Baghdad School Project

The trip to Iraq was a real blessing and success. On Saturday, May 6 I along with three other minsters   arrived In Baghdad and on Sunday, May 7 Brother Mark Bosje joined us. Monday May 8 we had a meeting with the architect who gave us a plan for the building and answered many of our questions. Because the land is large the school building is going to be large also and the project will cost about 6.5 million dollars.

Even though the figure may seem to be high, both Pastor Nathan Barker of West Virginia and Brother Mark Bosje felt that to build a similar building in America will cost at least 20-24 million dollars.

I was very glad that Brother Mark Bosje was there because he is experienced in both Education and building projects on the international level. Our meeting also included experienced Iraqi teachers. The plan is to have an international school which will allow us to teach most of the courses in English plus at the same time use ABeka which seems to be the preference of Brother Mark and Brother Nathan. They thought the standards of such an education would be higher than any other standard. We also discussed looking at Bob Jones material.

However, this project poses a challenge to me because I have not raised this kind of money before. It is going to be a major step of faith. There is a company that if agreed, will partner with us in starting the school and they will run it for 5 years bringing in their own teachers. They will take a commission and after 5 years will deliver the school to us for us to run it. This is going to be an option should the Lord enable us to raise the funds to build the school.

Nathan Frye, our photographer, will be producing a video about the project. This video will be ready by the middle of the summer. Pastor Nathan Barker told us that he is closely connected with Pensacola Christian College and will be willing to talk with them about using the ABeka curriculum in Baghdad.

Should everything work out, our school in Baghdad will have the capacity to receive 1,900 students. If we can achieve this goal the school will generate enough revenue to take care of the ministry in Iraq plus even to cover many ministries across the Middle East.

We need your help to look for Christians who have money. We need your help to approach foundations in order to raise these kind of funds. Of course we have to approach our supporting churches to help us achieve the goal.

Until this project materializes, we still have to meet the expenses for our radio stations in Iraq.

We still have to pay annual taxes on the stations. This year we owe the government $16,000 in taxes for the Baghdad station, $13, 000 in taxes for the Basra station, and $2,000 in taxes for the satellite. Also, we may need to raise a little bit more money for the payment of the taxes on the land purchased. We are, at the moment, negotiating with the government and the religious convention in Iraq. Both are demanding a certain amount of money to complete the legal registration of the property.

The team who visited Baghdad noticed that the city of Baghdad is a very prosperous one and is becoming one of the most expensive cities in the Middle East.  Also, they noticed that the property we purchased in Baghdad is in a prime location. We found out that they are going to be building a theme park near our school and this theme park is going to turn the area into a prosperous and sought after place. The cross that we will be putting on our building will be seen by everyone driving through the adjacent highway.

This new project of the theme park became public after we purchased the property for the school which was last February. A few days ago, a man offered to purchase our property for $650,000 more than we purchased it. Pastor Maher believes that the new property will double in value within a year. This property will be perfect for a school.

Please pray that the Lord will provide the funds to be able to undertake this project. The challenge is great. However, on the long run this will be the first Christian School of its kind in Iraq that is using a Christian curriculum.

We need, at the moment, $16,000 for the annual taxes on the Radio Station in Baghdad, $13,000 for Basra, and $2,000 annual tax for the satellite.