Warfare and persecution in Syria and Iraq are creating a crisis. About 1.3 million Syrian refugees and 40,000 northern Iraq refugees have fled to Turkey.
Many of the Iraq people coming to Turkey are escaping religious persecution. They have seen friends and relatives taken and killed because they would not convert to Islam. According to the Washington Post, the population of Christians in Iraq has shrunk from 1 million in 2003 to about 300,000 today.
People International, an interdenominational Christian organization proclaiming the Good News among the Muslim peoples of Central Asia, is partnering with local Turkish churches to help. They have already begun to send supplies and personnel to assist in making refugee camps livable, especially as colder weather approaches. Blue Ridge has been connected with People International for several years through staff, board members and in sending missionary teams.
Because you have supported missions through Blue Ridge, we now are able to give $10,000 to People International for the Syrian and Iraqi refugee relief efforts. People International is working to provide for the most urgent needs: tents, food, baby food, formula, diapers and medicine.
The church workers in the camps are intentionally wearing shirts that say, “komşun kendin gibi sev” (love your neighbor as yourself). They use the shirts to explain to the people in the camps that they are Christians and are following the example of Jesus.
Please pray for those ministering to the refugees — from People International and from the Turkish church — that they would continue to shine light into this dark situation. Pray for refugees, who are now living in tents, having lost everything, that they would find hope in Christ.