RUWEISHED, Jordan (BP)–God cares about refugees fleeing hostilities in Iraq, so it is critical that God’s people be in their midst — and not leave ministries to secular organizations, a Southern Baptist missions leader says.
Soon after the Iraq war began in March, Southern Baptists were among the first to set up a ministry center for refugees near this desert town in eastern Jordan near the Iraqi border.
“We think it is vital for God’s people to help with these helping ministries and not just leave it for secular agencies,” says John Brady, who coordinates the work of Southern Baptists’ International Mission Board in the Middle East and North Africa. “Surely God wants to be in the midst of helping these people. That means we as His body, His people must be in the midst of helping these people.”
Drive almost four hours east of Amman through dry, desolate, rocky desert and five military checkpoints and you’ll come to a couple of tent cities the United Nations has set up for refugees from Iraq. A camp for Iraqis stood empty, tents flapping in the breeze. But a little further on, a second camp has been set up for refugees from other countries who have fled the fighting in Iraq.
Only canvas tents protect the refugees from the increasingly hot sun and sometimes vicious sand storms.
Numerous video crews and media workers from around the world are lined up for access to about 200 refugees who have been at the camp for a week or so. So many media workers were present that camp authorities restricted access to reduce annoyance to the refugees.
Most refugees are from Somalia and Sudan, with some others from Egypt and the Palestinian areas.
They had fled war and poverty in their own countries and sought their fortune in Iraq, better off than, say, Somalia, despite international sanctions. But war forced them to flee for their lives, usually taking little more than the clothes they wore at the time.
REACHING OUT
Southern Baptist worker Charles Browning, a 20-year veteran of work in Jordan, and five other Southern Baptist workers have worked four days on and four days off in order to minister, mostly to children under 5. They have stockpiled clothes, diapers, milk, formula and other supplies for babies.
They’ve also given out toys to children who, like children anywhere, quickly get bored with nothing to do. Barefoot kids kick soccer balls around the rocky ground, seemingly oblivious to the sharp rocks. One man had four young children with him, but his wife was still in Iraq. Some of the workers had helped entertain the kids to give the anguished man a break.
Browning and the others are not just passing out supplies. They also take time to talk — in good Arabic — with the people.
“What I have found in this camp is that a lot of times people just want to come up and talk. And we’re able to just sit and talk with them,” he says. “That’s part of the Gospel of Christ — meeting the spiritual needs as well as the physical needs.
“If you tell somebody ‘Go in peace’ and ‘God loves you,’ but you don’t feed them or clothe them, then really, what does that mean to them? They just say, ‘Oh, they don’t care for us!'” he explains. “So by helping these areas, it starts a basis for sharing the complete Gospel to them and what we believers are about. And that is the whole person and not just one part of a specific individual.”
Southern Baptists are not the only Christians at the camp. Evangelical Christians of Jordan have set up a large dining hall tent equipped with large cooking pots to fix hundreds of meals a day for the refugees and staff. Refugees get one hot meal a day with soup or beans, and two cold meals, perhaps bread and Arabic foods such as humus, the dip-like paste made of ground chickpeas.
NOBODY KNOWS
Nobody knows if or when more refugees might appear at the border, as hundreds of thousands of Iraqis did during the Gulf War more than a decade ago. Browning thinks it is possible big numbers of refugees might yet come.
A group of men from Sudan stand around, talking in an open area. They had fled the war in Sudan and went to work in Iraq, where they could at least work and make money. But when the war broke out, they fled to Jordan with nothing.
“Where will you go?” one man who speaks English is asked. “I don’t know,” he says sadly.
Before the Iraq war is over, it’s likely there will be hundreds of thousands of displaced people like these who will need help.
As the sun wanes, the media teams fold their tripods and head back to Amman. Charles Browning waves goodbye and turns back to his tent, content that he, at least, is right where God wants him for now.
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— Video testimony from Charles Browning: www.imb.org/urgent/articledetail.asp?urgentID=31.
— Pray for Iraq’s people: www.imb.org/CompassionNet.
— IMB challenging churches to send ‘love gift’ to hungry Iraqis: www.imb.org/urgent/articledetail.asp?urgentID=30.
— Contribute to relief efforts online: Every dollar given goes 100 percent to relief ministries: resources.imb.org/index.cfm/fa/prod/ProdID/961.htm.
— For more information on Iraq relief efforts: www.imb.org/worldhunger.
— Ready to serve? going.imb.org/vim/main/ready_to_serve.asp
(BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: HOPE FOR A CHILD.
