Update from Canon Andrew White

Canon Andrew White joined us at our 2012 Convention and has provided us with a bit of information on the current situation in Iraq.

Dear Friends,

Today I am due to leave for synod in Cyprus. Paul White my assistant is supposed to come with me but we cannot get his visa to leave Iraq. We can’t get visas in or out. We are in more than a desperate crisis. The government is not functioning properly, the violence is horrendous this week we even had some of our young people killed. I have had Dawood and his dear wife Sandy leave the country this week. We are in a desperate state without them.

Dawood has been crying on the phone to me saying “Daddy you must leave otherwise they will get you, it is so terrible you can’t stay there anymore”. Hundreds of our people have left the church because they have left the country. The hundreds left are those who cannot afford to leave, so the poverty and needs seems greater than ever. My annual visas and badges are about to run out and how do I get them renewed? I honestly cannot tell you how terrible things are. We need your prayers for Paul’s visa out for his visa back in and for my long–term visa and badges to be renewed. I will not leave my people here however bad it is. I am not leaving, and neither is G–d.

No visa to leave for Paul, we have not managed to get a visa for Paul to leave he is therefore having to stay until we get it and Sarah is coming with me. Please pray for him. I don’t like leaving him here but there really is no option at the moment. They don’t want to even giv