Love in action in a Syrian refugee camp

The humanitarian crisis in Syria is massive.

Since the outbreak of the war in March 2011 more than 2.5 million refugees, including more than 1 million children, have fled their homes seeking safety.

Many are still in Syria; others have crossed into Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. Britain has agreed to accept a small number of Syrian refugees.

Fear is the main reason why the refugees have fled from Syria. When Kurdish refugees from Syria, now living in a camp in Northern Iraq, were asked why they had fled, 25% feared physical violence; 25% feared being used as a human shield; 24% feared being raped and 22% feared being forced into military service.

A British Christian family living near one of the refugee camps in Northern Iraq have been visiting Syrian Kurd families. The wife explained: “It really has been a matter of befriending just three families from that vast multitude. One begging mother came to our gate one day, and I felt drawn to her. We started visiting them in their tent and I was asked to help by being with her at the birth of her son.” This act of friendship was very important in the crowded maternity ward where there was little compassion for the refugee mother about to give birth. “How do you know this woman?” the doctor asked, standing doing the bare minimum to help a woman in the pains of childbirth. “Oh, we’re friends”, came the reply. “She visits me in my home and I visit her in her home.” The Kurdish family so appreciated the help they were given that they named their child after the husband of their new foreign friend!

One day we shall all stand before the One who sees and knows all things. On that day, Jesus said, he will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”