On the inside, many of the buildings were blackened with soot following random explosions. I watched as a large piece of corrugated iron fell in the wind and a door banged backwards and forwards on one hinge. Many of the shop fronts up and down the street lied open and exposed to the elements. Theirs, like other similar family businesses, had been passed down over the generations.Īnd now, they were the first business on the street to be up and running. The men in the family once had a mechanic shop. We were here to help them take the first step in the process, offering a small spark of hope despite the destruction. They decided to return and begin to rebuild and reclaim their homeland. Yet, like the cross they placed at the entrance to their city, hope remains. The level of destruction brought this into sharp relief. They were caught between longing to return to the lives they left behind, yet scared of what the future would bring. It was an emotional experience, being with them as they witnessed such destruction. This was their first trip to their hometown-to the places where they got married and gave birth to their children. Until this day, the women had not returned. ISIS had systematically gone from house to house, defiling and destroying each home. Even the graveyards had been ransacked and the bones scattered across the earth for the wild animals. Bibles and religious books lied burnt in large piles. Now the second shock: the Islamic State had blown up and deliberately destroyed the Christians’ homes, businesses, and churches.Ĭrosses on church steeples were destroyed. They have lived in this area since the first century, when Thomas the Apostle passed through here, sharing the good news of Jesus as he made his way to India and China. The first shock was the expulsion of Christians. Not long ago, the men of the family were the first to return in order to survey what had happened to their homes and businesses. Betrayed by both the Iraqi central government and the Kurds, these Christians were left defenseless when ISIS attacked. “Liberated,” the families told us, “but not free.”īooby traps and land mines have to be cleared. The women were taken as sex slaves.Īfter three years of living in the cramped conditions of temporary camps in Iraq’s northern region of Kurdistan, their towns have finally been liberated. Those who did not get out in time were caught, tortured, and forced to convert to Islam. But before long they rescinded the offer to accept a tax, and instead they killed or enslaved those who did not covert. The first they knew of the attack was the shelling that killed a woman and two children.Īs ISIS seized territory across Mosul and Nineveh, they initially gave Christians and other non-Muslims three options: convert, pay a tax, or die. They fled in August 2014, when the Islamic State invaded their Christian town. We traveled with five families who were returning to their former homes for the first time. Once thriving, vibrant, green communities, today the churches, homes, and businesses were in ruins, having been decimated by the Islamic State (ISIS, or IS). The spring rains were over, and the countryside was slowly becoming dusty as the searing heat of the summer approached.Īfter passing multiple checkpoints, we finally turned the cars towards devastated Christian villages. Last month we drove in a convoy across the Nineveh Plains, Iraq. Travels to Queregosh: Christians Return to the Nineveh Plains after Islamic State Leaves
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