{"id":1507,"date":"2019-02-04T10:04:55","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T15:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/?p=1507"},"modified":"2019-02-04T10:07:40","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T15:07:40","slug":"my-syrian-neighbors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/2019\/02\/04\/my-syrian-neighbors\/","title":{"rendered":"My Syrian Neighbors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><span style=\"color: #000000\">Rhonda Egging is a\u00a0Covenant missionary serving in Sweden and Russia.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cWe had a beautiful home in downtown Damascus. Our sons went to school around the corner. My husband taught math and I taught English at the university nearby,\u201d Mazeia said as she offered me a small cup of steaming cardamom coffee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">She sipped her coffee and looked out the window of her family\u2019s tiny apartment into the gray skies of southern Sweden.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cOne day I returned from work to find our building gone. It was all gone. Bombed. I could not even find a photograph in the rubble.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cWhere were your children?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cI found them at school. I told Ibrahim we must leave the city, but he thought things would get better and he didn\u2019t want to lose his job. He stayed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cWhere did you go?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cWe had a home in a small village where I hoped we could rest, but that home was bombed too. I could not sleep any longer. I took my children and flew to my sister in France.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Mazeia is one of the lucky ones. She got out of Syria at the beginning of the destruction. Her husband waited another year and joined the many desperate people we see on the nightly news. He walked for seventy-two days across Syria into Turkey, paid for passage in a rickety boat to Greece, was arrested and then let go before safely making his way to Sweden.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">My husband, Kent, served as a Covenant pastor for nearly thirty years and he heard many stories, but the stories we hear from the refugees coming into Sweden sound more like those told by Holocaust survivors. No one wanted to move. The choice was to leave or be killed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">As refugees arrive in Sweden and apply for asylum, the migration agency places them in camps or small villages like ours in southern Sweden. They are each given emergency bedding and one small bag of supplies. Eventually they receive a stipend and can try to rent a place of their own and buy their own groceries, but their basic needs do not end there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">This is where the church comes in. These folks need more than a warm bed and a roof over their heads. They need to see that all is not lost and that God is alive and working through his people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Wednesday night, the church in our village opens its doors to all who need help with Swedish language, culture, clean clothes, and friendship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">One night I sat next to Shashia. Dressed in tight jeans, leather jacket, sneakers, and lots of eye makeup, she could have been an American teen. I attempted to talk to her in Swedish, but she quickly changed to perfect English.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Shashia and her family, smuggled out of Aleppo a few months earlier, represented the small percentage of Armenian Christians who lived in Syria before the war.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cWhat do you miss most about Syria?\u201d I asked.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cI miss my friends, but I am happy to be with my family.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cWhat do you like about Sweden?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cI like all of you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">And we like her and her family. Tears spring to my eyes whenever I consider the awesome privilege I have been given to know Mazeia, Shashia, and all their relatives and compatriots who have become my neighbors and friends.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">There has not been such a large migration of people groups since the end of World War II. God is on the move and we join him in his work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Used with permission of\u00a0the <em>Covenant Companion. <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Originally published as part of the March 2016 Serve Globally\u00a0newsletter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally?moderation_action=report_form&object_type=post&object_id=1507&width=250&height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rhonda Egging is a\u00a0Covenant missionary serving in Sweden and Russia. \u201cWe had a beautiful home in downtown Damascus. Our sons went to school around the corner. My husband taught math and I taught English at the university nearby,\u201d Mazeia said as she offered me a small cup of steaming cardamom coffee. She sipped her coffee and looked out the window of her family\u2019s tiny apartment into the gray skies of southern Sweden. \u201cOne day I returned from work to find our building gone. It was all gone. Bombed. I could not even find a photograph in the rubble.\u201d \u201cWhere were your children?\u201d \u201cI found them at school. I told Ibrahim we must leave the city, but he thought things would get better and he didn\u2019t want to lose his job. He stayed.\u201d \u201cWhere did you go?\u201d \u201cWe had a home in a small village where I hoped we could rest, but that home was bombed too. I could not sleep any longer. I took my children and flew to my sister in France.\u201d Mazeia is one of the lucky ones. She got out of Syria at the beginning of the destruction. Her husband waited another year and joined the many [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":183,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>My Syrian Neighbors - Serve Globally Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/2019\/02\/04\/my-syrian-neighbors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Syrian Neighbors - Serve Globally Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rhonda Egging is a\u00a0Covenant missionary serving in Sweden and Russia. \u201cWe had a beautiful home in downtown Damascus. Our sons went to school around the corner. My husband taught math and I taught English at the university nearby,\u201d Mazeia said as she offered me a small cup of steaming cardamom coffee. She sipped her coffee and looked out the window of her family\u2019s tiny apartment into the gray skies of southern Sweden. \u201cOne day I returned from work to find our building gone. It was all gone. Bombed. I could not even find a photograph in the rubble.\u201d \u201cWhere were your children?\u201d \u201cI found them at school. I told Ibrahim we must leave the city, but he thought things would get better and he didn\u2019t want to lose his job. He stayed.\u201d \u201cWhere did you go?\u201d \u201cWe had a home in a small village where I hoped we could rest, but that home was bombed too. I could not sleep any longer. I took my children and flew to my sister in France.\u201d Mazeia is one of the lucky ones. She got out of Syria at the beginning of the destruction. Her husband waited another year and joined the many [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/2019\/02\/04\/my-syrian-neighbors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Serve Globally Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-04T15:04:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-02-04T15:07:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alena Logan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alena Logan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/2019\\\/02\\\/04\\\/my-syrian-neighbors\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/2019\\\/02\\\/04\\\/my-syrian-neighbors\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alena Logan\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9ea35981e7e615302d80dc74f808d322\"},\"headline\":\"My Syrian Neighbors\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-04T15:04:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-04T15:07:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/2019\\\/02\\\/04\\\/my-syrian-neighbors\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":607,\"commentCount\":0,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/2019\\\/02\\\/04\\\/my-syrian-neighbors\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/2019\\\/02\\\/04\\\/my-syrian-neighbors\\\/\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/2019\\\/02\\\/04\\\/my-syrian-neighbors\\\/\",\"name\":\"My Syrian Neighbors - Serve Globally Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-04T15:04:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-04T15:07:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9ea35981e7e615302d80dc74f808d322\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/2019\\\/02\\\/04\\\/my-syrian-neighbors\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/2019\\\/02\\\/04\\\/my-syrian-neighbors\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/2019\\\/02\\\/04\\\/my-syrian-neighbors\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"My Syrian Neighbors\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/\",\"name\":\"Serve Globally Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9ea35981e7e615302d80dc74f808d322\",\"name\":\"Alena Logan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c5c01778fe64bb96883f3dea7fdb261afb443a42491a012bcd281c8fc6122fb0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c5c01778fe64bb96883f3dea7fdb261afb443a42491a012bcd281c8fc6122fb0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c5c01778fe64bb96883f3dea7fdb261afb443a42491a012bcd281c8fc6122fb0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Alena Logan\"},\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/serveglobally\\\/author\\\/alena\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"My Syrian Neighbors - Serve Globally Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/2019\/02\/04\/my-syrian-neighbors\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"My Syrian Neighbors - Serve Globally Blog","og_description":"Rhonda Egging is a\u00a0Covenant missionary serving in Sweden and Russia. \u201cWe had a beautiful home in downtown Damascus. Our sons went to school around the corner. My husband taught math and I taught English at the university nearby,\u201d Mazeia said as she offered me a small cup of steaming cardamom coffee. She sipped her coffee and looked out the window of her family\u2019s tiny apartment into the gray skies of southern Sweden. \u201cOne day I returned from work to find our building gone. It was all gone. Bombed. I could not even find a photograph in the rubble.\u201d \u201cWhere were your children?\u201d \u201cI found them at school. I told Ibrahim we must leave the city, but he thought things would get better and he didn\u2019t want to lose his job. He stayed.\u201d \u201cWhere did you go?\u201d \u201cWe had a home in a small village where I hoped we could rest, but that home was bombed too. I could not sleep any longer. I took my children and flew to my sister in France.\u201d Mazeia is one of the lucky ones. She got out of Syria at the beginning of the destruction. Her husband waited another year and joined the many [&hellip;]","og_url":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/2019\/02\/04\/my-syrian-neighbors\/","og_site_name":"Serve Globally Blog","article_published_time":"2019-02-04T15:04:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-02-04T15:07:40+00:00","author":"Alena Logan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alena Logan","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/2019\/02\/04\/my-syrian-neighbors\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/2019\/02\/04\/my-syrian-neighbors\/"},"author":{"name":"Alena Logan","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/#\/schema\/person\/9ea35981e7e615302d80dc74f808d322"},"headline":"My Syrian Neighbors","datePublished":"2019-02-04T15:04:55+00:00","dateModified":"2019-02-04T15:07:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/2019\/02\/04\/my-syrian-neighbors\/"},"wordCount":607,"commentCount":0,"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/2019\/02\/04\/my-syrian-neighbors\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/2019\/02\/04\/my-syrian-neighbors\/","url":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/2019\/02\/04\/my-syrian-neighbors\/","name":"My Syrian Neighbors - Serve Globally Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-02-04T15:04:55+00:00","dateModified":"2019-02-04T15:07:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/#\/schema\/person\/9ea35981e7e615302d80dc74f808d322"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/2019\/02\/04\/my-syrian-neighbors\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/2019\/02\/04\/my-syrian-neighbors\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/2019\/02\/04\/my-syrian-neighbors\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"My Syrian Neighbors"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/#website","url":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/","name":"Serve Globally Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/#\/schema\/person\/9ea35981e7e615302d80dc74f808d322","name":"Alena Logan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c5c01778fe64bb96883f3dea7fdb261afb443a42491a012bcd281c8fc6122fb0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c5c01778fe64bb96883f3dea7fdb261afb443a42491a012bcd281c8fc6122fb0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c5c01778fe64bb96883f3dea7fdb261afb443a42491a012bcd281c8fc6122fb0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Alena Logan"},"url":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/author\/alena\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1507"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1511,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507\/revisions\/1511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}