Pray for Syria: ‘Through all the storms, let us keep our eyes fixed on the Author and Finisher of our faith’

This week we heard from a Carmelite brother in Syria, Brother David Johnson. We told some of his remarkable story last year: how he’d grown up in Colorado, fell in love with Syria and lived in a monastery there with other religious from around the world. In 2015, he survived a kidnapping—and even sang songs about Jesus to his captors:

Brother Johnson began to sing resurrection songs to his captors in their native language, and to talk to them about heaven and Jesus’ love for them. They began to open up, and kept asking Brother Johnson to sing them again again. “I was singing to Muslims about the resurection of Jesus Christ, who conquered death. And suddenyly they turned the car around to take me back to the monastery, ” recalls Brother Johnson.

Now, from his humble monastery, he’s asking the world for urgent prayers for the people of Syria, where Aleppo remains under siege and the people live daily with despair.

He wrote in an email:

Please pray for people of all sides… may the devil’s plan to throw the world into world war through lies about Syria be itself thrown into the dust bin of history!

And he added:

Through all the darkness, confusion and storms – Let us keep our eyes fixed on the Author and Finisher of our faith, “who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb 12).   In Him alone is light, in Him alone is life!

Pray for Syria, pray for peace!