'Their Tears Have Run Dry'

The rains are already starting. 
Winter is a huge challenge
It can get very cold there.  
It might even snow.  
And their tears have run dry.

Father Andrzej Halemba of the Middle East Section of International Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, visited the displaced Christians of Iraq.  He said it was the most tragic thing that he had ever experienced.

You and I don't know any of these people personally.  We've seen few pictures, if any, of their plight.  It's not something that we think of often.  Yet, these Christians are our brothers and sisters, they are suffering ... and we aren't fully aware of what they are going through.   

They are deeply wounded.  They have lost their soul.  Father Halemba describes it like this:  In Iraq there are Christians who have had to leave everything and take flight three or four times.  They can see no light at the end of the tunnel.  They are all dry traumatized.  Normally in such situations it is the women who pull everything together.  But in Kurdistan I have seen women who are staring into nothingness and have closed in on themselves.  Their tears have run dry.  The men tend to aggressiveness.  This has to do with the fact that they are no longer able to fulfill their previous role as the breadwinner and protector of their family.  Now they have to beg for everything and they have no perspective.   

With over 120,000 Christians homeless and stranded in Kurdish Iraq ... how on earth can they get the help they so desperately need?  

What can you do?  What can we do?  As Christians, what are we supposed to do?  

When your tears run dry, you are in a state of extreme hopelessness, you feel nothing and you get to the place that there's just no reason to cry anymore.  It's a sad state of existence.  Sad.  And yet, that's where these folks are.   

In America we believe God can do anything - we declare His power in our services (and we are correct).  But ... we stop there.  We stop ... in the comfort of our churches.  We stop in the social enjoyment we gain from fellowship in our meetings  ... We stop short of bowing with the compassion of Jesus ... We stop ...  and we shouldn't ...

What can we do for these people?  We can do the most important thing, and that is to hold them up in prayer!  God still hears and answers prayer.  These people are desperate. We are all part of the body of Christ.  And those of us who are in less stress ... owe it to these folks to hold them up before the Father and plead for their safety and rescue.  

It is said that their greatest challenge is the mentality of the people.  If they leave (and they are leaving) there will be few Christians in the country.  The gospel must be spread and believers are the ones who will do this.  

Matthew 9:36  But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

Will you pray that God will give them hope?  

Their tears have run dry.  May God move on our hearts and pour compassion into the depth of our soul until we are driven to our knees and with broken hearts we shed tears for their deliverance.  Tears for our brothers and sisters.

I John 3:17 But if anyone has this world’s goods (resources for sustaining life) and sees his brother and fellow believer in need, yet closes his heart of compassion against him, how can the love of God live and remain in him?

Their tears have run dry ... Our tears must flow for them ...  
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