Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Between Iraq and a Hard Place. Before I moved to study Arabic in Jordan, friends said I should "wait until the Middle East calms down." They were even more emphatic after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. Instead, we moved to Kurdistan, where people live "between Iraq and a hard place." This is the history of remarkable missionaries who came before us. They learned lessons the hard way; that hasn't changed. The "great experiment" that they undertook for 200 years did not produce the results they hoped for. No doubt the next generation of missionaries will learn their own lessons, sometimes the hard way, but with more wisdom for having been careful students of the past.
Synopsis
Lessons Learned the Hard Way. The missionary enterprise is difficult, wherever it's undertaken. But some places and peoples make it especially difficult, showing painfully-little visible fruit over decades or even centuries. Kurdistan is one of those places. But that doesn't mean God hasn't been at work, nor does it mean there aren't valuable lessons to be learned, even from "failures." From his on-the-ground experience in Kurdistan and his study of past missionary work there, Bob Blincoe presents this thorough history of missions to the Kurdish people. More than mere history, Ethnic Realities and the Church is also a mission-strategy handbook. Here are helpful insights and implications not only for those who would still reach the Kurds for Christ, but for missionaries to any people group, especially where tilling the soil is particularly hard.