What to do...

What do you do when your house is bombed by your own government? Run, of course. To a refugee camp of 20,000 across the border in Jordan. Your husband was injured by the bombing--his arm is broken or dislocated or something--you don't now quite what. Your one  year old baby girl gets sick from all the dust in the camp; she coughs and vomits. Your other children, one boy, one girl, are experiencing nightmares and will be permanently traumatized by what happened to them. Then you hear from a friend that they have settled in a small village about 30 minutes from Amman, the capital city. You and your husband decide to move there. He goes to Amman to get medical care for his arm, and you take your children to this village and rent two rooms below a pharmacy. You have nothing but a few UNHCR mats and some blankets, and maybe some cooking utensils.

This is reality.

And this is Nafal's story. My family and I met Nafal and her children (Abdullah her son is pictured above with my brother Joshua) yesterday when we went with an aid worker to distribute mostly non-food items to Syrian refugee families in a village in Jordan. We met 5 other families with terribly difficult situations as well: one Syrian mother told us that her husband had gotten a job but had lost it, and now they could be kicked out of their apartment if they cannot pay rent; in one family (extended family as well-- 3 families in one 4-5 room apartment), the father was shot in the lower leg and had received surgery, but he still cannot walk without a crutch.

The organization that we went with to visit these families gives things like table-top gas stoves, diapers, and sometimes non-perishable food (if you were wondering, we gave all of the above to Nafal's family). My dad (as a doctor) was able to examine the Syrian man's leg, and also in that same family their was a baby with severe cleft palate that he saw--this baby will need multiple surgeries just so that he can eat solid food. He also gave Nafal assurance that her baby girl was just suffering from allergies due to the dust, and did not have pneumonia.

As you can see, the Syrian situation is severe, and is getting worse by the day. These people need not only physical provision, but the hope that Jesus Christ can only provide. He is the only one who will be able to satisfy their longing for protection and safety; for love and healing. Pray for Nafal and her whole family--her husband Kefah, son Abdullah, and two girls--to come to know the love and protection that is only ours through Jesus Christ our Savior. May He be known by them as the Healer Restorer, Comforter and Protector.

 (This is the place where the 3 Syrian families lived together--in just part of this house. This was the guy who was shot in the leg.)