Seventh-day Adventists believers in Baghdad participated in their weekly services on Sabbath, March 29, say staff members at the church's regional headquarters in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Seventh-day Adventists believers in Baghdad participated in their weekly services on Sabbath, March 29, say staff members at the church’s regional headquarters in Nicosia, Cyprus. It is not clear how many members were able to make the journey because many use public transportation, which is seriously disrupted.
As the bombing of the Iraqi capital continues, there is growing apprehension about the safety of families and friends of regional headquarters employees still living in Baghdad. The bombing of three telephone exchanges on March 28 has rendered communication with several sectors of the city impossible.
One Iraqi worker at the Nicosia office says, “I was very concerned because I heard on many of the Arabic radio stations that some of the residential areas near our home had been hit on Friday. I desperately wanted to check that my family was safe but couldn’t get through on the phone. My only option was to telephone an Iraqi friend in Nicosia and ask him to call his family in Baghdad, an area where the phones are still working, to get more accurate information. To my relief the report came back that the rockets had fallen about one kilometer short of our neighborhood.”
In a telephone conversation with ANN at deadline, Pastor Michael Porter, president of the church in the Middle East region, said there had been no new reports from Baghdad. He indicated that the church building in Baghdad, which so far has been unharmed by military action, is located about 4 kilometers from the center of the city, in the eastern part of Baghdad, away from areas which have so far been bombed.