Philemon Preschool GROW Center — November 2022 Update
The Outreach Foundation team with Philemon staff on the porch of the new ministry center. Robert Hamd is in the front row, second from right.
Our team from The Outreach Foundation was recently in Lebanon, and we share this eyewitness update.
Marilyn Borst, Associate Director for Partnership Development
Our visit to the Philemon Project GROW Center, which provides Christian early childhood development programs for underserved and at-risk children in Beirut, was a reminder of the redemptive ministry to which Christ calls us when we pour ourselves out to serve “the least of these.” With 80 children ages 1-4 under their care, many of them children of domestic workers from Ethiopia and Sudan, they also focus on parent education and embrace the welfare of the entire family. Recently, they discovered that a mother who had been abandoned by her husband did not have resources to feed her young child much more than sugar water, and she herself had a thyroid tumor that was going untreated. The staff of Philemon Preschool quickly stepped in to address those urgent needs.
Because some of our team had never visited this Outreach partner before, we were all inspired to hear (some of us, again) the impetus for the ministry, as told by Rev. Dr. Robert Hamd, its founder. [Having turned over the daily operations of the GROW Center to a superb, all-female local staff, Robert now spends most of his time in his D.C. area home, helping to develop U.S. partners for this vital, Christ-centered ministry.]
It all began when a domestic worker from Ethiopia came to the National Evangelical Church in downtown Beirut where Robert was leading an English-language congregation that worshipped there. She shared her story of having found work in a home but needed to place her young son in childcare. She would soon discover that the unlicensed facility would often just tie the children to their chairs and offered no learning, play, or age-appropriate sensory stimulation. So, Robert began to envision a place where state-of-the-art early childhood development would serve the neediest members of the community — and in Christ’s name, Philemon Preschool GROW Center was born!
We also visited a new site which will soon be renovated to expand this hope-giving work in another part of the city. A solid old house on a strategic corner in a largely non-Christian neighborhood was recently purchased and will require about $350,000 in renovations. Robert and his team have already raised one-third of that cost! Our group gathered with some of the staff to offer a blessing on these plans, and we are discerning ways in which The Outreach Foundation might be a part of seeing this important ministry duplicated!
Read more about the Philemon Preschool GROW Center HERE.
THE OPPORTUNITY
The Outreach Foundation is seeking gifts to support the Philemon Project GROW Center. All gifts of any size are welcomed to assist with scholarships and general operations. You may make a gift HERE or by sending a check to our office.