Streets littered with gun shells. A kitchen filled with shattered coffee mugs and broken dinner plates. Walls, once painted beautiful shades, now pitch black from smoke.
This is what many Iraqis are finding as they return to their hometowns recently liberated from ISIS. After months of living in crowded camps or apartments, they are excited to go back home. What they often find, however, is no longer a place of refuge. It is now a miserable, war-torn picture of discouragement.
Currently CAM staff members and volunteers are living in one of these towns on the outskirts of ancient Nineveh (now Mosul). The town, home to many Christians, suffered severely at the hand of ISIS. The blow of machine guns, fires, and bombs has left the area in shambles. The road to recovery will be long and hard.
CAM is attempting to bring hope in the midst of this devastation. Volunteers are stepping inside homes and extending the love and compassion of Jesus. CAM volunteers are bringing courage to families as they dig in and clean up their burned-out houses—washing down walls with pressure washers, scraping plaster from damaged walls, and hauling away loads of rubble. As Iraqi family members work alongside our teams, they are daring to dream that one day their burned out houses can again be their homes.
