Dear Gathering Church,
Emad lived on a street in a Syrian town that erupted in civic violence last year. Dozens of children were orphaned. He and his family took in 13. Then their town was bombed. He managed to reach the safety of the Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan, with all of them.
Emad is a university student without a university. He is also one of 80 Questscope-trained Syrian mentors in the Zaatari camp. These mentors develop relationships and lead activities with more than 350 children/youth: counseling, sports, drama, literacy, listening. By January, that number will be almost 1,500.
This is incredibly good, incredibly unexpected! Syrian volunteers in the camp are INCREDIBLY PASSIONATE HEROES. They come from all walks of life: engineers, teachers, nurses, lawyers – all of whom left Syria with just the clothes on the backs. But they have a burning passion for the next generation – children in this camp of more than 100,000 people – a generation that will be lost but for them.
What sustains this incredible passion for good in the face of all the bad we read about the Syrian crisis?
First, the volunteers themselves. Mentors don’t get sidetracked – they focus on building into lives of youth. Mentors don’t get bored – every day, every second, is precious in these relationships. Mentors don’t get frightened by fear. Everybody feels fear. But they have seen so much bad, and they have gone through so much, that fear doesn’t rule over them anymore.
What makes mentoring so powerful in conditions of high risk and vulnerability? An 18-year-old whose dreams of college this Fall are now on indefinite hold, put it this way, “You can’t find God if you live in fear.” The path to leaving fear starts when a friend, a champion, puts his or her arm around you and says, “You are not alone, don’t be afraid.” Relationship – that is the key.
Inside Syria, we have a team of 150 young Syrian volunteers who are champions for 3 to 5 thousand displaced children and family members. “Displaced” means lots of things: no home, no income, no school, no medicine. It is INCREDIBLE what these Syrian volunteers accomplish as they risk their lives to serve others. The tangible transformation they create makes the violence and political jockeying around them look hollow and empty by comparison.
The second sustainer of passion for good is friends like you. The generous gifts to Questscope of friends who share our commitment to Put the Last, First provide a solid basis for training, organizing, and coaching that directly enables mentors and volunteers in refugee camps and in bombed-out cities to keep relationships strong and effective in serving others. These funds also attract other funds – which stabilizes our commitment to support these incredible heroes.
Would you consider a special gift by November of this year, above and beyond your usual amount to Questscope, for these incredible young people who are going above and beyond the usual in this time of war and violence? Even a small increase (10%, 20%) will have a major impact – because our community of “Friends of Questscope” is made up of more than 200 friends like you.
This would be INCREDIBLY GOOD!
Curt