When I received my most recent call from inside Syria by our friend, Pastor R****, founder of the House Of Blessing, I could not help but think of a Scripture found In Joel 3:14 which says: “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near…”
Pastor R**** said that the volunteer missionaries who are continually being raised up and trained are working day and night in order to reach as many people as possible with the Good News of God’s love to mankind in the little time that is left. Refugees keep flowing into the area by the thousands, all of them having left everything behind except for what they could carry on their backs. It is hard for most of us to even imagine the living conditions in the refugee camps. It is impossible to meet the tremendous need for even the most basic necessities, no matter how much comes in through charity organizations or the United Nations. There are however new stories every day of how God steps in and does the “impossible.”
One of the challenges in such crowded living situations is that any illness that takes hold will in a very short time affect a multitude of people. Sanitation is an enormous problem. The people are malnourished, not protected near well enough from the elements; the weather this year being especially vicious, and then, of course not near enough medicine to meet the huge need.
There is also the problem of the civil war which in Syria has claimed at least 150,000 lives in the last three years. If the civil war were not enough of a human catastrophe for the people to have to try and survive, there are nearly three dozen jihadist groups killing just for the sake of killing, with no law of any kind to intervene.
In the middle of all this chaos are the Christians. These people face the greatest danger. In spite of the fact that the jihadists groups all hate and kill each other, their favorite target is the Christian. I have described much of this in other updates and so won’t go into detail here, but the conditions are extremely desperate.
Pastor R**** said that in spite of the impossible circumstances, God intervenes again and again. Many people have been healed due to the prayers of the volunteer missionaries, as well as over 200 people raised from the dead recently when so many people froze to death.
Another miracle which is a direct answer to prayer has to do with the little bit of food that is available to eat. The Holy Spirit lately has had me pray (and many others, I’m sure) specifically that the food will go further and supernaturally provide more nutrition than the amount available normally would. This is apparently exactly what has been experienced by many. Praise God! God fed several million Israelites and all their animals in the desert for forty years after they left Egypt, and He is no less God today than He was then.
There have again been thousands reached with the Gospel of Christ this last week. The number of Christians is growing exponentially now. Brother Omar from western Iraq came to pick up 500 new Bibles to take back to the believers in Iraq. He said that they needed many more than the 500 but, the need was just as great in every other Arab nation that has been touched by this last day’s harvest. Pastor R**** has arranged to send 20 of the volunteer missionaries now in Syria into Iraq to help Omar and his leadership. Omar had expressed how badly he was overwhelmed and desperately needed help. That is a good problem! These missionaries are already prepared and ready to go within days.
In the meantime, R**** is continuing to train and prepare as many more volunteers as he possibly can. I was also made aware that there is a team of brothers translating teaching material being sent to them. It is no small task but with a team of people working on it, it gets done much quicker. This has turned out to be something God has chosen to use in the evangelism effort. There are not near enough Bibles for the masses of people but due to the abundance of Scriptures printed out within the teaching materials, the people at least get that much pure Scripture–along with the teaching material. This is a quickly expanding project and the materials are being distributed to the hundreds of thousands who have been reached since HOB began this project in April, 2012.
What an amazing God we serve! I pray that many of you will take this work being done by House Of Blessing to heart and pray earnestly for them every day. So very many are selflessly paying the ultimate price for their faith in Jesus Christ. HOB needs lots of prayer and of course always needs Bibles–thousands of them! The present order in process of being printed is for 5,000 Bibles. They are being printed by an underground printer in Jordan and cost $15 apiece. The printer has promised to work on the printing day and night until the order is completed.
House of Blessing, Pastor R****, his crew of volunteers, and of course Anne and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the last two years of support, both in prayer and with finances to buy Bibles. Hundreds of thousands have now been reached in the last 23 months, and there is no slowing what God is doing! This truly is a race to the finish line now. For anyone wanting to help provide Bibles, please use the address below. Records are kept and receipts for donations are sent at year’s end.
H.O.B. City Of Jesus Ministry; 3206 SW 45th St.;Redmond, OR. 97756
Blessings and Keep Looking Up until we’re called Home,
Jake Geier