Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods, for His steadfast love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His steadfast love endures forever;
To Him who alone does great wonders, for His steadfast love endures forever.
Psalm 136:1-4
Dear friends,
These are the words we’ve been singing and praying this week for so many of our precious children. Today alone, we said goodbye to three children who could finally return to their homes in Gaza and the West Bank: Thabet, Wasim, and Sham. What an amazing work of the Lord!
To look at how these children began their journeys urgently to the hospital–each one in life-threatening condition–and now returning with healed hearts is only something the Lord can do.
We also praised the Lord for the return today to our Jaffa home of Mohammed from Kurdistan, looking so much better despite suffering a small stroke after his heart surgery:
His mother was full of joy and hope; let’s pray with her for Mohammed’s full recovery.
Also returning to us this week were Asmaa (after three months in the hospital!), as well as our beloved Ramyar, the last of the current group of Iraqi children to go in for surgery:
It is truly a blessing from the Lord to see so many of our children recovering well without any serious complications. Please pray with us this week for the continued healing and let’s praise the Lord together for this wonderful news.
We also want to lift up one of our longest residing children, now-15-year-old Khonav, who was admitted to the hospital today for a cath tomorrow. The doctors are hoping to see more of what’s going on in her heart and even hoping there will be a possibility they could perform her next surgery soon!
This would be wonderful news and a much better option for her and her family, rather than needing to come back again in a year. Let’s pray together for the Lord’s perfect will in Khonav’s life and for divine vision for the doctors as they make their decision. We thank God for this extended time we’ve had with Khonav. We know God is working beautiful wonders in her life.
Please also continue to pray for sweet Maryam, or Mimi, as she is continuing her recovery in the hospital. The doctors were concerned about her oxygen levels getting lower earlier in the week but thankfully after doing a suction her levels later increased.
Even though her recovery has been slower, we thank God that He is continually with her and her beautiful mother. Please pray for His perfect comfort to continue to surround them.
Precious little Mina, who arrived to the hospital last week from Gaza, just finished her surgery successfully this afternoon and is now recovering in the ICU with her faithfully waiting mother.
Please pray for these next 24 hours to be a full and good recovery for Mina.
We also welcomed Mohaned and Ziad last week urgently from Gaza. They are both doing well. Mohaned already had his surgery and is recovering, however, the doctors won’t be able to release him home until he starts eating better.
Please pray for this sweet boy as he struggles to eat and that he could get his appetite back and soon be reunited with his loving family.
And Ziad will hopefully have an MRI tomorrow that will help the doctors to determine the best plan for his surgery. They are hoping it can be on Sunday.
We pray for a clear result and wisdom for the doctors as they make these decisions. His timing is perfect and when the Lord is in control we can see His wonders at work.
We prayed last week for beloved Lawi, who was sent home from Israel last year after doctors found him to be inoperable. Since then he’s been released from the hospital in Kurdistan, but then forced to return again:
As we know, God’s hand is not too short to stretch out to this sweet boy and his family. So we continue to wait and trust in the Lord, for His steadfast love endures forever. So as you continue to pray this week, we ask that you also pray for God’s perfect love and hope to be known to Lawi and his family, that they could see the God who formed Lawi is a good God who loves Him perfectly and endlessly.
Lastly, we want to continue to pray for our families as they are still waiting for a way to open for them to return home to Kurdistan. It has been a long wait but we praise God He has given us many beautiful moments during this time. We hope that this will continue to be by His hand an anointed and designated time for each of these wonderful children and their parents. God’s love is so deep and high and wide and it is exactly the hope they need.
As things are beginning to get back to normal here and stores are opening back up again, we hope that you will pray with us for continued protection and health for each of our staff and families. We thank God for His continued hand over our community and also pray for His hand to cover you all as well.
Many blessings,
Lindsay for Shevet Achim