Hope in IRAQ?

With all the bad news going on in Iraq, from the suicide bombings & car bombs to the sectarian violence to the debate of the US's place in this whole thing comes maybe a little hope.

Despite the desperate & violent state many are living in in Baghdad I was encouraged to see the story entitled "Bombings rattle classroom, unite students" of all places on CNN.

Maybe this hope & determination might break through to silence the extremists.

Hopefully more than that vapor of a hope will catch fire and the light of Christ will be shown, and bring a hope that is beyond the ceasing of car bombs and world peace.

When I was in Syria last summer my wife had the pleasure of meeting a wonderful Iraqi family that was very gracious to her. They were normal people just like you and I. They had a big family, they vacationed, they had homework, and they cherished life, they were devoted to God, and they wanted war to stop and peace to previal -though they didn't know Christ.

May Christians see the ripeness of the harvest in Iraq as more than just democracy & politics in the Middle East but that the spread of Christ's great Name being known and loved in that beautiful, generous culture.

Beyond politics and whether this country ever comes together, the body of Christ I hope will love this people through sacrafice, and if need be laying down their lives to show that Christ is more valuable even than life.

May we as a body get beyond the policy and administrations and go, and pray for the ends of the earth, whether Iran, Iraq, Noth Korea. Let us love all peoples for His great renown.

If you don't have any plans this late in the day on Friday Bethlehem Baptist is having First Friday Films tonight. (yes it's the second Friday - Last week was Good Friday)

The First Friday of every month BBC hosts a documentry, usually interviews the writer or photographer and then has a good discussion about the topic.

Tonights film is My Country, My Country and is about the situation in Iraq. 7 pm at the downtown campus.

Here's a bit of info on the film.

About the Film"My Country, My Country" finds the pulse of a country thrown violently into chaos. On the streets and roads of Iraq, a constant background noise of helicopters, explosions, gunfire, TV reports of suicide bombings and fractious opinions fill daily life. From ebullient Kurdish Peshmerga militia who celebrate their new autonomy — foreshadowing civil war — to workers at voter-registration sites who seem as fearful as they are hopeful, to the tumultuous headquarters of the Sunni-dominated Iraqi Islamic Party, Poitras discovers a far more precarious and tragic situation than imagined in debates about the war. On the ground, the stakes are life and death. U.S. military trainers brief American soldiers about the growing anti-American sentiment. And many Iraqis, for all their differences, clearly share one common reality: They are as afraid of U.S. soldiers as they are of suicide bombers.With "My Country, My Country," director and cinematographer Laura Poitras creates what several scholars and critics have called the definitive documentary about the war in Iraq.