09/20/2015
Journey in Search of Hope
Mission trip
by the
Seeds of Hope Nineveh Team
September 8-18, 2015
Team members: the Honorable Dale Ramerman, Eric Johnson Ret. USAF, Greg Rhodes, son of retired Episcopal priest and businessman, the Very Rev. Jonathan Weldan, Episcopal priest, Alice Kapka, educator.
Regional Guide: The Rev. Fr. Dale Albert Johnson, Syriac Orthodox Priest
Report by Fr. Johnson
It was a woman in a refugee camp in Erbil, Iraq, who shouted out in frustration and said “Just give me some seeds so I can go home and plant my garden and feed my children.” This was the cry of a woman in search of Hope. Chased by ISIS as so many of her Iraqi Christian sisters and brothers had been chased, her story was like so many others who were given five minutes to pack up and leave. In that time she was offered reprieve if she paid a head-tax, converted to Islam, or be killed. She chose to flee with her family to the north into the area called Kurdistan.
Her children clung to her dress as if clinging to life. Their faces and wide eyes expressed the feeling that time had stopped for this family. They were suspended in an eternal moment and frozen in place, a concrete room surrounded by boxes and packing supplies that they called home. She was too numb to think about the past and too frightened to talk about the future.
It was this woman who planted a seed in my heart. It took root in my dreams at night and my thoughts by day. Like a pounding rhythm from a cacophony of sounds created by the cries of hungry children a theme echoed in my mind. “We must do something rather than nothing.”
I returned to the United States and spoke to 17 church and community groups over the course of three months in five states. An intense and focused Episcopal Bishop in Seattle listened to the story of these Iraqi and Syrian refugees I had interviewed as I had compiled and summarized their plight in a diplomatic report. This bishop opened many doors for me to tell this story. The Seeds of Hope project for the Nineveh Plain was born in the summer of 2015.
A small group of five interested and insightful people traveled with me back to Turkey and Iraq to visit these same refugee camps and listen to religious and political leaders who were struggling to find long-term solutions. For ten day we travelled through eastern Turkey, into Iraq, and back. It was an adventure in search of Hope!
A priest, a deacon, a judge, the son of a priest, and a woman, all Episcopalians met as a full group in Istanbul of September 9th 2015. We ate our first dinner together under the glow of a stained glass window in the courtyard of Saint Helena Chapel. This was the first English chapel built in Istanbul after the Reformation. Helena was the mother of Emperor Constantine. She was a Christian in a time when it was dangerous to be a Christian. She had some protection because she was the mother of an Emperor. In a way the dinner in this courtyard was symbolic of our mission. We were venturing into a land where it was once again dangerous to be a Christian. Helena did not have to contend with an aggressive element of Islam. Zoroastrian and Mithrian religions of the Roman state dominated the hearts and bigotries of the Roman Empire in the East during the age of Helena and Constantine. Only the names of the enemies of Christians have changed. Today the dark clouds of ISIS and Al Qaida threaten Christians. As we ate a sumptuous meal of lamb and other Turkish delights I could not help but think of the nearby demonstrations where Kurds were protesting the oppression of the Turkish state. It wasn’t only religious minorities who live in fear an terror of the Turkish State that was becoming less secular and more Muslim. These protesting Kurds were the wrong kind of Muslims according to the Turkish state. They were a threat to the security of the state and were gaining political power after 30 years of fighting against to injustices and indignities of the Turkish state as it tried to impose its form of Islamic law.
That night as we returned to our hotel rooms. We met with Kurdish youth leaders who gave us a very candid picture of the difficulties Kurds face in Diyarbakir. Eight people were killed by gunfire in the streets of Istanbul.
The next day we flew to Diyarbakir, ancient Amida, once the extreme eastern edge of the Roman Empire and temporary home of King Baldwin I during the age of the Crusades. We picked up some seeds for samples to show refugees in the city.
The next morning we visited the Syriac Orthodox Church of Saint Mary, the Mother of God. Father Joseph shared his story as one of the two last priests to occupy churches in Diyarbakir. The other priest presides over the Armenian Cathedral. Both churches are practically museums now visited by tourists and Muslims who gloat over their victory against Christianity. One Muslim visitor told me proudly that Christianity in finished in Turkey.
The Seeds of Hope Nineveh team visited the grave of Syriac teachers and saints and inspected the baptismal font where Saint Ephrem was baptized. Again, the visit was symbolic of the mission as Saint Ephrem was a refugee himself as he led refugees from nearby Nisibis to Edessa in 363 when the Roman army lost to Persian forces and retreated toward Constantinople in the West.
The team headed south to Mardin where we visited our first refugee an 88 year old Syrian in the courtyard of the Church of the Forty Martyrs. This refugee was the last of his family to leave Syria. His family story was a history of Christian persecution and migration over the last century. The family populated the Mardin region at the beginning of the 20th century. They were swept up in the 1915 genocide of the Armenians and other groups of Christians, They fled to Syria where in this century they have been attacked by ISIS and have had to flee again, This time they have left mostly for Europe and North America.
After another hour drive south to Midyat the team was stopped 15 miles short of the monastery of Mor Gabriel, our destination for the day. There was a demonstration of Kurdish protestors on the highway. The Turkish military blocked traffic for both directions. Water cannons and riot police were a heavy presence. We retreated to a hotel near Mor Abraham monastery and site of a refugee camp of 10 thousand Yazidis and Syrians. Little did we know that Diyarbakir was placed under military curfew for the next two days. No one could leave or enter the city. We left just in time.
We used the opportunity to purchase more garden seeds in Midyat.
The next morning the road opened and we proceeded to Mor Gabriel Monastery. Bishop Timotheos Samuel Aktas greeted the team and lavished excessive hospitality upon the team. The team presented the bishop with a letter from the American Bishop the Right Reverend Greg Rickel. Bishop Aktas had a favorable impression of the letter. Nevertheless he talked to the team at length of the complexity and dismal prospects for Christians in the region. For 35 years he has watched the population of Christians fade into near oblivion. Only a few hundred families remain. Mardin and Midyat at the turn of the 20th century had 300,000 Christians according to Church census figures. The remaining remnant, less than one percent of the original populations, most of them wish to leave for Europe and North America and join the diaspora.
Sunday was a day of joy at the monastery. The team joined in the celebration of a Bpatism of an infant from a family who live in the diaspora in Germany. They returned to the monastery to celebrate an answer to their prayers to Mor Gabriel over their infertility. They named the child Gabriella.
This is an example of how the monastery is becoming a spiritual center not for the indigenous population which is almost non-existent but a spiritual resource for the world wide diaspora. Many wish to return to Turabdin but it is becoming increasingly difficult with each generation as they lose their connection to these spiritual centers and are lured by the comforts and conveniences of the West.
Sunday afternoon,Before headed the next day to Iraq (Northern Kurdistan) and the city of Dohuk, the team visited the village of BethKushtan. There we sat with a family that has produced two bishops, Bishop Bejamin of Sweden and Bishop Aktas of Mor Gabriel. There we saw first hand the remnant who remain in this holy land. These are the disabled, the aged, and the sick who cannot emigrate easily.
Nearby we saw the monastery of Saint Jacob of Salah. It is occupied by the monk Daniel and a couple of nuns who are biological sisters. There are a dozen or so children who attend the monastery school which unofficially and illegally (according to Turkish law) teaches the language of Jesus. Three Christian families remain in the village.
The Monastery of Hah is empty of monks and a few lay guardians protect it from vandals. It is one of the most unique and beautiful monuments to the Christian culture that once occupied the land. The monastery sits on top of a Zoroastrian temple. a fire worshipping religion, once led by Magi priests. The Yazidis are modern descendents of this ancient religion. Along with Christians they are the targets of the hate and bigotry of ISIS.
The next day we journeyed into Iraq. The team was nervous to pass through Cizre on the way to the Iraqi border. Dozens of people had died in the eight days prior to our arrival in clashes between Turkish police and Kurdish militia. We did not want to get caught in the crossfire.
We passed through without incident. We changed cars at the border for security reasons and ran the gauntlet of seven checkpoints. On the Iraqi side we changed cars again and traveled in two taxis to the nearby village of Deir Aboun which sits on the edge of a vast camp of 130,000 refugees and IDP (Internally Displaced People.) The village Mayor Zacharias welcomed us to his home. We met with a local Chaldean priest and visited a new school under construction. We visited gardens and homes the mayor has opened to 120 refugee families. It is a fine example of a prototype of the Seeds of Hoe project. The mayor has offered land for gardens as he has opened homes in his village. 40% of the homes in the village were vacant prior to 2012. Since the catastrophic incursion of ISIS into Iraq he has set up a greenhouse, a water system, and lands for gardens that refugees are using in the first round of this experiment to have refugees grow their own food. He welcomes the Seeds of Hope Nineveh to participate in this experiment and symbol of Hope!
Next, the team headed to Dohuk where 800,000 refugees and IDPs live in this city of two million. It is bloated with refugees from Syria and mostly Iraq. That evening we met with Hannio Andrews a lawyer for the UN Human Right section in Dohuk. Hanni is a refugee himself having fled with his family from Mosul to Dohuk. He is also a Christian and fears for his teenage daughters whom ISIS targets.
Early the next morning we visited a refugee center run by the Assyrian Cultural Society. Fifty two families presently occupy the facility many of the families have been in this center over a year.
The team visited CAPNI (Christian Aide Program for Indigenous Christians). This is a NGO based in Germany but led by a local Chaldean High priest: the Right Rev. Emmanuel. He gave an extensive review of the complicated situation in Iraq. He reported that they are at a stage where IDPs and refugees need to be moved to more permanent facilities. As an example of this need and goal, after the meeting we proceeded out to the Assyrian Aid Society Barnabus fund site where 50 high tech and high end tents are being set up. The village will have paved roads, dining halls, heat pumps for both heating and cooling, a soccer field for the children, and medical facilities and offices. Private buses and other amenities are being added to the near completed village.
We were joined by Father Oshano, a local Assyrian priest who took us to meet with the Assyrian Democratic Organization that manages a refugee center, Christian militias, and political interests of Assyrian Christians in the region, Ashur Odisho provided the group with a comprehensive overview of the political and defensive strategies and needs of the Christian minority in Iraq.
Postscript: I met with villages of Gunduk Shukro in S.E. Turkey near the monastery of Mor Augin. They are very much like the village of Deir Abuna across the border in Iraq. The Christian mayor has opened abandoned houses to refugees mostly from Syria that borders the farms of his village. He has also offered land for gardens for the refugees to plant gardens. Today I delivered certified seeds to the refugee villagers.
So now the Seeds of Hope Nineveh team has one village in Iraq, Deir Abuna, and one village in Turkey, Gunduk Shukro, that have land donated for gardens for refugees. When the IDP camp being built by the Assyrian Aid Society is opened, hopefully next month, we will have gardens for 50 families.
The village refugees will go to Nisibene with me next week to buy more seeds.
One garden at a time. Can we dream of a thousand gardens of Hope?
