When ISIS Gets Personal

Have you seen this symbol increasingly appearing on social media sites?

This one-eyed smiley face is actually the Arabic letter “N” which stands for Nasrani, the Arabic word for Christian, since Jesus is from Nazareth.

It’s been an incredible privilege to work in the Middle East on and off for the last 23 years (my husband, Rich) and 16 years (me). Each country in the land where Jesus once walked is attached to people we know and love. (Our son was not given the name David Jordan because we love basketball.) Each country has gone in and out of seasons of ‘peace.’ So watching the news…well, it’s personal.

If you’ve seen updates in the last few weeks, you know that ISIS, Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham, (al-Sham means Syria) has been painting this symbol on the door of the houses of Christians in Mosul, Iraq with 3 choices: convert to Islam, pay a very high tax, or die. The atrocities are evil and horrific. Children are not exempt. It’s systematic. Executions. Beheadings. Crucifixions.

So while I ‘struggle’ to write this post in my soft, ruffled pajamas from Buckhead, Atlanta, drinking my favorite Houston coffee from Texas, our brave friends in Iraq are struggling to comfort families who are facing unfathomable horrors. Today our Christian friends in Iraq, some of the most courageous and selfless people we know, will struggle to feed the thousands of refugees who are sleeping on the street because the churches and schools are already filled up. Thousands of Christians and other persecuted groups have ended up in their backyard, a more northern region of Iraq. They’ve left everything in hopes of sparing their lives, and they will likely never get it back.

Many American friends have asked us in the last few days what they can do, and we wanted to provide some resources. Although this situation is darker, scarier, and bigger than we can wrap our minds or hearts around, we can make a difference. Mother Teresa said, “if you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.” She is right. So what can we do?

STAY INFORMED. Keep your news diversified to avoid misinformation. A few suggestions:

• Nobody does a perfect job, but the BBC tends to provide a non-American lens to reporting of global news.
• The Christian Post and Christianity Today are generally solid Christian sources of updates in the region.

PRAY. Our prayers do matter. An American friend working hard in the Northern Region of Iraq wrote me a treasured email this morning and said, “Truly the greatest work to be done is on our knees. Your knees just happen to be on American soil, but we are laboring together.” Tears.

• Pray for God’s love to shine through horrific darkness
• Pray for forgiveness and healing
• Pray for soldiers on all sides to have dreams and visions of Christ’s love for them
• Pray for families who have been displaced
• Pray for provision of physical needs of food, water, and medical needs
• Pray for ministers and humanitarian aid workers to have wisdom, stamina and faith
• Pray for wisdom and courage for global leaders

GIVE. Give to Christian workers in the region who are administering care and humanitarian aid as well as to organizations providing the aid. Rich and I feel strongly about giving to the workers distributing the aid as well as to the aid in general. We want to know that long after the distribution trucks have left, that the long-term emotional and spiritual needs of the people will be met by people who speak their heart language.

• Give securely to our friends in the Middle East who are serving suffering people
• Give to Cru’s humanitarian aid efforts in Iraq

CREATE AWARENESS. Meaningful conversations and social media make a difference.

• Change your profile picture to this.
• Show kindness to Middle Eastern neighbors and co-workers. Muslim-Americans often endure harsh treatment during seasons like this. God is love, not hate. We LOVE Middle-Easterners!
• Post articles about the situation that are informative and do not promote hate.

Reposted from Rich and Kourtney’s blog.