This article was originally published on the Triumphant Mercy blog on October 24th, 2016. You can read the original post by clicking here. 

It’s amazing how heroic a human being can become when hardships hit.

Some people use human shields to do their wars. But some others become human shields themselves to save others. 

Hadeel, an 18 year old sweet girl that I met in Damascus, decided to hold her three year old niece tight in her arms to protect her with her own body when they were under heavy shelling.

Little did she know that it was time for her niece to go. Shrapnel hit the little toddler’s head and killed her instantaneously and Hadeel also had shrapnel settled in her hip damaging her spinal chord leaving her half crippled.

Doctors could not even touch that part of her body, which caused her infections and a disfigured back.

Her smile could tell how hopeful she is that there are always brighter days. 

The mark in her back could seem like a weakness but it is ever showing the heroic attitude that she took trying to save a helpless child’s life.

This story was originally published on the Triumphant Mercy blog on April 19th, 2017. You can read the original post here.

Syria has become a jungle for several years now where chaos & injustice rule and even steal the lives of so many people.

In my last visits to that jungle, I have met a lion. Yes, a lion, a very special lion, a lion with no limbs, a lion finishing his masters in political science.

A lion who roars very strongly his determination in life and his gratitude to what he has, never complaining about what he doesn’t have.

A lion who challenges your faith in the goodness of God even though he lacks most of the comfort we have.

A lion who’s got his trophee of “best 3 points shooter” that he won on a broken wheelchair.

A lion who keeps encouraging his mother to believe that God always provides.

This tells me that you don’t need your arms and feet to be a lion, from its roar, everybody knows that there is a lion in the jungle and he is its king.

This lion is my friend now, he is 23, he goes to youth groups and shares his hope with them, even though he was displaced from his village.

I visited him last week and his name is “Layth” which means lion in arabic.

Coincidence? I think not.

This post was originally published by on the Triumphant Mercy blog on January 10th, 2017. You can read the original post here.

“Razan” is a sweet lady mother of 2 children, that captivated our hearts with her serenity and peace which are exactly the meanings of her name.

Razan was disabled because of a severe MS syndrome and could not go to doctors due to financial lacks. Being disabled physically and crippled financially is a very hard thing to live with specially if you live in a war situation like in Syria, where swords are widely used to slaughter people, but Razan speaks of another kind of sword with tears in her eyes. As she was praying that Jesus would heal her so she could take care of her 2 little children, she saw a sword of fire piercing her body from top to bottom and felt a heat that was beyond description and that fire brought life back into her sick body.

Looking at how excited she was telling us her amazing story, we knew that we were  led her way by God himself not only to visit and assist her as we thought we were doing, but to witness that in the midst of destruction and hopelessness He is able to raise up heroes of faith and carriers of hope.

This article was originally published on the Triumphant Mercy blog page on November 21, 2016. You can read the original on the blog by clicking here.

Nagi, a teacher, was shot in the leg and dragged to be slaughtered by Al Nosra executioner. Little did he know that his destiny was to live. This is another man who refused to deny his faith. All what he sowed in the past was going to reap that day; It wasn’t vegetable seeds that he planted but sacrificial giving in the hearts of many of his students. Amazingly, a farmer and a teacher are both in the business of planting.

He was thrown on the floor by the guards and all of the sudden, four fighters from Al Nosra covered him with their bodies and shouted to the executioner: “You will have to kill us before you touch this man.”

Nagi was their loving teacher who took good care of them when they were teenagers; and they never forgot his face. They took him away and made sure that he goes back to his family safe and sound. God has incredible ways when his seed is planted in the hearts of men.

I was listening to teacher Nagi and thinking about the meaning of his name. Nagi means saved… And saved was he by God’s grace.

 

This story was originally published on the Triumphant Mercy Blog. You can read it there by clicking here.   They looked like a normal family: a man, his wife, and two daughters. Little did I know I’d tear up when they started sharing with me what they went through around six months ago. Al Nosra attacked their house, took the daughters captive and destroyed the place. It was a traumatic experience to them all. The parents had to find refuge and were terrified for their daughters. Just Imagine losing your children. Their dad kept searching for them and did not give up. He knew that as usual al Nosra sold Christian girls to Muslim men as sex-slaves and that was taking place every three month, so he grew his beard, shaved his mustache, and dressed just like one of them. When the time of the auction came, he looked just like the men that broke into his house. The girls were standing in line, blindfolded, shaking, scared. They were just a labeled item to be sold. How inhuman men can become without God. As soon as the auctioneer started, their dad stood up and said he wanted to buy them. They started shaking even more, knowing what these people can come up to; they could imagine how hopeless their situation was going to be. “SOLD” the auctioneer said. The guards put the girls in the car, with the piece of cloth still on their eyes. They left. Halfway to their house, their father stops the car, turns around, and removes the piece of cloth. They see their dad. They start weeping.  All fear was gone. Their father has paid their redemption and they were restored to their family.