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"A Handful of Salt" for Iraqi Refugees

From Maher el Hajj, National Director
Youth for Christ in Lebanon would like to thank everyone who has been praying for the Iraqi Refugee Outreach club, called “Kamshet Meleh”, which means “A Handful of Salt”. We mentioned the launch of this new ministry last year, and God has been so faithful to answer your prayers.

After a slow start in December, the club grew to nearly 40 young teenagers attending from the Iraqi community.

It has become what staff have been hoping and praying for: a place where young people could come and feel safe and accepted, interacting with the Youth for Christ volunteers and one other, and hearing the message of love and salvation in Christ.

Please continue to pray for these teenagers, that they would find hope and healing. Many have suffered traumatic situations as they have fled their home country with their families. Pray also for the team that is ministering to them, that they would have compassion and understanding, as well as wisdom and insight as they share in the lives of these wonderful young people.

This year school ministry activities have been expanded to include break time visits in the schools where the ministry happens. Every other week during the break, staff meet with the students, alternating between a fun challenge of small games and activities, as well as a discussion group with older students called Dare2Ask. This enables the building of stronger relationships with students and interaction with them in a more personal way, reinforcing the messages that are shared during chapel talks. It has been encouraging to see how welcome the Youth for Christ staff are on campus, and the way the students have engaged in the challenges.

Please pray that the times at schools would help build relationships and expose more students to staff and leaders, encouraging them to become a part of other Youth for Christ activities and programs.

During the Christmas break, Youth for Christ in Lebanon ran a day event called “Bet-haddek” (meaning “We challenge you!”)  A whole sports venue was booked and a day of physical and mental challenges was planned for the students that registered as teams to challenge each other. The speaker joined in the morning and asked a challenging question encouraging the teens to think about it all day, then came back in the afternoon to speak about the spiritual challenges that people face in their daily lives, and how to overcome them by living for Christ.

Please pray for all the young people who were at this event, that the message of Hope in Christ to meet the challenges of life would resonate and become real to them.