Syria Lebanon Partnership - February 2022 Update
In late October 2021, I led a team into Syria to meet with our partners – the congregations and leaders of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon. During the intense nine days we spent in Syria, we were able to visit seven congregations and meet with all 18 pastors and seminarians serving there. Kelly Green recounts impactful conversations we had while in Damascus. Marilyn Borst, Associate Director
Chosen Instruments
“Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul… for, this man is my chosen instrument.” Acts 9:11,15
Mathilde and Firas, two bondservants of Christ Jesus, were sent to shepherd God’s people in the Al-Hasakeh Governorate in the far northeastern corner of Syria. This tip of the country is bordered by Turkey in the north, the Tigris in the northeast, Iraq in the southeast, and the Euphrates in the southwest. It is a contested region, forgotten by much of the world, where Turkey has annexed a swath of the north and the Kurds have declared it an autonomous region. It was to this impossibly difficult region that Mathilde, Firas, and their families were called.
Mathilde pastors the Presbyterian Church of Hasekeh. Mathilde and her husband Issa are the parents of two-year-old twin girls. The native home of her family, this congregation of ten families shines a mighty light for Christ in a city of 250,000 people. Mathilde is a lioness with a shepherd’s heart. It seems fitting for one given a name that means “battle strength.” I marveled at her passion and conviction as she related the struggles of living with serious opposition. The Hasekeh Presbyterian Church teaches God’s word weekly to more than 200 children, 100 women, and 200 teenagers. Their relief ministry reaches the hungry and the financially destitute regardless of culture or religious affiliation. The church runs a government-licensed school in Hasekeh, numbering close to 1,000 children with more than 85% coming from Muslim families. I shake my head in wonder that a Christian church is providing quality education for a Muslim community.
After Mathilde shared her story, Firas, the pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Qamishli, began his. I smile as I think of the beautiful diversity of God’s people. While Mathilde very obviously would take on anyone and anything that came between her and her flock, Firas exuded the calm strength of a man of conviction and courage. He pastors a congregation of 40-45 families in Qamishli and 10-15 families in Malkieh. Firas has the gift of networking and peacemaking, enlisting the help of several of Qamishli’s other churches in serving the community. Their large Sunday School, youth ministry, and women’s ministry are actually served by teachers and helpers from several congregations (usually Orthodox) in the area. One has to admire the way God’s people unite and serve when under the most difficult of circumstances.
Qamishli and Malkieh are located in areas completely controlled by Kurdish forces, with other militias aligned with the Kurds pushing their own agendas. As a result, it is a very difficult place to boldly live as Christians. In this environment, the church in Qamishli runs a school of 1,300 elementary and middle school students. They teach Christian values and subjects, and the student body comes from 95% Muslim families. These families choose to place their children in the school, a testament to the quality of education offered.
Firas and Mathilde gave us a snapshot of their ministries. But they also told us stories of the opposition they have endured since the war began in 2011:
Rev. Joseph Kassab, General Secretary of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon, reflects upon partnership through the years with The Outreach Foundation
· hiding for days on end from conflict all around them
· running for their lives from wheat fields set on fire by a faction maliciously trying to control the resources of the area
· threat upon threat to acquiesce to unreasonable demands designed to promote the agendas of greedy and power-hungry people in the area.
Courage? Yes, they have courage. Conviction? Absolutely, chosen like Paul to love a people forgotten, to maintain a light for Christ where darkness too easily tries to reign.
Kelly Green, Gateway Church, Findlay, Ohio
Read more about the Syria Lebanon Partnership HERE.
THE OPPORTUNITY
The Outreach Foundation is seeking gifts to support the mission and ministry of the Syria Lebanon Partnership. All gifts of any size are welcomed to support our Presbyterian family of faith in Syria and Lebanon during this difficult time. A small portion of this fund will assist related ministries in the region which care for refugees. You may make a gift HERE or by sending a check to our office.
Sunday School at Hasakeh Church brings in several hundred children from the community