A displaced persons camp in northern Iraq near Kurdistan
Her family has been living four months in a camp for displaced persons after they lost their home in Qarakosh, Iraq to ISIS – yet 10-year-old Myriam’s beautiful, unearthly faith and forgiveness in the face of tragedy bring tears to the eyes of the reporter interviewing her.
In August, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians fled before Islamic State militants. There are now over 2 million displaced Iraqis living in camps, and young Myriam’s family is one of them.
“We used to have a house and were entertained,” and Myriam doesn’t have that in the camp for displaced people, she explains to a reporter with SAT-7 Arabic, “But thank God, God provides for us.”
“What do you mean God provides for you?” asked the reporter.
“God loves us, and wouldn’t let ISIS kill us,” she replies without hesitation. “God loves us all, not just me, God loves everybody.”
“Do you also think God loves those who harmed you [ISIS], or not?” the reporter said.
“He loves them, but he doesn’t love Satan,” Myriam replied.
“What are your feelings to those who drove you out of your home and caused your hardships?” he asked. “I won’t do anything to them, I only ask God to forgive them,” she answered.
The reporter asked her if it is hard to forgive ISIS, and Myriam replied: “I won’t kill them; why kill them? I’m just sad they drove us out of our homes; why did they do that?”
He talks to her about the school she left, where she was first in her class, and a friend she had named Sandra. There is pain in her eyes as she explains that she cannot find her friend at the camp. But she brightens when the reporter suggests that they will perhaps meet again.
“Hopefully,” she says. “I hope we go back home, and she goes back home.”
“I hope you go back to a home that’s better than your first home,” says the reporter smiling in an effort to cheer Myriam.
She looks heavenward, “If God so wants.”
“Not because we want, but God, because he knows,” she adds.
“Don’t you sometimes feel sad? Do you feel Jesus has abandoned you, for example?” says the reporter.
“No, sometimes I cry because we left our home and Qaraquosh, but I’m not angry at God because we left Qaraquosh,” said Myriam. “I thank Him because He provided us, even if we’re suffering here, He provides for us.”
“You taught me so many things,” says the SAT-7 reporter, clearly moved.
Myriam thanks him for feeling for her. “You felt for me. I had some feelings and I wanted people to know how I feel, the children here,” she adds.
“If you’re a true believer, [Jesus] will never forsake you,” Myriam said.
He asks her if she remembers any songs.
He’s in tears as she sings this beautiful song: “How beautiful is the day on which I believed in Christ; my joy was made complete at dawn, and my voice sang with gratitude… A new life, a joyful day, when I reunite with my Beloved.”