Syrian Christian Mother Praying but Feeling Hopeless as Bombings Occur Every Day
A Syrian Christian mother said the country's civil war is continuing in full force, with street bombings and deaths an everyday occurrence. The mother said she is praying to God constantly, but is getting "tired of praying" and "tired of crying" in the midst of the hopelessness of the situation.
"Sometimes it seems like there is no end to all this misery. I know God is in control, but sometimes I feel so hopeless. I regularly fall on my knees and cry out to Him about why all of this is happening," the mother, identified by persecution watchdog Open Doors USA as Hanna, said.
Open Doors USA, which is providing help to Syrian refugees, noted that at least 120,000 people have lost their lives in the past three years in the war between President Bashar al-Assad and rebel forces determined to take down his government.
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While millions have fled, Hanna has chosen to stay in Damascus along with her husband and two young daughters, where they are first-hand witnesses to the everyday chaos and violence that has gripped the city.
"While I'm telling you this (on Wednesday), we're in the middle of a bombing. My husband and two girls just saw one bomb falling down over 200 yards from our house. We hurried downstairs to be safer," Hanna says in a blog post for Open Doors.
"A mortar falling down sounds like a very strong voice near you; it's the same pressure. We don't know what will happen in five minutes, or even one minute. One moment you're here, the next moment you can be gone. A few days ago my relative was preparing Easter snacks in the kitchen when suddenly her life was over; a bomb fell through her apartment. We didn't find her body."
Hanna revealed that on Tuesday, a mortar fell on a school, killing 12 people, most of them children. At the local school where she works, she helped gather the children so they can pray for the victims.
"I told the children: no matter what bad things are happening around us, our God is still good; even if we're in danger of death, our God is still good and worthy of praise. So we raised our hands and started worshiping God. The parents of one of our Muslim pupils were present while we did that, and they were so impressed they said: 'Our child is safe here. He is under the protection of God.'"
With no end to the civil war in sight and with major U.N. peace talks in Geneva having ended in failure in February, the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic denounced major world powers for allowing the ongoing slaughter in the Middle Eastern country to continue.
"States that exert influence on the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic must act to ensure that these parties comply with the rules of international humanitarian law," human rights investigators said in a report in March. "The Security Council bears responsibility for allowing the warring parties to violate these rules with impunity."
The Commission further accused both government forces and non-state armed groups of committing "gross violations of human rights and the war crimes of murder, hostage-taking, torture, rape and sexual violence, recruiting and using children in hostilities and targeting civilians in sniper attacks."
Amid the war, Hanna, nevertheless, praised God for protecting her and her family.
"Prayer gives me strength; it's a weapon in the spiritual battle that's going on here," she said.
In a March poll conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Christian humanitarian organization World Vision, more than three-quarters (76 percent) of Americans said that they believe the U.S. government should help the 9.3 million Syrian citizens in need of humanitarian aid.
"The thing that we don't realize about Syria is that these people came from a very developed country. They had indoor plumbing and cars, and they went on vacations. They are highly educated, and for many of them, their overwhelming feeling is that they are in shock that the life they enjoyed is now gone," Betsy Baldwin, program management officer for World Vision's humanitarian and emergency affairs team, told The Christian Post at the time.
"Overall they are discouraged, and concerned for their children, and what their lives will look like when they grow up."
