Stories

*NOTE* This article was originally posted on Missions Network News. You can read the original article here.

Lebanon (MNN) — Lebanon’s financial crisis could be one of the worst in the world since the 1800s, financial experts say. Learn more here.

Christian ministries in the country continue to provide food and other resources to those in need, but they also want to see healing in Lebanese society through sustainable growth.

Providing people jobs

Nuna with Triumphant Mercy Lebanon says, “We have visited people who just say, ‘I don’t want your help, I want you to provide me a job.’ So many people have said this, so this is what we’re trying to do. I know we cannot do much. I know we cannot provide like 100,000 jobs. This is something a government can do, but we can start to do small things.”

Nuna says they place some people working with children, some working in the kitchen on dehydrated food, and others teaching soccer or dance. These are very small jobs, but they provide people with a little income.

Healing

They also provide community and outlets for creativity. Nuna says, “When you’re in a depression, you cannot be creative. So we have groups of people who do some trauma healing.”

As people work and share their lives together, Nuna says it’s a good opportunity to share the hope of Jesus. “It’s quite easy actually to share the Gospel, to share the hope of Jesus. We say there is a way to get out of what we are in. And this is Jesus. That’s very acceptable in people’s minds. They are just open for it all the time.”

Stories

A couple hundred used water bottles and cardboard boxes sit in the corner of the center. Little do they know, what excitement they hold. It looks like a pile of trash, but this “trash” will become some very interesting things in the next few weeks. One of the kid’s favorite portions of our summer camp has been the experiments. From Lava lamps, mini water fountains to making balloon-powered cars this pile of plastic bottles is slowly dwindling as the numbers for the camp are growing. Also growing is an excited and a sense of creation. Right now, even as I write, there is a volcano being formed behind me. The teenager group “remodeling” it for the third time to make it look as realistic as possible before they do the explosion.

We started camp with a smaller group as some parents are still wary from Covid, but each week more kids come as kids hear from their neighbors about what’s happening in camp and ask their parents to register them. From experiments to cooking, crafts, dance, music and outdoor games each group gets their chance to experience a sense that they are creating something, a car that moves on it’s own, a beautiful card for a friend, a song or maybe even a waffle. Each day holds something new and each day they are waiting at the door when 9:00 am rolls around. Some showing up half an hour early to make sure they aren’t late.

Yesterday, one of our students who goes to an English-speaking school wrote us a thank you letter. Talking about his love for the teachers and the other kids and his excitement for the camp each day. Lebanon is suffering right now, and it needs creators. Those who look at what they have; something that looks like a pile of trash, and sees something new, something beautiful and something exciting. This is why we call them to create, God created, and we are made in His image, so we create also.

We want to instill in this next generation that creation mindset. One that may be handed one thing but from love, hard work and dedication they choose to redeem it and make it something beautiful.