Summer Camp & New Seeds
- Evangeline
- Aug 12, 2024
- 7 min read
Warm greetings from a warm and humid Beirut! It has been a wonderfully busy summer season. Check out my May – August updates below.
Photo: School boys goofing around during break time. They attend an education centre hosted by a church in the Beqaa valley. Most students are the children of Syrian refugees who work in the farming fields nearby.
Not much time to read? Here’s a summary:
Lebanon is once again on high alert following the assassinations of major Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
Working with kids in summer camps, day camps, and conferences has been the highlight of my summer
I helped roll out two training conferences – one for children's ministry workers and one for teachers at non-formal education centres.
The UN has officially declared famine in parts of Sudan - one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. MERATH is working to develop a new basic assistance project with local Sudanese pastors.
I’m travelling to Canada this winter for my first homestay. I would love to meet with you.
Arabic word(s) of the month
Ways to pray
Updates on Regional Conflicts
Tensions in the region have once again spiked following two assassinations in close succession last week. The first was the killing of a Hezbollah military leader by drone attack in a densely populated southern suburb of Beirut. The second was the killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh while he was in Iran. Since then, the US has positioned more ships in the Mediterranean. Everyone is holding their breath for the anticipated response from Iran and Hezbollah. Assumedly to intimidate the population, IDF jets are frequently breaking the sound barrier above Beirut, which creates loud 'sonic booms'. The impact (strong enough to shake buildings) sounds and feels very similar to a nearby airstrike, which is very scary.
Once again airlines are cancelling flights and embassies are putting increasing pressure on foreigners to leave. Khalil and I have worked with CBM to create contingency plans in case of a severe escalation, but we have no plans to leave. With the increase of strikes along the southern highways, Khalil will delay his ministry visits to Tyre for a week or so. Otherwise, we feel safe, and our ministries continue as normal.
Teacher Trainings
Photo 1: Here I am posing with a handful of teachers who attended my “Brain Body Smarts” training in July.
Photo 2: Sunday school teachers complete an activity where they visually map out their communities to discover new opportunities for outreach
I was thrilled to work with THIMAR colleagues in developing two training conferences this season.
The first was a “Brain Body Smarts” workshop for teachers at a handful of non-formal education centres supported by the Evangelical church in Lebanon. As I mentioned in my previous update, such centres fill a critical gap for low income and refugee children who are not able to access, or are not successfully learning in, mainstream schools.
The directors of the centres shared that the most pressing learning needs of their teachers is student behaviour management. Students have disproportionately high behavioural needs resulting from war time trauma, adverse early childhood experiences, or years spent outside of formal education.
In response, I worked with my brilliant THIMAR colleague, Ghinwa, who is trained in T.B.R.I., to put together a workshop exploring how brains and bodies develop in kids coming from difficult backgrounds, and how we can use that knowledge to help kids find better behavioural strategies in the classroom. I find this stuff completely fascinating! And so encouraging for kiddos and teachers facing massive challenges. We rolled out our first training for 4 education centres this past July and hope to expand the workshops to MERATH’s 4 other centres this fall.
The second training was in partnership with THIMAR’s church equipping ministry, Salt and Light, and Grain of Wheat Syria. In July Pastor Larry and Pastor Anto gave a 3 day “children’s ministry 101” boot-camp/pep-talk to 75 leaders from several churches. We took the participants through everything from planning a Sunday school lesson to mapping out their communities to look for new outreach opportunities. The energy and passion in the room was awesome!
Please pray with us that will not be just another training but the start of a larger shift in the church to honour and prioritize child discipleship.
Summer Camp-o-rama
Shots from a sleep away summer camp for kids at the Dhour Chouier Retreat Centre.
It was a real joy for Khalil and I to be invited to help organize several summer camps for evangelical churches in Lebanon. Above are photos from a 4 day sleep away camp for ages 6 – 13. The campers spent the days singing worship songs, learning about the story of Daniel, and playing games. For most kids their highlight was a night game during which they were chased around by ‘aliens’ – leaders with glow sticks and kitchen bowls for hats. I have missed working with kids and loved the opportunity to get back in touch with my silly side!
Meet Rim's Family
Scroll through to see a snapshot of life from a family supported by the ministry of a CBM/MERATH supported church in the Beqaa valley.
A highlight of the last season was meeting Rim and her family. Rim and her husband, originally from Syria, have 4 children – 2 of which attend a CBM-supported education project. Each day Mohammad and Sara walk an hour to and from the church where the classes are held.
This spring I was blessed to spend an afternoon with the family. While my colleague was interviewing Rim about the project, 13 year old Sara, 9 year old Lama, and endlessly energetic 4 year old Boudi gave me a memorable tour of the small compound of tents they live in next to the fields their parents work in.
Check out the photos above for a slice of life from one of the many Syrian families living in Lebanon.
My MERATH colleague Sophie put together two beautiful short videos with stories from the education centre. You can see them here:
Peacebuilding through education – Meet Rim:
Protecting Vulnerable Children – Meet Zeinab:
Ministry Spotlight: Supporting New Churches
Children colour while listening to a Bible story. At a day camp Khalil and I organized.
THIMAR’s ministry for church support and development, Salt & Light, is involved in a very cool ministry equipping two new churches that came out of a traditionally non-Christian area in Lebanon (community not named for security reasons). This June, Khalil and I were brought in to run children’s programming for a conference ministering to these churches. Their story is too cool not to share! Here’s the summary:
A few decades back a solo female missionary from the Netherlands felt called to share the gospel with a community in Lebanon that is well known for their fierce resistance to Christian presence among them. She moved to the community and began teaching and leading bible studies for only a short time before she was driven from the community. Discouraged, she left Lebanon and never returned.
Fast forward many years later. A young man that she had shared the gospel with began to have dreams in which Jesus talked with him. Soon after he came across a Bible by chance and remembered what the missionary had shared with him. Transformed by what he was experiencing, he began to share the gospel with his community. Despite persecution from that same community, over 20 families (and growing!) have come to Christ because of him! THIMAR and their multiple ministries now works to help the churches with teaching resources, leader training, children’s education, and so on. Praise God for the good fruit coming out of these churches.
Personal Updates
Khalil and I on one of our hikes this summer. It’s sweaty work in the humidity but the views are unbeatable.
Exciting news – this winter I will be visiting home! I will be in Canada at Christmas for some much-needed time with family, including an expected brand-new niece or nephew 😊 It will also give me space to connect with my CBM community in Alberta and BC. I would absolutely love to connect with as many of you as I can while back home. If you would like to set up a coffee, please do send me an email and I’ll do my utmost to make it happen!
We hoped that this trip would be Khalil’s chance to meet the in laws while experiencing a Canadian Christmas. Sadly, Khalil’s application for a visitor visa to Canada was just rejected. To be honest, this one feels like a punch in the gut. We were surprised and disappointed, as many people we talked to believed there wouldn’t be an issue with visas once we were married. We will try to appeal the decision - your prayers are very much appreciated.
Fundraising Update
I am currently fundraising for my second year of service. I am just about 50% there! I can’t thank you enough for your support. If you know of a person or a church that might be interested in partnering with me, I would so appreciate you passing on my information or vis versa.
Ending Thought
Chatting in the car on our way home from the conference for the two new churches, Khalil and I felt blown away by the optimism and enthusiasm of the people we had met. It felt like a passion that we rarely see in our established churches in Lebanon and in the west.
We were reminded of the parable in Luke where the master invites many people to a huge party. When all the guests make excuses to not attend, the master tells the servant to “‘go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame” and beyond until his house is full.
It seems to be a theme in the Bible that if God can’t find soft hearts among his established people (or ‘church’), He will go instead to other communities where there are open ears and willing hearts. Could this be what we’re seeing? And in the huge waves of new believers from the Kurdish community in Syria as well? Praise God! But perhaps it’s a sobering wakeup call as well. May we not grow so comfortable, or so consumed with our challenges, that we miss something critical that God is speaking.
Salam,
Evie
