It’s been well over a month now since the simmering border conflict erupted into a much larger war affecting areas across the entire country. I don’t think any of us believed we would still be seeking to feed those displaced by the war as late as November. What had been hoped to be a short escalation leading to a ceasefire and peace settlement instead seems to be grinding on with no clear end yet in sight.
As the war escalates this month, we are seeing even more newly displaced people coming into the safer mountain regions. Airstrikes are increasing in eastern cities along the Syrian border, and there have also been more frequent drone strikes on vehicles carrying militia members traveling along main highway routes.
We are thankful that the Lord continues to keep the door open for the local believers to keep serving amidst this conflict. Volunteers are daily cooking breakfasts and dinners for hundreds, and continuing to deliver blankets and bedding to displaced families in need. As winter comes on and the weather turns cold, we are also getting even more requests for blankets from the war refugees that have been here this past month.
We are thankful for the Lord’s provision financially to be able to keep helping in a significant way. I thank everyone reading this who has contributed to help. The impact will not be fully known until eternity, but we already see many encouragements resulting from the compassion shown to the displaced.
Now Cooking For Over 500 War Refugees
As of this week, since beginning to provide meals in late September, the local volunteers cooked and delivered around 15,000 dinner meals to the war displaced and about the same amount of breakfast “manouche” bread cooked and distributed in the mornings.
I don’t think we expected to cook and give out over 30,000 meals after the war began to escalate in September, but the Lord knew! If we take each day’s needs as they come, the amount is manageable. If we think that another 30,000 meals might be ahead of us, it could be easy to faint and grow weary.
The local ladies running the church kitchen have stepped up their efforts significantly in past weeks. As of this week they will be helping to cook food for over 500 people daily. We have five large burners and a small stove running all afternoon to cook food in the massive pots. There is literally no more room in the kitchen to expand further, so we seem to be at our limit now for providing dinners.
Some of the volunteers involved in the cooking put together short videos of the food ministry. They are glad they are able to cook tasty and nutritious meals for the displaced each day, and enjoy being able to serve in this way!
The embedded videos below are from the kitchen cooking for dinner meals, and provide a helpful context of what’s being made for people.
The embedded video below is from the breakfast “manouche” cooking going on each morning and shows the preparation and baking process before bagging them up to deliver to families.
Continuing to Deliver Bedding & Blankets
Aside from Sundays when the volunteers take a day to rest from serving, we are still delivering bedding and blankets almost daily. As of this week, we have individually delivered 547 thick, warm blankets and 385 sleeping mats. Some homes our team visits can have a dozen or more people in them with only 1-2 sleeping mats and a few blankets to share that they managed to grab before fleeing their homes. We’ve encountered homes where children are sleeping on bare concrete floors under a thin summer blanket and only the sick or infirm have a worn mat to sleep on, if that.
The people are genuinely thankful for the bedding and blankets. As winter comes on, some families that had been here since September are finding the summer blankets they brought with them are insufficient for cold mountain nights. This is also creating new contacts with families that previously did not have a pressing need for blankets when weather was warmer.
New Medical Needs Among the Displaced
As we interact with hundreds of different displaced people, we are also finding medical needs that come up. Pray for two women from families we recently met who have issues with cancer.
One woman had a recent diagnosis of Hodgkins Lymphoma but was not able to be treated before having to escape her city that was under bombardment. A second woman is recovering from post-op surgery for breast cancer and needs several rounds of chemotherapy and some other meds.
So far, despite the chaos and disruption in the country, we’ve been able to find the shots the woman with Hodgkins needs, but have not located the proper meds for the second woman. It is not simply a matter of finances, but an issue of supply in a country completely disrupted by war.
Direct Aid to Affected Local Churches
In the past month, we’ve also been making contact with pastors we know in the country with Evangelical churches in areas directly affected by the war. These are local pastors we’ve known for years who have established ministries in their communities. As we have the ability, TGI has been providing direct financial assistance to these churches to help them in this time with providing relief to their own displaced church members or those in the community negatively affected by the war.
One church sits along the very southern border. Over half the church members were displaced due to bombing and fighting in areas they lived. The rest have remained on with the church in the south, with some families sheltering in the church premises overnight. The pastor travels between the church in the south and areas in Beirut where displaced church members are now finding shelter. Much of the assistance provided was intended to help the displaced Christians from their church.
A second church we’ve helped is located in the east of the country, not too distant from the cities being bombed along the Syrian border. Their own city has had buildings hit on the outskirts, but is generally considered a place of refuge in their eastern valley region. They report thousands of displaced flooding into the city. The local government reports the shelters are full there. The church has been trying to help people as they can, while their own church members have been out of work for over a month due to the conflict and in need of basic assistance themselves.
Continuing to Run an Unknown Race
As mentioned before, we often remind each other and the volunteers that this is a marathon, and we must keep steady pace to be able to continue helping. Running a marathon without knowing if it is truly 26 miles or actually 52 miles can make it hard to keep on enduring. Pray that the Lord gives the local believers out here strength in the midst of it to continue to be a light and witness for His Name as best we can.
Thank you to all who continue to hold the ropes in prayer. Thank you to those who continue to contribute from their own finances in this exceptional time to help us provide food to the hungry, blankets to the cold, and medicines to the sick. God is opening doors and continuing to work via the witness of compassion to these war displaced. Pray He would continue to work in ways beyond what we would expect!
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