Dear friends and family,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thank you for praying for us, and for our friends all over the world who share our mission. This is an update on Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently, the forces of the Hay\u2019at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamic group coming out of Al-Qaeda and Al-Nusra, have taken over Damascus, Homs, Hama, and Aleppo, totally dominating the west side of the country. They are showing some restraint and have quietly made some international agreements to legitimize themselves. Most people are glad Assad is gone and are very uncertain what this Islamic caliphate will mean. Right now, the HTS have claimed they have no other territorial aspirations beyond a reformation of Syria. That remains to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, on the eastern side of the country there is another coalition of radical Islamists under the Syrian National Army (also known as the Free Syrian Army) with multiple factions that include ISIS and are supported by Turkey; their goal is not only getting rid of the Assad regime but getting rid of the Kurds, Christians, and any other minorities. The city of Manbij, which was controlled by the pro-democracy Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) until earlier this week, was just taken by the Syrian National Army (Free Syrian Army), who have slaughtered people in the streets. We have already lost one friend there, a man named Eskandar who was a refugee from Idlib and became one of our coordinators. He was trying to help provide food for 500 people and was shot dead. I just saw his picture. I talked to him about five days ago. He is now dead and we think his family is dead as well. We are praying for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We also have a team leader who\u2019s in hiding in one of the cities taken over by the Syrian National Army, and reporting out. Please pray for him to be able to get out with his family; they\u2019re completely surrounded now. He said, whereas the HTS under Jolani is showing some restraint in the western side of the country, that is not the case with the Syrian National Army and the jihadi groups under them: they are slaughtering people and leaving a trail of destruction. He showed me a photo of a school he used to work at, totally destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, across the Euphrates River, the Syrian National Army is attacking the Shireen Dam with Turkish support. The Turks are providing airstrikes, drones, and artillery, supporting these jihadi groups to kill and destroy people and infrastructure. They\u2019ve damaged the Shireen Dam, attacking the bridge that links Manbij on the west to Kobani on the east side of the Euphrates, and putting Kobani under threat. There have been multiple massacres of families by Turkish airstrikes in Kobani as well as in Ain Issa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Raqqa, previously the capital of the ISIS caliphate, is controlled by a coalition of Kurds, Arabs, Christians, and Yezidis. Some of you who have been helping us know about the church ISIS destroyed there, that we helped rebuild. The coalition is very much under threat now because many of the ISIS sleeper cells there and many of the local people support the HTS; just yesterday there was an HTS flag being flown in Raqqa with people there attacking the Kurdish police and military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Further east into the SDF\u2019s area of control in northeast Syria, also called Rojava, the Kurds, Christians, and Arabs who really want freedom are very much under threat. We have a small team operating there now trying to help IDPs and we\u2019re trying to get more of our team across from Kurdistan, so we need prayer for favor and permission to get them across. We also need more funding to help the now over 200,000 people who have fled other parts of Syria into northeast Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All this is going on while we are actually in Burma, where the fighting has intensified as well. Russian, Chinese, Iranian and North Korean support for the dictators has meant more and more people killed and displaced. In Ukraine, fighting is as intense as it ever was and, in some cases, worse, so thank you for praying for those people. We\u2019re still involved in Tajikistan and helping Afghan refugees, many of whom have come to the Lord. The good news we have is that we\u2019re training new relief teams and some of them want to be baptized. We know that God is bigger than all this and that we have friends like you all, who pray and help us. So, thank you for praying for the people of Burma, Ukraine, Afghanistan \u2013 and in Syria now, they need prayer and we need access to help more than we are helping now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please pray for our small team in Syria, that they can survive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We ask all this in Jesus\u2019 name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thank you and God bless,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dave, family and FBR<\/p>\n