[Bulletins] Suffering in Syria. for Bulletins please.

[Bert Kuipers]

Call for prayer for Syria. This Sunday 3 November 2013, has been suggested
as a special time of prayer for believers who are suffering. This year we
will consider the suffering of believers within Syria and those who have
fled from Syria. Special gifts of love will be channelled by WD&R through
MERF's diaconal ministries. 
Bert Kuipers - WD&R publicity.


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Here is more information that will help your prayers to be meaningful. 

Fellow Christians need to identify with the sufferings of our Syrian
brothers and sisters.  With very limited resources, for two years MERF has
helped local church volunteers to give diaconal aid to the most vulnerable
in four areas of Syria: the capital, Damascus (south), Homs (central),
Aleppo (northwest) and Qamishli (northeast) as well as to Syrian refugees in
Lebanon.  Assistance is received by suffering Syrian children, elderly,
disabled, sick or homeless people.  The aid can be in the form of food
parcels, blankets, candles, rent of temporary housing, medical care or
transportation to safer areas. Some of those assisted are not of Christian
backgrounds.  Examples:

-Poor grandparents in their seventies struggle to provide for their two
grandchildren who lost both parents in a road accident.  They receive weekly
food parcels and the some necessary medication.

-Food parcels are given to families living in tents in the public park since
their neighbourhoods were destroyed. Some from other backgrounds are very
surprised by Christian aid.

- Praise God for faithful Syrian Christians with the means to flee who have
stayed to honour Christ by serving the needy.   Please the partnership to
prayerfully meet the basic needs of the brethren and bear witness to
Christ's self-giving love.

Aleppo has been facing additional difficulties lately -- being very much
under siege.  bread, vegetables, fruits, meats etc have become very hard to
find in most parts of the large city. 

A family with three daughters (aged 12, 14, and 17) had to run away from a
suburb of Aleppo, moving to a safer neighbourhood inside the city where they
live in one room of an old house, sharing bathroom and kitchen facilities
with several other families. The father lost his job in the factory
destroyed by the militants. He now seeks to sell some vegetables on the
street to help his family. They receive food parcels and support for the
rent of the room.

-        A young family with one year-old twins lost their home when their
apartment building was destroyed in the fighting. Both parents worked in a
neighbourhood supermarket which was also destroyed. They moved to live with
poor relatives in a safer village. MERF provides funds to buy milk for the
babies.

A godly Syrian lady in Damascus recently sent an update on MERF diaconal aid
to the most needy through local Syrian churches in and around the Syrian
capital city:  

"a good portion is going for medications, another amount is going for school
supplies for needy children starting the new school term.  It is a blessed
privilege to have the ability to help our people during this hard time. The
most important thing is the opportunity to visit these families, pray with
them and share the gospel. Most of them come to church and send their
children to the Sunday School.  May our Lord bless and reward all those who
are thinking,caring and helping our people."

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