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Written Friday evening, my last in Erbil (for now): I don’t know when you had a moment or an experience that simply changed you or how you experience the world. I just know you’ve had them. Typically, and hopefully, there are lots of such occasions. But some just shake you up in a great way
I am spending the night in one of the most peaceful places I have ever been. It’s a monastery located atop Mount Alfalf, about 35 kilometers from Mosul and originally founded in 363 by the hermit Mar Mattai (St. Matthew), who fled persecution during the rule of the murderous Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate. Remember
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Just got back from the final championship game of the Mar Elia volleyball tournament. Great fun to watch some really pretty outstanding volleyball, and be mercilessly bugged by children who couldn’t figure out if they wanted to greet me, be on tape, or run screaming in glee every time I turned toward them. You will
I really needed to spend some time alone in my hotel room this Saturday morning, ignoring the phone and the quiet knocks at my door from my buddy Ramadan who is part of the room cleaning service here. I’ve just needed some silence. But now I am roused by one of the most exciting things
![[Image description: selfie of Fr. Chris and Waze, and two of his family members.]](https://149442806.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Photo-1.png)
Good morning my friends! Some night last night. Went to a party at an Armenian club and met Wahe’s (my friend, translator and driver) extended family: his son and his wife and his four daughters and their husbands and fiances, a whole tribe of the sweetest little kids you can imagine, all hugging and kissing
![[Image description: selfie Fr. Chris, who has a beard, and Fr, Douglas Bazi. They are riding in a car, Fr. Bazi is in the driver's seat.]](https://149442806.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Photo-2.png)
Father Douglas Bazi, my friend and our partner in Iraq, and, I guess, some Iraqi hitchhiker he picked up who’s badly in need of a shave. I find the faithfulness, resourcefulness and dedication he brings to caring for all those he is entrusted to serve humbling and inspiring.
Friends, it’s really hard to know where to start. I’ve just had one of the most amazing days of a, shall we say, not uneventful life. I woke to a beautiful day and tour of Ankawa from Wahe, a close friend of a parishioner and now a good friend to me and our church. (It’s
I had a warm welcome from Fr. Douglas at the airport last night. Just met Marek Hudema, a journalist from the Czech Republic writing about Erbil, in my hotel lobby just as he is leaving the country! But we are connected now and he will tell me what he has learned here. And so my
In Frankfurt- Turkish Muslim lady next to me on the plane last night gave a 20 Euro donation to SWIC! World Peace Now! CB #StandWithIraqiChristians Hustling to the airport. Had a beautiful send off from St. Martin’s this morning. I do not travel alone, but with both all the spirit of our great church and
Dear friends and supporters of SWIC, There is a very important point I have been needing to make that the sheer volume of activity has prevented me from expressing—for which I apologize. I have heard from some folks a concern—why just the Christians of Iraq, and specifically Erbil? What about the brutalized and exiled Muslims,
SWIC .