Lebanon (MNN) — In 2014, the Islamic State carried out a genocide against the Yazidi people. They forced women and girls into sexual slavery and killed as many men as they could.
The Yazidi had lived in Upper Mesopotamia for centuries, but hundreds of thousands dispersed from Northern Iraq to nearby countries. Many Yazidi made their way to rural Lebanon.
That’s where the ministry Cry Out Now started working with them. David says, “We got to meet one family. We discovered, after listening to their story, that before they fled, some people connected to ISIS actually took some of their daughters. They essentially brainwashed them and took them away from their parents. The family was heartbroken.”
Ministering to the Yazidi
David says they began to tell this family about Jesus, his love for them, and his sorrow over evil. The family soon became Christians.
Yazidis speak Kurdish and Arabic, but most cannot read in either language. David says, “So maybe they’ve made a decision to say, ‘Yes, we follow Jesus.’ But then they don’t really know anything else, because they don’t know how to read.”
“So what we’ve been doing is making visits to people like this, and teaching them using audio Bible stories.”
The Yazidi people do not practice Islam, but a monotheistic religion that draws influence from ancient Iranian religion, Judaism, and Nestorian Christianity. Yazidis believe that one supreme god created the world, but then ended his involvement with it.
How to pray
The Yazidi have suffered greatly during Lebanon’s financial crisis. Ask God to strengthen these new believers. And pray they themselves would be able to share about Jesus’ love and make disciples.
The header photo shows Yazidi refugees. (Photo courtesy of DFID – UK Department for International Development [picture: Rachel Unkovic/International Rescue Committee], CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
