During the week I work for one of New Mexico’s top dentists, Dr. Duane Beers. One of the many reasons I have worked for him for the last almost 16 years is that he uses the gifts and experience the Lord has given him to help others in New Mexico and around the world.
Right now, Dr. Beers is serving in Lebanon. He has seen mostly refugees from Syria escaping the carnage of the Islamic State as they literally rape and pillage Iraq and Syria. More than 150,000 people have fled into Turkey alone over the past week that he has been there. Lebanon is the other country they are fleeing but the numbers there are unclear.
We set up our equipment for today’s clinic Sunday afternoon so we would be sure to get quick start this morning. We were in a Syriac church, a group that claims to speak the Aramaic as Christ did. We were supposed to be inundated with Iraqi refugees. As it turned out the church leaders “forgot” to inform this community that we were holding a clinic so it took a few hours for word of mouth on the street to get out. It didn’t take long before we had all the patients we could handle including the heart wrenching stories. We all thought the plight of our individual patients was was unique until a few hours ago to share our experiences.
John & I saw a dear Muslim lady & her son who had narrowly escaped ISIS in Syria. She had 7 Children ranging fro 7-16. She was privy to the execution of her friends & relatives & hastily sold all she had to get enough money to escape to a homeless condition in Beirut. She made it, but upon arrival in Beirut her husband repeated 3 times “we are divorced”. That’s all a Muslim man need do to dump his wife. He left went back to Syria to take a new, younger wife leaving her with nothing. After treating her SHE prayed God’s protection on John & I. I was led, through a great interpreter to share Romans 10:9 & explained That Jesus loves all of us equally, man and woman & desires that no one perish. I told her that all who call upon HIS name will be saved. She hugged me (rare for a Muslim woman) & said she would be back tomorrow.
My next patient escaped from a village outside of Mosul, Iraq..she said Isis overran the town suddenly & began beheading the children & men. They raped the women & then killed the ones they didn’t want to keep as slaves. She claimed they were just 2 houses from hers when they escaped in the family car.
One of the Docs reported that an exam of one of his male patients was interrupted when the guy answered his cell phone. It was his sister calling from Syria screaming that ISIS was there & had raped his daughter, wife, & aunt. They killed his wife. It’s uncertain what happened to his sister. The grief that came over this man & Doc cannot be put in words..
Finally our team leader, Dr. Anthony in a almost inaudible tearful voice described the horror experienced by one of his patients. She was at worship service at her Christian church in a village in Iraq when ISIS showed up. They beheaded all the children, then tore down the cross from the front of the sanctuary. They used it to crucify then kill all the men.. They raped the women & killed the ones they didn’t want to keep.
By the finish of this meeting all that could be heard was weeping in silence. Finally The Lord gave us the resolve to pray for these innocent people an give us strength for what is before us tomorrow. It full well seems like this ever growing evil is an end times event. I can’t help but believe that the younger 21+ year old team members could be emotionally effected for a long time from the testimonies we are hearing. Please intercede in prayer for them.
Duane
When was the last time you fasted? When was the last time you sought the Lord with your whole heart? Do the stories relayed here drive you to your knees. Remember that when believers fail to oppose evil, it flourishes.
