For a long time, Syrians were complacent. At least that’s how one person familiar with Syria described the people of the war-torn country.
“[Syrians were] a people who felt they were more blessed than others because natural disasters and wars had not been a part of their modern history,” Dan David said.
But over the past year, war has broken out, bloodshed has escalated and people have run for the country’s borders with their children in arms.
“The news coming out of Syria — and there is much of it — shows their situation is bleak,” said Natalie Shepherd, a Christ follower who lived and worked in the country.
But there’s a big question mark over how much Good News is making it into Syria, David said. The chances are slim that many Christ followers from the outside are left in country to share the gospel.
Seven percent of the population is “Christian,” a title that’s more indicative of a passed-down identity than personal relationship with Christ, David said. It’s a long heritage — Syria’s capital, Damascus, is the place where Paul met up with Christ followers for the first time as a fellow believer rather than a persecutor, according to Acts 9 in the New Testament.
“During the first century A.D., the news about Jesus went into all Syria (Matt. 4:24), but only centuries later this cradle of Christianity became the cradle of Islam,” David said.
Over the past several decades, the gospel has been shared with small pockets of the people, with rough starts and stops.
“Today — as far as we can tell — less than 1 percent of the population of Syria knows Jesus,” Shepherd said. “Pray that millions of Syrian families who live inside and outside the country will begin to follow Jesus during this monumental upheaval in their homeland.
“Fear and apprehension about what will happen next is eroding most Syrian families’ sense of well-being, leaving them with a huge deficit of hope,” she said. “Many Syrian families face desperate physical needs for warmth, food and shelter, permeated by emotional trauma — the death of loved ones, gunfire night and day and the bombing of their homes.”
Recent news images show the city of Homs bombed out, people freezing in the snow and struggling to get the injured to medical care. On March 8, CNN footage showed some injured people chained to beds in hospitals.
The Syrian death toll from the past year teeters around 8,500, according to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“Now most of the people in Damascus and all over the country are living their daily lives in fear and uncertainty as the country is being torn apart by fighting, arrests, torture and death,” David said. “This is a time when good news is desperately needed.”
And many are finding him as they flee into other countries, Christian leaders say.
“People are running across the border into Lebanon, leaving everything behind, bringing only the clothes they are wearing,” said Josef, a pastor in Lebanon.
And as they do, they’ve been met by believers happy to share with them the reason they have hope, Josef said.
“You can’t share the gospel as freely in Syria, so these people have never heard it before,” said Sam Lawson, a Christian worker in the Middle East. “In a short period of time, we’ve been able to share with the same number of Syrians that it would take us months and months to share with in Syria.”
Some have believed, and house groups grow stronger by the day among the refugees, he said.
“There are several key families where the believers are focusing and investing their time, and the gospel continues to go out wherever they go,” Lawson said. “But the enemy attacks in various ways, so a key prayer request … is that nothing distracts from the Word going out among the refugees, and that it will bear lasting fruit.”
They are also praying that new Syrian believers will take the gospel back with them into their country as they return.
Believers in the region ask for Christians in the West to pray for Syria every time they see that nation in the news:
- Pray that the believers in the country would know God’s peace and be courageous in sharing hope and truth with their families and neighbors.
- Pray that the people of Syria would have dreams and visions of Jesus Christ and seek to know more about Him.
- Pray that believers in neighboring countries will have strength, protection and wisdom as they seek to meet the physical and spiritual needs of refugees.
- Pray that what the enemy means for evil will be used for good so that many Syrian families will hear the gospel and be saved.
Editor’s Note — Names have been changed for security reasons.
(IMB)
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