Who are they?
The Kurds are an Indo-European people numbering more than 30 million worldwide. They consider themselves modern-day descendants of the ancient Medes and have a language and culture distinct from their neighbors.
Where is their country?
The Kurds have no country. That is, they have no land or government officially recognized by the international community. They are, in fact, the largest people group in the world living under such conditions. There were periods of hope in the last century, even brief moments of real independence (i.e. The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad, 1946), but to this day, the Kurds remain a people without a country.
Looking at the map, though, you will see they do have a land. Stretching northwest to southeast, the land of Kurdistan (as it is known) crosses the borders of Turkey, Armenia, Syria, Iraq and Iran. This has been their home since the days of their Median ancestors, three thousand years ago.
What is their story?
The story of the Kurds, as that of any people, is both rich and complex. In our day, most know them as an oppressed minority brutalized by their rulers. That is certainly true. From the time of the Persians, Greeks, Mongols and Ottomans to our own time, the Kurds have been subjected to rape, pillage, slaughter and wholesale cultural thievery. Many children have grown into adulthood knowing nothing but war. Many women have cried for husbands, sons and fathers who would never return. Still more have suffered the humiliation of being force-fed an alien language and culture while being restricted in the full enjoyment of their own. It has been, and continues to be, a very difficult life.
Yet, there is more and the photo below offers a striking example. 
This is a memorial marker at the site of a mass grave in Halabja, Iraq. It was here, on March 16, 1988 that the Iraqi government sent its aircraft to drop chemical weapons; by day's end, five thousand were dead. That is the grim reality.
But, look at the picture again. What do you see in the flowers and trees and mountains and sky ? Is it vivid color? Is it peace? Is it beauty? That's exactly what we see and it is reflected well in the very people Saddam was so desperate to destroy. For though they have been, and continue to be, surrounded by the vestiges of death, the Kurds rarely miss an opportunity to sing or dance, to write a poem or paint a picture. They are quick with a welcome and a joke. They laugh just as easily as they cry. They live.
The Apostle Paul said long ago, " From one man God made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth, and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him, we live and move and have our being. " (Acts 17:26-28a)
Our prayer, at Genjine, is that every Kurd, placed in time and place by God's own hand, would reach out for Him and so find Him.
