Why are we sponsoring this particular family -- the Nesean?
LARC have sponsored several refugee families in recent years. Until now, we have just picked a family size and location of the Government's list of families approved for BVOR. (Blended Visa Office Referrals). When you choose a family in this way you only know family size, ages, and place of origin. We have never known any details about the families we chose - such as their religion -- until afterwards. The only thing we really knew is that they were in danger and needed a place to live. where they would be safe. We have already settled three families this way in recent years. As it turns out all three were Muslim families and we have been blessed in being part of their journey to a new life in Canada.
Having settled the Othman family, our most recent, we were getting ready to choose our next family by the same process. But then we were shocked by image of 21 Coptic Christians on a beach in Libya being executed by ISIL terrorists simply for being Christians. After the fall of Mosul, ISIL began painting the letter ن (Nun) for Nasrani on the houses of known Christians, as a warning to convert or die. We also heard fro the Vicar of Bagdad (click here) and learned of the trouble his church was experiencing. In the face of this persecution we became convinced that the next family we sponsor should be a persecuted Christian family.
Having settled the Othman family, our most recent, we were getting ready to choose our next family by the same process. But then we were shocked by image of 21 Coptic Christians on a beach in Libya being executed by ISIL terrorists simply for being Christians. After the fall of Mosul, ISIL began painting the letter ن (Nun) for Nasrani on the houses of known Christians, as a warning to convert or die. We also heard fro the Vicar of Bagdad (click here) and learned of the trouble his church was experiencing. In the face of this persecution we became convinced that the next family we sponsor should be a persecuted Christian family.
Iraqi Christians
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This is how we came to choose the Nessan Family, Iraqi Christians, to be the ones we will sponsor next. The Neasans are Syriac Christians -- members of one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. The Assyrian or Syriac church uses Syriac language in worship. Syriac is the present-day variant of Aramaic -- the language spoken by Jesus and his contemporaries. There are both Catholic and Orthodox Syriac Christians -- both part of the same tradition. Many of the Syriac Christians of Iraq lived in towns and villages of the Nineveh Plains, where Syriac was also the language of daily village life. Most Syriac Christians also speak Arabic (the majority language of Iraq) and many have learned English as well. Virtually all of the Syriac Christians of Iraq were killed or driven from their homes.
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