Syria (MNN) — Over the weekend, the Assad regime took some
serious hits in Syria.
"The measures of uncertainty as senior government officials are leaving kind of points in the direction of destabilization,"
says Mark Lewis, TouchGlobal
Director (humanitarian wing of the Evangelical Free Church). The latest reports indicate
Syria's prime minister and his family defected to Jordan.
A senior U.S. official says it appears that at least three other top government ministers
also left, and rebels bombed a government-run television studio. An
American official traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Africa
called on other senior members of the Syrian government and military to break
with President Bashar Assad.
Clinton will stop in Turkey for talks on Syria in four days' time. In the meantime, the government unleashed its
fury on Aleppo. In Damascus, the
regime's grip on the city was challenged by guerilla warfare-styled attacks,
executed by militia.
Although some news reports cite these events as proof that Assad's
regime is "crumbling," Lewis says they've heard this before. The message their team hears is far from "it's almost over." "We sense that there is just going to be a continued season
of instability in the country. It may even last for years as a new government comes
in. Then, people will [say] 'this is what I wanted,' and there'll be more uprisings
or transition. It just seems like a situation that is going to be uncertain and
destabilized for a continued period of time."
The Evangelical
Free Church, in partnership with other ministries and local churches, has been
responding to the crisis. Lewis says, "On the
Jordanian side, we're hearing 1000 people a day are leaving Syria and
crossing into Jordan. And I would expect those numbers are probably similar in Lebanon, but I don't have any specific numbers."
The bigger picture: two million Syrians are affected by the
conflict, including 1 million internally displaced people. As many as 130,000 Syrians are living as
refugees in neighboring countries, according to UNOCHA Humanitarian
Bulletin, Issue 05, 3 Aug 2012.
Many refugees are
living in primitive conditions, Lewis notes. "[We're]
seeking to get blankets, food and other basic supplies into people's hands as
they figure out what life is going to look like in the next days, weeks, or months."
For those left in
Syria, water, and electricity have been scarce, and the factories have laid off
most of the people. Food and goods have more than doubled in price, and in many
areas there has been fighting in the streets .
Yet God has their
partners in position to take relief into the desperate people trying to
survive. Lewis explains, "Our
ministry partners are on the ground doing a whole lot of outreach and
pre-evangelism, relationship building. Our hope is that, long-term, this will
lead to a great church-planting opportunity."
That's not necessarily an unrealistic goal. Lewis says, "Disciple-making efforts can
occur within a refugee population. Eventually, those people would be able to go
back home, and there could be this 'seeding' of the church. That's kind of a
long-term vision."
$50 provides food for a family for a month.
ReachGlobal's goal is to raise at least $30,000 to allow their partners to
serve 600 families. $10 provides a blanket: they're trying to
raise enough funds to get 500 blankets
into the refugee camps.
What else can you do? You can pray. Lewis asks for prayer for safety for their partners. Also, "Pray for a fresh openness of the Gospel. People's hearts can
either be hardened, or the Lord will work in them and there will be an openness as they seek answers to questions
like, 'Why now?'"
See our Featured Links Section.
