Ministry of
Baptist Church of Tartous & Safita
in Syria
Mazen Hamati, Pastor of the Baptist Church in Tartous & Safita
‫الدعوة للخدمة‬
Call for Ministry in 2003 …
7 And
as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom
of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the
lepers, raise the dead,[a]cast out demons. Freely
you have received, freely give.
Matthew 10: 7-8
‫صالة خاصة‬
Personal prayer to see the Great Commandment “alive” in Syria
Homs
We had to make a choice!
Leave or serve!!
Humble beginning started with the church
getting the vision and praying for it.
Ministry Amongst IDPs
‫الخدمة بين النازحين‬
• Starting Point was in Safita (Christmas 2011) with
around 16 displaced families from Homs.
• By April 2012, we were serving 45 families.
• Number of families served grew to 150 families in
Tartous and Safita by October 2012.
• By March 2013, we were serving 500 families
through expanding to Homs, Banias, Hama, &
Latakia.
• Since then, we’ve been reaching 100 new families
every month, such that today we’re serving 1,600
families.
Areas
Population
before the
war
Current
Population
(Estimate)
Vulnerable
Families served
by Tartous &
Safita Baptist
Church
Lattakia
1,000,000
4,000,000
400
Tartous
500,000
2,000,000
200
Homs
1,000,000
500,000
350
Safita
400,000
800,000
200
Mashtal Helou &
Jweikhat
200,000
500,000
200
Wadi el Nasara
250,000
1,000,000
200
Reef/Rural Hama
& Kafarram
200,000
400,000
50
Banias
300,000
150,000
15
Families served by ‫العائالت التي تخدمها الكنيسة‬
Tartous & Safita Baptist Church
1,615 Families (Average 5 members per family)
30% are children under 12 years of age
10% under 2 years of age
In Tartous alone, 300 children are orphaned /
having lost one or both parents.
• In Tartous alone, out of 200 internally displaced
families, 300 children lost the last school year.
•
•
•
•
Our Ministry includes ‫خدمتنا‬
‫تشمل‬
Monthly provision of
• milk & diapers for children under 2 years of age;
• food parcels for 1,600 families; also non-food items
such as detergents, blankets …
• Medication for the elderly who have chronic
diseases
In parallel, God opened before us other ministry
avenues such as counseling, moral and medical
support, and hospitalization (surgeries)
Preparing Relief Packages
Started this month Remedial
Classes for internally displaced
children who lost their last school
year…
Ministry amongst non-Christian families
Ministry amongst those
affected by the war, the
elderly too…
Outcome… Blessings ‫البركات‬
• Wide spread of God’s Word in Syria through the ministry
amongst Internally Displaced Families
• Reaching people from non-Christian background who
initially had negative positions vis-à-vis Christ
• Distribution of Christian literature and Bibles
• People surrendering their lives to Christ
• Revival in the Church manifested in that the “church” as
a whole now owns the ministry of compassion not only
the pastor.
• Start of inter-church cooperation, both amongst
Evangelical churches, as well as with historical churches.
Challenges… ‫التحديات‬
• Large numbers of people are dying before receiving the
Word of God
• Physical risk on us as we move about in the ministry field.
• Risk of being misunderstood by both sides of the conflict.
• The fast increase in number of displaced families is
leading us to reduce the size of the food parcels to be
able to respond to the needs of a larger number of
families.
• The long-term timeframe of the crisis is giving rise of daily
emergent needs, necessitating the presence of a fullyfocused team.
• Absence of space to gather the people for ministry.
Prayer Requests ‫طلبات الصالة‬
• That the cup of war be taken away from our country Syria.
• That the Lord may crush the conspiracy of the evil ones…
• That He may send the power of His Holy Spirit on His church that it
may reach out to the suffering souls
• That the Lord may give us to speak with great boldness and that many
wonders and signs be performed … and souls return to Christ
• That the Lord may send more help that the house of the Lord may
have food to satisfy the needs of the internally displaced … hundreds
of whom are without any shelter.
• That the Lord may send more support for the wounded and the sick
who need surgery, medication, and healing.
• That the Lord may send those who can help us build a center for
children affected by the war, that we may be able to take care of
those who have lost their supporters, and enable them to get back on
their feet.
• That the Lord may send those who can help our children who are now
disabled, and have special needs.
Thank you
www.facebook.com/mazenhamate
Mazen Hamate74@gmail.com
Tartous – Syria - cell 00963 - 932869880