Kurdistan is an ethnographic region that lies within the borders of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Armenia. It is home to 40 million Kurds who congregated here after Saddam Hussein’s genocidal campaign against the Kurdish people of northern Iraq. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims.

Efforts to dominate the Kurdish people of northern Iraq lasted from 1963, when the Ba’ath party came to power, to 1989. In March 1988, under the dictates of Saddam Hussein, a chemical and assault weapon attack was launched on the Kurdish city of Halabja. Up to 5,000 Kurds were killed in one day.

Caught in the Halabja attack were thousands of women and children, including one 7-year-old boy. He was on his way to kindergarten when his bus was hit by a rocket. Everyone on board was killed instantly—except him.

Barely alive and having lost both legs, Haydar was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Iran, a country then fighting with the Kurds against Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War. He spent three months unconscious, finally awakening to learn that his entire immediate family had been killed by chemical weapons.

Haydar spent 10 years in Tehran, receiving treatment for his legs, stomach and disfigured face. Having been introduced to the idea of Christianity as a child, he found himself often pondering God.

When he became a teenager, the young man moved to Jordan as a refugee. There he met a fellow Kurd who introduced him to the gospel of Christ and the idea of a personal relationship with Him. In June 2001, he gave his life to the Lord.

His first prayer was that God would spare at least one member of his family for him to meet. Months later, his school headmaster pulled him aside to tell him that someone claiming to be his brother had called from Switzerland. It was verified through other relatives: Haydar had a living family member.