By CNEWA
Greg Kandra
Greg Kandra
Father Thabet serves as the sole parish priest at St. Adday Church in
the town. With the arrival of ISIS in 2014, hundreds of Christians
fled, settling in Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan. They have only recently begun to return home.
What they found has been heartbreaking.
“We have 756 houses,” Father Thabet explained. “241 were burned by
ISIS, 112 houses were attacked by armed forces, destroyed completely.
Others had partial damage. ISIS also damaged the infrastructure. Many
mines were left in the fields, in the houses. You can’t imagine. It was a
miserable situation.”
But slowly, he said, the people have begun to reconstruct the town,
thanks to the generosity of various church charities. And he has worked,
as well, to restore a sense of purpose and hope.
“We are working with zeal,” he said, “with spirituality, to give
hope. I told them when we were away, ‘One day we have to return, we have
to recover our identity.’ This was a way to encourage them to return.”
While he is in the United States — he will be visiting family in
Detroit for a few day before returning to Mosul — he says he gets
regular emails from his flock.
“Each day, they send me a message,” he explained. “They ask, ‘When
will you return? We are waiting for you! Father, stay with us.’ They
have been encouraged to stay and they want support.”
Much support, he said, comes from the faith of the people, and understanding their purpose in that part of the world.
“They have great hope now,” he said. “They know their vocation is to
stay here, because Iraqi Christians have a mission here, to be the light
in the darkness. The situation in Iraq is very bad. But the Muslims
know we are Christians, we are people of peace and love. If we leave
Iraq, we take that with us. Our future needs to be there.”
Christians have deep roots in the region, he said, going back to the first century.
“Our role is to understand that,” he said, “and to understand there
is grace in being there. Many Christians around the world have extended
their hands to us, to encourage us, so we have hope. We are one Body of
Christ. So my message to the world is, please, do not forget us.”
And his message to his flock?
“Christians are still here,” he said with a smile. “ISIS tried to get
rid of us. But they didn’t. Our return home means hope. It is a kind of
a victory, really. The Christians in Iraq are heroes.”
For a powerful look at what some displaced Iraqis are facing when they return home, watch the video below by Raed Rafei.