Iraqi Christians' Post-Katrina Gift Encourages Louisiana Church
by Allie Martin
October 6, 2005
(AgapePress) - A church in Iraq is helping to rebuild a church in the U.S. that was devastated as result of Hurricane Katrina. This past weekend, Adullam Christian Fellowship in New Orleans, Louisiana, received a $1,000 check from a 300-member church in Iraq's northern province. Randy Millett is pastor of Adullam Christian Fellowship. He says his church was destroyed by the recent hurricane and flooding, and all of the congregation's 350 members are now scattered across the United States.
According to the pastor of the Kurdzman Church in northern Iraq, television images of the devastation left in the wake of Katrina prompted his congregation to reach out and help a hard-hit Christian church in the "Crescent City." World Compassion, the Oklahoma-based nondenominational ministry that started the Kurdzman Church, brought that church and Adullam Christian Fellowship together.
Millett was surprised to learn that a congregation in Iraq was helping out his church members in their time of need. "I know that they can understand what it's like to be devastated since, of course, they just went through that," he says. "St. Bernard Parish looks like it has been bombed and then flooded, and so I have a kindred spirit now with my brothers in Iraq."
The Louisiana minister says he would like to speak to the pastor of the Kurdzman Church and thank him. "And one day," the pastor of Adullam Christian Fellowship adds, "when things settle down over here, I'd even like to go and visit the church in Iraq and thank him personally."
Millett says the $1,000 offering from the Kurdzman Church was "a tremendous boost and encouragement" to his congregation. He says the money means a lot, especially knowing that is represented "a sacrificial gift" from the 300-member Iraqi congregation.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
