Mormon volunteers and service missionaries share their incredible stories of serving in the Middle East and Europe, serving just 25 miles from the Islamic State front.
Refugees were overwhelming a maternity hospital in Erbil, Turkey. The hospital has 53 beds for mothers, but 150 babies are born each day.
The death rate was heartbreakingly high until LDS Charities intervened.
Each time a new baby was born, a hospital staffer immediately wrapped the child in a blanket and handed the tiny bundle to someone else — often a cleaning lady — who dashed down a long hallway to the pediatric area.
"Four times a day, by the time she rushed the length of that hall, the baby would be dead," said Brent Strong, a former BYU professor who with his wife, Margaret, served for 30 months as an LDS humanitarian volunteer in Amman, Jordan.
LDS Charities provided for lifesaving neonatal training at the hospital.