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This article was originally published on Missions Network News you can go to the original story from here.

Syria (MNN) — Host countries of Syrian refugees are telling them it’s time to go home, but according to Nuna of Triumphant Mercy, home isn’t as safe as some might hope.

As some governments claim, some places in Syria are relatively safe, and some refugees are admittedly reluctant to return not because of safety but because of the economic stability they’ve found in their host countries.

However, “there’s also truth in the pressure and in the difficulties of some families to go backbecause of deserting the Army or because of the alliance against the government,” Nuna says. “If they proclaimed themselves against the government, going back to Syria after this government would be a bit difficult.”

This increased pressure is uprooting families and individuals who are already weary and battered. Nuna says these refugees may no longer live in fear of losing their lives, but they do face “the trauma of being arrested, the trauma of being taken prisoner, of being beaten, and of being forced into signing something or doing something that you don’t want to do.”

Thanks to their work with refugees, Triumphant Mercy sees the frontline of this discussion. They’re working to develop economic stability for refugees, but with official eyes on them, they’re doing their best to show that they care for both Syrians and Lebonese.

As the situation shifts, so too will their mission. “It’s not just me; it’s everybody now,” Nuna says. “Every NGO is doing that. They’re all shifting gears, they’re all going in a different direction. Even though we’ve been focusing on very much like on Syrian refugees who are here, we’re trying to differentiate between the Syrian refugees who are here to receive help, or just because it’s easier on them, or those who are really needing help and needing to be supported in Lebanon.”

For years, they’ve been working to help displaced refugees feel safe. “People started to feel that they can start a life, that they got out of the trauma,” Nuna says. Now, with new pressure from host countries, “the trauma’s back. Now they sleep not knowing if, at four in the morning, the camp will be surrounded by the military just coming to take people to prison.”

That being said, they’re still trying to guide refugees who are interested in returning home, telling them “We can help you even there, we can direct you somewhere, we can just give you some tips and points. But it’s better for you to actually go back home and start to build.”

In short, these are people who are looking for hope. They need something steady to hold on to in times of turmoil and a source of peace as their world shifts once again.

That’s what makes Triumphant Mercy so uniquely equipped to take on this challenge. “We’re a Christian agency before we’re a humanitarian agency, and we have a message and we have a desire to see God’s kingdom expand,” Nuna says.

“We believe that every person we see, we need to encourage, bring hope, show them a different view, and let them see that the hope is not gone, and everything is not black.”

This new pressure is proof that any sense of stability based on politics or the material world is can be taken away. That’s why Triumphant Mercy focuses “on the real issue, and the real issue is what do you have inside you and the real peace that they can have when they just give everything to Christ and you let him direct your life.”

Pray for Syrian refugees wrestling with the choice of whether or not to return home, and ask God to give Triumphant Mercy wisdom as they come alongside Lebanese and Syrians. You can learn more about Triumphant Mercy right here.

“People are suffering. People are traumatized. People don’t have a future. People don’t see a future, they can’t imagine a future,” Nuna says.

“If we join together, if we all have a goal in mind, we can actually do something, and I really want to encourage people to take a stand to just say ‘It’s not acceptable. We got used to it, but it’s unacceptable.’”

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Lebanon (MNN) – The circumstances surrounding refugee camps don’t often breed hope. Yet, hope is exactly what Jo, an English teacher with Triumphant Mercy, brings to her students.

A Place of Waiting

Two years ago, Jo was in a season of waiting. She had come to a place in her life where she didn’t know what to do. She was ready for a big change, to do something for God, but didn’t know what.

She says, “And so I was just laying it all on the table and saying, okay if you want me to go somewhere and if you really lead this way, if you really can, then show me. And I heard Him say, ‘Wait.’”

Jo explains that during that time God taught her about His love and what it looks like to trust Him. To teach her this lesson, she needed a season where only God knew her next steps.

A Time to Go

She became content in her waiting, then without warning, God began to show her what her future held. Jo says, “Suddenly on a random Sunday morning, I walked into Church and Nuna was there. The church there had been praying with her for some of the situations here, in the refugee camp, and she wanted to come and update them about what had been happening. And so, I just happened to hear her update and thought, ‘This has nothing to do with me. This is for sure not where I’m called.’”

Photos Courtesy of Triumphant Mercy

But it was. After praying, talking with people at Triumphant Mercy and visiting the Beqaa Valley, she knew where God was leading her.

“It was very much just a go. Okay then, well then I’ll obey and I’ll go and see where it takes me when I’m there. And now I’ve been here two years and I really feel the Lord’s leading to put things into place to stay for a longer time than I have. So, I’m here for the time being, but I have no idea what that will look like in the long-term.”

Bright Hope for a Dark Place. 

The call is clear to stay for now, but that doesn’t mean it is always easy. Triumphant Mercy is running informal schools for Syrian refugees in the Beqaa Valley. Many have seen very difficult things as they escaped with their families into Lebanon.

Yet, Jo senses God’s presence overcoming the dark situations.

“At one point, I felt like I had a picture when I was praying on some time out from being here, of this huge wall of darkness. And I felt like God asked me to come to this place that feels so close to this wall of darkness. But in recognition of who He is, I wouldn’t respond the way you would respond to the darkness. But I would respond the way I would respond to my dad who is God, and who is able, and who gives me joy and freedom and life.

“And so it was this picture of me dancing. And just the blindness when we look into His face to that wall of darkness and it’s not the same as denial, but it’s letting who He is conquer that sense of impossibility. And recognizing that the work is just 100% His.”

Help Bring Hope to the Beqaa

The battle to see God’s hope in dark places is real. Please pray for the teachers in the Beqaa as they seek to shine light into tough situations. Pray that the students learning in Jo’s classroom would see the source of her hope. Jo also asked that while praying for the conflict to end is good, people should pray for the students as individuals who have hopes, dreams and need the love of Christ.

If you want to learn more about Triumphant Mercy’s ministries or help support their continued work in refugee camps in the Beqaa, click here.

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This article is published by Missions Network News. You can read the article on their website by clicking here.

Lebanon (MNN) – Winter is expected: colder temperatures, snow, and ice.  A winter storm brings that plus a few additional surprises, surprises that aren’t welcome in the Syrian refugee camps in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, home to hundreds of thousands.

In the eight years since Syria crumbled into civil war, more than a million Syrians fled to neighboring Lebanon hoping to find safety. They found that, but they also discovered crippling poverty. For a while, the only ones helping were the Christians.

Triumphant Mercy-Lebanon’s (TM-Lebanon) Nuna says the ministry began in 2006 to help Lebanese who were fleeing Hezbollah. From that first step, TM-Lebanon has demonstrated the ability, time and again, to adapt quickly to changing realities on the way to building a stronger community. Yet, this ongoing humanitarian crisis tests their greatest strength.   TM-Lebanon started their responseto the refugee wave with emergency food packs, expanding into education centers, warehouses, community centers and into Syria.

Winter Storm Norma

(Image capture of Norma winter storm surge courtesy YtNature)

As recently as last fall, Syrians were being encouraged to go back,  and some were considering leaving or making plans to leave Lebanon.  Then, winter storm Norma hit, packing heavy rain and snow on Tuesday that turned streets in Lebanon into rivers of water and mud.  The UNHCR  says the storm seriously damaged 66 refugee camps and destroyed 15.

Nuna tells us, “All the refugees who are living under tents, or who are living in unfinished buildings were really severely hit by this storm, because it was really windy.  It’s very cold wind, with no real windows, no real shelter, and also, water coming into the tent because of the heavy water, the mud.  Many of the tents have mud inside.”  The storm was a setback for many refugee families.  “Some of the tents are like shacks, so the winter snow is heavy on the roof, and some of them had their roofs collapse on them, so they had to find refuge in neighboring tents and they had to rebuild, again.”

She says it’s like starting from scratch. Some of the flooded tents saw mud and water destroying what few possessions the refugees had: mattresses, bedding, clothing, food.  Some tents were completely submerged. “You feel helpless, in some cases, because how much can you help? How many roofs can you build?” Nuna goes on to say,  “All the resources they might have had when they came, maybe they’re completely gone. Kids are growing, they have new babies, families are growing, people are getting married and the resources are so little. What they’re building is really…a shack.”

A Forgotten Crisis

There’s just not enough food, clothing, and shelter. Getting donor support has been challenging because the crisis has fallen off the front page, but Nuna says while the refugee crisis has changed, it hasn’t gone away. “We have to remember that these people are growing in numbers and they’re growing in needs and even though much help has been given, it’s consumed and we have to rebuild again, now.”

Aside from the logistics of meeting emergency needs, there are spiritual needs that weigh heavily, too. Nuna and her staff take the time to listen to the stories of the Syrian refugees, to hear their  hopes,  of their lost dreams and what’s left of their future. As a result, “They know that we have the compassion of Christ that is compelling us to do something. Jesus says ‘when you see somebody who is hungry, you give him food; somebody who is in prison, you visit him.’ So, when you see somebody who has no shelter, you just do something about it. When you see somebody who has no clothes or shoes, you do something about it.”

Hope For A Future

(Photo courtesy of Triumphant Mercy International)

When the refugees spy a Triumphant Mercy van, they see people coming to them, as Christians, opening their hands, extending a hand of help. It speaks volumes, explains Nuna, adding that she wants other believers to be praying, “That God would just have His way in the midst of misery, that He would be the hope of people and that He would just show them that they are precious in His eyes.”

One last thing:  they’re asking for financial help, but the team also needs revitalization. “Also pray that all the people who are working with the refugees, that we would have the human resource, the financial resource and the strength to continue (because it’s draining)….so, a renewed strength, a renewed vision.”

Renewed strength and vision are focal points, especially now that increasing demands face the ministry team. By the way, this weekend’s forecasts calls for more cold temperatures and rain.

 Header photo of Syrian Refugee Camp in December, courtesy of Triumphant Mercy Lebanon.

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Syria (MNN) – The UNHCR recently reported that up to 250,000 Syrian refugees are expected to return to their home country in 2019.

Returning to Syria

About 37,000 already returned in 2018 and in 2017, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported more than 600,000 Syrian refugees returned in the first seven months of that year.

According to the IOM report in 2017, 97 percent of people returned to their own homes that year. According to the recent report by the UNHCR, refugees are mainly traveling to the governorates of Deraa, Damascus, and Homs.

Reuters reports that there are still obstacles in refugees’ way, including documentation, property, and threats against those who deserted the army. There is also a great need to demine certain areas.

The war has generally settled in many parts of Syria, though the battle still rages in the north of the country.

As families feel safer and more confident, they are returning. But not everyone is ready to return.

Reluctance of Children

“We are starting to see them slowly, slowly, they’re feeling more and more safe, but the kids especially are not feeling the safety because they don’t know,” Triumphant Mercy International’sKelsey says.

“You can’t logically explain things to a four-year-old who two years ago remembers waking up in the middle of the night to a huge sound and mom and dad rushing them away.”

Trauma has marred adults and children who have fled the Syrian crises. According to a 2018 report by The Conversation, 45 percent of refugee children suffer from PTSD.

Many have started abusing drugs and alcohol and depression is very high among them. Suicide and self-harm rates have also risen.

Organizations have held trauma counseling in order to help heal adults and children.

“Throughout the whole thing, there has been NGOs who have been inputting into and people that NGOs like Triumphant Mercy can refer kids to, especially kids who have extreme cases,” Kelsey says.

Now, as extreme cases have been addressed, Kelsey says there is evidence of trauma among children, including misbehavior in classes and not being able to control themselves.

Healing before Returning

Right now, Triumphant Mercy’s aim is to help kids heal by the time they return to their home country and learn how they can process through trauma.

“We’re realizing we have to send them back whole and healthy because we can send them back educated, but if they can’t be whole, healthy human beings, they can’t create a good, healthy community,” Kelsey says.

In fact, there are concerns that if children do not heal emotionally, it may lead to a new path of terrorism as they try to fill the void of pain.

In Triumphant Mercy classrooms, teachers are demonstrating to children how they can be open and share about how they feel.

“The first thing we start with is just talking about emotions especially within Middle Eastern, Syrian culture, emotion isn’t really explained by parents. It’s not really emphasized. In fact, it’s actually overlooked and often, parenting is through shame because of the … honor shame culture. Often, we’ll find kids who just don’t know how to express it.”

Kelsey says during a class, she asked a male translator to share about a time he was afraid. Before he could start, a boy kept insisting that men are not afraid.

“There is this expectation on them to put on the front of, ‘we can do it. We’re going to make it happen. We’re not afraid. We’re just going to go.’”

Yet, after fleeing the terror of violence in their home country and finding safety, children are once again faced with the fear of returning.

(Photo courtesy of Triumphant Mercy International)

Kelsey says two kids from a class are preparing to return to Syria, but the children do not want to return.

“They were afraid because when they left, this family specifically, we knew they left because bombs were being dropped on the home next to theirs.”

Healing in Prayer

The process of healing and sharing emotions is important for children so they know how to deal with trauma as they return.

Triumphant Mercy workers have been directing children to prayer to heal.

“Primarily, you let the kids drive the conversation a bit, let them answer the questions, let them ask the questions and then you separate yourself as an individual. ‘When I feel uncomfortable, when I’m afraid, I will pray to God.’”

As families return, pray for safety and complete healing.

Also, pray for Triumphant Mercy as they shift their focus of work to be more Syria-based. Support their work financially here.

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This Article originally posted by Missions News Network’s website. If you would like to read the article on the original site please click here.

Syria (MNN) – Syrian refugees are starting to return to their home country, which is changing outreach and ministry programs and the community of different areas.

Returning to Syria

“With international changes, also the [Lebanese] government pressures and even the international pressure for seeing [refugees] to go back home, we can feel it not only in the camps, but everywhere we go,” says Nuna, Triumphant Mercy International’s Director.

Nuna says she’s met young children working at shops in Beirut and asked them why they’re were not in school.

Human Right Watch reports there are 1.5 million school-aged Syrian refugee children in Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan. Half of them do not have access to formal education.

Many refugee children face barriers to enrolling in schools in their host countries because of child labor, language difficulties, and requirements such as identification registration with the government.

However, Triumphant Mercy is seeing families and children who are not able to attend school in Lebanon returning to their home countries.

Nuna notes Triumphant Mercy’s community center in Beirut has already said goodbye to children who have returned to their homes.

“It’s not a mass-exodus, but it’s more on a personal [scale], just a few at a time. But, it started. The migration back started.”

A Shift of Efforts

With the change of the atmosphere and community, comes the responsibility of adapting ministry efforts.

“We cannot keep ministering the same way,” Nuna says. But, “we can keep testifying the same way. So, we keep [sharing] Christian testimony. Now, we’re trying to think of ways that are accelerating our impact so that when they go back to Syria, that something would be stuck in their minds and in their hearts about Christ.”

Along with ministry efforts, Nuna says the schools will also need to transition. Their goal is to see the number of students decrease in places like Lebanon and increase in Syria.

Triumphant Mercy knows it is important for students, and even for children who haven’t attended school, to have a safe and healing place they can go to on a regular basis as they return to their home country and start resettling.

“So many people have missed years of school in Syria, [and] so many kids are going back. They were not with us. They were not schooled. They will need a transition. They will need to come to a place where they can start to come back on a level where they can actually enter the public school. So, we have lots of work to do there.”

Triumphant Mercy is beginning to tell teachers in Lebanon how they can prepare kids as they return.

For instance, in their schools, they’re holding mid-year and quarterly exams and giving students certificates for each term completed, proving how far they’ve come in their level of education.

Triumphant Mercy is starting a school in Damascus where children can restart and continue their education. Through it, they hope to bring educational, spiritual, and emotional healing.

Challenges in Returning

Nuna says one of the challenges is knowing how to help refugees return.

She also says there is need for mental preparation due to “psychological trauma that was there because of what they experience in Syria needs to be worked on so they will not have fear anymore to go back. That’s now the challenge for us. It’s not anymore how to accommodate them to come. It’s more like to prepare them psychologically to go back,” Nuna says.

“This is now our role, I think, in the next season – prepare them psychologically and emotionally to go back home and at the same time, having them know that we are already there. So, that helps them know that at least [they] have somebody there who can help [in Syria].”

Another challenge Triumphant Mercy has been faced with both in Lebanon and will continue facing  is working with a generation that has ultimately been forced to raise themselves –in all respects, a fatherless generation.

Nuna says parents have been focused on finding resources, finances, and security, so they haven’t been able to raise their children.

Though the war in certain areas of Syria has died down, the scars of it have been left on this generation, and they haven’t had strong parental figures to guide them, showing them right from wrong.

Drug abuse, smoking, and alcohol use are all growing among kids, especially in refugee camps.

“This is not usual in Islamic regions. Alcohol is prohibited, but yet, now, you can just see alcohol everywhere, even inside Syria in the Islamic areas,” Nuna says.

Get Involved

(Photo courtesy of Triumphant Mercy International)

As refugees continue returning to Syria, pray they will remember who Christ is, pray they will choose to follow Him and share His Word with the neighbors back home. Pray for the fatherless generation to see that God is the ultimate Father who will always be there for them.

Pray also for the rebuilding of Syria and that organizations will help financially and with building resources.

Finally, pray for Triumphant Mercy’s school and for civilians’ safety. Nuna says the war is slowing down, but a battle is coming to the north of Syria.

“They’re getting ready. They’re moving all the troops there and we can see that the battle is going to start. Whether they would come into Lebanon or not, I don’t know.”

Encourage refugees in your area and financially support Triumphant Mercy’s work here.

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This article was written a reporter Tom Orde who came to visit us here in Lebanon. And It is originally published on Medium.com Here you can read in it’s original form. 

Tom Orde reports from Lebanon where many refugees have sought safety from the horrors of civil war

A horse rears up on its hind legs and its rider brandishes a sword with a snarl on his face.

He’s a martyr decorating one of the countless banners dotted around the city.

Black flags with white Arabic script line the dusty street like bunting. It’s late October, humid and pushing 30c.

After a few minutes of waiting it’s safe to go inside.

Two blinking toddlers sit opposite me, gibbering and jabbing at each other. They are refugees from Syria.

The house we’re in is in the Fanar neighbourhood of Beirut. It’s a two-room building with hard concrete floors like a factory and the windows shuttered closed. There’s a TV, a sofa and a few recent family photos. Spartan.

Hushed by the two women sat on either side of them the children now sit staring and curious. Iman and Munira are aunt and niece respectively.

They came to Lebanon several years ago and are originally from the Damascan suburb of Ghouta.

A UN report in June described the five-year siege of eastern Ghouta as “barbaric and medieval, amounting to war crimes, and crimes against humanity”.

After leaving Ghouta the family lived in an area of ISIS-held territory where even the young children were forced to cover themselves completely.

I am accompanying Vican and Maral, from an organisation called Triumphant Mercy (TM) on a home visit.

It was founded in 2006 to support Lebanese civilians affected by the Israel–Hezbollah war.

In a true case of turning the other cheek, they started helping Syrian refugees in 2013 despite the lengthy Syrian invasion and occupation of Lebanon from 1976 to 2005.

The women talk and Vican translates for me.

Iman, now 28, suffered severe postnatal depression after having triplets at the age of 14. To escape the Syrian conflict, she and her family made the dangerous mountain crossing to Lebanon. She tells us her brothers are stuck in Idlib where the war still rages.

Here in Lebanon, Iman’s 13-year-old son earns about $2.5 dollars a day doing manual jobs and can’t afford to take days off.

Her husband struggles to find work with a slipped disc and serious back problems. The women have no option but to stay at home and look after their children.

Based out of a community centre, TM makes weekly home visits as a way to maintain regular contact with refugee families stuck at home and to show that there are people there to support them and adapt to life in Lebanon.

This is the third year of contact with Iman who sends her children to the centre.

Set up in 2016, the centre is a hub for the surrounding areas and supports over 1,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugee families.

It offers classes in English, Arabic, maths, art and IT for children aged between 6 and 12 who are unable to access government or UN school provision.

There are opportunities for vocational training and adult education as well as food assistance, rent assistance and monthly clothes distributions.

But they also offer psycho-social (counselling) classes to help those affected by the war process what they have been through and to live a normal life or childhood.

Making our way to the next home our mini-bus jolts along the steep and winding Beirut roads. We pass military checkpoints of machine guns, razor wire, and armoured vehicles.

Lebanese history is complex, to say the least, and demographically the country is a mix of Shia, Sunni, Druze, various sects of Christianity and a sizeable Armenian minority.

The country’s 15-year civil war may have ended almost three decades ago but interfaith tensions still persist to this day.

With a population of just over 4 million people, Lebanon hosts over a million Syrians. This is on top of 450,000 Palestinian refugees already registered with United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

According to the UN Refugee Agency, there are 5,637,050 externally placed Syrian refugees, 8,000 of whom have resettled in the UK.

We make our way up cracked concrete steps and again enter spartan settings where we meet two sisters-in-law. Raida and Hadisha.

We’re offered plastic garden chairs while our hosts sit on mildewy cushions on the floor.

There’s a TV and nothing else.

In total two families live in the house. Raida has two children. One girl and a boy. Hadisha has a girl and a baby on the way. Two of the children attend the TM community centre.

The boy said: “I have three friends at school and I would like to go to Syria someday.”

Raida complains her husband can’t find enough work and is only able to find three days of work a week.

Hadisha suffers from stomach problems and is in her fifth month of pregnancy. She is especially worried as they don’t have money for the hospital fees.

Her brother had cancer but could not afford treatment in Lebanon, by the time he returned to Syria it was too late. He died aged 23.

The two families feel isolated because they don’t know their neighbours. Regardless, Raida says: “It’s better to come to Lebanon. In Lebanon there is UN safety. In Syria, there is nothing [security] especially in the villages.”

So many refugees have gone through horrific experiences during the Syrian conflict and the harsh reality is that despite their circumstances and past traumas these families are the ‘lucky ones’.

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This is Mahmoud, he is from Syria, near Aleppo. He is 11 years old and wants to be an engineer when he grows up. He has seven siblings, his two older brothers work already and sometimes he want to be a “man” and work also, but his family wants him to stay in school to get a good education. He likes English and inventing class.

Mahmoud and kids like him with big dreams, have been dealt hard times. Their desire to learn and excitement about the future is why Triumphant Mercy wants to help them fulfill those dreams, by making sure until they return home, that they will not be left behind in the realm of education.

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In the valley, the schools have been back for four weeks now. We often reshuffle the classes at the start of the new school year, as the children learn at different speeds and sometimes miss parts of school during the year for a number of reasons. The new school year gives a good opportunity to try classes in different combinations, to make sure every child has the best ‘fit’ of level, teacher and classmates that they can. It can therefore take a while for everyone to get settled in! One teacher recently commented on that journey, ‘At the beginning, it was a little hard. The children have been in school before, but they have never been in one class together, so that was new for them. But now, everything is very good.’ The children were very excited to be back. In the first weeks, we talked a bit about their summer breaks, and what they had enjoyed. Lots talked about the summer bible camp – ‘Being here in school with you!’ – as their favourite part, and others talked about the school trips at the end of last year. They loved swimming. A few children had been to the sea with their families during the summer too or had visited relatives, and some had been to weddings. All of them were really happy to be back at school. When he was asked, Ahmad* from Grade 10 said, ‘The worst part about summer was that it was boring. The best part was coming back to school.’ The impact on the rest of the camp is remarkable, too. One mother told us, ‘In the summer, the children were crazy because there was nothing to do. I am very happy that they are back at school!’

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The women have never been happier since the sewing program has started in Zahle camp. Its something they all relate to as they work with their hands and it gives them security, courage and self esteem to show the world that ” I can take care of myself and my family” by providing for them.

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Today starts the new school year at the Triumphant Mercy Center in Beirut. We are excited to see new faces and some that were with us during our summer camps. We have 38 children ages 4-5 registered for out small children’s program and 47 children registered for ages 6-14 for the older children’s school. We look forward to seeing the kids grow and learn throughout the year and the changes we will see in the kids and in the community.

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