In loving memory...

It's Christmas Day. Happy Christmas to all who are reading this. More than anything else, this Christmas day, I am so grateful and thankful that I know Jesus. I really love you Jesus, thank you for coming to this world to die for us and give us the awesome priveledge of being able to have a relationship with the Father.

I had a lovely Christmas morning today. I was really blessed and was given many beautiful presents from dear friends and family. I loved every single present that I was given. Thank you everyone.

At 4pm, Canada time, my sister rang me from England and told me that one of my uncles died (in Iraq) a few hours earlier today. At first, I was really shocked into utter silence - I did not know what to say or think - it was all so surreal. Later, after I put the phone down, I burst into tears. I really love this uncle and I am really upset that he died today. So this, is a little tribute to my uncle.

My uncle Jabar was in his late seventies. He is my dad's brother. My dad is the youngest of 13 brothers and sisters (10 boys and 3 girls). My uncle Jabar was one of my dad's eldest brothers. He was about 18 years older than my dad and practically helped raise my dad. My dad really looks up to him and loves him dearly. I had always heard my dad talk fondly of him and wished I could meet him one day. He lived in Iraq and I didn't, so it was always a dream of mine to meet him one day.



Summer of last year (2004), it was like a dream come true, when my uncle was able to come over, from Iraq to England, to visit us for a couple of months. I really really enjoyed spending time with him. I spent time with him every day of those summer months. I took him out on day trips all over London and chatted with him for hours and played backgammon together. The photo above was taken of us in the gardens of Buckingham Palace when it was open to the public for a couple of weeks that summer.

My Uncle was one of those people that are natural born story tellers. He had travelled all over the world in his younger days and had lots of stories to tell me of those days. He was alive when Iraq was ruled by a King. My grandad used to work for the King, and was also a traveller and a merchant who would travel as far as India to buy things and bring them back to Iraq to sell. My grandad had died before I was born (and my dad had never told me anything about him). So it was very interesting to hear the stories that my uncle was able to tell me of my grandad and of the days of the King. He also told me stories about my dad, when my dad was a child. I loved listening to my uncle. He was very entertaining.

He also owned an antique shop in Baghdad and entertained many foreign visitors in his shop. He was more interested in gaining the friendship of his customers who mainly used to be foreign diplomats than he was in making lots of money. (He would often tell his customers that he wasn't bothered if they didn't buy his antiques that day, because the longer they stayed in the shop, the more value they will have with time). He would offer his customers a drink, food and friendship when they came to his shop, and many of them remained friends with him for years after they had left Iraq.

My uncle was also a very kind man. He never married and he used his wealth to bless his brothers and sisters (and their families) when they were in need. He was especially a big blessing to them during the last 30 odd years of hardship in Iraq. He got on really well with me last summer and was really encouraging to me in so many ways. He promised me that He would show me round everywhere I want to go one day when I visit Iraq. (I always looked forward to that). He told my dad, that if any of us (from my family) were to go back to Iraq one day, he would buy us a house.

He was a very gentle, kind, compassionate, intelligent, creative, funny, entertaining and friendly man with a huge heart and he loved his family and lived to bless others. I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to spend so much time with him when he came to visit us, and to have told him that I love him. I am really sad that I was not able to visit him in Iraq, and I am really really sad that I did not tell him about Jesus, although he did know that there was something different about me. Below is a photo of us taken on a boat cruise on the Thames in London August 2004. I love you Uncle Jabar.

Please pray for my dad when he hears the news. He is working offshore at the moment, and he won't be able to come home to England until Friday.