Speaker at Grace focuses on plight of refugees

People who have been moved by the refugee crisis in the Middle East are invited to hear from an Iraqi minister who has dedicated his life to serving those who desperately need help.

The Rev. Rami Al Magdasi is a pastor with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Syria and Lebanon. He grew up in the Presbyterian Church in Basra, Iraq, and was ordained in Cairo. He spent years in refugee camps in the region giving help and comfort to people who cannot return to their homes because of ongoing war and conflict.

In the past he served as director of Syrian Refugees Ministry with Samaritans Purse. He has also worked distributing food and clothing and also as a translator to people living in camps in Erbil. In March 2014, Al Magdasi and his family were resettled in Buffalo, N.Y., and for the next several weeks he will travel the country as an international peacemaker speaking at Presbyterian churches.

Grace Presbyterian Church in Fort Mill will host Al Magdasi on Oct. 17. The event is free and open to anyone who wants to hear his stories of the struggle and survival of displaced Syrians and Iraqis.

The Rev. Joanne Sizoo serves as pastor at Grace Presbyterian. She said she met Al Magdasi during a trip to Iraq in 2014. He escorted Sizoo and others to a refugee camp outside of Erbil, Iraq, and gave them a look at the lives of the people who stayed at the camp.

“He translated our conversations, and enabled us to have the gift of getting to know these folks who are enduring far beyond what any of us has to,” she said.

Sizoo said through Al Magdasi she met a young widow with three children in the camp, but who was desperately trying to find a way to get her other two children out of Syria. There was also a young father recovering from heart surgery whose family sold the heater in their tent in order to pay for his transportation to and from the hospital.

“Rami had provided care and assistance to these, and many more families,” Sizoo said.

Al Magdasi has reported that the past several years have been difficult for Christian leaders in the Middle East. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes and the Christian churches have opened their doors to provide food, shelter and essential items like heating oil.

There has also been a sharp increase in the number of people leaving the area entirely. Many have applied for relocation in other countries in hopes of leaving the conflict and violence behind them. The growing threat of terror groups like ISIS in the region mean Christians, and non-Christians, are under constant threat.

The more Christians who flee the region, the more vulnerable the churches become, he said.

This story was originally published October 5, 2015 at 9:52 AM with the headline "Speaker at Grace focuses on plight of refugees."