Refugee/Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Appeal - September 2017

The Outreach Foundation celebrates your continuing generosity to our Refugee/IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) Appeal. Your gifts have allowed us to undergird the ministry of our partners in the Middle East as they work to renew hope and healing in Christ’s name. The following story was written by Julie Burgess, a member of West Hills Presbyterian Church in Omaha, who has traveled often with The Outreach Foundation to the Middle East.

The Gift of Grace

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 1:3)

We know that grace is a gift of God and it comes through Jesus, as Paul so aptly reminds us when he begins his letters.

Grace to you…

There is a ministry in Beirut, Lebanon, where those words are not only lived out, but they are lived out literally by a woman named Grace, who is a gift of God to the thousands of refugees who have found their way from the war zones of Iraq and Syria to Our Lady Dispensary. Our Lady Dispensary is housed in a nondescript building supplied by the Syrian Orthodox Church whose bishop is in the church across the street. It is one of those places where the phrase, “you can’t judge a book by its cover” comes to mind.

Important News, Middle East, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationSeptember 8, 2017Refugee IDP Appeal

Refugee/Internally Displaced Persons Appeal - June 2017

Doubles and Triples

I just finished reading an inspiring report written by one of The Outreach Foundation’s partners in Jordan, the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC). For the past few years, with your generous gifts, The Outreach Foundation has supplied funds for MECC’s ministry with some of the 2.7 million – million – Iraqi and Syrian refugees who have sought a haven in this country which, admirably and with great dignity, refers to them as “guests.” MECC’s “hands and feet” for this ministry has been the Greek Orthodox Church which has been faithfully ministering to these refugees and bringing them glimpses of Hope and Light. The following excerpts and photos are taken from that report on their Winter Appeal, which focused on the “Orthodox Initiative (OI).”

Syria Appeal - May 2017

I live in Atlanta and, like most Americans who spend a lot of time in their cars, I am well aware of how long it takes to drive to other cities where I sometimes go for work or even vacation: it is about a four-hour drive, north and west, to get to Nashville; in the other direction, it is about four hours east and south to get to historic Savannah. I was recently in Hasakeh, Syria, where that “four hours away” analysis recalled an unsettling reality: four hours to the west was Raqqa, the self-proclaimed “capital” of ISIS in Syria; four hours to the east was Mosul where, even now, the Iraqi army is attempting to drive out ISIS from the city they had hoped would be their “capital” in Iraq. Connecting Raqqa and Mosul is a swath of fertile farmland where, in the middle, stands the city of Hasakeh, smack dab in the center of the area which was targeted to be the “heartland” of a new ISIS caliphate.

If you were a Christian living in Hasakeh, and in such proximity to danger, would you be “too close for comfort”?

Important News, Middle East, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationMay 23, 2017Syria Appeal, Syria

Syria Appeal

God with Us

Note: An Outreach team of ten traveled in January to Lebanon and Syria. They visited some of the 18 Presbyterian churches in Syria, meeting with pastors and church members. Jack Baca, an Outreach trustee, reflects on a part of the journey…

One of the key affirmations of Christian faith is that, in Jesus, God came to be with us. The angel said to Joseph that the child to be born would be called precisely that: Immanuel, God with us. We Christians take our clues for how we are to live from what God did and does in Jesus, and so we, too, go to be with others. This is an expression of love: to do what it takes to be with others.

This ancient theology kept running in my mind on Saturday, the second full day of our time in the Middle East, as we spent the better part of the day traveling. Early in the morning we left Beirut for the arduous trip through that bustling city, into the countryside and through farmland, across the border, and into Syria, as we made our way to Latakia, on the coast.

Important News, Middle EastThe Outreach FoundationMarch 17, 2017Syria Appeal, Syria

Syria Appeal - October 2016 Update

From Marilyn Borst, Associate Director for Partnership Development: For the past year, your gifts to the Syria Appeal have made it possible for the Presbyterian Church in Homs, Syria to offer a life-giving ministry of reconciliation entitled “Space for Hope” to young people in its war-ravaged neighborhood. Recently, the World Communion of Reformed Churches (www.wcrc.ch) posted an article about this ministry, which we share here with the blessing of its author, Phil Tanis.

Syrian Christians Create Space for Hope

In war-torn Syria, hope is fading for many. After five years of civil war, there are few who have not lost family members or close friends, but life needs to go on for those who are alive, for those who have stayed. They struggle to continue with their lives every day, to study and work, although jobs have become scarce, and to maintain as much normalcy as possible amidst the war and the ever-present threat of attacks, while dreaming about a better future and peace.

Important News, Middle East, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationOctober 27, 2016Syria Appeal, Syria, Lebanon

Refugee/IDP Appeal - October 2016 Update

Beauty for Ashes

In a bustling, lower middle-class and predominantly Christian suburb of Beirut, thousands of “brokenhearted” refugees from Iraq and Syria are being “bound up” by ministries which The Outreach Foundation – because of your generous gifts – has helped to support. At the Our Lady Dispensary (OLD), a social service outreach center of the Middle East Council of Churches, social worker Grace Boustani and her small team are impacting the lives of 1,200 families. They come not only for food and medical care, but to participate in educational seminars as well as summer and holiday programs for themselves and their children which offer hope through a reminder that there is abundant life beyond their traumatic circumstances.

Important News, Middle East, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationOctober 26, 2016Refugee IDP Appeal, Lebanon

Stories of Hope

There is much in the news about the vulnerability of the Church around the world, where it finds itself persecuted and oppressed in the midst of war and other enormous challenges. It is inspiring and convicting to see how the Body of Christ witnesses to the Good News despite their circumstances. This is the Church of which Paul wrote, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9) Suffering in God’s name is nothing new. It’s been happening for 2,000 years. Our Lord Jesus, even before he went to the cross for the ultimate in suffering, warned us of persecution.

Important News, Middle East, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationSeptember 20, 2016Vulnerable Church

Refugee/Internally Displaced Persons Appeal - August 2016 Update

In a small, aluminum prefab classroom, baking under the relentless summer sun that nurtures the lush vegetable crops for which the nearby Beqaa Valley in Lebanon is famous, hope is being incubated. 40 young Syrian Muslim women, mostly refugees from Aleppo and some of them mothers and widows, are learning to sew. Izdihar Kassis, a local pastor’s wife and a dynamo for Christ’s Kingdom, has run several faith-based non-profits and has now created Together for the Family to address the refugee crisis.

Important News, Middle East, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationAugust 25, 2016Refugee IDP Appeal, Refugee crisis, Middle East

Refugee/IDP Appeal - July 2016 Update

by Marilyn Borst

In the midst of multiple crises unfolding in the Middle East, The Outreach Foundation has used your generous gifts to strengthen the hands of Christian partners in the region. They are the face of Christ to many who have lost everything…
JORDAN
Siham and Jeries Abd Rabbo are a Palestinian couple from Bethlehem who are serving Muslim refugees on behalf of the Shepherd Society – the mission outreach of Bethlehem Bible College.

Iraq Appeal/Refugee Crisis-June 2016 Update

Although the tragic events in Iraq from the summer of 2014 have mostly faded from our daily news cycles, the past is very much present for Rev. Haitham Jazrawi and his congregation at the Presbyterian Church in Kirkuk. It began with a persistent knocking at the church’s gate late one night. It was soon inescapably evident in the streets around town as entire families stood dazed and bewildered, clutching small parcels and, for the fortunate ones, a suitcase containing a few changes of clothing and their important documents. And then the reports soon reached their ears of entire congregations of the Syrian Orthodox Church seeking haven in safer villages not far from Kirkuk….

Syria Appeal/Refugee Crisis - March 2016 Update

Located just 20 miles due east of Beirut, the Bekaa Valley stretches for 75 miles and lays claim to the richest agricultural land in the country where wheat, corn, cotton and an array of vegetables flourish. Its vineyards have given rise to a wine industry that is now world renowned. The Bekaa is also now home to over 370,000 of the 1.1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, many of whom have been living in tents in dismal camps for years – and most of them are children. In a country of only four million, the Lebanese public schools are able to accommodate only a fraction of these Syrian refugee children.

Refugee/IDP Appeal - February 2016

As this new year begins, The Outreach Foundation celebrates your generosity in responding to our Refugee/IDP (Internally Displaced Person) Appeal. Your gifts of over $99,000 have allowed us to undergird the ministry of our partners in the Middle East as they work to renew hope and healing in Christ’s name, such as the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC). The following story was shared by Ms. Wafa Gassous, Director of MECC in Jordan…

Important News, Middle East, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationFebruary 11, 2016Refugee IDP Appeal

Syria Appeal/Refugee Crisis - January 2016 Update

Even as Syria remains plagued by war and violence, the Church remains…and with hope and confidence prepares new leaders for its future – for God’s future. Your gifts to the Syria Appeal have helped to provide scholarships for some outstanding young adults who have answered a call to ministry….

Important News, Middle East, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationJanuary 27, 2016Syria Appeal, Syria, Refugee crisis

Iraq Appeal/Refugee Crisis - December 2015 Update

In late January of 2014, a native of Mosul was consecrated as the Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk-Sulimaniya. Barely six months later, ISIS would invade his hometown resulting in thousands of Christian families seeking shelter in and help from the churches under his watch. In March of this year, I and a small team from The Outreach Foundation met in Iraq with His Grace Yousif Thomas Mirkis. We were introduced to him by the Rev. Haitham Jazrawi, who pastors the Presbyterian Church in Kirkuk. Both share the common burden of ministering to those whose lives were shattered when their homes, livelihoods and churches – not to mention their peace and security – were violently taken from them.

Important News, Middle East, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationJanuary 5, 2016Iraq Appeal, Iraq

Syria Appeal - December 2015 Update

The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned….

So begins Isaiah’s poetic, prophetic chapter whose words echo in song and in sermon at this time of the year – and which crescendos to a naming of the when and the what and the Who which Handel set so perfectly to music that now very few of us can read it with our eyes without actually hearing it in our ears:

For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders…

So why, you might ask, does this passage lead me to thoughts of Aleppo? Perhaps, because few places in Syria have been so hard hit for so long, so hammered by violent factions, so deprived of life’s basics, so seemingly stripped of hope and a future – its world-heritage sites decimated, its population significantly reduced…

Important News, Middle East, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationDecember 23, 2015Syria Appeal, Syria, Refugee crisis

Update for the Iraq Appeal: Solidarity with Christians in Iraq - August 2015

Last summer, a fast moving disaster struck Iraq: the Islamic State set its sights upon making Mosul its capital. Once home to the highest concentration of Christians in the country, Mosul and the dozens of Christian villages in the surrounding Nineveh Plain were terrorized, as was the vulnerable Yazidi minority. Within weeks, your generous response to our Iraq Appeal (to date, over $600,000!) allowed us to quickly send resources to the region: to the Presbyterian churches in Kirkuk and Baghdad who began to minister to their displaced neighbors and to partners in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon who, within months, were called upon to serve, in Christ’s name, refugees who had fled Iraq.

Projects, Middle East, Important NewsThe Outreach FoundationAugust 13, 2015Iraq Appeal, Iraq

Syria Relief Update - June 2015

Tucked up into the far northeast corner of the country sharing borders with both Turkey and Iraq, the Hasakah Governate is one of 14 provinces in Syria. Rich in oil and grain production, it has been the stage for intense fighting between government forces and various opposition groups, including ISIS. It is also home to three Presbyterian congregations: Qamishli, Malikiya and Hasakah (city). The province is geographically isolated, as of late, because ISIS controls the main travel routes which connect it to the rest of the country. The National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon – The Outreach Foundation’s partner and main recipient of your generous gifts to the Syria Appeal – sent a delegation to meet with these churches in May.

Middle East, Projects, Important NewsThe Outreach FoundationJune 4, 2015Syria Appeal, Syria

Update for the Iraq Appeal: Solidarity with Christians in Iraq May 2015

In March, I was in Northern Iraq with a small team from The Outreach Foundation – Staci Graham, Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta; Rev. Mark Mueller, First Presbyterian Church Huntsville, AL; Ben McCaleb, First Presbyterian Church San Antonio. We had traveled there to visit partners, especially the Presbyterian Church in Kirkuk, who have been receiving funds from The Outreach Foundation for their ministry with fellow Iraqis displaced by ISIS from Mosul and the surrounding Nineveh Plain.

Middle East, Projects, Important NewsThe Outreach FoundationMay 20, 2015Iraq Appeal, Iraq

Partner Updates