Blessed School - June 2021 Update
A team from The Outreach Foundation (Jack Baca, Julie Burgess, Mark Mueller, Nuhad Tomeh, Marilyn Borst) just returned from a 2-week journey to Lebanon, our first post-pandemic trip. We traveled to encourage our partners there who have been through so much over the past 19 months: a collapse of their government and the economy; the pandemic and its necessary lockdowns; the cataclysmic explosion in the port of Beirut on August 4th which left over 200 dead, 6,500 injured and 300,000 homeless. One of those partners we visited serves children and young adults with severe autism. Julie Burgess shares her experience here….
The person who thinks that when an immovable object meets an irresistible force that nothing happens has probably never met Linda Maktaby. Linda, a graduate of the Near East School of Theology in Beirut, is the executive director of Blessed School, a ministry established by the English in 1868 originally as a school for the blind. 153 years later, it still serves those with vision impairments, but its main focus now is on those with disabilities on the autism spectrum. As we sat with Linda, we encountered another fully-turned-on spigot freely flowing with the love of Jesus. If the firehose analogy can be used again here, encountering Linda will leave you drenched with that love.
There was no way my note-taking pen could match the speed of her words as she explained what the Beirut port blast on August 4th, combined with the collapse of government and economy, had inflicted on her ministry. The salaries of her 39 staff had been diminished to one-tenth received previously, even as the cost of food and supplies had increased tenfold. Stop and think about that for a minute and relate it to your own daily living expenses. Without confusing you with the math of exchange rates, whether government-mandated or on the open market, the cost to feed ten people would now only feed one. And you were trying to do that with $10 worth of income that used to be $100.
Now sit with Linda and hear the good news about Jesus and his love and the plans he has for the students of Blessed. These are students whose families are impoverished. Their needs are great, and no other institution will take them. Many are non-verbal, and unfamiliar faces and places cause extreme anxiety, which can result in lashing out or striking people. But, after a week in the loving care of Blessed, their families are amazed at videos of their children speaking and even sitting still.
Blessed is in the area known as Achrifieh, and you can see the port from there. It was in direct line of the blast, which has been compared to the explosion of the atom bomb. That was eight months ago, and as we walked through the now repaired and refurnished buildings, Linda points out new roof overhangs, new windows and new door blinds with the refrain, “You (The Outreach Foundation) did that. You did that.” For my church and the many other congregations and individuals who have joined in the work of The Outreach Foundation over the decades, the evidence of God’s good plans in the midst of the evil and chaos that crises bring is all around us. In his provision, students were not in the school when the blast happened, nor were the staff. As we stood in one of the dorm rooms, Linda pointed out that the sleep-in staff for that room had left two days before. The bed where they would have slept was crushed by the blast, and small shards of glass still shimmered where they were embedded in the wall above.
Linda showed us the beautiful arts and crafts that students have been making, from mosaics to baskets to woodworking projects. These are sold and the money goes to the students. They learn life skills here and are trained for jobs as well.
There is not a “no” that will turn Linda from the “yeses” that are promised by God. It won’t be easy; some objects do not want to be moved. But they have not met Linda or the members of the Lebanese Evangelical Society. For they know the plans of the irresistible force of the one who rose from the dead, and their firehoses stand ready to drench all around with the love of Christ.
Julie Burgess West Hills Church, Omaha, Nebraska
Read more about Blessed School HERE.
THE NEED
The Outreach Foundation is seeking gifts totaling $20,000 to help set up new workshops for skills development and to provide scholarships for students of poor families. You may make a gift HERE or by sending a check to our office.