Lebanon (MNN) – Resurrection Church Beirut is reaching more than 1,300 people on a regular basis.
Resurrection Church Beirut
Resurrection Church Beirut’s Lily Malky shares, “Our local congregation in Beirut is made up of two-thirds refugee families and one-third locals, so we reach out to Lebanese, North African people who live in Lebanon, migrant workers who live in Lebanon, Syrian and Iraqi refugees.”
Resurrection Church Beirut is filling out their community by reaching expats who are living in Beirut as well.
Malky shares that their ministry is walking alongside people and mentoring them to help them grow in their relationship with Christ and with other believers. Their focus is set on three main areas.
“We encourage everyone to develop holy relationships. We ask them to grow in a Church community and have fellowship and worship together as a congregation and to grow deeper in knowing what it means to follow Christ through a life group.
Malky explains Resurrection Church Beirut’s life groups bring people together for either formal Bible studies or simply to share about what’s happening in life. The main purpose of these groups is to form relationships and disciples for Christ.
“We try in everything we do to follow Jesus in the pathway of discipleship. So, we ask people to believe in Jesus Christ, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to learn and grow how to crown Jesus Lord over their life, and what it means and how to belong to the one body of Christ… and how to equip others and make disciples.”
Resurrection Church Beirut is seeing God move through the ministry. Malky says with the little resources, time, and energy they receive, God is maximizing it.
Challenges in Lebanon
However, there are many challenges in Lebanon as well.
Refugee families are struggling to provide and receive basic needs like food, medical supplies, and child education.
Malky says there’s a great need for prayer “for the struggling families and the new generation, the children, and the teenagers of the refugees who have no education, no resources, a lot of discrimination, and have little access to a normal childhood.”
(Photo courtesy of Resurrection Church Beirut via Facebook)
Resurrection Church Beirut is walking alongside these refugee families by providing them with much-needed food, education, and medicine.
However, donations from locals are tight and sometimes impossible due to the economic crisis looming in Lebanon.
Many Lebanese families are facing economic hardships. They’re either overworked or they are unemployed and unsure how they will provide the next meal.
Lebanese families, Malky says, are better off than refugee families, however, the busyness of their jobs and the stress of unemployment is affecting their families.
“A lot of child neglect is there because parents work two or three jobs to be able to provide for their families, and children are left to grow without a solid and healthy relationship at home and we’re seeing the result of that in a broken community in Lebanon.”
Finding jobs, renting apartments, and even getting married have become so difficult for younger generations, that many are leaving Lebanon to live in Gulf and Western countries.
“I think as a Lebanese population, we have more Lebanese outside Lebanon than in Lebanon,” Malky says.
The result of these economic hardships points to the refugee crisis, to government corruption, devalue of the currency, and high taxes.
Each of the challenges faced in Lebanon shows the direness of creating disciples and ministering to others to give hope in Christ.
Come alongside Resurrection Church Beirut through prayer.
Pray for the provision of leaders who can guide and empower others. Pray for refugee families and for the economy in Lebanon.
Also, financially partner with Resurrection Church Beirut and help support their work.
