Together for the Family - 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, Together for the Family, serves Syrian refugees. Julie Burgess shares her experience here….
“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also, he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.'” Revelation 21:5 (ESV)
Fresh. It is a word we hear on a daily basis on our travels around Lebanon and in our visits with Outreach partners here. It modifies the word “money.” Fresh money. It is the money that comes to you after the economic crisis began in Lebanon many months ago. If you want old money, the money you deposited and saved in your bank account, you will be found at a loss. Dollars in the bank are restricted for withdrawals, and if you do withdraw them, you will get back the Lebanese equivalent at the old rate, thereby losing up to 90% of their value. Fresh money, especially for an NGO like many of the partners here, becomes a new lifeline.
Not wanting to dwell in such a hard place, let us make a list of the more joyful ways we think of for the word fresh, and I think in the listing you will discover what we found: God is still making all things new – fresh.
We began with a drive to the Beqaa Valley. Upon arrival in the Zahle region, we went to the Sarah House campus of Together for the Family (TFF), a multi-pronged ministry run by our dear sister Izdihar Kassis, that is serving around 100 Syrian refugee families in this area. It would take an encyclopedia to describe all that is done here, but let us go with this: a campus that two years ago consisted of two buildings has grown into a small community. In one there is a dental clinic operating in the morning hours every day, serving five-six children. Dr. Somer says after the children get their teeth cleaned, their smiles open wide showing their beautiful teeth. Fresh faces.
On this campus, there are three classrooms, each seating eight students at desks with COVID precautions for distancing, with two shifts per classroom. There is a woodworking/carpentry workshop training twelve boys in two shifts and making marvelous works as they learn new skills. Fresh ideas.
On the other small “campus” of TFF, refugee mothers had gathered to attend the graduation of their children from the three-month school program. There was pomp. There was circumstance. There was cake and diplomas and gifts. And more than that, there was singing. Kids and moms together raised their voices in a familiar refrain: Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
You may pause here for tears like the ones that flowed from Marilyn’s eyes, as you know that these are Syrian Muslim families that are served in this place. Jesus loves me, this I know. And they have learned this, too. A fresh new day.
What will be fresh for them going forward? None of us can know what the future will bring for these families and children, and indeed, if we stop and dwell there, we can get stuck there. What we do know and are humbled and proud to celebrate, is that God is using Together for the Family to make something new, something fresh, in this place at this time. He said it. It is true. We can trust it.
Please continue to pray for Together for the Family, a longtime partner of The Outreach Foundation, for Izdihar, her staff, and her board, and that their coffers will be replenished with fresh money to continue the good, fresh work that God has started here.
Julie Burgess West Hills Church, Omaha, Nebraska
Read more about Together for the Family HERE.
THE NEED
The Outreach Foundation is seeking gifts totaling $20,000 to help TFF support programs that offer Syrian refugees hope and healing, as well as provide food and other basic material goods while nurturing a new identity for them as children of a loving God – whom they have not known before – who cares for them out of his abundant grace. You may make a gift HERE or by sending a check to our office.