Lebanon (MNN) – With the near total decimation of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Nuna from Triumphant Mercy Lebanon says Shiites are shattered. While some are affiliated with the terrorist group, others do not support it. Regardless, she says Lebanese Shiites are refused by their community.
“We pray for broken hearts,” she says. “These are the brokenhearted now.”
Nuna says prayer ministry for Lebanon should include Hezbollah members as well.
“How do you pray for them? You just ask God to heal the broken hearts, to send His spirit to bring them up again, and to minister to their lack of vision. He’s the one who opens eyes,” she says.
Nuna adds that our shared need for redemption gives us grounds for connection with and prayer for people unlike us.
“True that they are so bad, but God loves them; and that changes our perspective in prayer.”
In Lebanon, “trauma healing” programs are popular; but Nuna says people are tired of a programmed approach.
“We went to shelters, and the people just reacted to it and said, ‘We had enough of trauma healing sessions, and we don’t want this because it’s not doing anything.’”
She says individuals need to be seen and valued amidst a wider group.
“They need to speak. They need to bring up what is inside them, and when you just do a group trauma healing session, I don’t know how effective this is.”
Rather than a set number of sessions, people are looking for practical, physical help as well as a listening ear. The team at Triumphant Mercy takes a long view of this issue and approaches trauma with a Gospel mindset.
“How can you be healed without Christ? He is the healer. So we come to bring breakfast and just sit together, but the reality is we’re trying to bring Christ to people’s lives.”
Ministry visits to shelters that start with a simple meal or conversation often lead to witnessing opportunities. She says connecting Scripture to current circumstances is more than just a bridge builder.
“With a story from the Bible, you just bring God in a way that is not threatening. It’s a story, but at the same time it brings hope and restoration.”
Nuna says in trauma healing ministry, it’s important not to rely on platitudes like, “Be happy! Jesus loves you.”
“That doesn’t matter to them now in their pain. In their pain they need to see how God weaves stories of lives from stories that are existing: from stories of the Old Testament, from stories of Jesus.”
One mistake we can make in news interpretation is thinking of world events as occurring to groups rather than individuals.
“I would like people when they pray, to think of one person,” Nuna says. “Maybe they don’t know the person, but they know somebody who has a financial crisis, health issue, or death in the family. When you think about that person and relate it to any person in our region, it’s the same. People are hurting.”
Please pray for God to heal broken hearts across Lebanon. Pray that lost souls would be saved and blinded eyes would be given a new direction in Christ’s light.
Photo courtesy of kaboompics.com via Pexels
Header image courtesy of Triumphant Mercy Lebanon
