The war in the neighboring countries of Iraq and Syria has caused a huge flow of refugees, including towards Jordan. Nearly two million refugees have arrived in Jordan. The majority of these refugees are Muslim, but there are also Christian families.
Project
The Ismael Foundation has been supporting Christian refugees in Jordan for years and that is why some board members came to visit. During this trip, the Ismael Foundation participated in a conference in Amman that focused on helping Christian Iraqi and Syrian refugees in Jordan. There is a Christian church in Amman with about 500 members, mostly Iraqi refugees. This refugee community has little to spend, which means there is a great need for local pastoral care. The Ismael Foundation project provides food vouchers to these people to support their livelihood. These vouchers are distributed by a team of Christian, local pastoral workers, as a token of charity and diaconal care.
Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress
The Ismael Foundation wants to add value to this project and give the refugees in Jordan an Arabic translated version of Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress. The book is suitable for both young people and adults and can be used for evangelism among refugees in Amman. The intention is that this book will be distributed by the pastoral workers when distributing food vouchers.
Conference
An important part of the conference was equipping attendees to proclaim God’s Word. Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress contains many spiritual elements: The spiritual path from the burden of sin, going to Christ and living in gratitude are depicted in a special way in the book. Bible studies, church services and meetings took place during this two-day mini-conference. On Monday evening there was a meeting with a small part of the congregation, in which we told something about the work of the Ismael Foundation. The conference took place on Tuesday. And several families were visited on Wednesday. It was hard to hear the stories of how Christians struggle with threats and depression. It’s not easy to be a Christian in Jordan either! It was special to see how involved the pastoral workers were, how they were a listening ear for people, and that people asked them many questions. At one point, one of the pastoral workers had three booklets under his arm, which he handed out to the families around them.
Prayer request
In Jordan there are many house churches with Christians with a Muslim background, who live in a vulnerable position. Will you please pray that God blesses this work among the Iraqi and Syrian refugees in Jordan?