The Alliance
  • Alliance Life
  • News
  • Video
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Ministries
  • Events
  • Resources
  • MyCMA
  • Give
  • Serve
  • Pray

Browse by:

  • Alliance Life
  • News
  • Video

Remember the Brokenhearted on World Refugee Day

A new team proclaims the hope of Christ among traumatized Syrian refugees seeking safe harbor in a European city.

by an Alliance worker

Walking the streets of a northern European city recently, I saw refugees everywhere. Listening to their stories of escape from danger and destruction in their homeland was heartbreaking.

Words failed me as I watched a mother anguishing over the news she had just received from her husband in Syria. She had fled a month earlier with her five-year-old daughter because the family only had enough money to send the two of them.

This woman had left behind her husband and four other children to face the brutal war ravaging her country. Now she had word that her three-year-old son had drunk poisoned water and lay dying in a hospital bed.

This mother was dressed in black, already mourning the death of her son. She could not be consoled.

I sat on her bed in her tiny room where four other refugees lived with her in bunks. I listened to her story and shed a few tears of my own, hugged her, and told her that God was watching out for her. He saw her pain, and He loved her so very much.

A few minutes later, a friend called the woman’s home in Syria and got her husband on the line. I heard a small voice say, “Don’t worry, Mom, I’m OK. I got better!” It was the son who had been on his deathbed. Her friends told her to get up, wash her face, and rejoice that her son was alive.

Coming Back to Life

Later that day, as we walked along the street, we met up with a young couple who had a newborn baby. Typically, husbands and wives are separated for months at a time.

We introduced ourselves and listened to their story of escape. (Most refugees describe their ordeal as living through a death experience and coming back to life.) I can’t imagine the trauma these people have gone through!

Think about this young woman, thrown into a rubber raft in the middle of a cold winter’s night, eight months pregnant, with only the clothes on her back, wondering if she would live to see the child she was carrying.

Words are hard to come by in encountering such situations. But we happened to have a New Testament that we offered the man, and he took it with great interest. He said “thank you” several times and kept looking at it and thumbing through the pages. It was as if he could hardly wait to get home and read it.

Sometimes proclaiming comes in the form of words; other times it takes shape in a tearful hug or giving a New Testament to someone who has never seen one before.

Just sitting and allowing a refugee to recount his story to someone who is truly interested and empathetic can also be very healing.

The Most Valuable Treasure

Psalm 34:18 says, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

Syrian refugees have been crushed in every way—body, soul, and spirit. But there is hope for them if they put their trust in our loving God. This is why we do what we do!

We may not have silver or gold to give them, but we have Jesus—the greatest prize. We will proclaim His love in word and deed to these displaced people who have lost everything. In doing so, may they find the most valuable treasure of all—Jesus Himself.

What You Can Do

Watch the LIFE 2016 offering video that shows how Alliance people are offering tangible hope to Syrian refugee families.

Gifts to the Great Commission Fund will help those devastated by war and disaster.

  • Previous
  • Next

Give Today

When you give to the Great Commission Fund, you help to equip more than 700 international workers, including Alliance workers in Europe, to bring the gospel to some of the most spiritually desolate regions of our world. Consider a gift today!

  • $50
  • $75
  • Other

Related Stories

  • The Alliance is Responding to the Afghanistan Crisis August 27, 2021
  • Alliance Chaplains Minister to Displaced Afghan Families August 18, 2021
  • That’s What I Want to Do! July 24, 2019
  • Engaging Refugees to Serve the Lost July 3, 2018
  • The Key to It All March 1, 2018
  • Bhutanese Refugee Turned U.S. Church Planter February 15, 2018
  • Bringing the Gospel to Syrians in Pittsburgh
  • The Alliance Family Continues to Serve Fire Victims November 3, 2017
  • Living as a Refugee Child October 6, 2017
  • Father’s Day 2017 June 16, 2017

Give by Mail

Make check payable to the C&MA and mail to:
The Christian and Missionary Alliance
Office of Donor Accounting
8595 Explorer Drive
Colorado Springs, CO
80920
Memo: Great Commission Fund

Give by Phone

Use your credit card and call toll-free (866) 443-8262 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (MST) to make your donation.

Share

  • Share
  • Tweet

Get Involved...

Pray.

We cannot “Live the Call Together” unless prayer is central to all we do.
Pray with us »

Serve.

Is God calling you to service? We’re here to help you connect your passion with God’s purpose.
Serve with The Alliance »

Give.

Help build Christ’s Church by supporting the ministry and workers of The Alliance.
Give today »


Get Connected

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • MyCMA
  • Locate a Church
  • Locate an International Worker
  • Daily Devotionals
  • Employment
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • MyCMA

Our Web site uses cookies to streamline site navigation and provide a better online experience for you. Your continued use of www.cmalliance.org indicates your agreement to accept cookies from this site. ©2003-2022 The Christian and Missionary Alliance-All rights reserved. Some material used by permission.