We gather together in Jesus’ name Worship Leader: We gather together in Jesus’ name All: Help us to explore, discover and learn together  

They and their families fled to Iraq because of the war in Syria. We keep looking at photographs of refugees – but here are some photographs taken BY refugees. They are Syrian children and they live in Kawegosk Camp in Iraq. They and their families fled to Iraq because of the war in Syria. They were given cameras and asked to photograph their normal daily lives. Here’s what they wanted to share with you.. All Materials for this powerpoint were taken from http://www.france24.com/en/20150803-images-child-refugees-photos-come-paris-reza-syria-iraq-dream-humanity Children in the Kawergosk refugee camp – home to around 10,000 people – in Iraqi Kurdistan were asked to photograph their daily lives. "What they show is unheard of – something no reporter can access,” Reza said of the children’s photos. Reza launched the project in 2013 and opened a workshop at the camp to teach the children the basics of photography. A total of 20 children aged between 12 and 17 took part in the project. Unlike the images of refugee life usually seen in the media – a mother desperately reaching out for a food handout or the sick and injured awaiting medical aid – these photos capture the everyday reality of life in a refugee camp with a kind of genuine intimacy that can be all too easy to miss. What they show is unheard of – something no reporter can access,” Reza told France 24. “When a journalist goes to report, they stay three days and capture images that only symbolise life in the camps. The children … show life from an insider’s perspective and some of them do it with genius.” These photographs are to stimulate discussion, but for one of your Lent challenges you could make your own comparable set of images and create a display with the two sets side by side – invite your families in to see the results.

You can use these slides along with I Corinthians chp 12 vss 12-26 where Paul talks of the Church (and humanity) as a body where everyone should be respected and everyone is of worth. Ask the children to think of their own individual hopes, dreams and possibilities and consider what these photographs tell us of the individual hopes, dreams and possibilities of these Syrian photographers. If we are all one body these children have the same rights etc as they do and the same potential (as their carefully crafted and thoughtful photographs show).

In this photo by Maryam Husien, a child’s doll playing the violin is positioned in front of the camp’s fence, highlighting its residents’ confinement.

Maya Rostam, aged 11, said she wanted to “learn photography to be able to tell the world what I feel and how I live”.

A mirror captures the grey UNHCR tents in this photo by Zeraf Rasoul

11-year-old Maya Rostam took this photogrpah of her frozen shoes to explain why she was late to Reza’s workshop. "I had never been more touched by the symbolic power of an image,” said the photographer. © Maya Rostam

11-year-old Deliar Zeynal, described as “a little Salvador Dali” by Reza, took this photo of, in the photojournalist’s words, “a big pebble that resembles a chick pea” suspended in mid-air.

God our Father, We pray for the children and families who have left their homes and live in refugee camps. We ask that they will know they are cared for and loved by You, and that they have not been forgotten. Give them the strength to live with the problems of being in a camp, and we pray that it will soon be safe for them to return to their own land. Amen

Go in peace to discover God’s world and your place in it. Worship Leader: Go in peace to discover God’s world and your place in it. All: We go in Jesus’ name