To My Fellow Christian Healthcare Professionals and Friends:

LENT IN SYRIA
“€œIn Syria, we are always fasting.” (Heart-felt Lenten message from Bishop Antoine Audo, President of Caritas Syria)

During this Lenten season, please be especially mindful of the intense, relentless suffering now experienced by so many thousands of people throughout Syria.  Pain and privation abound, while hope is in very short supply, especially for our fellow Christians there .
Over two thousand years ago, a religious zealot set out for Damascus to confront the nascent Christian community there.  The mission of that man, Saul of Tarsus, was thwarted by divine intervention.  And the rest is Church history.  Today, the Christian community in Syria is again under grave, potentially genocidal assault. Please pray that God, in His Mercy, will once again intervene – this time, through us.
Healthcare professionals, in particular, are being targeted. The heroic life and tragic death in Syria of the 25 year-old Christian health worker, Kayla Mueller, exemplifies the life of selfless commitment to which we are all called.
Please give your attention to the attached message.

>> Pray for peace and personal guidance.

>> Act, as your heart directs you.

>> Share this information with others who care.

Richard A. Watson, M.D.

(Former President of the CMA-USA)

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REACHING OUT TO THE VICTIMS OF WAR AND VIOLENCE IN SYRIA

“Kayla learned spiritual customs from Syrians who cared about justice and compassion and about feeding the poor and the hungry. She found God particularly in the eyes of the suffering, and Syria was a place that needed great mercy and compassion.”

As Christian healthcare professionals, we are called to honor Kayla’s legacy in a very special way.  Our Syrian colleagues in the medical profession are undergoing great hardship.  Especially during this Lenten season, please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

IN SYRIA, DOCTORS AND HEALTHCARE WORKERS ARE TARGETS.

A New York Times article decries their plight:

The [Syrian] regime has, in turn, embarked on a brutal campaign to destroy the hospitals and kill their medical staffs. It is using barrel bombs and missiles against field hospitals and dozens of other medical outposts, as well as ambulances, in order to deter people from seeking care. On some occasions, when rescue crews arrive at the scene of an attack on a crowded location like a bakery or school, more barrel bombs are dropped to maximize the carnage.

The attacks have driven most physicians out of Syria. In Aleppo, the largest city in the country, only 13 surgeons remain. And despite efforts of humanitarian groups to supply them with essential supplies and equipment, medical personnel must cope with severe shortages.

Doctors and nurses also suffer profoundly, strained by long working days, the horror of the injuries, the impossibly difficult triage decisions forced by lack of resources, and constant danger. One doctor told us that if everyone survived a barrel bombing they did ‘the Dabke,’ an Arabic dance, in celebration.

When we asked the doctors what kind of support they needed, though, they didn’t cite the need for more staff, equipment, rest or psychological support. They asked for one thing: Stop the bombs from raining down so they can treat their patients without fear of death.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/opinion/in-syria-doctors-become-the-victims.html?_r=1

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KAYLA MUELLER – HEROIC CHRISTIAN MARTYR

By her tragic death, at age 25, as a captive in Syria, but even more so by her lifelong commitment to living out Christian values, healthcare worker Kayla Mueller provides us with an heroic example in action of ‘agape’ – selfless love.

In a final communication to her family, Kayla wrote:

If you could say I have ‘suffered’ at all throughout this whole experience, it is only in knowing how much suffering I have put you all through….I remember Mom always telling me that, all in all, in the end, the only one you really have is God. I have come to a place in experience where, in every sense of the word, I have surrendered myself to our Creator, because literally there was no one else….By God and by your prayers, I have felt tenderly cradled in freefall.

I have been shown in darkness, light. And I have learned that, even in prison, one can be free. I am grateful. I have come to see that there is good in every situation, sometimes we just have to look for it. I pray each day that, if nothing else, you have felt a certain closeness and have surrendered to God, as well; that you have formed a bond of love and support among one another.

Her words bring to mind those of a thirteen year-old Jewish girl whose life would soon end in a concentration camp.  In 1944, Anne Frank wrote:

It is difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It is really a wonder that I have not dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anne_Frank

To read Kayla’s letter in full: http://abcnews.go.com/International/kayla-mueller-american-isis-captive-wrote-letter-family/story?id=28859102

For inspiring remembrances of Kayla’s life: http://www.pcusa.org/news/2015/2/20/kayla-mueller-remembered/

  • Whenever someone needed help, Kayla was happy to join in and didn’t need to be the center of attention…She was just a humble, down-to-earth girl who liked to ease the suffering of just one person. Small, seemingly insignificant gestures of compassion did not escape her.”

  • “In how she lived her life, she epitomized all that is good in our world. She has been taken from us, but her legacy endures, inspiring all those who fight, each in their own way, for what is just and what is decent.”

Kayla’s family welcomes us to honor her memory and her mission through the charitable fund, “Kayla’s Hands”: http://kaylashands.org/