Lebanon (MNN) — Caught behind the mounting hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah are 1.3 million children in Lebanon, many of whom are suffering.
In April, UNICEF issued a report on children in Lebanon, saying that what was then six months of conflict had led to deteriorated education, healthcare, water access and emotional well-being for them. A full-scale war would be devastating for their futures.
(Photo of summer camp courtesy of Triumphant Mercy Lebanon)
Nuna with Triumphant Mercy Lebanon says that although fears are pressing the nation, they strive against it.
“We try to to continue life as normal, and to continue to work with the kids as normal, so that the kids will also feel safe and secure and that life goes normally,” she says. “This is what we try to do, but it’s not always easy.”
This year, TM Lebanon summer camps gave kids a brief safe space where they could have fun and learn about the God who they can trust. Kids were able to laugh with friends, play games, watch Bible story skits and more. (Read one story from TM Lebanon here.)
Nina says some of the kids had never heard about David and Goliath, Jonah, and other well-known stories from the Bible. They were mesmerized by the skits that leaders put on to retell these stories.
“That helped so much with their feelings, because they didn’t have the thought of the today and now and the war, but they were really taken into another place (by the skits),” Nuna says. “I think this is not only healing, but it’s also sowing seeds of faith inside them that God is greater and that God can do much bigger [things], and he can take any circumstance and change it.”
Nuna shares that after seeing the story of David and Goliath, one girl said, “I know that if God is with me, nothing can conquer me.”
“This is the joy of having these camps with the kids. It’s just seeing what impact we can do and what seeds we can plant,” Nuna says.
(Photo of summer camp courtesy of Triumphant Mercy Lebanon)
Many of the children TM Lebanon serves are refugees whose families are struggling.
“Even inside Lebanon, [refugee families] have been moving from place to place. So now that there’s another war in the horizon, they don’t know where to go. Should they move? Should they stay?” Nuna says. “The kids are feeling this. They feel the pressure that their parents are under.”
Now that you know, would you pray for the gospel of hope to spread in Lebanon?
“[Pray] that the ministers of the gospel would be refreshed, that they will not give in to the news. The news [is] just spreading fear and anxiety and gloom, and we cannot go there,” Nuna says.
“Pray for our team members who have to fight this every day. They have to come against all the news that they are hearing every day — all the mothers that are coming with news, all the kids that are coming stressed. We have to always and every day fight.”
Header photo of summer camp courtesy of Triumphant Mercy Lebanon.
