Young Leaders & Chocolate Cake
- Evangeline
- May 10
- 7 min read
It’s been 3 months since I returned from my trip to Canada. See below to catch up on what I’ve been keeping busy with since then.
A special welcome to new followers of this blog!
Not much time to read? Here’s a summary:
The ceasefire between the IDF and Hezbollah hangs by a thread as drone attacks hit southern Lebanon weekly, Beirut occasionally.
On March 6 more than 300 Alawite community members were killed in a massacre near Latakia. Large numbers of Alawites and Christians have fled to Lebanon. Lebanese churches are responding to their needs.
Requests for trauma healing and trauma-aware training continues to grow. I helped to coordinate two such trainings this spring.
I’m working on a cool new thing! THIMAR is constructing a mentorship program for Christian young adults to encourage them to engage in local mission.
All systems go for planning summer camps. The curriculum I developed for Canadian summer camps is now live. Check it out and use it for free.
The CBM MENA team was blessed with our first ever retreat, joined by members of the main office in Canada.
Arabic word(s) of the month
Ways to pray
Updates on Regional Conflicts
Photo: A father carries his daughter fleeing into North Lebanon. Photo courtesy of THIMAR.
A ceasefire between the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and armed groups in Lebanon remains in theory, but not quite in practice. Drone attacks hit southern regions of Lebanon on a weekly basis. South Beirut has been hit a handful of times since the new year, most recently two weeks ago.
Sadly, fears of an eruption of sectarian conflict in Syria following the regime change has been realized. On March 6 more than 300 Alawite community members were massacred near Latakia – a coastal area of Syria that remained relatively untouched by the civil war. The massacre is thought to have been in retaliation for attacks on government forces by pro-Assad Alawite armed groups. Alawites are an offshoot of Islam and the sect that the Assad leaders come from.
In late April Druze communities in the suburbs of Damascus were attacked by Sunni armed groups after a voice recording attributed to a Druze man cursing the Prophet Mohammed was widely shared on social media. Shortly after, the IDF began airstrikes on Syria allegedly in support of the Druze victims. Druze leaders have stated that the recording was fabricated and have condemned the violence along with the new Syrian government.
Minority groups in Syria – including Christians, Druze, and Alawites – increasingly fear that government does not have the control necessary to rein in fringe militia, protect minority groups from violence, or bring perpetrators to justice. There are further worries that in efforts to placate more conservative Muslim parties, government groups could pressure churches to limit activities such as holding youth retreats in which both young men and women are present.
I talked to church members in North Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley who are seeing large numbers of Alawites and Christians flee to their areas. Most were forced to flee quickly and have little resources with them.
To see how churches are responding, watch this video featuring Pastor Bahaa.
Pastor Bahaa is a current ABTS student and leads a church that CBM has previously partnered with on a sustainable agriculture program.
Crisis Response Update
Of the million+ people displaced by the war in Lebanon last year, the UNCHR estimates that up to 98,000 remain. MERATH is coming to the end of distributing items specifically for crisis response but will continue to work with churches to support vulnerable families in the long term. At the end of this blog you can read a story of one such families I was lucky to meet.
Over the last year THIMAR supported more than 65,000 people with basic food assistance through MERATH and its partners. That's remarkable for an NGO of its size! We praise God for the generosity of people like you that made this possible.
Trauma-Aware Training
Photo: Staff working with vulnerable women role play scenarios as part of a Trauma-Awareness training.
It's well known that crises and poverty disproportionally impact women. The war in Lebanon and ever-growing humanitarian needs have followed this trend, exposing women to greater gender-based violence (GBV) and exploitation.
My team at MERATH is working hard to get a brand new GBV project for women in Lebanon off the ground. My part was to help plan a three-day training providing trauma-informed care training to the staff set to run the program. We’re grateful for Dr. Helen coming all the way from the UK to train us! See some photos of the training above.
The need for trauma-awareness training is just as high for those that work with children. THIMAR supports six education centers and two child friendly spaces that provided psychosocial support to 2,400 vulnerable children in 2024.
I was asked to assist educators at these centres by developing a “Brain Body Smarts” workshop. The full day training covered how to spot signs of trauma (as well as adverse childhood experiences and sensory processing issues) in students and respond in appropriate ways. My colleagues and I gave special emphasis to non-harmful behaviour management strategies at the request of teachers. Many feel like they are ‘drowning’ in behavioural challenges from children with difficult backgrounds.
A highlight from a recent training was seeing a group of volunteers act out what it would be like to drive a car if that car was a child’s brain with trauma. In effect, the car’s gas (the amygdala) would be floored, the breaks (cerebral cortex) impaired, and the map (hippocampus) flipped upside down. As you can imagine, chaos ensued! It was wonderful to have some laughs while learning about an important topic.
New Ministry Alert: Young Adult Retreats
Photo: Young adults at the April Retreat, topic "Knowing Your History"
My time spent in Canada during the winter gave me much needed time to refresh and refocus. I came back itching to jump back in. One caffeinated morning I assaulted (not really) Wissam, Thimar’s C.O.O., with my recharged enthusiasm. I was thus granted permission to give input on his exciting new project: a training program for young adults in Lebanon’s evangelical churches! The vison is to create a local movement of mission-minded young-people within Lebanon as to no longer rely on the long tradition of international missionaries sent to the Middle East.
Right now we're sticking to bimonthly retreats where young adults learn about God’s heart for mission, the legacy of mission that their churches are a part of, their individual giftings, and their context. We hope to grow this into a three-year program with mentorship and internship elements.
We still need a name for the program. Got a good idea? Message me!
Summer Camp Curriculum
Further on the topic of ‘youngins’; most of my February was spent creating curriculum for Canadian summer camps to use in teaching campers about CBM and international missions. CBM offered me the project given my background running summer camp, and I couldn’t resist!
Based on feedback from camps, I created ‘plug and play’ resources that leaders can use without much prep work. The activities and stories are centered on three ‘big ideas' to remember when working to help people: 1) God has given us special instruction to take care of the stranger, 2) We need to use both our hands and our words to show God’s love, and 3) we should do everything through partnership, remembering that those we help have just as much capacity to help us in return. Kuddos to the CBM coms team for their stellar graphic design work.
The resources don’t cost a penny for churches or families to use and are now LIVE! Check them out here.
CBM MENA Retreat
Photo: Showing CBM visitors around a leafy cafe district in Beirut. It was a highlight of the spring for me!
While I am technically embedded with CBM’s partner in Lebanon, Thimar, I am also part of CBM’s MENA (Middle East and North Africa) team with 5 others. Those are: Elie & Mirelle Haddad, Emad and Almess Boutros. and Rabih Wazir. They are all incredibly high-capacity individuals and faithful workers for the kingdom.
We rarely meet as our work seldom overlaps; we were therefore thrilled to have our first ever team retreat! We were additionally blessed to be joined by three members of the head office in Canada. Helle, Robin, and Julia were all champs, taking sandstorm and air strike warnings in stride.
Fundraising Update
I am just over 25% of the way there for my yearly fundraising goal. If my monthly donors continue to donate until the end of the year, but I receive no new supporters, I’ll be at 70% by December (30% short of my goal). If you are not already a monthly donor, would you consider becoming one? My gratitude for your partnership in this work.
Ending Thought: Chocolate cake
In March I was blessed to meet Suzanne, a participant in one of the basic assistance programs supported by CBM via a local church.
Suzanne is a wonderful woman and mother to 4 with a sweet smile and powerful hug. 3 of her children have disabilities, including a daughter who suffered a brain injury at birth and is partially paralyzed.
This winter was especially hard. Her husband, the breadwinner of the family, was injured on the job and can’t work, driving the family into deeper debt while medical bills continued to pile up. You can read Suzanne’s full story here.
Suzanne's family has been adopted by CBM’s partner church in the Bekaa Valley and regularly receives food boxes as well as gas for heating during the cold months.
What stuck with me after our meeting was the warmth and joy in that house. Suzanne had us close to tears in laughter telling stories of driving a car around town that wouldn’t shift to reverse when she didn't have the money to fix it. And I loved watching the joy a church staff member, now like an uncle to the family, goofing around with Suzanne’s boys. The photo of the moment (shown above) has become one of my favourites.
What also touched was the generosity we witnessed. Suzanne welcomed us with a large chocolate cake, which we later learned was made using the limited flour she receives as part of her food box.
As so often happens in these meetings, we were humbled. And reminded of a strange fact of our reality, that tears and laughter, as well as scarcity and abundance, are such easy neighbours.
Salam,
Evie
