We will not stop



Come to me, all you that are weary . . . and I will give you rest. – Matthew 11:28

“I always pray, God, please protect us today.”

Rima Absi is speaking about the rocket fire in Damascus, Syria. She is telling those of us from MCC who are visiting our partners about the participants and staff of the Al-Safina community for people with disabilities who have to navigate the shelling each day.

Al-Safina was founded 22 years ago in the old city of Damascus. A house provides a home for eight women and men with disabilities. And workshops in the morning and afternoon provide work and activity for 60 additional people with disabilities each day. MCC has been a partner with Al’Safina since it began.


The next morning, we visit His Holiness Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem of the Syrian Orthodox Church. His Holiness tells us that the best way MCC can show its support is to come and be with people in their struggle during the war here in Syria, as we have done with this trip.

The Patriarch shares his vision for Christians and Muslims living in peace after the war. Living together again as sisters and brothers as they have done for centuries.

Later in the day, we visit with two dozen young people who are staff and volunteers for the Charity Society for Sustainable Development (CSSD). CSSD is responding to the needs of displaced families and other vulnerable people.

Many of these young people were once displaced from their homes themselves. “We could be in their place,” one young adult tells us, “And we can feel the agony and suffering of the people.” “One day our children will ask us what we did when we saw people in need,” says another.



“The needs are great and we have so few resources,” responds another young adult. These volunteers note that their work is sometimes dangerous and they find themselves in risky circumstances.

They dream of one day doing development work, not just providing relief. They want to focus on making a better life for children and bringing out the gifts of young people.

As I talk with these young adults and see their enthusiasm, but also some apprehension, I remember Rima’s words the day before about the Al-Safina staff: “We wake up every day and we are tired. People are dying around us, even children.”

And then Rima says, “But we are also a symbol of life and we have people coming here each day and we will not stop because of the war.” We cannot stop because of the war. None of us. God has promised to sustain us.

Ron Byler is executive director of MCC U.S.




Comments

  1. Tara OmarSeptember 29, 2018 at 10:50 AM

    Hiv disease for the last 3 years and had pain hard to eat and cough are nightmares,especially the first year At this stage, the immune system is severely weakened, and the risk of contracting opportunistic infections is much greater. However, not everyone with HIV will go on to develop AIDS. The earlier you receive treatment, the better your outcome will be.I started taking ARV to avoid early death but I had faith in God that i would be healed someday.As a Hiv patent we are advise to be taking antiretroviral treatments to reduce our chance of transmitting the virus to others , few weeks ago i came on search on the internet if i could get any information on Hiv treatment with herbal medicine, on my search i saw a testimony of someone who has been healed from Hiv her name was Achima Abelard and other Herpes Virus patent Tasha Moore also giving testimony about this same man,Called Dr Itua Herbal Center.I was moved by the testimony and i contacted him by his Email.drituaherbalcenter@gmail.com We chatted and he send me a bottle of herbal medicine I drank it as he instructed me to.After drinking it he ask me to go for a test that how i ended my suffering life of Hiv patent,I'm cured and free of Arv Pills.I'm forever grateful to him Drituaherbalcenter.Here his contact Number +2348149277967...He assure me he can cure the following disease..Hiv,Cancer,Herpes Virus,Epilepsy, fibromyalgia ,ALS,Hepatitis,Copd,Parkinson disease.Genetic disease,Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva,Factor V Leiden Mutation ,Fatal Familial Insomnia ,Dupuytren's disease,Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva,Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Syndrome,Inflammatory bowel disease ,Huntington's disease ,Diabetes,Fibroid...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

They welcomed us

Image
One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. (John 9:25) She was addicted to drugs for 20 years. She was in prison and her family broke apart. Her child was in an orphanage and her husband died. Because of her substance abuse, she eventually lost her one arm below her elbow. She saw no way out. She had hit the very bottom. When she came to know God, Natalia says everything changed. She found she had a deep desire to help people like herself and she discovered that her life experiences helped her understand others. “I remember what God did in my life and I have hope that God can touch other peoples’ lives and give them new life, too,” Natalia tells me. In Nikopol, Ukraine, she and Olga and Valodya, both of whom have similar stories to tell of their own, began New Life Charitable Fund a half dozen years ago to help people in prison, or who have drug or alcohol addictions, are HIV positive, homeless or for some other reason need a helping hand. Ukraine has
Read more

God multiplies our efforts

Image
Sister Zita at the La Posada shelter with baby Emmanuel and members of our border learning tour. Photo courtesy of Janae Rempel The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail. – I Kings 17:14 Ana Hinojosa remembers growing up on the Texas-Mexico border near Brownsville in the late 80s. Her family’s house was a mile from the border wall and she remembers the extended family gatherings in her back yard. Ana, an MCC immigration staff person, says border patrol agents would rest in the shade of the trees near the front of her house and, in the same day, it would be possible for a family from Mexico to knock on her front door to ask for food or directions. Her family turned no one away. Life on the border can look quite different today. When we enter the Catholic Charities respite center in McAllen, Texas, it is startling to see the contrast from the serenity of the neighborhood outside to the chaos inside. Cesar Matta tells us that, today, the cente
Read more

A river of love

Image
For it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. – Matthew 25:40 “We are happy you are here to see this with your own eyes,” the leader of the Islamic Charities organization in Deir Attieh, Syria tells us, a group of MCC people visiting partner organizations in Syria. “We can’t express enough our heartfelt thanks to you.” Islamic Charities works with 3,000 at risk families affected by the war in the region and relies heavily on the work of volunteers. MCC provides food boxes to Islamic Charities as part of our humanitarian assistance in Syria. When I visit five families who received these food boxes, I recall the heartfelt thanks but feel mostly heart broken.    We visit two families living in a partially constructed apartment complex that stalled when the war began. The first family lives in a small two-room apartment, the mother and her five children and the woman’s father. Her husband is serving in the army. The second family includes seven
Read more