - I'm going to be heart broken if God doesn't heal him or make a way for him to have surgery. I held back my tears the best I could, but it was pretty impossible to not love that kid and his family. His mom had to go get tissues for me because I couldn't not cry anymore. I promised them that we would not forget them and that we would do whatever we could to help them. Serhang has some brain damage due to the lack of oxygen that is getting pumped to his brain, but he understands. He understands that he will not have the chance to be made well like the other kids did. Serhang told his dad when he got off the plane from Turkey that he didn't have to worry anymore because he got heart surgery and was well. His mom was planning a party for him when he got back to celebrate his recovery. Serhang keeps asking her if they will still get to have the party. I know that God loves Serhang infinitely more than even his parents love him, but it is so painful to see their hurt and disappointment. So, please pray for Serhang. Let's be like the widow who kept going to the judge everyday until he gave her what she asked for. We told his family today about how Jesus raised people from the dead and did all kinds of miracles and that he still did them today. For the sake of your name in this place Jesus, please heal Serhang. Amen.

Sad News

We found out late last night that 11 year old Serhang has been declared inoperable. He is the only child of the 7 that are currently in Turkey for surgery who have to return to Iraq without the hope of receiving the surgery that he needs. Serhang was originally in the group of 4 who were supposed to be fairly easy cases with a good chance of a full recovery. Unfortunately, he was misdiagnosed and he is missing a pulmonary artery. Even if the surgery were possible, he would not be able to survive the surgery due to his pulmonary pressure being too high. Apparently that means that his blood pressure is too high in his lungs.
I am the family advocate for his family, so we will go with a translator to his village on Monday to see how he and his family are doing. His mom was very upset. I was with our translator when she called his dad to give him the news. She said he was very saddened but didn't have much hope that he would be operable. Without surgery his condition will only get worse and he will likely only have a couple years left to live. All we have left to do is to pray. As Jeff & I prayed last night for Serhang and his family I was really comforted by the Lord and reminded that He was not surprised by this, He did not misdiagnose Serhang and no one is inoperable to Him. So, let us pray to the Lord who still does miraculous things that he would cure Serhang so that his family, his village, the doctors in Turkey, and the watching world will know that Jesus Christ is the God who heals, saves, and delivers.

My Prayer for You

My sister sent this to me recently as something she read that she was praying for me. It is easy for me to loose sight of the big picture sometimes. The everydayness of getting things done, fixing stuff that breaks, trying to learn language, figuring out which way I want to go at the Bazar… things that are nothing in comparison to eternity and yet they are more present in my heart and mind most days then the stuff that really matters. I just needed to be reminded, maybe you do too.

The world no longer rules your heart. You are no longer seduced by getting and gaining but devoted to spreading and proclaiming the glory of God in the nations. You live as a pilgrim, unattached to the cares of this world. You are not afraid of loss. You even dare to believe you may be given the privilege of dying to spread His fame on the earth. The Father's passions have become your passions. You find your satisfaction and significance in Him. You believe He is with you always, to the end of life itself. You are sold out to God, and you live for the Lamb. Satan fears you, and the angels applaud you. Your greatest dream is that His Name will be praised in languages never before heard in heaven. Your reward is the look of pure delight you anticipate seeing in His eyes when you lay at His feet the just reward of His suffering: the worship of the redeemed.

update on kids

By tomorrow we will have sent 8 children to Turkey for live saving heart surgery, we have been calling them The Great Eight. Four of these kids were labeled as urgent cases who needed surgery immediately but the doctor believed they had a good chance of recovery. The other four are children who need caths and possibly echos to determine if they are even operable. They are all very serious cases, some requiring multiple surgeries in order to have any hope of survival. So far Taban, Ranu, Ahmed, and Lowran have come through their surgeries successfully. Taban, who is a 13-year-old girl is doing well. She doesn’t like her breathing exercises and was in quite a bit of pain after the surgery, but the doctor thinks she and Ranu, who is an 8 year old girl will be able to return to Iraq on Saturday.
Ahmed and Lawran have also come through surgery. Ahmed was a very serious case; he came to our office last week and couldn’t walk from the chair to the couch. He had blue lips, and fingernails from lack of oxygen. The doctor thought he would require up to 4 surgeries. He came through the first surgery successfully and even though they were not able to fully repair his veins the doctor thinks that in a few years he could be a candidate for another surgery. Ahmed is out of ICU and his coloring is pink and he is much better. Baby Lowran is only 10 months old and had a very risky surgery yesterday that took over 4 hours. He is still in ICU and will remain in critical condition for the next day, but the doctor feels very good about his surgery. Zana is the last of the initial 5 that were sent to Turkey for surgery. Unfortunately he contracted an infection and has been ill for the last several days therefore postponing his surgery until Monday. Serhang and Rashna arrived safely in Turkey on Wednesday and have been going through the necessary tests to confirm diagnosis before surgery.
Serhang is an 11-year-old boy who is still in need of a cath, but will hopefully have surgery early next week. Rashna is a 16-year-old girl who cried before she left for Turkey because she was so grateful that it was finally her turn. We are still waiting for a scheduling confirmation on her surgery. We have another infant that will be traveling to Turkey for surgery late tonight. Her name is baby Honyar, she is only 4 months old and her dad came to our office just two weeks ago asking for our help. He was told that their daughter would have only 2 months left to live without surgery. It has been quite a week.
I ask that you would be praying for these children and their parents, as this is a very stressful situation. Our friends Scott & Abby traveled to Turkey with these families and are caring for them. Please pray for them also, that God would give them strength and love as they go through this critical time alongside these families. Two weeks ago we had a list of 8 names and we were trying to figure out who we could send and now all 8 children are in Turkey receiving the surgeries they need to have the chance to grow up – Praise the Lord – it is only by His grace and mercy. Here are some pictures of some of the kids. The first is Ranu after surgery and the second is baby Lowran before surgery.

Last Night

So... here's a run down of how last night went in the Priour house. I (Erin) was making dinner for our teammates, I had gone into the living room to pick up some stuff when I hear Jeff coughing really loudly and making hyperventilating noises. This didn't alarm me, because since we arrived here Jeff has had this really bad cough that sounds like he is dying every time he coughs. Then I start to hear some different noises, so I go into the kitchen to see what is going on because Jeff isn't answering my 'Are you okay?' yells. I go into the kitchen just in time to see him running out the front door. I follow him outside and he is throwing up in the yard. When he has settled down I'm trying to figure out what happened and he says 'Sorry, I threw up on the rug'. When we go back inside to clean up the rug I realize that our sink drain is clogged and is flooding our kitchen. So, I'm trying to keep dinner moving, get the rug cleaned up, and get the standing water mopped out the door. Suddenly, Jeff yells - 'It's on fire!'. I turn around to see a towel that is next to our gas stove totally engulfed in flames and Jeff is looking wildly around the kitchen trying to figure out what to do with it and I'm yelling 'Throw it outside, throw it outside!'. So, he throws it outside and fills up a bucket with water, but instead of walking outside and pouring it on the fire he just throws the bucket of water at it from inside the house. It put the fire out. And then I finished making dinner and we ate an hour late.

Oh, by the way, Jeff is fine. He wasn't sick, he just choked on his apple juice. It scared the crap out of me, but he's fine. I started crying right after this just because I was scared. I don't know the Heimlich maneuver and while I know you're supposed to throw yourself over a chair - we don't have any chairs because people here eat on mats on the floor. I don't know what I would have done, I don't even know any emergency numbers. The good news is that after all of this, I laughed really hard instead of bursting into tears. A week ago this might have pushed me over the edge, so I think we are doing better because we were both laughing. Here is what was left of our kitchen towel. Good thing we brought several from America.

Oh, the things you'll see

We have certainly seen some interesting things in the 3 weeks we have been here in Kurdistan. We managed to take some pictures to share with you so you can get a little glimpse of what life is like here.

I saw this guy riding along beside us at the Bazar last week. The Bazar is the big outdoor market, by big I mean HUGE, it is miles long. You can buy everything there; it is like outdoor Walmart.


We have had several rainy days the last few weeks, which is great because that is what will power the electricity for the unbearably hot summer months. However, the sky turns the strangest color when it rains. It is so dirty and dusty here, it is like even the sky rains dirt whenever it rains. Here is the sky right before it started raining last week.


Driving here is quite the adventure. There don’t appear to be any real ‘rules’ just some slight suggestions really. I saw this truck driving down the road next to us a few days ago. There is no telling how many guys are in the back of it. Don’t worry Dad; I will never get in the back of a truck like this.


I went out to the villages last week to visit some families whose children will be leaving for surgery in a few days. I couldn’t believe the stark difference between city life and village life here. The houses we visited only had 1 main room and an outdoor hole in the ground as a bathroom. Here is one of the houses we saw. The silver tank you see is what they use to get water from.


These caves you see in the mountains are the caves that the Peshmerga (the Kurdish military) used to hide in when they were fighting against Sadaam Hussein.


This is what I had waiting for me when I came home from the office the other day. Yep, just a sheep in the back of a truck parked outside our gate. I think it was the neighbor’s, but it made me laugh anyway.


You never know what you're going to see, what herd of animal will be crossing the highway, or what kind of vehicle will pull up next to you. I'll try and keep the camera handy for more 'What in the world...' moments.

Honesty

I think I'm about to tell you the truth... I hope you can handle it. =)

Life here has been pretty difficult the last weekish or so. I (Erin) cried for about 2 hours last night and even though I don't wish we were back in America I didn't want to be here. However, location is not the issue, not having water (which we haven't since Saturday with the exception of 1 day), not getting electricity from the government, not being able to make the washing machine work, almost setting the kitchen on fire when I tried to re-heat dinner, being unable to do anything without a lot of assistance.... these are not the issues. They are the things that have been pressing in on us and compounding the frustration, but that is the thing about getting uncomfortable and being out of control... it squeezes out of you all of the things that are buried deep inside, the things you don't want anyone else to see.

The only thing that could calm me down last night was playing some worship songs that are really close to my heart that speak the kind of truth I can't always hear through the noise of my own life. Songs like 'Holy you are still holy even when the darkness surrounds my life. Sovereign you are still sovereign even when confusion is blinding my eyes. Lord, I don't deserve your kind affection and my unbelief has kept me from your touch. I want my life to be a pure reflection of your love. So, I come into your chamber and I dance at your feet Lord, you are my savior and I'm at your mercy all that has been in my life until now, it all belongs to you. For you are still holy.' I had this vision the other night of being this hard ball of clay that was being molded... it was the kind that was so cold and almost like rock that it hurt your hands to try and soften it, but slowly it was warming up and becoming softer and able to be molded. I think that is me right now and the state of my heart.

I don't mean for this to sound all dark and painful, although I have felt much of that lately. I feel a lot of hope and joy too. I'm grateful for the hands that push and break and mold until I am soft and able to be yielded to whatever those hands want to make me into. I ask that you would be praying for Jeff & I in these coming weeks and months. Our time here is too precious, and the work at hand too urgent to waste our time and energy being angry, frustrated, rebellious, and a number of other very unproductive emotions. I feel kind of silly being so frustrated about worldly things when we are dealing every day with families whose children are sick and dying and in need of a heart surgery they may or may not receive. But as I was praying last night I just felt from the Lord that suffering is exactly that - suffering. If it wasn't hard and uncomfortable there would be nothing remarkable about joy in the midst of it. Having to choose joy instead of anger or frustration will likely be a daily (sometimes hourly) choice for me for a while. And for now, that is enough. Knowing that His mercy is new, His grace is sufficient and even when my circumstances don't change - He is still holy.

That's all I have the energy for now. But I've got some great pictures to post of some crazy things we've seen here. I'll try to get that posted in a few days. Thanks for your prayers and for caring about our transition. We have a lot of hope right now for what God has in store for us.

The Potty Post

In honor of one of my friends I am posting this blog. For those who don’t know in other parts of the world they do not always have toilets like we have in the states. A simple definition of the squatty is it a relatively nice porcelain hole in the ground in which you squat to take care of business.
I have come to realize that I am spoiled by the western toilet. Going to the bathroom used to be a place to get away from everything, it is a place where no one will bother you and you could sit in peace. Now, there is no sitting you can still get away from everyone but you probably don’t want to be in there any longer than you have to. It doesn’t smell nice. A friend once shared this advice with me. If work is stressful and you need a break go sit on the toilet, your boss may look for you but will not bother you if he finds you in the louver. The longer you are there the less likely someone will ask you to do more work. You can all thank me for this free tip by commenting on this post! =)
A few days ago I hung out with a couple of Kurdish guys who had lived in the states and they were telling me about having to run around and turn things on and off depending on whether or not we had national or community electricity. (Electricity here is complicated, perhaps when I fry something I will post about it. Also, notice I didn’t say if I fry something but chose the word when.) Anyway once they finished telling me about this, our conversation turned towards toilets. Their belief was that the western toilet was inferior to the squatty because with the western you have to take a magazine or book with you because it takes longer to take care of business when using a western toilet. They feel that when using a squatty all you have to do is go in squat and it all comes out and you are done. However, I believe the western is superior to the squatty because you get to sit and not squat. Sitting is much easier on the body and it usually gives you a chance to catch up on some reading or if you have a poker game on your phone you can play poker (Keith). While both views are valid, I am too old and my body is not made to squat for more than about 25 seconds to pick something up off the ground.
So yesterday I went and bought us a western toilet and in 2 days it should be installed. Now, here is why you should appreciate your toilet. In the states toilets have on the back down by the bottom a piece that looks like a S. You are probably thinking ‘so what?’. Well here is what! That S curve keeps the smell and other things from coming back into the toilet after it is used. So today be grateful for the technology we have in the states.
If you made it to the end of this post I hope you enjoyed it and got a little bit of humor along the way. Feel free to comment because If there are no comments it will likely be awhile before I post again. Dueces!!