Source: Open Doors, November 26, 2015
World Watch Monitor recently received a diary from a church leader living in Aleppo, a Syrian city at the heart of the battle between rebels and President Assad’s forces. Not long ago, “Pastor Samuel” visited Beirut in neighboring Lebanon, which is now home to one million Syrian refugees.
“Beirut is one of the most expensive cities in the world; whenever I visit, I make it one of my duties to meet with Syrian refugees, especially families who left Aleppo. It is not easy meeting them when I know they’ve had to leave behind a decent life where they had jobs, owned their own apartments, and were serving in the church and their communities.”
He hears stories of Syrian refugees being treated as second-class citizens and being taken advantage of: working long hours at manual labor for half the salary of locals, paying almost double the usual rent for tiny one- or two-bedroom apartments, and risking trips back to war-torn Syria for medical care because they cannot afford to pay for it in Lebanon where health care is subsidized for citizens.
“When I met refugees in Lebanon some years ago, most of them said that they were expecting the war to end within a couple of weeks or months, and that they would be able to return to their homes and jobs. But the war has continued for four and a half years now, and there’s still no end in sight,” Pastor Samuel continued.
» Read full story with prayer points. See also the longer World Watch Monitor story on which it is based, and read about Syrian “lost generation” of children unable to go to school because of the war (BBC).