Turkey: Kurdish refugees suffer and Jesus saves
The escalation in Turkey's fight with Kurdish rebels has made life harder for Kurdish refugees from Syria, and indigenous Christians are working with them. Kurdish refugee families find that the Turkish government is unwilling to help them when officials discover they are from a predominantly Kurdish area of Syria. Now they have another problem because Kurds are fighting against Turkey in the southeast of the country. These families have nowhere to go and do not know what to do. In one refugee camp most of those who have fled the terrorist advances of IS are Kurdish. IS had terrorised them in the name of God. But now Christians are ministering to them with clothes, food and vitamins for their health, saying, 'Here I am. Jesus sent me to you.’ A grandmother said in Arabic, ‘Thank you! So many wounds. Tell Jesus to save us.'
Lebanon
Embroiled this year in mounting discontent, Lebanon’s protesting population has called for government replacement due to ‘political garbage’. At least 1.5 million refugees from war-ravaged countries like Syria constitute nearly 25% of the population. They have overburdened Lebanon's severely deficient water and power infrastructure. Pray for Christians in Lebanon as they continue to reach out to refugees. They are putting on children’s clubs and doing food distribution. Praise God that Christian leaders in Lebanon are being challenged and encouraged in transformational ministry; there is a willingness to train and build healthy leaders. Pray for the continued ministry to Muslims. May they come to know the Lord, and may He draw more Lebanese to Himself. For a prayer guide to help you pray for Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Jordan click the ‘more’ button.
Syria: Aleppo offensive sends 70,000 Syrians fleeing from homes
Another wave of Syrian refugees have started their hazardous journey to safety as forces loyal to President al-Assad moved in on Aleppo last Friday, backed by Russian warplanes, Iranian ground troops and militia fighters. An estimated 70,000 fled the southern Aleppo countryside as a result of an assault moving in on three sides of the shattered rebel-held city. ‘People are scared to death, everyone is on the move,’ said the head of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organisations, as he returned from the area. ‘People are sleeping in the streets and the fields, but there is nowhere for them to go.’ The Syrian Network for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said there had been ‘massive displacement’ in recent days. An aid worker in southern Aleppo said that several villages stood almost empty. ‘The strong travel on foot, pushing the elderly in wheelbarrows; those left behind face severe medical shortages.’
Israel: A prayer walk by Israeli and Palestinian Christians
Recently twenty Palestinian and Israeli women met in a small village in the north of Israel. This village is not well known - there is not even a sign from the main road pointing in its direction - but Al-Jadeida has been in the news lately because of the violence there. Whole groups of people have been relocated there from low-income neighbourhoods in Acco and Gaza. Al-Jadeida is 97% Muslim and 3% Christian. Organised crime has taken hold, and the local municipality has all but stopped the city services. For the evangelical families and local Catholic and Orthodox churches, this is unacceptable. This has been the subject of prayer for some time now. As a result intercessors met to pray with the local women’s group. They had no physical weapons of protection, but went armed with hope, faith and boldness, walking through neighbourhoods in two groups and praying that the municipality will be cleansed and that any who won’t bend the knee to God will be changed.
