It continually amazes me how quickly an entire quarter of a year can go by out here. We are busy day-by-day helping with new and existing needs, from existing, and even new, refugees. Very quickly winter turns into spring, and months go by like days. My apologies for the delay in getting an update together covering this past spring quarter! The Lord has kept our plate full and days busy responding to the many needs out here.
We’ve had a significant increase in serious medical cases in this post-war phase, which will be covered below. We’ve also had food and clothing relief distros for the local refugees, begun helping new refugees fleeing persecution in Syria, continued our daily bread distro, initiated our spring plantings at the farms, and helped several older EAP kids with new skill certifications, among other things going on this past quarter!
It’s been an active spring, punctuated at times by the occasional flare-up in border fighting or aerial bombing in the capital city. But for the most part the fragile post-war truce is holding, and our work can continue on in peace, which is definitely an answer to prayer!
Ongoing Serious Medical Cases Needing Prayer
The Lord has brought to us an unusually large amount of serious medical cases the last few months. From brain cysts to aggressive cancers to numerous patients needing critical surgeries, many have been life-threatening cases that could have meant the death of the patient without our ability to help them. We’re thankful thus far the Lord has provided the means to help.
The Lord seems to have made known among the area the reputation of the ministry here as being willing to help the sick and the poor. This has meant a steady stream of genuinely ill people seeking our help in these months.
Below is a review of some of the more critical cases we’ve been able to help with this winter and early spring:
- Brain surgery for a young mother of three who had a large cyst in her brain. This cyst was steadily growing and causing stroke-like symptoms and occasional partial paralysis, in addition to excruciating headaches and chronic high blood pressure. She had sought help from multiple organizations, but none were able or willing to help her. She traveled a long distance to come to us, as her relatives live in our village but she had moved away years ago with her husband. In answer to prayer the Lord provided last month the substantial sum needed for this brain surgery. She completed the surgery successfully a few weeks ago, and feels like she has a new life now. She is very thankful to all who helped and prayed for her. Pray for her, that in this new chance at life the Lord gave her, she would serve Him and give Him glory.
- Chemotherapy for a middle-aged mother with aggressive breast cancer. This woman came to us a few months ago after finding that she had a rapidly growing tumor in her breast. A local surgeon botched a surgery on it and possibly even caused it to spread faster. She had spent all she had on that earlier attempt to remove it, and came to us desperately in need. By God’s grace we’ve been able to continue the chemotherapy for her up to this day. After running a biopsy, the cancer was found to be triple negative breast cancer, that has unfortunately already metastasized to a few nearby lymph nodes. The oncologist is optimistic, giving her about a 70% chance to survive. We are also hoping to acquire immunotherapy for her available to import from Egypt, that may increase her survival chances even further. Pray for this woman as she does not know the Lord and is in fear at the possibility these treatments may fail.
- Surgery for an older woman to remove a basal cell carcinoma. This woman noticed a steadily growing mole on her face that got bigger almost weekly. We had actually already helped her with chemotherapy years ago for a lymphoma she was suffering from, and scans in recent years showed she was cancer free. However, this aggressive skin cancer developed, and immediate surgery was needed. Pray for this woman too, she does not know the Lord and it seems cancer is recurring with her regularly.
- A young man suffering from painful testicular cancer. This is a young man we met amongst the displaced locals who sheltered in the mountains during the war. Though he returned to his home in the capital city, he has no one there to help him with this condition. He was diagnosed sometime before the war began, but after two rounds of chemotherapy he couldn’t continue it further. We are taking him in for PET scans and assessment, and initial findings show the tumor may have stopped growing, though likely will require a surgery to remove what remains. Pray for this young man to see the Lord’s compassion through the ministry volunteers regularly taking him to appointments and scans.
- A local man badly injured in a hit-and-run car accident. He was driving a scooter when he was hit by a car. The car sped off, leaving him with a shoulder broken in three places. He is a relative of a member in the local church here. Thankfully, we had the ability to help him with surgery to stabilize the broken shoulder bones, and he is currently recovering.
- A young baby named Imad who sadly passed away despite medical interventions. We had repeatedly helped this local Syrian refugee family with care for their sickly one-year-old boy before the war when he had repeated bouts of vomiting and dehydration, at times leading to hospitalizations. It was discovered too late that the underlying cause was a genetic disease leading to liver failure. By the time the family came to us earlier this winter, it seemed he was already in MODS (multiple organ dysfunction syndrome) and doctors could not reverse it. He passed away in February. The team was heartbroken we could not save this little one, but not all medical cases out here have resolved successfully over the years. This is one of the harder burdens of medical ministry, as at times you are with people in their last hours. Sometimes there is no cure in time, and we have to accept the Lord’s will. Regardless, pray for this family as they mourn the loss of their little one, and pray for further opportunities to serve them for the Lord.
- A displaced local woman undergoing radiation treatment for breast cancer. This is another cancer case that was a result of someone meeting us due to being displaced by the war. She was a poor local woman with no ability to continue her last round of radiation for breast cancer, as the facility that had been treating her was shutdown due to the war. We helped her finish her cancer treatment, and it seems that she is indeed clear from breast cancer. Pray the Lord would give open doors for further follow up for the team in future appointments with her.
- An elderly Syrian man needing urgent gallbladder surgery. The elderly father of a Syrian man involved in the local ministry here developed a severe gallbladder infection some months back. He had a large stone that could not be removed other than surgically. Thankfully we had the ability to help, but the surgery required removing his entire gallbladder. The surgery succeeded, and the man recovered well. Pray for this older man to know the Lord as his son now does.
- A small baby needing immediate inguinal hernia surgery. Whether due to genetic disposition in the Syrian ethnicity or for some other reason, we often encounter cases of babies under one year of age with inguinal hernias. Frequently, these resolve on their own after the child grows, but at times it can become severe enough to where there is enough protrusion that the child’s intestines can be at risk of strangulation. This usually leads to infection and death. In this case, the doctor assessed the child was protruding enough in the hernia that an urgent surgery was needed to prevent serious complications. Thankfully, the Lord provided for the means to help with the surgery. The baby is recovering well and growing normally. Pray for this Syrian refugee family that was helped, they’ve know the ministry for many years but still do not know the Lord.
- A young woman dependant on monthly blood transfusions to live. This is the same young woman we’ve been helping for almost 8 years now with regular monthly blood transfusions. She suffers from severe Thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder that causes her to become severely anemic. At times if we’ve been unable to secure blood for her transfusions in time, she’s come close to the point of death. Thankfully, after the war a medicine that augments her blood transfusions became available in the pharmacies again, and she is becoming more stable than years past, though she still requires monthly transfusions. She was also in need of a new IV infusion pump to deliver this medication, and we are thankful that a church in the States found and donated one for her to use this month.
The list could go on with other more minor medical cases, such as treatments for Familial Mediterranean Fever (a condition native to this region), other minor surgeries, and the many other patients we help primarily with monthly medications and doctors visits for lab work, x-rays, CT scans and assessments by specialists. In addition to that are requested house calls, where we conduct basic field visits to assess vitals and determine what further degree of medical care we can possibly help them with.
Every week, if not almost every day, new requests come in to our team for help with medical needs of all kinds. Pray for the team to have strength from the Lord to bear this burden joyfully and show compassion in the Lord’s name!
End-of-Winter Food and Clothing Distribution
Winter out here has ended in spurts and fits, sometimes getting warm and then sometimes plunging back into a cold wintery mess. A few weeks back during a warm cycle we were able to have a distribution in the village for many refugee and poor local families to help in this time.
In addition to giving out over 1 ton of food parcels, we also gave out over 140 hand-knit items made by refugee women in the local community involved in the sewing project. These included hand-knit hats, scarves, baby blanket wraps, shawls and fleece pajama pants they’ve begun sewing as well.
Those in the community were very grateful in receiving this help, especially as the winter months are financially the most difficult for the poor out here, and we pray it would be a testimony to the Lord’s name.
New Refugees Fleeing Persecution in Syria
There’s been an increase in “new” refugees leaving areas of Syria and seeking refuge here in the capital city, border areas and even some in the mountains. These seem to be primarily Syrians of an Alawite or traditional Christian (Catholic/Orthodox) background. They often report that they fled due to foreign fighters from Islamist militias entering their villages and killing people due to them being from the “wrong” religious/ethnic background.
The current interim government in Syria appears to be trying to stop this kind of targeted persecution by foreign fighters. But people are afraid for their lives nonetheless and doubtful that the attempts to stop it will be successful, thus they are fleeing the country if they can.
We’ve begun helping some of these new refugee families in our area with food, blankets and bedding as we have ability to do so. We’ve also been helping an Evangelical church in the capital city that has received a widow and her young daughter, both of an ethnic Christian background, and sought to provide this displaced family with food and rent assistance. They now live in a dilapidated area of Beirut but are simply thankful to be alive after fleeing the killings in their region last month.
Continuing To Help With Daily Bread
The bakery project continues to provide fresh daily bread for hundreds of refugees each week while also continuing to provide much-needed work for those involved in the daily baking. Currently, there are over 90 families receiving bags of bread on a rotation schedule.
Almost every week we have new families in poverty coming to us asking to be added to the bread list. As we are able to, we add them if their situation seems genuinely needy. As of this quarter, so far over 340 bags of bread, or around 2400 individual pieces of bread, are made to be given out each week. While many needs may change around us, the need for daily bread remains consistent in these days!
Winter Harvests and Spring Plantings
This winter the Lord blessed the farms projects with a significant harvest of over-wintered cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, radishes and peas. Prior to the freeze and snow, we also had a fair harvest of lettuce in early winter. In total, the winter months produced over 1,800lbs of fresh produce from the farms. The majority of this was distributed to local poor and refugee families in the community. With the cost of living having risen substantially since the war began, and not going down in the post-war phase, even fresh vegetables can be hard for most refugee and poor local families to regularly afford.
This spring we’ve begun most of our plantings already for tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, peppers, corn, squash, spring lettuce and okra. The farm is under a new local manager this year, thus we are hoping for better yields than the previous two years where some errors were made by the previous farm manager. So far the plantings have gone well, and we are applying new “no till” organic planting methods to try and increase soil fertility further than it already is. The country is still somewhat in a drought due to several fairly dry winters, thus we are hoping as well for some late rains still to fill the aquifers and keep the wells supplied through most of the summer. Pray for rain, and pray for a fruitful year in the farms!
Job Skills Training For Former EAP Students & Locals
As the Education Assistance Program (EAP) begins to see students both graduating from High School or reaching a point in their schooling where further academic studies don’t make as much sense as pursuing a vo-tech program, we’ve begun helping selected students enroll in a local vo-tech program to learn useful work skills. In the post-war phase, the country has seen a renewed interest in vo-tech training programs as young people try to prepare for what they hope will be increased job opportunities this summer.
We’ve helped students from our EAP program as well as families from the local church enroll their kids in programs to be certified as restaurant cooks, barbers, mobile device repair technicians, nurse assistants and other marketable skills. There is a desperation in many young people to find work of some kind, some where, and we agree this is a far better future for them than relying indefinitely on hand out programs. Unskilled jobs are scarce, but as they learn technical skills they will hopefully find jobs. We began trailing vo-tech training a year ago before the war, and already at least two graduates of programs have found part or full time jobs in the country.
This seems to be a good final trajectory for most EAP students in finalizing their general schooling with certification in a practical skill. The hope is that they can then work in to help provide for their families. As the country’s economy hopefully begins a recovery this summer, we hope to keep helping these EAP kids and local families with training to give them some prospect for work in the future. Pray for these efforts! We’ve found most out here genuinely want to work, but don’t have the skills in demand for current employers. We feel that the Bible makes clear that “He who does not work, should not eat” and setting them on a pathway to find some kind of work is far better than them remaining dependent upon others.
Moving Forward Into a Busy Summer
Pray for us as we move on into the summer months. We expect things to become even busier on all aspects of ministry. Summer English classes will begin soon. There is also no indication the current influx of increased medical needs is abating any time soon. As new refugees arrive, we have yet to see any significant return of “old” refugees to Syria as things there are still unstable and unpredictable. The Lord knows what the future holds, and we are thankful He yet holds us in His hands in these uncertain days!
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