Matt Willingham 
You may have noticed that we often invite people to pray for Iraq and for the children you’re helping us save.
Most people respond enthusiastically, but some people seem confused by the request. We get comments like “Are you doing more than praying, or is that it?” or “If you really want to help, get the child the medical care they need.”
But for our staff and for many in the Coalition, prayer and faith aren’t things we want to check at the door. And they certainly aren’t things we ‘just’ do as a last resort. When we sit with a local family, when we walk into an operating room, or when we sit at our computers to share stories with you, we bring our faith with us—and we hope others will do the same.
Coming to work and never expressing your faith is _ike te__ing a person they can send _etters to you so _ong as they never use the _etter “L”—something’s missing.
So we don’t invite people to just pray. We invite them to pray. And, for us, that’s an invitation to the faith traditions represented in this Coalition to love these children and their families.
One important part of this conversation, though, is sensitivity. It would be supremely ironic for us to encourage others toward ‘preemptive love’ in Iraq—a place notorious for religious fault lines—while being religiously insensitive ourselves. When we say we ‘bring our faith with us to work’ that doesn’t mean we’re shoving it in people’s faces or debating them into a corner. It often doesn’t even mean words at all! It’s meant to be a gracious, non-domineering form of expression.
We haven’t perfected that here, but we’re grateful to the countless Iraqis, partner doctors and Coalition members who continually show us grace, allow us to express ourselves and who express themselves in turn.
Do you see it differently? Do you agree? Comment below or email me your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you.
