How You Helped in Syria After Devastating Earthquakes
“The church welcomed everyone”: Your gifts and prayers were able to help 1,000 families in one city with immediate aid after the earthquakes—and continue our long-term ministry in Syria
When the earthquakes struck southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria early on February 6, Samer Tohme was with his family in his home in Latakia, Syria. The family quickly ran out of the house, racing down eight flights of stairs, heading toward the place they knew would be the safest option: their church.
Samer is a lay leader at a church in Latakia, a city on Syria’s northwestern coast. The region was devastated by the February earthquakes—which only made the existing problems they face even worse.
Samer’s church has long been a local Open Doors partner church and a Centre of Hope that has helped support the Christian community in Latakia as they rebuild after years of war and violence from Islamic extremism. This Centre of Hope already serves more than 200 children with educational support, thanks to Open Doors supporters like you. Samer’s church’s long-term presence in Latakia meant that the church was ready to spring into action as soon as the earthquakes happened—and that Open Doors’ support was able to be channeled to people in need, right away.
When the earthquakes struck southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria early on February 6, Samer Tohme was with his family in his home in Latakia, Syria. The family quickly ran out of the house, racing down eight flights of stairs, heading toward the place they knew would be the safest option: their church.
Samer is a lay leader at a church in Latakia, a city on Syria’s northwestern coast. The region was devastated by the February earthquakes—which only made the existing problems they face even worse.
Samer’s church has long been a local Open Doors partner church and a Centre of Hope that has helped support the Christian community in Latakia as they rebuild after years of war and violence from Islamic extremism. This Centre of Hope already serves more than 200 children with educational support, thanks to Open Doors supporters like you. Samer’s church’s long-term presence in Latakia meant that the church was ready to spring into action as soon as the earthquakes happened—and that Open Doors’ support was able to be channeled to people in need, right away.
Samer opened the church for anyone who needed shelter, and quickly, the small church was full.
“The church welcomed everyone,” he remembers. “And it is a small church—[it can hold] almost 120 people, [but] many more who would stop by.” Samer slept on the church floor until even that filled up, so then he slept in his car outside the church’s gate.
Each day, he would wake up and help the church provide breakfast and dinner for the people who needed it.
“The church welcomed everyone,” he remembers. “And it is a small church—[it can hold] almost 120 people, [but] many more who would stop by.” Samer slept on the church floor until even that filled up, so then he slept in his car outside the church’s gate.
Each day, he would wake up and help the church provide breakfast and dinner for the people who needed it.
A church in Syria.
“I would like to thank [Open Doors] very much, because it has truly been the helping hand for people who were damaged by the earthquake,” Samer says. “We were able to reach out to more than 1,000 families [in Latakia]. We helped them in all possible ways: food, healthcare, rent and home restorations.”
He also visited other shelters for people impacted by the quakes and was able to deliver 500 meals and more than 500 blankets, pillows and mattresses.
Samer says he saw how the help from Open Doors’ supporters like you opened doors for the gospel: “It is obvious that the hand of the Lord is moving in our city, Latakia, in general, and in our church in particular,” he says. “The aid that you gave got the attention of the people. [They thought:] ‘A church this size is giving aid to people from different denominations and backgrounds, without [asking for] anything in return?’ And this caused them to wonder: ‘Why are these people different from the others?’ People are coming to the church and they are listening to the Word of God. They are hearing something new. There are a lot of people who are changing spiritually, and there are people who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior, and they now know what salvation is.”
Thank you for your gifts and prayers. God is using them!
