Posts tagged Middle East
Musalaha in Israel and Palestine - March 2024

Hiba Allati, Project Manager with Musalaha, updates us on what they are currently going through in the Middle East. Read excerpts from her story below:

Israeli Military raids were a part of the reality I grew up in as a little girl in the West Bank during the Second Intifada. Today, these life-interrupting events continue to traumatize families and seem to be getting worse.

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Prayers for Peace

Peace and grace to you all in the mighty name of the Prince of Peace, Jesus. This is our second letter from Bethlehem Bible College after passing a very difficult week as a people and as a country.

It has been 10 days since the Hamas attack and since Israel began to attack Gaza unleashing the worst ever attack on Gaza and its people. I am not sure if you know that Gaza is one of the smallest and most densely packed cities in the world. The area around Gaza City is home to nearly 2 million people living in an 88-square-mile expanse, which is about 21,000 people per square mile.

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Middle East Earthquake Relief — May 2023 Update

On February 6, 2023, the world woke to the news of a devastating earthquake in Syria and Turkey. We all watched reports from the field indicating the region was in dire need of help. The Outreach Foundation responded quickly (within 24 hours) by establishing the Middle East Earthquake Relief Appeal which has generated widespread support from our donor base.

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Musalaha Ministry of Reconciliation - July 2020 Update

Musalaha Ministry of Reconciliation is a non-governmental and non-profit organization that promotes and facilitates reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, and internationally with people from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. Musalaha encourages participants to engage in conflict resolution by going through a process developed in our 22-chapter reconciliation curriculum called, "Six Stages of Reconciliation." One of our most popular and successful projects is with children. Every year we provide summer camps across Israel and Palestine. Depending on the location, some camps are mixed Jewish-Palestinian, and others are mixes of Christian-Muslim Palestinians. Indeed, after women, children have proven to be the most successful segment in achieving reconciliation. Often, children find it easier to recognize the humanity in their fellow campers and develop lasting relationships. Moreover, children who grew up attending Musalaha's camps tend to be more successful in later years at reconciliation.

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Refugee Appeal - February 2020 Update

Our Lady Dispensary (OLD) is located in a densely packed, lower-middle-class Christian area of Beirut. A ministry of the Middle East Council of Churches, OLD serves over 1,000 families – Iraqi Christians and Syrian Muslims – who need food, medicines, help to pay rent, and trauma healing for their children. They fled their countries during war and upheaval. Some want to go back but their homes or livelihoods were destroyed. Most of them hope to be resettled in Europe, Canada or Australia but those U.N. initiatives have slowed down.

As Christmas approached, your generous gifts once again allowed OLD to provide a glimmer of joy to families who had lost much. Rather than “just hand out” much-needed clothing and warm winter outerwear, OLD arranged with a local department store to allow their clients to shop with vouchers, so THEY could pick out what they needed, affording a bit of choice and dignity. Let me introduce you to a few of those whom you helped…

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Refugee/Internally Displaced Persons Appeal - November 2019

Dear generous friends,

They are Iraqi Christians who fled ISIS and Syrian Muslims who were driven out by war. They found safety in Lebanon and Jordan but not much else, as they quickly overwhelmed the capabilities of the governments who opened their borders to receive them. International aid agencies came to their assistance but so much more was needed, especially considering that more than 60% of them are school-age children. The numbers are hard to grasp: 1.3 million Syrians came to Lebanon – in a country of only four million people. In Jordan, the government struggles to serve a refugee community of 1.5 million. In both Jordan and Lebanon, many want to go home but their countries are not yet stable. Others are in the long queue to immigrate to the West and most countries have drastically reduced the numbers they will now welcome. Most just do not know what the future holds for them and their families. Some have made a temporary life in tents. Others crowd together in small rooms. Despair is found in abundance. Hope is a rare commodity.

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Refugee/Internally Displaced Persons Appeal - August 2016 Update

In a small, aluminum prefab classroom, baking under the relentless summer sun that nurtures the lush vegetable crops for which the nearby Beqaa Valley in Lebanon is famous, hope is being incubated. 40 young Syrian Muslim women, mostly refugees from Aleppo and some of them mothers and widows, are learning to sew. Izdihar Kassis, a local pastor’s wife and a dynamo for Christ’s Kingdom, has run several faith-based non-profits and has now created Together for the Family to address the refugee crisis.

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Refugee/IDP Appeal - July 2016 Update

by Marilyn Borst

In the midst of multiple crises unfolding in the Middle East, The Outreach Foundation has used your generous gifts to strengthen the hands of Christian partners in the region. They are the face of Christ to many who have lost everything…
JORDAN
Siham and Jeries Abd Rabbo are a Palestinian couple from Bethlehem who are serving Muslim refugees on behalf of the Shepherd Society – the mission outreach of Bethlehem Bible College. 

 

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Syria Appeal - July 2015

The news media, this week, gave much airtime to the tragic statistics: 4 million Syrians are now refugees in other countries and 7.6 million are internally displaced. With a pre-war population of 22 million that makes for half of the population having left their homes and livelihood – the equivalent of about 150 million U.S. citizens, if this was our story. So who has stayed? Well, the Church has stayed. Or, at least, a substantial portion of the Church – still committed to its work and witness and worship, its mission and ministry. 

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