Unity Across Borders: Iraq and Syria Report, May and June 2024

17 July 2024

Iraq and Syria

This report provides a summary of humanitarian efforts and community engagement activities in Iraq and Syria from May to June 2024. The period was marked by significant support provided to local communities, impactful engagements, and spiritual milestones. The team travels to meet with old and new friends, to pray, spend time and help as God provides, reminding our friends there that they are not forgotted even as they live in precarious circumstances.

Community Engagement and Humanitarian Support

– Local Visits and Support: The team engaged with several local families in Erbil, fostering community relations. A victim of human trafficking from Ghana received extensive support as she seeks to return home, including help with legal documentation and securing an exit visa. Please pray for this process and for grace. 

– Medical Aid and Financial Assistance: Various humanitarian efforts were facilitated, including:

1. Delivery of an ambulance to Hasaka, Syria, honoring a promise to the late General Roni to help the frontline in Syria with medical transport. 

 2. Financial support for medical procedures for local individuals, including arm surgery for a boy and eye surgery for a girl in Tel-Tamir. 

 3. Provision of medical supplies, including medicine that could only be acquired outside of Syria, for a man in Syria in dire need. 

4. Medicines purchased for care of a little boy in Kurdistan who has a chronic painful skin condition.

5. Financial assistance for hearing aids, vehicle repairs for a family in Mosul, and English center support.

6. Financial support for a Christian boy with cancer in need of surgery to remove tumors. He is doing well and recovering. 

7. Distributions of food and essentials for refugees in Kurdistan, Iraq: a Yazidi community and an African community.

8. Team building and reaching out to local families and friends for days of laughter and fun!

9. Helping some friends in need with rent in Mosul and Erbil.

10. Our team is focused on helping develop unity between many people and ethnic groups. This includes Arabs, Kurds in Iraq, Kurds in Rojava in Syria, Americans, Africans, Christians, Yazidis, Muslims and so much more. God has made us all to help and love each other in a world of diverse humanity! There are ongoing relationships and meetings that foster this vision of unity. Please continue to pray for this worldwide!

Team meeting with Yazidi displaced families. They just want to go back home to Shingal, and ask for prayers to one day be able to do so. 

Incident in Erbil

The team witnessed a serious hit-and-run accident upon their arrival in Erbil. They stopped to help and were instrumental in ensuring the victim was helped and taken to a hospital. The day after the incident, the team visited different hospitals until they found him. They were able to show help, hope and love through compassion, presence and prayer. This incident reinforced their belief in divine intervention and the importance of being prepared to offer help at any moment. The victim survived and is now home recovering.

3-year-old Hawk insisted on being the first to pray for the man they witnessed flip through the air and slam onto the pavement after he was hit by a speeding car. 

The team’s dedication to their mission, combined with spontaneous acts of compassion, demonstrated their commitment to serving and uplifting the communities in Iraq and Syria. As they continue their efforts, the importance of adaptability, empathy, and faith remain at the forefront of their mission.

Thank you for your support and prayers as our teams do their best to help those in need in Burma, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Thailand, Iraq, and Syria. The best part is that we get to do it together!

God bless you,

Noelle and Middle East FBR Team