Learning the Ropes

Evangeline
Feb 1, 2024
6 min read

Updated: Feb 1, 2024

Happiest new year to all of you!

Below you can find my updates from the first 3 months of my service in Lebanon.

Not much time to read? Here’s a summary:

The security situation in Beirut has stayed relatively stable, however more than 80,000 Lebanese have been displaced from southern villages by cross border shelling.
In an awesome answer to prayer, MERATH’s partner churches were able to distribute emergency aid to over 3,500 displaced Lebanese. We are also in the process of aiding an additional 4,500 vulnerable families in Lebanon and Syria with blankets and heating fuel in the freezing winter temperatures.
Over 26,000 civilians have been killed since the escalated conflict in the Gaza strip broke out, with no ceasefire in sight. The entire population of Gaza will be at risk of severe famine in the next month due to blockades.
My day-to-day work with THIMAR has been largely proposal and report development, research, and designing partner trainings.
In mid-December a team of MERATH staff and I travelled to Ethiopia to spend a wonderful few days training ministry leaders from Sudan in relief project management. CBM’er Joe Bridi joined us.
My Arabic classes continue. I am recognizing far more words! Arabic grammar remains mystifying.

Arabic word(s) of the month

Mastunka, meaning ‘puddle’ (there are lots of those in the rainy season), and saber, meaning ‘patience’ (much is needed)

Ways to pray

Joining the MERATH Team

As I mentioned in my last update, my position as a Canadian Baptist Ministries (CBM) representative lets me work in just about any ministry under the Thimar umbrella that I am invited into. But I have loved having my temporary 'home' with the MERATH relief and development team. My coworkers have been patient (and often hilarious) guides in learning how Thimar works and how ministry is done in the region.

Much of my day-to-day work is learning the CBM-MERATH project cycle and helping develop proposals and reports for the relief, education, and livelihood programs they partner on.

Photo: The MERATH dream team! And for the keen of eye, yes, they photoshopped me and another new coworker onto an older photo 😂 It's tough to get us all in country at the same time.

You can check out MERATH’s quarterly newsletter here.

Emergency Aid Distribution

In early October I helped MERATH develop proposals for emergency aid funding in response to conflict across the border with Israel. With support from organizations including CBM, MERATH has been able to distribute around 8400 blankets, 2700 mattresses, 540 food boxes, and 340 hygiene kits to displaced Lebanese families via local churches.

This really was a answer to prayer. As soon we got word of increasing pressure on churches to provide aid to the displaced, we began purchasing the aid supplies, praying that money needed would come in. And it did!! Praise God.

Here you can see an interview I helped conduct with Claudette, who we affectionately call “Coco”. She is a partner of MERATH and an absolute force, famous throughout the evangelical community for being a tireless organizer of aid. I was lucky to attend one of the distributions led by Coco’s team and chat with some participants. It was wonderful to see how aid recipients responded to the warmth and kindness of her volunteers.

Photo: Left: Some of Coco's volunteers. Right: A man and his 7 year old daughter pose next to the distribution site. The family was displaced from their home in the South of Lebanon by cross border air strikes. I was blessed to get to know the family (and challenge his daughter to a hula hoop contest! She won hands down. Or hands up?)

Winterization

A big project keeping the team at MERATH busy right now is winterization projects in Lebanon and Syria. You may be asking yourself “Does winter exist in the Middle East?”. I was also surprised to learn just how cold it gets here! This year MERATH partners are distributing blankets and vouchers for heating fuel to an estimated 4,500 households in Lebanon and Syria. Many of these families live in informal settlements with very little protection against the flooding and freezing temperatures.

What’s especially cool about this project is that MERATH has found a way to support partners on the procurement side too! Many blankets were sewn by students and employees of Tahaddi, an all-around awesome organization in Beirut’s Hay el Gharbeh shanty town that offers education, medical care, and livelihood programs to residents.

In another wonderful "Praise God!" moment, I got to play a bit of a match maker between our blanket supplier and a woman at my church also doing ministry with refugee communities. After the service we got talking and she mentioned she had visited several families in the Bekaa valley who were burning garbage inside their homes to stay warm. We were able to add in an order through our contacts at MERATH and, with the help of a generous donor, purchase 35 blankets set to be delivered this weekend. So cool.

Trip to Addis Ababa: Training with Sudanese Ministry Workers

This past November I was asked to spearhead a new training for ministry partners from Sudan.

Starting in April of 2023, brutal fighting between rival army factions has continued to tear Sudan apart, killing thousands of civilians. Many pastors have found themselves as essential supporters for displaced communities yet with little training about how to implement relief work.

In December 2023, eleven ministry workers from Sudan met with CBM and MERATH staff in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for an intensive two-day training. Most participants were Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS) graduates or contacts through the work of my CBM teammate, Joe Bridi. The training covered all parts of the relief project cycle from design to evaluation. We gave a special focus to teaching churches can avoid harm and protect the vulnerable during crisis situations.

Taking part in developing and delivering the training was an incredible experience for me. The training was a big success, and I hope to explore opportunities to offer similar workshops to other church groups in the MENA region. But more so, we as trainers were blown away by the professionalism, humility, kindness, and faith of the Sudanese ministry workers.

An especially impactful moment occurred when several participants learned that their city in Sudan had been surrounded by militia. The situation was severe; civilians were being killed in the streets indiscriminately. As we paused the training to pray in response, the Sudanese participants began to sing. We quickly recognized the tune of a well-known hymn:

“And now let the weak say ‘I am strong’,

let the poor say, ‘I am rich’,

because of what the Lord has done for us;

Give thanks…”

The meaning of the lyrics took on new meaning. Despite experiencing fear and grief, these believers responded with praise. Needless to say, we were humbled.

Personal Updates

Khalil continues his work as a pastor and humanitarian project manager with the Presbyterian church. Usually he preaches at a different church each Sunday, however with the changing security situation we got to stay put for a while at an urban Beirut church not far from our house.

We have loved building relationships with the families there. I helped direct the children’s Christmas pageant, which was a blast! Only a couple fist fights between angels and Wisemen to break up.

As for Arabic, my learning adventure continues. I am taking classes three times a week and am given plenty of practice trying to keep up with my coworkers and new in-laws.

In our down time, and as the situation allows, we’ve really enjoyed hiking. I’ve even found a local climbing wall and a belay buddy. Cookie the dog sends you her Christmas greetings.

Updates on Regional Conflicts

At my last update, international NGO workers were being urged to leave Lebanon due to fears of a land invasion from the south. While there have been a few unsettling events, such as the assassination of a high-ranking Hamas official in a Beirut suburb, I’m happy to say that life has stayed much the same for those of us in Beirut and further north. Many foreign workers who left in October have begun to return and airlines are restarting flights.

The greatest impact of the conflict has been felt by Lebanese living in the south. Over 80,000 Lebanese from southern villages have fled heightened air strikes from across the border. All southern communities, most of whom rely on olive farming, are suffering economically from the loss of the harvest.

On the other side of the border in Palestine, the numbers of those killed over mere months is unthinkable – more than 26,000, 10,000 of which are children.

This past week I was invited to take photos at a distribution of blankets and fuel vouchers at a local church. One adorable little girl had fallen asleep while her parents waited. Her mother wrapped her in the fuzzy blue blanket provided and laid her on a church pew for a nap. The family was happy for me to snap a couple photos. As I did, I began to feel a knot tightening in my stomach. How many similar photos had I seen on the news of identical little girls in Gaza, wrapped in their mothers’ arms, but not asleep. A mix of grief and shame hit me in a fresh wave.

Recently numerous Western countries, including Canada, have canceled their contributions to UNRWA, the UN organization responsible for the majority of aid to Palestine. Without an immediate intervention, millions of people in Gaza are expected to face starvation and famine-related diseases within the next month.

Please join us in praying for God to move powerfully in this region. And please share stories of our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land. May our leaders act quickly to save so many innocent lives.

Thank you

You made it! Thank you for reading all of this. And thank you for your partnership and your prayers. They are needed, and they make a difference.

With your support I’ve been able to fundraise 75% of my needed amount for each year in mission. Wow! It’s not a cliché to say that I can’t do this work without you 🙂

Warmest wishes to you and yours in 2024.

Salam,

Evie