As Thanksgiving begins back in the USA, we too have much reason to be thankful today out here in the Middle East. As of early yesterday morning, an official ceasefire came into effect. The ceasefire is holding as of today, ending the intense warfare here of the last two months and closing the overall conflict that began in south Lebanon 13 months ago on October 7th, 2024 and gradually engulfed the entire country.
Earlier this week things intensified to a level not seen since two months ago, with dozens of airstrikes pounding into areas of the city and across the country almost hourly. Even from high up in the mountain refuge areas, the blasts could be heard and smoke seen rising from across the south of the city. It was the storm before the calm. As suddenly as it intensified, when the 4am ceasefire deadline came into effect yesterday, it all ended at once.
We are very thankful to live to see the end of this current conflict. While the future remains uncertain (as is always the case in the Middle East) at least for now it seems we have a period of peace prevailing across the country that we have not known in over a year. There are no bombings in Beirut, no rockets flying over the southern border, no jets roaring overhead, and no drones hitting targets along the highways. We thank the Lord for peace, having known war for far too long.
The Return of the War Displaced
With the ceasefire agreement coming into effect yesterday, this has created the conditions for those displaced by the war to begin to return to their communities.
As suddenly as people flooded into the mountains two months ago, when the widespread aerial bombing began in the country, they left just as suddenly yesterday.
Within hours the roads were jammed with cars heading back to the southern and eastern parts of the country affected most by the war.
We began our normal food distro as planned that morning, and by early afternoon it became clear that over half the families we’d been providing daily meals to had left, and the remainder of the local displaced families told us they planned to leave early the next day.
Ending the Race; Halting the Current War Relief Efforts
Thus, with the immediate departure of the vast majority of war displaced in the mountains, yesterday marked the end of our current war relief efforts. We are all very thankful these people can return to their communities. We are also very thankful the Lord provided resources above and beyond what we could have expected to be able to serve these war displaced people the last two months they were sheltering in our villages.
The local church in the mountains that provided the volunteer labor for all the cooking of dinners, the baking of breakfast breads, and the distribution of bedding, is also very thankful for the opportunity to have been able to serve the Lord in this manner.
We had prayed for endurance to run this race to the end. It was not easy for them to cook and distribute aid every day. The amount of planning and labor involved in such things is significant, especially cooking for almost 600 people.
These were not paid workers or salaried staff doing this ministry. They were just church members freely volunteering their time to serve. And by God’s grace they endured, joyfully and patiently, to the end of over two months of helping the displaced with their daily needs. Thank you to all who prayed for endurance to run this race! With God’s help, we made it.
Reviewing God’s Faithful Provision for Needs
When the church decided to do something to help and prayed together over two months ago about beginning to provide meals and bedding, nobody thought that by the final week we would be cooking meals for over 600 people a day.
Nor did we have the finances at the beginning of this most recent intense phase of the war. We simply had to trust the Lord to keep providing each week for the needs as they grew, and He always did! We never lacked finances to meet genuine needs or continue scaling up meals. The Lord moved in the hearts of many abroad to help with this, and we thank Him for it!
In the final summary of help provided through the war relief efforts the past two months, we have the following to report:
- Total dinner meals cooked and delivered: ~28,600
- Average cost per person of dinner meals: $0.37/meal
- Total breakfast meals (Manouche) baked and delivered: ~28,000
- Average cost per person of breakfasts: $0.12/manouche
- Total blankets delivered to war displaced: 750
- Total sleeping mats delivered to war displaced: 500
While it isn’t about the numbers, it is helpful to be able to look back on things numerically to get an idea of how much the Lord helped and provided. None of us could have imagined the Lord would strengthen this little church to provide over 56,600 meals (breakfasts and dinners) to the war displaced by the end of this war.
Nor would we have thought those first weeks when we were running around with a dozen sleeping mats strapped to the roof of the car, delivering mats and blankets house by house, that in the end we would individually deliver 1,250 mats and blankets to families in need. I think we would have fainted and never begun had we thought such an amount would be required of us for food and bedding. But the Lord helped!
Those receiving the aid were very thankful and often astonished to learn that the food did not come from a big well-funded aid group like the UN but from a little evangelical church. The Lord used this to glorify His name and open many doors for light and truth with the displaced. Thank you to all those who prayed, and to those who gave freely to help with financial needs for this.
Prayerfully Moving Into The Next Phase of Reconstruction
As families began to leave, we gathered names and contact info for almost a dozen families with damaged or destroyed homes. They will likely return to shelters in their own communities or undamaged homes of relatives, but remain homeless until they can repair or rebuild.
Country-wide it is estimated almost 100,000 homes are partially or fully destroyed from the fighting. Due to the nature of conflict, many civilian homes were very close to airstrike targets, and became damaged by the nearby explosions.
We are praying about whether the Lord would open a door for the men from the local mountain church to go in teams to help rebuild homes for the families we connected with these past months. We want to find ways to continue to serve and be a light in those communities, as much as it is possible.
This will likely be similar to the reconstruction efforts done after the 2020 Beirut Port blast, but in a much more difficult and distant area. Pray with us for wisdom on what the Lord would have us to do.
But for today, it is a day of Thanksgiving for us out here in the Middle East as well. We rest and rejoice that the war has ended. We pray the ceasefire would hold. We pray there would be a better future ahead for this troubled land, and further open doors for the truth of Christ to advance.
Further details about possible reconstruction efforts will be posted here in the future. But we will also resume the standard medical/relief updates from before the war relief efforts began. While much focus has been on the war, the normal ministry has continued on in tandem as well. The Lord has been faithful to provide for the needs of both, and we pray He continues to work through the compassionate witness of it all.
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