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THE DEFINITION OF RESILIENT
The bomb blast was felt over 130 miles from the blast site and is regarded by experts as one of the largest, non-nuclear, human-made explosions in human history. While our Youth for Christ team in Lebanon has been sorting through their shock and the trauma experienced by their families, they have also rushed to aid those in need. This explosion impacted most of our Youth for Christ teenagers and we’ve been moving quickly to respond to the needs of those with extensive home damage, physical injuries, and those who are emotionally and mentally scarred by the events of August 4th.

The day after the explosion, the entire Youth for Christ staff came together to help clean up and start repairing the ministry facilities and staff apartments. As we did so, we prayed and thought about what would come next. Youth for Christ serves hundreds of youth, and thereby families, and we wanted to help them as well.
After three days of national mourning, it was as if Beirutis woke up from their collective shock and started mobilising to help clean up streets and homes, serve food, distribute medicine and offer help to those who needed it. It was healing for many older city residents to see the young people mobilise and take responsibility for their community. Youth for Christ teens were part of that as they took up their heavy-duty gloves and brooms and got to work.

Our team spent the following week conducting home visits in Bourj Hammoud, an already economically depressed area of Beirut, where our Manara Youth Centre is located. The response from the youth was amazing as they saw that staff were making a concerted effort to look after them in the aftermath of the explosion, not because they’re mere beneficiaries of our programmes, but because we really love and care about them. Next, we started negotiating with businesses for glass and aluminum to begin replacing broken windows and infrastructure in their homes. “Rebuilding will be a long and arduous process, but this is what we need to do. Youth for Christ’s new mantra for this period is ‘Rebuilding homes, rebuilding lives’,” says Maher, the National Director.
The team at Youth for Christ Lebanon may soon have their picture in the dictionary next to the word “Resilient” because that is what they are. Aggresively serving and seeking for the young people of Lebanon to know Jesus, Youth for Christ Lebanon has had to be flexible and resilient. Influx of two million Syrian refugees and an opportunity to share the gospel and love of Christ? We are on it. Government and economic instability? No problem. We can maneuver through and continue to build a reconciliation centre, carpentry workshop, and teach Christian values and work skills. Even after a bomb blast that was felt for miles.

For more information about our programme in Lebanon, visit lb.yfci.org
DEVELOPMENT CORNER
Your partnership is helping outreach happen in over 100 nations around the world. God is using you and Youth for Christ International to actively engage over four million young people annually! Praise God that last year over 173,000 of them became followers of Jesus.

In this month's EVERY emails we have highlighted a few stories from our EMENA Area (Europe, Middle East & North Africa). Despite the difficult situations in many places (COVID-19, conflict, economics, political turmoil, disasters), God is still working! He is using you and Youth for Christ International in providing for the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of young people and communities in the midst of everything that is going on.

As you read these stories, I hope you will marvel at the resilience and the commitment of the people you support, but more than anything I hope you will rejoice in the lives that are being changed as a result of how God is using them. As one young woman from Spain says, through Youth for Christ “...I found a relationship with God and lots of friends who love me. It has really changed my life.” We pray many more might have that same experience.

Bryan Blomker, International Director of Development
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