GMP Offers Thoughts on Visit to Middle East

Monday, November 19, A.D. 2007

[Note: Disciples General Minister and President, Dr. Sharon Watkins, has just returned from traveling to the Middle East with the Middle East and Europe program of Global Ministries. While there, she visited church partners in Syria, Lebanon and Jerusalem, and she offers this personal glimpse on the church’s response to the Iraqi refugee crisis in the region.]

Three moms are sitting across the table from us in a Beirut clinic. Three Iraqi moms far from home. Pretty sure they’ll never be able to go back. At least not like it is now.

Lelia never once stops crying. Every time she about gets herself together, the tears well up again and drop down her cheeks. She’s been in Lebanon three years already – since the beginning of the war. Sahira, more composed (or is it resigned?) has been here for ten years – since the beginning of the first Gulf War. Ranna, only three months a refugee, has three-year-old Ricardo on her lap. We smile – the same name as my husband, Rick. Rick is in his “dad” mode, making faces at Ricardo, trying to get him to laugh.

We hear the women’s stories: “We used to live in peace with our Muslim neighbors – we knew the birthdays of each other’s children. But now it’s all disorder. People come to kidnap our sons, to threaten our daughters.” “We owned our own shop. Now we have nothing.” Tears are welling in all our eyes now.

Two and a half million refugees from Iraq (the U.S. has agreed to resettle 14,000). Most are in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon – bursting those small countries at the seams; exhausting local relief efforts; introducing inflationary pressure; raising concerns that moderate, secularized countries where Christian and Muslim have lived side by side in peace will be irreversibly destabilized.

In Lebanon, a newly-arrived refugee family receives fifty dollars from our partners to help with food, a change of clothes, medicine, school supplies, rent. A drop in the bucket of their need. In Syria, forty dollars feeds a family of four for two weeks. Our partners struggle to feed 500 families in Aleppo – $20,000 for one food delivery. In Damascus that two week food delivery costs $600,000 for the 150,000 destitute families our partners are feeding there. Local churches are overwhelmed.

“These people were teachers, engineers,” we are told. “They came with some money in their pockets. They have nice clothes on. They don’t look destitute. But they are destitute. They are used to being the ones who give. Now they have to receive.”

The moms have left the room – off to their appointments. “How do you keep going in the face of all this?” I ask the social worker. “I have a roof over my head,” she says. “What right do I have to be overwhelmed?”

I ask the same of our Greek Orthodox partner in Damascus. “The people are so grateful,” he says. “You see the relief in their faces. Besides, this is what Jesus would do. We have to respond. We must keep going.”

For details on the Iraqi Refugee crisis appeal and how you can help, click here.

Church Partners Begin Response to Cyclone Sidr

In response to the catastrophic devastation of Cyclone Sidr, Bangladesh members of Action by Churches Together (ACT) have begun emergency support to more than 35,000 of the most vulnerable survivors, including widows, children, the elderly, disabled and landless.

Five ACT members – Christian Commission for Development Bangladesh (CCDB); Social Health and Education Development Board (SHED); Lutheran Health Care Bangladesh (LHCB); the Church of Bangladesh (CoB); and Christian Aid – are coordinating efforts to provide emergency food, medical support and temporary shelter. ACT has rushed an initial grant from its Rapid Response Fund and will be submitting an appeal to the ACT network in coming days to support additional relief efforts as well as long-term recovery work of our Bangladesh partners. Week of Compassion will respond on behalf of the Disciples. In the meantime, WOC is sending a grant immediately to CCDB, also a partner of Church World Service and the Global Ministries Southern Asia program.

The death toll from Cyclone Sidr has surpassed 3,000 and is expected to grow. Exact figures on the number of people left homeless is not yet known but is expected to be in the millions. At least 500,000 homes have been destroyed. Just months ago floods devastated northern Bangladesh. While the southern part of the country is prone to cyclones and floods, Sidr is the most destructive to hit the country in a decade.

CWS Liaison Reports on Relief Efforts from TS Noel

Disciple Don Tatlock serves as Central America and Caribbean Liaison for Church World Service and has just returned from coordinating relief efforts with CWS/ACT partners in the Dominican Republic and Haiti in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Noel. Click here to read Don’s latest report.

Gifts to WOC Needed and Greatly Appreciated

Tropical Storm Noel is one of numerous disaster appeals WOC has received and is responding to this month. Others include floods in Tabasco, Mexico; hunger emergency in Zimbabwe; long-term earthquake recovery in Peru; floods in Nicaragua; internally displaced persons (IDPs) emergencies in Chad and Burma (Myanmar); and wildfire and food appeals in California. Designated contributions to the Compassion Response Fund are always needed, welcomed, appreciated and used in their entirety for disaster response. Gifts can be made online or sent to WOC, attn: Elaine Cleveland, PO Box 1986, Indpls, IN 46206.

WOC Map/Poster

Click here for the latest additions to the WOC interactive map/poster. For a complimentary copy of the map/poster for your congregation, call the office at 317.713.2442 or send an e-mail to ecleveland@woc.disciples.org.