 |
| Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Bruno |
On my recent press trip to Jordan I arrived in the capital city of Amman eager to meet with and interview Christian refugees who have escaped ISIS militants, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
It was this desire, in fact, that drove me to apply to participate in the Catholic Bloggers Press Tour of Jordan this year.
What I wanted was to give faces and names to the label “refugee,” a description that too often seems far too distant and extraneous to most of us living a comfortable middle class American lifestyle.
Yet as a Cuban refugee myself, I felt a strong urge to travel to the other side of the world and bring back – by writing about them – some of the stories of these families, my fellow refugees.
I could have never imagined the many graces and surprises that God had waiting for me there—and the powerful witness of faith I was able to experience first hand.
 |
| Sami, a refugee and volunteer at the Pontifical Mission Library, tutors a refugee |
At the Pontifical Mission
Library in Amman, our first stop in the Jordan tour, we encountered dedicated,
generous volunteers and staff who daily give their lives to helping in any way
they can the thousands of Christian refugees still arriving regularly with
nothing but what they could carry.
I met young refugees full of
faith who still trust in God’s plan for their lives—such as 15-year-old Marios,
who confidently told us, “We were forced to leave… if we wanted to survive. This
[Bible] is the only thing I brought with me,” he added, holding out the small
book covered by a plastic shopping bag.
Through an interpreter, I
learned that Marios’ hometown of Batnaya was one of many thriving Christian villages
on the Nineveh Plane, a vast area in Iraq that had been home to Christians
since the 1st century after Christ.
“Our
villages were made up of all Christians, and we were able to practice our faith
without any harm or trouble,” explained Sami, an Iraqi refugee who was a
teacher in his previous life and now volunteers as a tutor at the center. “When
ISIS came, everything changed. All those villages are now empty.”
In Fuheis, just 12 miles
northwest of the capital city of Amman, we celebrated liturgy with parishioners
of St. George Greek Catholic Church, a community of Catholics that has become a
welcoming hub for Arab Christian refugees.
After the liturgy, we were invited to the church's Social Center, where refugee families gathered and waited to meet us and tell us their stories.
Some held up pictures of the destruction they left behind. Others showed us their family's official United Nations certificate granting them official "refugee asylum status." Everyone thanked us... for coming, for listening-- and they encouraged us to tell others what we had heard and experienced.
 |
| Father Abud and the refugee families that are being aided by St. George Greek Catholic Church in Fuheis |
 |
| photo courtesy of Jeffrey Bruno |
40-year-old Arthan, his wife
Walaa, and their five children, are a Syrian Catholic family from the village of
QaraQuth. They had been living in Jordan for only 40 days when I met them.
“We
lived in fear. My wife had to cover herself like a Muslim hoping to hide the
fact that we are Christian,” he explained through an interpreter. “Our Muslim
neighbors marked our house with a Christian symbol, so that ISIS would go to
our houses first,” Arthan said.
“For
the Christian, there is no place left. That’s why I came here. To provide a
future for my children,” Arthan explained, as he rested one hand on the shoulder
of his youngest son, Arthin.
“What’s happening is
unbelievable. We can’t speak of it simply in words,” explained Ra’ed A. Bahou,
Regional Director for the Pontifical Mission, the papal agency for Middle East
relief and development.
“These refugees didn’t come
because they are poor,” Bahou said, “They came here because they were cleaned
out of their country for their faith, entire villages, because they are
Christian. Many are educated, middle class people who now come to me for a $50
certificate to feed their families.”
And while other Middle
Eastern nations are losing Christians, Jordan—a country
roughly half the size of the state of Oklahoma, continues to absorb more Christians.
Although 92% of Jordanians
are Sunni Muslim, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan prides itself on being a tolerant,
Islamic state that welcomes all religions. And its king, his Majesty King
Abdullah II, remains committed to welcoming refugees, and to working towards
peace and stability in the region.
In the meantime, the numbers
are quite staggering. According to Jordanian government estimates, since the beginning of Syria’s
devastating civil war four years ago, Jordan has taken in 1.5 million refugees.
That’s 22% of the country’s current population in a nation of 6.8 million
people.
“We need to do what we can
to support Jordan,” emphasized Regional Director Bahou, “and hope that it
continues to stay safe and stable.”
[An edited version of this blog post was originally published at CatholicMom.com 12/3/2015]
All photos © María Ruiz Scaperlanda, 2015
unless otherwise noted
No comments:
Post a Comment