March 2021
Mission Moment
Melanie Baggao is one of the missionaries we support each month with our mission giving. She serves in Beirut, Lebanon.
She writes: Let me share with you a few reasons why 2020 was an incredible year for me in Lebanon!
1. Experiencing God's embrace during some of the scariest days of my life: August and November were some of my darkest days here. The Beirut Blast that occurred on the 4th of August was not only physically frightening but emotionally and spiritually taxing. Living in a place where people suffer out of pure neglect from its government makes me sad and angry. In our darkest days as a country, the world surrounded us in prayer, even if they had to use Google to know where Beirut is.
And in November when I was suffering from COVID symptoms, there were four nights in the middle of it when I thought I wasn't going to make it. Having COVID wiped out every ounce of energy I had in me. But God was amazing in bringing friends by my side to check up on me here and abroad.
2. New ministries among forgotten people: After the Beirut Blast in early August, many NGOs from abroad flooded the city with help for the Lebanese and Syrians who have lost their homes and businesses. For sure, this help was needed and useful but God showed me two groups of people who have not been receiving help: migrant workers and poor non-Christians in the southern suburbs of Beirut. For both groups of people, their challenges were not initiated by the blast, but by the immense economic crisis that Lebanon had already begun ten months earlier. I've been helping INSAAF (NSAAF Justice and Compassion, directed by International Ministries) for a few months now with their ministry among migrant workers.
Through my relationship with my Arabic teacher with a non-Christian background, I have been able to help her with purchasing food, masks, and stickers for the kids of 80 poor families in her neighborhood. Her neighborhood is controlled by a powerful non-Christian political party and there are no churches or known believers except for my Arabic teacher. As we share these resources with these families every month, our prayer is that God will establish house churches in this area and that the people there will truly know the love of Christ. Lebanese Christians scoff at the idea of going into this neighborhood, and outside NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) are not allowed in. However, Jesus does not overlook this corner of Beirut.
Barbara Chicks