The Love of God

Despite all the destruction and displacement that we went through, we know very well that God’s love for us is great. It is enough for us to realize that He created us in a time where we are able to know good from evil, truth from lies, honesty from deceit, generosity from stinginess, and bravery from cowardice. We can see now who will be on our side even if that cost him/her their life. And whenever we are close to despair, God shows us people who are going through harder times; seeing that makes us realize how blessed we are.

Even though we often fall, what’s important is that we stand up again. For God only tries us to make us stronger and more resilient; so we thank Him for all our trials and our renewed strength.

– Um Adeeb

Memories of a Child from Baba Amr

Qamar is an eight-year old girl who had to flee from the Baba Amr area in Homs with her family. They made their journey to Jordan last winter. Qamar told me some of the memories that she carried with her, the painful memories that she will never forget:

“I can still hear the bombs and the screams of the people of Baba Amr in my ears. How can I forget how my father led us to sleep in the bathroom at night so its walls can protect us from bombs and bullets. And how we only used to eat lentils and burghol for days, sometimes months. How I missed the taste of freshly baked bread…I can’t forget how we held our rosaries to pray to God to save us from what we were living through. Every once in a while we would hear the voice of the neighbor whose son was killed, and the one screaming out of fear but with no one able to come to her rescue…I can never forget how we left our house when we were ordered to evacuate, how we walked in the snow until we got separated from our mother, and how much we cried. We searched in people’s eyes for any sign that can lead us to where our parents were, until we found them the next day. I can’t forget how we always waited to hear the sound of the bomb twice; once when it was launched, and second when it lands. Hearing the bomb twice meant that we are still alive”

-Um Adeeb

صورة اليوم

يعيش حسن في مخيم الزعتري منذ أكثر من عشرة شهور، و هي مدة لم تثنه و برغم صعوبتها و طولها عن هوايته المفضلة: القراءة. يقول حسن: احترقت كل كتبي في سوريا و لم يبق منها شيء، و برغم ذلك جمعت العديد من الكتب منذ مجيئي إلى هنا حتى لا أنقطع عن القراءة التي هي مصدر معلوماتي

Putting Life on Hold

I asked a recently married woman in the Za’atri camp on how she got married and I got this response:

We wanted to get married and they told us that we have to leave the camp and pay for our own transportation and on top of that to get blood tests which cost 80 JDs. We don’t have money or any source of income so we decided to get married inside the camp; most people are doing the same.