Hello!
Our 2nd half of outreach was still in Lebanon, in a town called Damour, just 30 minutes outside of Beruit. We were working alongside a YWAM base there, which was fun! Ministry and life was similar to Beruit, we were working alongside individuals and families in similar situations.
Ministry
I loved our ministry in Damour. We had the opportunity to do lots of house visits, and there was also some extra ministry opportunities with the YWAM team. Our 2 main ministries were house visits and food packing/distribution. And then we were able to hold a weekly youth group meeting. As well as the scheduled visits, occasionally families would invite us for lunch or tea, and we also did group Bible studies with some families. We also were able to be a part of baptisms for some people from the area! This was an incredible encouragement of what God is doing in this place.
House visits
House visits in Damour were really fun. They were a lot longer, and we got to spend more time with each family to hear their stories and share. Similar to in Beruit, they were mostly Syrian refugee families who came from Muslim backgrounds. The YWAM team has families that they are working with and discipling, so we were able to do that with them.
One of my most memorable house visits of our time in Lebanon, was in Damour. We went to visit a young Syrian couple, but while we were sitting with them their friend arrived at the house. He was also a Syrian refugee, and he had come by the house to say goodbye to his friends as he was returning to Syria. Because of the situation in Lebanon, he had decided to make the extremely expensive and risky journey back to his home country, so that he could at the very least be with his family. So we were able to spend time talking with him too. We started to talk about his life in Syria and the war, and we got talking about new generations, teaching them about growing in a new idea of peace, forgiveness and love. It became a deep conversation about moving towards love and forgiveness, starting with ourselves. He started to open his heart and tell us about all of the things that he and his family had suffered because of the war, and how he lost everything, in the cruellest way possible. He was filled with fear, anger, frustration and pain, and as we were sharing he started to weep. It was really powerful to be able to share the hope and freedom of the Gospel with him, someone who we hadn’t even planned on meeting, before he returned to Syria.
Food distribution
We also did a lot of work with the food distribution program in Damour. Because of the current economic crisis in Lebanon, this ministry was needed more than ever before. Over 50% of the people in Lebanon are living in poverty currently, as food prices are soaring and the currency is dropping. We were able to help out with packing a few hundred large food parcels, and then we helped with distributing these to the different families in Damour as well. There was a huge quantity of packs that needed to be made and distributed, and the staff team at Damour is quite small, so they were thankful to have many more extra hands to get them done in a much shorter time.
Youth ministry
While in Damour, we had the opportunity to hold a few youth meetings with the youth in the area. This was really fun and a great opportunity for different people from our team to share testimonies or messages with them.
Leaving Lebanon
I found it really hard to leave Lebanon. During my time there, God really changed my heart. If I'm honest, I wasn't the most excited person in my team to be going to the Middle East, and I had some anxieties about doing ministry there. But during the past 2 months, my heart has been completely changed, and I've fallen in love with Lebanon and what God is doing in this nation.
This country is difficult and complicated to say the very least. The people here are going through crisis after crisis, and incredibly complex and difficult situations. We heard countless stories of heartbreak and hopelessness, and people don't know where to turn. They live each day in a warlike mentality, anticipating things to change and adjusted to instability.
But somehow, into all of this mess and chaos, comes Jesus and the Church. Jesus steps in with a hope that is not dependent on life's circumstances. He brings an identity to those who have had theirs stripped away. His never changing, overwhelming love is a source of stability when life moves people. His love is powerful enough to break down barriers between people and allow radical forgiveness to flow. People's lives are transformed and hope is alive.
I struggled with not being able to fix the problems that people here have. We simply couldn't. But I've come to learn that Jesus is, and always will be enough. We simply sat with people and heard their stories, laughed and cried with them, and shared with them the hope and love of Jesus. And that was enough. That was the most valuable thing we could have given them.
God's love is enough. It is powerful and everlasting. And it transforms lives. We saw it transform lives.
Then Peter said, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." - Acts 3:6
We were able to partner with the incredible things that God is doing in this nation. We saw Muslims getting baptized, churches filled with people worshipping Jesus who had previously worshipped another god, and we saw lives completely transformed by the power of Jesus. We saw hope in a hopeless nation.
These past 6 months have changed my heart completely. I've experienced God to be real, a Father who loves the nations. A Father who changes lives, and is truly worthy and enough.
In a way, this is the end of a chapter. A pretty big chapter in my life. It's the end of the craziest 6 months I could have imagined. 6 months where I've grown and been stretched, where God has taught me and I've been able to partner with what he's doing. I've had to leave and say goodbye to people who I love and have become a 2nd family to me. And now I'm home!
I want to thank each one of you who supported me during this time. Whether it was through finances, prayer or both, I am so incredibly thankful for each of you. I really couldn't have done this without your support. And I hope that these blogs and even stories that I'll hopefully be able to share in the future were and are an encouragement to you of what God is doing in the nations.
Missions and sharing Jesus with the world, especially the unreached, is part of our call as Christians, and there's so many different ways that we can all fit into that. If financially supporting a missionary is something that you would consider doing, I now have plenty of missionary friends all over the world who would love your support!
But as well as partnering with overseas missions, I've been reminded of how the great commission starts and exists at home. When Jesus gave his disciples the great commission, he called them to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. So if you're called to the ends of the earth, that's great! But maybe right now you're called to be a witness of Jesus in your "Jerusalem", the place that you're currently at. Just as how there are people in Lebanon hungry to hear God's truth, there are people in your family, school or work who are waiting to hear about Jesus.
How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" - Romans 10:15-16
I'm very thankful for what God has done during this time, for the highs and for the lows. Thank you for partnering with me on this journey, for all your prayers and support.
I'm excited to see what else God has in store for the future!
- Amy