In 1970, a campus ministry worker knocked on the door of Bob Blincoe’s dorm room at the University of Oregon and shared John 3:16. Bob’s life changed in that moment as he surrendered to Christ.
On a blind date a few years later, Bob met Jan, who shared his ambition to go to the Muslim world and bring the Gospel where there was no Christian witness. They married in 1976 and taught English in Southeast Asia before returning to the U.S. to pastor a church. Then in 1991 they moved with their three children to northern Iraq and lived among the Kurds.
Bob: Those were the happiest and most difficult days of our lives. Our kids had to adjust to moving again and again and making new friends. But if you ask them today, I think they would say it was good and that they lacked nothing. They didn’t miss the American dream.
The Kurdish people had been brutalized by Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship and chased out of their towns. The Blincoes’ team set about helping the Kurds recover and rebuild their lives. Soon that meant vaccinating the sheep and goats that had survived Saddam’s attacks.
Bob: At one point we had 100 Kurdish veterinarians vaccinating up to 5000 animals a day. Soon the flocks and herds multiplied all over Kurdistan. Milk, cheese, and meat became part of everyone’s diet once again.
In partnership with many other Kingdom-minded people, we were also present at the creation of the Kurdish church.
In one town, we watched the first Kurdish followers of Jesus baptize a dozen or more new believers. Sometimes God just wants us to be amazed that He does more than we can ask or imagine.
Life in Iraq was not without risks. Two times men with ill intent were captured in the Blincoes’ front yard. Another time, Iraqi police officers threatened one of Bob’s work colleagues with death if he didn’t plant a bomb in the Blincoes’ home.
Bob: I called a meeting of the men in my neighborhood and said, “I’m endangering your lives by living on your street. Do you want my family and me to go?” They protested loudly that they wanted us to stay.
“We will station a guard in front of your house and keep watch 24 hours a day,” they said. From that day on, they took turns patrolling our street.
When the Blincoes arrived in Iraq, there was no Bible in the local language. Bob set out to change that.
Working with local believers, he launched the Kurdish Literature Association, a small nonprofit with a singular goal to translate the Bible.
Almost three decades later and in partnership with Wycliffe and Biblica, the New Testament was printed in one of the major Kurdish dialects for the first time. It has also been recorded and shared through social media ads that reach hundreds of thousands of people. Movements of faith are emerging as Kurds engage in Bible studies and share God’s Word with others.
Bob: I close my eyes and think of all the undone things. But this translation is one that got done. It was a decades-long project that local people helped complete. Having the Bible in their dialect has given the Kurds a sense of dignity, a sense that they are somebody because they now have God’s Word in their language.
After civil war erupted in northern Iraq in 1997, the Blincoes moved to Seattle and started an organization to help resettle Kurdish refugees fleeing the violence.
In 2000, the Blincoes moved to Phoenix, and Bob became the U.S. Director of Frontiers. He has served as President of Frontiers USA since 2015.
After 50 years of service, Bob will serve as Frontiers President Emeritus. But his heart still beats for John 3:16, and Bob has a bold goal.
Bob: It’s a miracle how we got to live in Iraq, and now there are several great teams there. But there is almost no witness in Baghdad or Mosul or Karbala.
The same thing that drove me to Kurdistan—”Lord, where’s the greatest need?”—still drives me today. It still drives Frontiers. We can help people get there.
If I can’t be on the field, then I want to be part of the noble calling of sending. I want to make my life count by sending 100 new missionaries to Iraq in the next five years. It’s audacious. But it’s our privilege to go to the places where the needs are the greatest.
Original article: https://frontiersusa.org/blog/blincoe-50-years-in-missions