A Family Reunited: An Update on Nezar

3 May 2017

Kurdistan, Northern Iraq

Family time for Nezar and his wife and children.

Nezar, a Yizidi man from a village outside Sinjar City, was not home when his village was attacked by ISIS, and his wife and two small children were captured while many of his extended family were killed. When we met him last year in Sinjar he broke down crying as he told us the story of how ISIS captured his family in August 2014 (see report here: https://www.freeburmarangers.org/2016/09/30/please-tell-the-world-what-happened/). I cried with him and prayed for his wife and children to be set free. I committed to him that I would keep praying , do all I could do and keep coming back until they were free. When we heard his family had escaped ISIS earlier this April we were overjoyed and thanked God! He had heard from his wife just one time since her capture and then communication had been cut off. After we first met him in January 2016, we were able to see him every time we returned; in September 2016 he showed us the mass grave where many of his extended family are buried.

But his wife was still alive, along with their two children, and was recently able to make contact with him. With the help of his extended community he was able to gather the funds necessary to procure their release. On April 8th he talked to her again, by phone, for the first time in over two years. She was on her way back – at that point still in an ISIS-held city, but on the way. On April 11th, they were reunited on Sinjar Mountain. They are now in an IDP camp close to Dohuk, Kurdistan, Northern Iraq – the camp where all of the survivors from their village are living. Their village is still under the control of ISIS. They told us that their son, who is about five years old, had his leg broken by their ISIS captors, and he now walks with a limp.

Thanks for praying for this man and his family and thank God for bringing them back together. But please don’t stop! Please continue to pray for Nezar, his wife, and their children, a son and daughter – for healing, for their future, for a new beginning, and for others still in captivity. We are now on relief missions here in West Mosul, Iraq, and thank you for all your prayers and help. I am reminded of the words about Jesus and our lives, “As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free.”

Thank you and God bless you,

Dave, family and teams

**For security reasons, we have not disclosed full names.