Points of Prayer

  • Transportation is a real issue for these families making it difficult to come to events. Current workers do many home visits, but also have events monthly that they invite them to attend, which they love, but find challenging to get to. Please pray God will make a way for them.

  • Pray for the Syrians and Kurds to build friendships as the group is mixed but the two differing people groups brings up gentle barriers. By gentleness cultural challenges, as Kurds don't speak Arabic as well as the Syrians, their dance styles are different, etc.

  • Pray for wisdom to handle the jealousies that arise amongst them as the friendships workers have formed with each family individually have brought families together and they are also building relationships with each other.

  • Pray for the group mentality being built in our gatherings not to hinder any spiritual progress being made within individual hearts.

  • Pray for more faithful volunteers to have the courage to enter into the Syrian culture and overcome fear and discomfort.


    Romans 1:16 in Modern Standard Arabic (an unspoken language)

رِسَالَةُ بُولُسَ ٱلرَّسُولِ إِلَى أَهْلِ رُومِيَةَ١:١٦
.لاني لست استحي بانجيل المسيح لانه قوة الله للخلاص لكل من يؤمن لليهودي اولا ثم لليوناني

Syria

 

Country Facts

Population

21,563,800 (2022 est.)

Ethnic Groups

Arab ~50%, Alawite ~15%, Kurd ~10%, Levantine ~10%, other ~15% (includes Druze, Ismaili, Imami, Nusairi, Assyrian, Turkoman, Armenian).

Languages

Arabic (official), Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian, French, English

Religions

Muslim 87% (official; includes Sunni 74% and Alawi, Ismaili, and Shia 13%), Christian 10% (includes Orthodox, Uniate, and Nestorian), Druze 3%

note:  the Christian population may be considerably smaller as a result of Christians fleeing the country during the ongoing civil war

Location

Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Lebanon and Turkey.

Refugees & Displaced Peoples

refugees (country of origin): 568,730 (Palestinian Refugees) (2020); 11,121 (Iraq) (mid-year 2022)
Displaced Peoples: 6.75 million (ongoing civil war since 2011) (2022)
Stateless persons: 160,000 (2022); note - Syria's stateless population consists of Kurds and Palestinians; stateless persons are prevented from voting, owning land, holding certain jobs, receiving food subsidies or public healthcare, enrolling in public schools, or being legally married to Syrian citizens; in 1962, some 120,000 Syrian Kurds were stripped of their Syrian citizenship, rendering them and their descendants stateless; in 2011, the Syrian Government granted citizenship to thousands of Syrian Kurds as a means of appeasement; however, resolving the question of statelessness is not a priority given Syria's ongoing civil war
Note: the ongoing civil war has resulted in more than 5.5 million registered Syrian refugees - dispersed mainly in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey - as of November 2022

The World Factbook 2021. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2021.
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/