[Featured photo: A Syrian refugee camp]
In researching where God might want to send me, I stumbled upon the enormous reality of refugee camps in the Middle East. Millions of people have been displaced due to civil war and terrorism within their own countries, which has led to the development of tent-camps especially within the past 20 years. The camps comprise equal numbers of men and women, and about half of their population are children. They are discouraged and displaced, many the victims of ISIS.
In America, the homeless are those who do not want to work and choose to live an ongoing lifestyle of sinful choices which becomes a terrible habit whereby they end up relying on government handouts. I have no interest in helping these men. In the Middle East,
these families are truly homeless
through no fault of their own. They want to work but have no access to work, food, housing, healthcare, or other necessities we take for granted.
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” ~Matthew 9:35-38
They say the fastest growing churches are in China and Iran. I anticipate that the next front of rapidly expanding Christianity will be these tent cities. And maybe I will be a small part of that.
~Song of Mary~ 