Christians in Syria and Turkey are asking for prayer for God’s empowering and wisdom, as they work together around the clock to help those in desperate need in the aftermath of this week’s vicious series of earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
Believers throughout both countries have sent medical units, food, blankets, baby formula and other supplies to the frontlines to help. Meanwhile, churches with minimal damage in affected areas are now sheltering both Christians and Muslims, in some cases hundreds under one roof.
Local Turkish Protestant NGO First Hope Association delivered a mobile hygiene unit and a mobile bakery to Gaziantep, situated on the edge of the epicenter of Monday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Another FHA hygiene unit was dispatched to Kahramanmaras, where a 7.5 aftershock hit, and a third to Diyarbakir. Two more units arrived in Antakya, according to Christianity Today.
Antakya is the New Testament city of Antioch, one of the first places Christianity spread among non-Jews (Acts 11), and the place where followers of Christ were first called “Christians” (Acts 11:26).
Yesterday, Samaritan’s Purse, airlifted a 52-bed Emergency Field Hospital for setup in Antakya. It will include two emergency operating rooms and a pharmacy. They are also working alongside local churches and organizations like FHA to bring relief and share God’s love with those in need throughout other quake-affected areas.
A Protestant church and nearby Agape bookstore in Antakya were severely damaged in the quake, as were several churches in Iskenderun. In Hakan Konur, a pastor and his wife died, but their son survived.
In Syria, a Greek Orthodox priest died, while an emeritus archbishop survived and is being treated in hospital. Several churches suffered damage, including one in Aleppo. With hundreds of displaced families in need of shelter, the pastor opened the doors of their church’s evangelical school, where 600 people now reside, including most of the church community and many Muslims.
“Every hour, more and more needy families are knocking at the door of our churches,” a denominational leader in Syria told Global Christian Relief. “Seven hundred new families have come whose houses are completely destroyed.” Churches are in need of blankets, warm clothes and oil for heating.
As of yesterday, the death toll in both Syria and Turkey is now at more than 21,000, which far surpasses Turkey’s 1999 earthquake (17,000), and is climbing toward the disastrous 1939 quake’s count of 30,000 dead.
As devastating as it is that so many thousands have died without Christ, formerly closed hearts often open wide to the Gospel in hard times, especially as they experience Love in action through His people. God also often demonstrates His great power and love through dreams, visions and miracles like healings, supernatural protection, unexplained multiplication of resources and more. Tragedy is often the very soil from which salvation springs. Let’s continue to pray for those who mourn and that they will find the hope and meaning in life only found in Christ.
But You, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;
Psalm 10:14 NIV
You consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to You;
You are the helper of the fatherless.
Let’s pray …
- For God’s strength, wisdom and empowering for Christians and others on the frontlines.
- For quick reparations of churches so they can house all the more displaced families in need of shelter.
- For roads and airports to quickly be cleared and opened so supplies and aid workers can more easily reach those in need.
- For abundant supplies, especially medicines, food, water, blankets, winter coats, fuel for heating, and Bibles to reach those who need them, and for Christians sharing those supplies to shine God’s love in open, beautiful ways that draw others to Him.
- For the Lord to comfort our brothers and sisters who have lost loved ones, homes, businesses and more; and for His powerful anointing on them to reach out, even in the midst of grief, to help others who also grieve and share with them the hope found only in Christ.
- For favor from government authorities for Christian relief workers, and wide open doors to help in every way God leads.
- For God’s love to flow through every Christian to share the Good News in a way those around them will open wide to receive.
- For God to place many Christian counselors, medical workers, prayer warriors and others on the frontlines to serve those who are hurting, and that He will show up in all His glory to heal bodies, minds and hearts and lead the lost to salvation.
- For miraculous rescues, healings, protection, visions, dreams and more that point all eyes to Jesus.
- For Muslims who once opposed Christianity and even persecuted Christians to experience firsthand God’s love through His people in such powerful ways, their hearts will turn from hatred and violence, and they will at last repent and turn to Christ.
- For protection over Christians serving on the frontlines, especially against those who oppose them because of their faith.
- For peace, love and joy flowing out of believers and songs of praise rising up in the places where they shelter together with unbelievers. For easy conversations that flow in God’s direction and open up questions leading salvation.
- For a deep hunger for the Lord to grow in every heart, so they will seek Him with all their heart and find Him. For God to shine light in the darkness and draw many thousands of lost people into His Kingdom.
- For the rebuilding, that God will miraculously supply the needs of those who have lost much, especially refugees and others who are normally overlooked because of their status, and quickly rebuild lives and homes in such a way that they will know that they know only Love Himself could do that.
Mikaela Vincent and her husband are missionaries who live by faith, trusting in God to provide for their needs as they pray for and share Christ with the nations. If you would like to help their ministry through a donation, or by shopping at Mikaela’s online bookstore, click the buttons below:
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