Your to-do list

If you’re asking how to help the migrants fleeing their homelands for Europe, you may be asking too late. For Syrians and Iraqis—the majority of those now turning up on the continent’s shores and its train stations—time for effectual aid and comfort was last year, or the year before, or the year before that.

It shouldn’t be hard to understand why they’re fleeing. Didn’t we learn from the 21 Copts, ordinary day laborers in Libya, beheaded en masse by ISIS? Didn’t we see what happened to Kayla Mueller, the aid worker from Arizona captured by ISIS in Syria?

Fellow captives testify Mueller was raped repeatedly by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He boasted over his acts in a taunt to the world. Her ISIS captors ripped out her fingernails and beat her, we learned from another ISIS sex slave, a 16-year-old Syrian named Muna who managed to escape after she was beaten by Baghdadi—with a belt and a garden hoe.

It shouldn’t be hard to understand why they’re fleeing. Didn’t we learn from the 21 Copts, ordinary day laborers in Egypt, beheaded en masse by ISIS?

If the atrocities aren’t enough, weren’t we paying attention as the barrel bombs of the Assad regime fell and the atrocities of the Islamic State terrorists rose? When I spoke to refugee families fleeing Syria in 2014, they described tearing out pillow feathers to burn small fires over which they boiled weeds to eat.

Once upon a time there were powerful nations of the world who acted in such situations: They worked to defeat enemies intent on spreading terror. They rescued the unjust victims of war and atrocities. They allowed for orderly processing of war refugees, typically screened in another country before they’re granted entry.

Now we are left to apply Band-Aids to a hemorrhage.

So if you are asking what to do, for starters call your congressman. Ask him or her why the United States and its allies haven’t put Syria under a no-fly zone to eliminate horrific barrel bombs dropped on civilians—not to mention verified chemical weapons attacks, or military shipments incoming from Moscow. Ask why in four years of war the United States has not worked with Turkey or other allies to open corridors of aid to war victims, never made available staging areas at our air bases in Incirlik, Doha, and elsewhere while millions saw their cities turned to rubble, went homeless, or starved. Ask why the United States is lifting economic sanctions for Iran at a time when its regime is pouring military aid into Syria and Iraq—along with the Hezbollah brand of Islamic extremism. Your elected officials should hear from you.

Next, ask what your church and your church denomination are doing. With the arrivals of hundreds of thousands of dispossessed people in Europe, new opportunities for ministry and evangelism are opening. If you know a missionary in Europe, you should be asking him or her how you can help.

After that, consider supporting an organization with long-standing work in the region and/or among refugees. WORLD keeps a running list of some organizations (wng.org/iraqaid), groups whose work we’ve actually seen, reported on, and feel reasonably assured are doing what they advertise. We’ll be updating such lists and we appreciate your feedback.

And then, think about rolling up your own sleeves, stepping into the danger yourself. My neighbor, a general practitioner physician, was on a long-planned vacation in Poland and Hungary when migrants began arriving in Budapest. His parents are Holocaust survivors who came to America as refugees. He went to work, treating the sick on train station platforms and in makeshift camps. Gabriela Andreevska is a young Macedonian mother who saw migrants arriving at her doorstep and couldn’t do nothing. “I’m doing this because I have never seen so many people on the street … pregnant women, and babies, and sick old men. No one is helping them.”

A video of Andreevska handing out food parcels to migrants on the move has received nearly 7 million views. Surely among them are others who may do more than idly watch.

And in it all, pray. We as a nation, as churches, as individuals have much to repent over, and much to request. The worst humanitarian crisis imaginable is not too big for God.

Email mbelz@wng.org