How can sorrow and fear be the fuel for a message of hope in Syria? Meet Merry in Aleppo who is an answer to that question after the massive earthquake hit her city. What she learned at our sports training, she applied right after the earthquake in her city earlier in 2023.
Merry, 26, graduated as a civil engineer and now works for several non-governmental organizations. She has always had a heart for helping people and has been participating in our sport ministry training since 2019. She lives with her father, mother and younger brother Simo, 23.
Last October, Merry attended the training of “Ready, Set, Go plus” sport school, a course we offer regularly for youth servants in different Christian denominations in Syrian cities. This program is based on the idea that sport is an activity that will, in a creative way, attract children and teenagers to the church. The students learn to connect sports activities to the Bible and use that method in their ministries.
Merry volunteered as a staff member during the training and had the responsibility of taking care of the students. She worked at, among other things, arranging the program and organizing the meals during the day for the students. She would sometimes teach , explaining how to relate sports ministry to the Bible. She also taught about first aid in case of injuries and how to work as a team.
Merry worked to provide relief to earthquake victims in the form of food, hygiene kits, and more.
On February 6 2023, Merry and her family woke up because of the terrifying earthquake. Their whole building was shaking. “My mom had a cabinet where she kept her precious glasses and plates; we were not allowed to touch or use them. I saw them falling and breaking right before we ran out screaming and crying. We went down five flights of stairs, but they felt like a hundred,” Merry says. “The streets were full of people stranded in their wet pyjamas.”
After sunrise, Merry and her family came up to their home. “It was total chaos, many broken glasses and fallen decorations. Souvenirs were thrown on the floor.” Thankfully, the house was not badly damaged, it had only a few cracks in the walls. But they were too scared to stay there, so they took a few of their belongings and went to an institute that the Presbyterian church had opened as a refugee center.
“I have no idea where I got the strength to do what I’m doing but I know God was with me and still is.”
The earthquake caused more than 7000 people in Aleppo to leave their homes and stay in the churches and monasteries in the first few days.
Since the first day, Merry was serving people in the Presbyterian centre. She recalled the leadership that she learned at the Open Doors training: “I felt that I was back in the sports training and based on that experience I was scheduling meals for the people and helping with distribution of food and blankets. I was entrusted with a responsibility in the training, and I am entrusted with it now as well,” Merry says. “I couldn’t sit still, I had to do something.”
The sense of leadership and responsibility they all had learned pushed Merry, her brother and three other young people to create a relief team to help people through this catastrophe. They received help from relatives and friends who live abroad and started buying food and hygiene products, bagging them and distributing the packages to needy people.
“We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and we split the tasks just like a football team; winning for us was helping people and showing humanity, we have a message to send and that’s the message of Love.”
Merry adds, “In the twelve days after the earthquake we were able to show love more than we were able to share during the twelve years of war.”
Merry smiles when she continues. “I have no idea where I got the strength to do what I’m doing but I know God was with me and still is. My only desire is that God would declare himself and be shown through us to the people and let everyone in Aleppo and Syria know that Christ is Love and we as His children will be a good example of that love.”
Merry is one of the people of Aleppo who lived through the earthquake. She had her family to worry about, her life to fear for, but she decided to change that sorrow and fear into fuel that drove her to be a light in the darkness and an extension of God’s hands that are stretched out to help, heal and support.