Later that evening, Abbud’s mother explained to his father what had happened, and they sat down to read the New Testament together. “You are keeping me from drawing close to the Prophet Jesus!” “Mother, you are like the disciples of the Prophet Jesus,” Abbud said. With few toys or children’s books to occupy his attention, Abbud read the New Testament every night, frustrating his mother. Little did he know, an 11-year-old boy in the camp named Abbud* had read these very words from one of the New Testaments Matta and the missionaries had distributed. They’d barely finished their prayer when someone cried out, “Come! Gather the children, and these men will pray that they will be protected from harm.” A group of barefooted children with dirty faces and ragged clothing gathered around the Christians, and suddenly the words of Jesus flooded Matta’s heart: “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” Matta looked wide-eyed at his smiling friends, and they gathered around the man to pray for him. “This man had surgery, and he wants your prayers for him,” the camp leader said. “He’s angry with us and will tell us not to return…”īracing himself to be excommunicated from the camp, Matta was shocked when the man called out to the nearby crowd: “Come over!” A man from the crowd walked toward them. The sternness in his face seemed to deepen. “Last week while you were distributing things to the children, you were praying, and you gave some people copies of the Bible,” he said.
He poured them some tea and thanked them for the help they’d brought to his people. With stern expression, the man asked them to enter his tent. On this visit to the camp, Matta and his friends were met at the entrance by the man in charge of the camp. Matta and the missionaries began distributing Bibles for children and adults-a bold act in any Muslim community. Some of the women began asking him to pray for their children. They sent their children to the tent school he started. They no longer mobbed the truck, but instead waited respectfully in line, knowing he’d return with more aid. Matta’s faithful presence at the camp and his proven compassion for the refugees earned him a level of trust. Sometimes they’d mob the truck, pushing and pulling and grabbing boxes.Ī lot has changed since those early days. Practically starving, the refugees would take the aid he offered with eyes to the ground or defiant stares that warned him to keep quiet. Word of Matta’s Christian faith quickly spread throughout the Muslim community-and so did the distrust. Since Syrian refugees began populating the stretch of land over 10 years ago, erecting their makeshift dwellings of tarps and blankets, the missionaries had visited every week with food and other aid. “As they’d done so many times before, Matta* and his missionary coworkers walked into the tent camp in Turkey. In the midst of destruction Jesus is moving through His servants. These days we keep seeing destruction in many forms.
0 kommentar(er)
