Traveling to Iraq
December 2001
As part of a Church of the Brethren Faith Expedition organized by the Brethren Witness Office and Mel Lehman, publisher of Children of Iraq and hosted by the Middle East Council of Churches, i spent eleven days in Iraq and five in Jordan, December 10-26, 2001, working to understand the effects of the eleven-year embargo and to be part of a bridge from one generous, proud and hurting world to another.
THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ in the 1990s were caught between the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein and deadly US-led sanctions on their country. They suffered greatly from war, poverty and disease since the 1980s. Once among the most developed nations in the Middle East, war and sanctions dramatically reduced standards of sanitation, health, education and basic economic opportunity in the country.
IN THE WAKE OF THE SEPT.11 TRAGEDY, the fate of ordinary Iraqis - not to mention millions of other innocent people in the Middle East - hung in a precarious balance. Would they be ignored? Starved? Bombed? The Bush Administration began to look for easy targets for its new self-styled "war on terror."
SUMMARY OF TRAVELS. Our delegation landed in Amman, Jordan, then traveled overland to Baghdad, Iraq. We delivered Ramadan and Christmas greetings to Iraqi Muslims and Christians, met with officials of the UN, the Iraqi government and humanitarian organizations. We listened to doctors and patients in hospitals, talked with religious leaders and visited war memorials. We attended worship with Iraqi Christians and prayed with Muslims in several mosques. We spent valuable time with ordinary Iraqis, listening, talking, taking pictures. There is much to share now. Read more about the journey here.
SPREADING THE WORD. I have shared updates about the trip and the situation in Iraq in multimedia presentations, college classroom discussions and worship services across the East Coast. Please contact me if you'd like to host a vist. Here is a sample of venues where i shared in 2002.
February 10: Fairfield Mennonite Church, Fairfield, PA, 10:30 AM.
February 17: Washington City Church of the Brethren, 337 S. Carolina Ave., Washington, DC, 7:00 PM. A special multimedia "concert," presentation and discussion full of sights, sounds and stories from Iraq.
February 24: Jackson Park Church of the Brethren, 100 Oak Grove Ave., Jonesborough, TN. Sharing in morning worship and an evening presentation at the church.
March 10: University Park Church of the Brethren, 4413 Tuckerman St., Hyattsville, MD. Sharing in morning worship, 10.50 AM.
April 19-20: Atlantic Northeast District Church of the Brethren Peace Retreat, Palmyra, PA.
A review of my presenation at Elizabethtown College from March 26, 2002, gave healthy length - with a few slips - to the discussion of Iraq.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, the following websites from numerous Iraq advocates contain much more information on the situation in Iraq since 1990: