Fallujah Crisis: When We Say We’re Not Done, We Mean It

Two days ago, members of our team were bombed, held at gunpoint, and surrounded by ISIS militants who stopped at our broken-down aid trucks while our guys hid in the dirt—close enough to hear them talking on their phones, telling other militants, “We’re here at the trucks.”

As you might imagine, the guys who were caught up in Wednesday’s bombing are tired and shell-shocked. They’re safe, though—and right now, they’re getting the rest they need.

But we are not done in Fallujah. 

As an aid group, normally when something like this happens to you, you would stop.

You would announce that you’re taking time to “reassess the situation.” You might even pull up stakes and find somewhere else to operate—somewhere safer, somewhere the situation isn’t quite so precarious.

But that’s not what “going to the hard places” looks like.

That’s not what “loving the ones no one else will love” means.

And it won’t do anything for the 86,000 people are who still stranded in the desert—without enough food, water, or shelter to keep them going. It won’t make their situation any less precarious.

Two days ago, when we shared what our team had been through, we promised that we weren’t done. That we were going back.

Today, we are keeping that promise.

At this moment, one of our aid teams is working in a camp west of Fallujah—one of the most underserved camps in the world’s most underserved refugee crisis. 

We’re there, installing new water tanks. Tomorrow, they’ll be filled with safe, clean water, so families can have something to drink, wash, and cook their food with. So displaced mothers don’t have to worry about their children succumbing to preventable disease, while they wilt in the 115-degree heat, miles from any hospital.

We are not done. We will not stop. We will not abandon the people of Fallujah. 

Because that’s not what love does.

Love shows up. Love keeps showing up, even when it’s dangerous.

Love is not careless or naïve. Love takes stock of the risk—but love is not deterred by risk. And neither are we.

Help us keep showing up for the people of Fallujah. 

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