It’s been a minute since there was a blog update from Team Wilson and it seemed fitting to post on this week set aside for thankfulness.
For those of you who are consistent supporters, prayer warriors, and readers, we want to say THANK YOU! It’s because of you that we’re able to continuing pursuing the ministry the Lord has called us to.
If you’ve been following along, you know that we went on a trip to Iraqi Kurdistan at the end of September into the beginning of October. Our trip began with flying over Baghdad, which was quite the experience! Our hosts took the same Perspectives course (a compilation of lessons on global missions) we took back in the spring and as a result of the course, they decided to move long-term to Iraq. They had never traveled out of the country before considering moving long-term and have since been there for 4 years to work specifically with the Kurdish people. The purpose of the trip was to serve as a capstone experience to our Perspectives course. We got the chance to share meals with the long-term team, interact with locals by doing surveys for a language center our hosts work with, and see different parts of Iraqi Kurdistan. There are many things that could be said about the trip, but here are a few of the stories that stood out:
1. As mentioned above, part of our time in Iraqi Kurdistan was spent helping do surveys in the community surrounding the language center to find out what types of classes the locals would be interested in taking. Many times, we would be invited in to have a drink of cold water and some classic chai tea (a staple in that culture). On one particular occasion, Ronny and I were together and the head of the house invited us to have lunch with him and his family. His wife prepared a home-cooked meal which was delicious and through conversation (well, more like translation since we hardly new any Kurdish words), we learned the man of the house was a teacher of Islamic law and his father was a mullah of the mosque around the corner. Our host and the man discussed the differences in Christianity and Islam. Some of the points the man brought up had to do with the Crusades. Fascinating. Our host was able to share the gospel, though after the meal was over, it was pretty clear to all of us that the man had hoped to convert us to Islam. Still, a meal in a local’s home was an incredible experience.
2. One night we went with our hosts to a bible study with two families who have recently left Islam. They’re considered Muslim-background believers. Research on Islam shows that people are more likely to accept the gospel as a family unit rather than as individuals. Before they accepted Jesus, the men and women would eat separately and the men would not help with the housework whatsoever. Now, the women love the change they’ve seen in their husbands because they are more helpful and desire to share meals with them. When it came time for the women to separate to do the Bible study, their husbands were encouraging them to stay. Since they are not as well educated, the women felt more comfortable studying by gender, but regardless, the gospel has tangibly changed the way these families function. Wow!
3. Our hosts desired for us to get the chance to experience many different aspects of their lives and the Kurdish culture, so they arranged for us to have a language lesson one afternoon. While we learned, we asked our English teacher, Allah, about her life. She told us about her home city and how she had fled from there during the time of Saddam Hussein’s reign. To hear her off-handedly mention Saddam’s name and her experience with that was sobering. It was pretty wild to be sitting in front of someone directly impacted by that time.
There were a number of other experiences during the trip, but those three stories pretty accurately capture different elements of our time in Iraqi Kurdistan and our interactions with the locals. The women of our team were able to take the 17 year old daughters of two of the long-term team families to get snacks and that was delightful. It reminded me that I really am working with the right age group right now.
If you’re interested in seeing pictures from the trip, you can check out my Instagram: @casebaxwilson. I posted some from each day we were there with more of the story behind the specific things we did.
To all of you who helped get us to Iraqi Kurdistan, thank you. We’re grateful to have had the chance to experience that part of the world and be able to share more of what it’s really like.
Again, we are are just so thankful to have a team behind us who wants to hear about what the Lord is doing in and through us. Thankful doesn’t cover it, but thankful we are.
All this to say, a whole lotta thanks coming your way, from our blog to your screen. Love you all!
