Grace News – Spring 2024
Grace News – Spring 2024
Grace News is Anglican Aid’s quarterly newsletter, through which we share encouragement and updates from our project partners.
Sheltering families in Lebanon
Last week we heard from our long-term partners Reem and Emil Bourizk from Good Shepherd School in north Lebanon. They told us that bombardments in their area have brought the conflict in the Middle East very close to home. On 15 October, the BBC reported 21 people were killed in an airstrike near their village.
Over the last month, many families from the conflict zone in south Lebanon have moved to Reem and Emil’s area, seeking safety. Near their home there are four internally displaced people camps with at least 100 families in each. Believing that Christians would assist them, some displaced people have sought help from the Good Shepherd School. The school is now sheltering five displaced families in some of their classrooms and helping them with essentials like bedding, clothing, and food. Reem and Emil have also taken four families into their home alongside their own children. “We know that we should not say no to the stranger,” they said.
“We know that we should not say no to the stranger.”
Emil (right) buying supplies to care for displaced families in north Lebanon
Reem said that coming from Tunisia, a peaceful country, she has never been in a war before. “For me, the images, the scenes I see, it’s horrible. And seeing kids sleeping in the streets . . . it’s above our imagination or sometimes above what we can handle emotionally.”
Reem and Emil said that despite the suffering they are witnessing, they have opportunities to share God’s peace as they pray and worship him publicly outside their home each evening. Emil said: “The evil one is shaking our area. But this is giving us as children of and witness of the Lord Jesus an amazing opportunity to shine the light of the Lord and share the love of the Lord. This is a very rich time, a time of suffering and trouble, but also rich for the gospel. Please pray with us.”
Reem and Emil have shared a video update which you may like to view to help you in your prayers. Please join me in praying for peace in the Middle East and for Reem and Emil as they seek to show God’s kindness to people in great need.
Tim Swan
CEO, Anglican Aid
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