Syria and Lebanon Partnership

Note: The Outreach Foundation’s partner in this region is the National Evangelical [Presbyterian] Synod of Syria and Lebanon. Julie Burgess, the author of this update, has made 17 journeys with Outreach to the Middle East. This is Part II of her story (click here to read part I) that introduces us to 5 Syrian Presbyterians who are recent seminary graduates of the Near East School of Theology (NEST) in Beirut who have been doing their “fieldwork” amongst some of the 20 Presbyterian congregations in Syria and who will, eventually, be called to serve, permanently, in one of them. ---Marilyn Borst, Associate Director of Partnership Development.

When you travel with The Outreach Foundation, as I have, frequently, in the past ten years, you spend hours on planes and in airports in order to finally arrive in the midst of God’s people in churches in faraway places. My best advice: take a book, or two.

Middle East, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationSeptember 11, 2020Syria Appeal, Syria Lebanon Partnership

Iraq Appeal - September 2020 update

Of the three Presbyterian churches in Iraq, two of them are being served by pastors from Egypt! When our Outreach Foundation team journeyed to Iraq this past October, we were delighted to meet the Rev. Samer Karam, an Egyptian, in Kirkuk (he and his family had arrived in January) and learn a bit of his story…

While in university in Cairo, Samer had joined Campus Crusade, and, when he graduated, he stayed on as staff for a year before heading to the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC) for further study. Because two of his brothers were married to Iraqi Christians, he had heard many stories of how Christians there held great fear of terrorist organizations who were targeting believers for kidnapping and killing. As Samer tracked both the vulnerability of Christians and the subsequent immigration of many of them seeking safe haven, he began to pray about how best to serve the Church in places where Christians suffer.

Middle East, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationSeptember 9, 2020Iraq Appeal, Iraq

Vulnerable Children's Fund - July 2020 Update

The Situation

According to James 1:7, “True religion is this, that we care for orphans and widows in their distress…” We cannot be faithful to the whole Gospel if we do not express love and care for the most vulnerable in our midst. The Outreach Foundation believes this fundamentally and believes that children are the most vulnerable of all in our sinful, broken world. And The Outreach Foundation believes that all children have the right to survive, to thrive, and to fulfill their God-given potential. This means understanding the global situations facing children everywhere and committing to helping to provide access to basic services, care, and education to the children in their (Outreach’s) spheres of influence.

In the church, and around the world, there is an effort to provide comprehensive care for vulnerable children that addresses the physical, emotional, educational, social, and spiritual life of every child, recognizing that they are each created in God’s image. The ultimate focus is on value and dignity for children and their families.

New Church Development in Egypt - July 2020 Update

Into the fields: Egyptian pastors visit their people in fields

One of the most difficult challenges that many pastors face in Egypt during this COVID-19 crisis is how to communicate with their people. In villages, the church IS the center of the social and spiritual life of the people. But now they are not allowed to go to church because of restrictions on social distancing. In many villages, the churches used to have meetings almost every night. People came from their farms by sunset, had a meal, and then went to church where they spent the night singing and listening to God's word. Now they cannot go to the church and they cannot enjoy worshiping together. In the village of Manshat el Dahab a young pastor, Rev. Medhat Mourice, who has served in his church for about five years decided to find a creative way to communicate with his people. Many of the people in this church can access the internet; however, the young pastor also manages to visit members in their fields. He organizes Bible study groups and has singing with his people. He is encouraging them and praying with them so as to overcome the difficulties of these days.

Middle East, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationJuly 16, 2020New Church Development in Egypt, Egypt

Musalaha Ministry of Reconciliation - July 2020 Update

Musalaha Ministry of Reconciliation is a non-governmental and non-profit organization that promotes and facilitates reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, and internationally with people from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. Musalaha encourages participants to engage in conflict resolution by going through a process developed in our 22-chapter reconciliation curriculum called, "Six Stages of Reconciliation." One of our most popular and successful projects is with children. Every year we provide summer camps across Israel and Palestine. Depending on the location, some camps are mixed Jewish-Palestinian, and others are mixes of Christian-Muslim Palestinians. Indeed, after women, children have proven to be the most successful segment in achieving reconciliation. Often, children find it easier to recognize the humanity in their fellow campers and develop lasting relationships. Moreover, children who grew up attending Musalaha's camps tend to be more successful in later years at reconciliation.

Middle EastThe Outreach FoundationJuly 14, 2020Musalaha, Israel, Palestine, Middle East, Musahala

Syria Appeal

Julie Burgess has made 17 journeys with The Outreach Foundation to the Middle East. She agreed to tell the stories of several graduates of the Near East School of Theology (NEST). This is the first installment of these compelling stories. The next installment will be emailed and posted on our website.

Hope for Syrian Students - June 2020 Update

A “holding pattern”

….is a concept I am too-well acquainted with, considering how much time I spend on airplanes because of my work with The Outreach Foundation. Given the fact that my “hometown airport” is Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta it is not uncommon to hear the pilot come on the sound system in our approach to the world’s busiest airport to apologize for being in one, sometimes, because of storms in the area, but, most often, because the “traffic” for landing has backed up. Recently, we were stuck in one of these weather-related holding patterns for so long, that we had to bop over to Nashville to get gas – before coming back to Atlanta to land!

In much the same vein, schools all over the world, from Boston to Baghdad, from Denver to New Delhi, from Peoria to Paris have gone into a “holding pattern” because of COVID-19 and such has been the case with the schools for Syrian refugee children run by the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon. Over the years, your generous gifts have supported and encouraged these four schools in Lebanon (in Minyara, Tyre, Tripoli and in the Beqaa Valley at Kab Elias). With the local Presbyterian church providing oversight, these places of love and hope have embraced the fragile, displaced refugees in their midst.

Pars Theological Center - June 2020 Update

Pars Theological Center is a London-based virtual seminary that uses the internet, IT technology, satellite TV, and conferences to deliver Farsi-language theological training to Iranian Christians both inside and outside Iran. Classes are taught by well-known Iranian pastors, Bible teachers, and theological instructors including Rev. Dr. Sasan Tavassoli, Coordinator of Iranian Ministries for The Outreach Foundation. Students are mentored by the Pars team on how to integrate the principles they are learning into their ministry and personal spiritual lives. Pars also includes a Christian Counseling Center. The words that follow reflect the thoughts of the leaders of Pars Theological Center.

You will have read or heard by now about the impact that the Coronavirus pandemic is having on mental health all over the world. At Pars, this is manifested through a 50% increase in Iranian Christian clients seeking therapy through our Counseling Center in the months of April and May. Our counselors report that the majority of these cases concern marital and familial struggles (among refugees in particular) that have come to the surface as a result of life in lockdown. Others have sought therapy due to relapses into addiction and the return of depression as a consequence of experiences of loss too difficult to bear.

Middle East, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationJune 5, 2020Pars Theological Center

New Church Development in Egypt - June 2020 Update

During this time of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Egyptian Church has not given up its ministry. Pastors are committed to spreading hope and the Good News of the Gospel. In one of the villages in Upper Egypt, a new graduate from the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC), Peter Gamal, is creatively serving his church and community. Peter’s church is closed for public meetings because of the coronavirus. But despite the restrictions, several days every week he visits people in their homes who are in need.

Middle East, PartnershipThe Outreach FoundationJune 3, 2020New Church Development in Egypt, Egypt

Syria Appeal - May 2020 Update

A Joyful Return (Ebenezer)

In September, I wrote one of these updates about a visit I had made to Sweida, about 90 minutes south of Damascus, Syria Appeal September 2019. I had just met with a Presbyterian congregation there who had been displaced, in 2014, from their hometown of Kharaba, about 20 miles away. One of the many terrorist groups operating in Syria during the war had overrun the largely-Christian town and “set up camp” in the churches while breaking into private homes and taking up residence. This faithful flock was now being pastored “in exile” by the Rev. Saleem Ferah who had been given a place to worship in the local Alliance Church. Although much of Syria had already been liberated from terrorist organizations by that time, Kharaba was one of the last holdouts, and the Syrian government had been reluctant to mount a military operation there because of the number of citizens still present…

Middle East, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationMay 21, 2020Syria Appeal, Syria

Egypt Update April 2020

With all the world struggling with the pandemic, it seems timely to share this “good news” update written by the Rev. Nancy Fox, a former trustee of The Outreach Foundation and a frequent pilgrim in Egypt, experiencing “God at work” there. With your help, Outreach continues to stand beside the Church in Egypt, especially now, and has wired emergency funds to both the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo and the Synod of the Nile (additional information about their special emergency appeal follows this update). As I write, we are hoping to make another mission-vision trip to Egypt in November, if the situation allows. Additional information about that may be found HERE.

---Marilyn Borst, Associate Director for Partnership Development

Dronka Church-A Resurrection in Process

For sixty years, the church in Dronka, Egypt, founded and built by American Presbyterian missionaries in 1890, had been without a pastor. There was not much left but a decrepit, cracked, and crumbling church building too close to a busy highway. The church was empty but the village was full of need: deep poverty, high rates of addiction and abuse, poor health and lack of quality care, and a shortage of good news coming from too few churches. Dronka needed a resurrection.

And then, a little like the way God took the prophet Ezekiel to the valley of the dead, dry bones and told him to preach the word of the Lord to them, the Synod of the Nile sent a young lay pastor to revive the church body with the life-giving breath of God’s Word and service to the community’s needs.

Iraq Appeal - March 2020 Update

Good Shepherd Schools: Spaces for Hope

A ministry of the Presbyterian Church in Baghdad, the Good Shepherd School began with a vision to create a kindergarten to serve the community and provide a place where the Good News could be shared with children and their families, especially those who are not (yet) of “the household of faith.” The Good Shepherd School (which now has 94 children in its kindergarten and another 16 in the nursery) was beloved by the families whom it served and soon, those families asked Rev. Farouk Hammo, the pastor of the Presbyterian Church under which this ministry falls, to extend the school into elementary grades. The hard work of securing government permission, building out more classrooms (with gifts from The Outreach Foundation) and hiring qualified teachers was completed several years ago. Gradually adding classes, the elementary school now goes through grade 4 and has 60 little ones! And with a vision to serve autistic children – for whom few services exist in Iraq – the Good Shepherd School has begun preparing classrooms for this purpose. They are working with another Outreach partner, the Blessed School in Beirut, to train teachers for these special needs children. Outreach is honored to be undergirding this new endeavor, as well.

Iraq, over the past few months, has experienced a lot of protests, political upheaval, and even military action, as we all know from our news. The schools have continued on, despite it all, as Rev. Farouk reports that:

…during the last five months, even when most of the Baghdad schools stopped and closed their doors, we did not. The Ministry of Education, which supervises our schools, was happy for our action

Middle East, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationMarch 3, 2020Iraq Appeal, Iraq

Refugee Appeal - February 2020 Update

Our Lady Dispensary (OLD) is located in a densely packed, lower-middle-class Christian area of Beirut. A ministry of the Middle East Council of Churches, OLD serves over 1,000 families – Iraqi Christians and Syrian Muslims – who need food, medicines, help to pay rent, and trauma healing for their children. They fled their countries during war and upheaval. Some want to go back but their homes or livelihoods were destroyed. Most of them hope to be resettled in Europe, Canada or Australia but those U.N. initiatives have slowed down.

As Christmas approached, your generous gifts once again allowed OLD to provide a glimmer of joy to families who had lost much. Rather than “just hand out” much-needed clothing and warm winter outerwear, OLD arranged with a local department store to allow their clients to shop with vouchers, so THEY could pick out what they needed, affording a bit of choice and dignity. Let me introduce you to a few of those whom you helped…

Middle East, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationFebruary 27, 2020Refugee IDP Appeal, Refugee Appeal, Middle East

Philemon Project Preschool - February 2020 Update

She is desperate, alone, and vulnerable. A single mother, a refugee, a migrant domestic worker – far away from her home and family, searching for a safe place to leave her child while she looks for work. She has fled her homeland, from the brutality of war, economic uncertainty, ecological disaster. Now, struggling to live in Lebanon as a refugee, she faces limited options. The GROW Center seeks to meet the needs of Syrian refugee migrant workers, and underserved Lebanese communities. We serve 75-80 children, providing early childhood development and adult mentoring for over 150 parents a month. While the present GROW Center is thriving, sadly, there are months we reach capacity and cannot accept new children. Recently when a single mother from Syria learned that we couldn’t receive her child, she burst into tears, falling to her knees, pleading, “please help me...I have no place to put her...”

Some weeks later, we were able to make room for her child, but they both suffered while waiting for a space at the Center. Our work is making a gospel missional impact on families. Many come from Muslim backgrounds, and many hear the gospel through our work. Because of this mother and her daughter, and many others like them, we are firmly committed to replicating our work to reach more families with the love of Christ.

Syria Appeal - January 2020 Update

A Renewable Resource

…is a phrase often used to describe energy sources that are replenishable, abundant and in endless supply, like wind and sun. But over the past few weeks, pictures posted by Presbyterian congregations in Syria, celebrating events and gatherings, have come to inspire me with the thought that the Church, even in such a seemingly unlikely place, is a “renewable resource!”

This past fall, when Turkish troops flooded northeastern Syria to confront what they saw as a Kurdish threat to their security and sovereignty in the region, the instability rocked the area and exacted a heavy toll on an economy already collapsed after 7 years of war. Because of your generous gifts, Outreach was able to quickly wire funds to the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon (NESSL) so that families of their three congregations in the Northeast (Hasakeh, Malkieh, and Qamishli) could purchase water (after the bombing of a local spring, bottled water had to be purchased in Hasakeh), food (the price of meat rose to $10/kilo in Malkieh – $80 is a typical monthly salary), and heating fuel (as I write, temperatures will drop below freezing tonight in Qamishli).

Middle East, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationJanuary 22, 2020Syria Appeal, Syria

Near East School of Theology - January 2020 Update

Dear friends,

It has been a difficult time for our partners in Lebanon. We have been praying and reaching out to them and you have been standing in the gap with them. God continues to work and walk with them. We would like to share this update from our partners at the Near East School of Theology (N.E.S.T.) to provide you with a closer look from our partners on the ground.

A Word from the President Dr. George Sabra

An uprising has been spreading in Lebanon’s cities and towns. Since October 2019, thousands of people have gathered in public squares and on streets and roads to vent their anger against the corruption of the ruling political class that has led the country not just to the brink of, but to actual economic and financial collapse. Decades of corruption, mismanagement of the country’s economic problems, and sectarian power struggles have led to this situation, and the people are fed up.

Middle East, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationJanuary 16, 2020Near East School of Theology, Lebanon

Evangelical Theological Seminary - January 2020 Update

A message from Dr. Atef Gendy, ETSC President

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. John 1:14

Although the Church in the East formally recognizes Christmas on January 7, I feel blessed to begin my celebration in December with my friends in the West and continue it through January 7. While the traditions surrounding Christmas vary throughout the world, there is a shared belief among us that the coming of Jesus was and is the most significant event in human history. He is indeed full of grace and truth. Whether our celebration resembles that of those lowly, bedraggled shepherds or that of the well-to-do mysterious wise men from the East, matters not. We come together around his manger-crib with hearts overwhelmed with joy and gratitude.

For those of us at ETSC, it is indeed a time for thanksgiving. Not only do we give thanks for the coming of Christ, but we also pause to offer our profound appreciation for God’s work in and among us this past year. Let me express our gratitude for the following blessings:

New Church Development in Egypt - November 2019 Update

In November, I led a team of 17 to Egypt to learn from and celebrate the ministry of our partners there, one of which is the Synod of the Nile’s Pastoral Outreach and Mission Committee that is planting new churches and revitalizing old ones. My colleague, Rev. Mark Mueller, was part of this team and reflects here on what he encountered.
Marilyn Borst, Associate Director for Partnership Development

Lessons
by Mark Mueller

The Middle East has many lessons to teach the church. In Iraq, the church has remained the faithful remnant despite war, sanctions, and upheaval. In Lebanon, the church moves forward amid protests, poverty, and instability. In Syria, the church is rebuilding after invasion, strife, and migration. In each of these countries, the church has served as a model of resiliency and faithfulness.

Middle East, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationNovember 26, 2019New Church Development in Egypt, Egypt

Partner Updates

Dronka Church-A Resurrection in Process