It is difficult to fully explain everything that happens in war zones. The effects are far-reaching: displacement, the loss of homes and loved ones, the loss of personal memories, pain and trauma, interrupted education, and the loss of hope for a future.

But there is another reality that is seldom talked about: religious persecution. When conflict takes place along ethnic or religious lines, entire communities can become targets simply because of who they are or what they believe.

Humanitarian needs are urgent and visible, but the suffering caused by persecution is often less visible—and can be just as devastating. Triumphant Mercy was never specifically focused on religious persecution. Yet, somehow, God keeps placing people in our path who are suffering because of their faith, fleeing their communities, and searching for a safe place to begin again.

Lydia: A Pearl of Great Price

I climbed the stairs of a very old eight-story building and reached the rooftop, where I met a young woman we will call Lydia. She is around 25 years old. She greeted me with a smile and invited me into her tiny room. There were only two thin mattresses on the floor, a pile of clothes in one corner, and a tiny restroom with no shower and only a small sink.

I sat on the thin mattress that served as her bed and listened to her story. Lydia comes from a wealthy mixed Muslim family. Her parents strictly enforced their religious laws within the household. She was obedient, but she also had many questions—particularly about the role and treatment of women in Islam.

She is intelligent and carries within her the heart of an advocate for women. She began reading and questioning what she had been taught. Then a friend told her about Jesus, and she became fascinated by Him. Eventually, Jesus appeared to her in a dream comforting her. She describes it as light visiting her darkness.

When her father discovered that she was searching and questioning, he locked her inside the house and forbade her from seeing anyone. Lydia eventually defied her family and removed her veil. Her father and brother beat her so severely on the head that she had to be hospitalized. As a result of the beating, she lost hearing in one ear.

Her family then threatened to disown her and cut her off from any inheritance. With nowhere else to turn, Lydia fled to another city with nothing but the clothes she was wearing.

Because of the persecution and her hospitalization, she was unable to register for her final year of journalism studies at university.

She eventually found a church community. Some women at the church gave her clothes, but she was still living without the security of family, without sufficient money, and sometimes without enough food. And yet, Lydia is still a lioness.

With the candor that only someone her age, carrying such a painful past, can express, she looked at me and asked, How long will I have to suffer like this? There are questions for which we don't have easy answers.

I told her that she is a pearl of great price—and that a pearl is formed through intense pressure and suffering.

I prayed with her and helped her with some money to meet her immediate basic needs. But beyond the financial assistance, what Lydia needed most was to know that she was not forgotten.