Syria (MNN) — Syria has at last begun to reconnect with its neighboring countries, including Lebanon, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has survived a decade of civil war, but fighting has left the country in economic ruins. Additionally, Bashar’s grip on the country remains tenuous. Areas near the border of Turkey and Iraq are controlled by rebel groups.
Poverty among Syrian people
Samuel with Redemptive Stories recently sat down with 15 partners out of Syria. “We heard stories about families that used to have more than sufficient enough income to provide for themselves. Salaries that used to be worth $1,200 now are only worth $40, because of hyperinflation.”
This means families often need to make very difficult choices. Samuel says, “We heard stories of men who have cancer who have decided not to follow through with treatment. The cost of the medication is too great, and that it’s better that, ‘one of them dies, rather than all of them die.’”
“One family doesn’t have enough funds to provide food for all of their children. So two of them get lunch and two of them get dinner.”
But God continues to work in Syria. Christianity has an established presence in the country going back thousands of years. Now, the story of Jesus is reaching new populations. Samuel says, “We’re beginning to see a budding movement of the Holy Spirit and a church movement forming among the Druze population, which is primarily in the South. And then also among the Kurdish population, which is primarily in the North, across the North.”
Pray this trend continues.
Rebuilding Syria after years of war will be no easy task. But Samuel is hopeful that some Syrian Christians who fled will return to strengthen the Church there. “We’re hearing stories now of families that were in European countries, or other nearby countries. They have just sensed God’s call to go back, that they need to go back. They feel God has put His hand upon them.”
The header photo shows the damage done to a church in Syria during the civil war. (Photo courtesy of Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
