Crossing into Jordan (to Escape Persecution)

From CNN:

Amman, Jordan (CNN) — They arrived at the church with only what they could carry: clothes, pictures and a few family heirlooms.

It’s all that is left of a life before the Islamic State terror group swept into northern Iraq, giving the Christians of Qaraqosh and Mosul an ultimatum: Convert, leave or die.

Most, like Ammar Zaki and his family, fled first to the relative safety of Iraq’s Kurdish capital of Irbil and then made their way to Amman, Jordan, where they found sanctuary in a church.

Roughly 100 Iraqi Christians are being sheltered at St. Mary’s Church in the Marka neighborhood of Amman. Their sanctuary offers little more than floor mats and a roof, but it’s a welcome haven after fleeing ISIS persecution.

“Jesus Christ told people, ‘leave everything and follow me,’ ” Zaki said, cradling his 9-month-old daughter, Athena. “So we did.”

The stress and strain of the journey show in Zaki’s tired eyes.

“We had to leave everything and go … to be Christian, to stay in my religion,” he said….

Sitting on a plastic chair in his living room across the street from the church, sipping hot Turkish coffee under a poster of Pope Francis, 60-year-old Basem Peter Rafael takes a drag from his cigarette.

He points to 1991 as the start of Iraq’s problems: the Persian Gulf War.

Back then, he says, he named his son Salam — Arabic for peace — “because we were waiting for peace.”

“Now he is 23, and still we are waiting,” he said.