Bread of Life: Rangers Bring Help, Hope, and Love to Northern Syria

Rangers provide displaced families with food during a relief program in northern Syria.

The Free Burma Rangers have long-term relationships in northern Iraq and Syria. Ever since 2016, we have gone on missions in Syria to help the people displaced by ISIS and to assist the SDF units that fought to stop them. We were at Bagouz, the last stronghold of ISIS, in 2019 as the caliphate fell apart, to provide medical care and other humanitarian assistance not only to the displaced people but to the ISIS families that surrendered as well. Later, one of our team members from Burma, Zau Seng, was killed trying to stop a jihadi force called the Syrian National Army that was supported by Turkey during the invasion in the fall of 2019. Since then, we have done yearly missions and helped to build schools, churches, and a hospital (named for Zau) as well as continued humanitarian assistance to those in need. So, on January 26th, 2026, when a new crisis developed, we sent a team to bring the help, hope, and love of Jesus to the people of northeast Syria. 

The crisis started when peace talks between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the HTS-founded Syrian government in Damascus stalled. The Syrian government responded by launching an offensive on SDF-held territory in northern Syria, forcing tens of thousands of civilian Kurds, Christians, and Arabs to flee the fighting. 

Many IDP families live in a converted school after fleeing the Syrian government's assault on the SDF enclave of Northeast Syria.

The Internally Displaced People (IDPs) filled up schools, mosques, and churches to escape a cold and wet winter. The attack had come so suddenly that most people did not have time to pack many things, including necessities like food and warm clothing. We spent the next two weeks conducting 10 Good Life Club (GLC) programs and giving out food, clean water, generators, heaters, and relief funds to almost 350 families. Though we had some resources to give, ultimately, we could make only a small dent in the immense needs of the displaced people. Our goal was to bring as much relief as we could to ease their physical needs while also sharing the love of Jesus. The team shared the Gospel many times during the mission, but in the predominantly Muslim Middle East, becoming a Christian can mean ostracization from your community, friends, and family.

Thousands of displaced families rely on propane for heat and cooking, and have been forced to ration their precious propane stores during the wet winter season.

One day toward the end of the mission, the team had one quick stop to make after a full day of GLC programs and food distributions. The plan was to drop a few dozen food packs and head back to our accommodations for the night. It seemed like one of the smallest stops after a week of helping at larger IDP centers in Rojava. 

FBR vehicles are marked so aircraft and drones will know they are humanitarian relief.

As we pulled up to a small school housing displaced families, one man looked blankly at our small convoy and simply sat down on the curb. In most distributions we run in the Middle East, we have to carefully organize them or be overwhelmed by the crush of desperate people seeking relief. Most IDPs are worried about missing out and will push and shove to the front, arms outstretched for the bag of rice or medicine that might save their family. 

But not this man. He just sat on the curb watching us unload the food boxes, seemingly indifferent to what was going on around him. Ibrahim, a Kurdish FBR volunteer and one of our most passionate evangelists, noticed this man sitting on the ground. He approached him and asked what was wrong. The man sitting on the curb was named Mohammed. He told Ibrahim that he had been forced to gather his family so quickly to avoid the hostile takeover of his home city of Raqqa that he did not bring a single extra article of clothing. He said that his shirt had not been washed since before his son was killed two weeks ago by forces supporting the new Syrian government.

Mohammed relayed his grief. "They came in the name of their god," he said, referring to the Damascus forces that often display jihadist behavior. They had killed his son and forced him and his family out of their home. His family was now crammed in the small school building with 15 other families. The staff of the school tried to encourage him after the loss of his son, but he was still completely hopeless.

Ibrahim asked two other team members, Jeremy and Frank, to help him share the love and hope of Jesus with Mohammed. Frank prayed with him and explained the Gospel before quoting Romans 10:9: “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Mohammed said only one thing in reply: "I want to follow Jesus now."

Ibrahim prayed with Mohammed, ensuring he understood the choice he was making and led him through confessing his sin and placing all his trust and hope in Jesus. The team was overjoyed. After so many large distributions and big GLCs, it was easy to expect the same polite disinterest in the gospel, but instead, at this small school, in an instant, a life had changed forever. Our team brought in food, which, though sorely needed, would get eaten up in a few weeks. This man discovered the bread of life.

We pray for every man, woman, and child in northern Syria to find the hope and peace of Jesus.

A few days later, Ibrahim, Frank, and Zach met with Mohammed and the local Kurdish Christian pastor to foster understanding of the faith to Mohammed’s family, who came to the meeting to learn more. Mohammed listened intently as his family members asked questions about the hope of Jesus and what loving your enemies means in the face of hostile violence. Mohammed’s nephew, a young man who fled with him, angrily asked how he could forgive the jihadis who decapitated his relative only a few weeks before. Frank, our team chaplain, sat with him in sadness, sharing his grief, and shared the truth that following Jesus means things often get more difficult, not easier. He told him all people are entitled to self-defense, but forgiveness is the defining trait of the Christian, because we ourselves have been forgiven so much. Mohammed’s nephew hugged us and prayed with us along with Mohammed, who seemed deeply curious about this new love.

Even in the midst of displacement, grief, and uncertainty, this mission showed that small acts of compassion can carry eternal significance. While the team provided practical aid to hundreds of families, Mohammed’s decision to follow Jesus reminded us that there is a hope beyond material support. We thank God for the local partners and Rangers serving in Syria, who made this mission possible. We continue to pray for lasting peace in northern Syria and for the many families still suffering, trusting that God will use both relief efforts and simple connections to bring healing, unity, and enduring hope.

The Free Burma Rangers