Those unforgettable figures
Mood Notes on a Middle East Journey
Walli, who lives in a refugee camp, asked:
"This Koran tells me to kill, kill, kill,
This Bible tells me to love, love, love. Which side is true? "
I was alone at the Lebanese airport, waiting for the return flight at 2:30 late at night. A tight one-week schedule makes my body very tired. Thinking of being able to lie down in a comfortable and warm bed tomorrow night and enjoy a safe, quiet, and smoke-free sleep, it was not difficult to accept another six hours of waiting on this bench. But what I saw in the past few days lingered in my mind, especially the refugee families and children who had lived in harsh environments for many years. It made me feel extremely ashamed of my eagerness to escape back to a comfortable environment.
My trip had two purposes: first, to visit friends in Jordan and Lebanon; second, to visit refugee families and refugee camps. In just one week, I gained far more than I expected. It broadened my ministry and gave me new perspectives and perspectives on missionary strategies and methods.
Gaze upon the Promised Land
In January 2019, I departed from New York and transferred via Germany to the airport in Amman, the capital of Jordan. My friend came all the way to pick me up at the airport. It was a low temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) indoors and outdoors. Being used to having a heater, I felt so cold that it penetrated my bones. I had constant headaches during the day and could not sleep at night! Thinking that most residents live in such an environment, I feel really pampered.
The next day, my friend took me to Mount Nebo, the last stop in Moses' life. Across the Jordan River, just around the corner, I looked around and saw that the land of Moab was really desolate! The entire territory of Jordan is desert wilderness and is one of the driest countries in the world. Jordan is bordered by the Jordan River, the Dead Sea and Israel to the west, Syria to the north, Iraq and Saudi Arabia to the east, the Red Sea to the south, and Egypt. The Jordanians and the Israelites were originally the same people, but now they are facing each other. Jordan's legal religion is Islam. Muslims account for 95% of the population and only about 4% Christians.
根據維基百科統計數字，自從2011年，ISIS崛起，敘利亞內戰開始，敘利亞2,200萬人口，有1,350萬淪為難民，其中750萬逃出敘利亞，成為國際難民，大多由臨近各國收容，前四名為：土耳其354萬人；黎巴嫩220萬人（這個小國總人口也才400萬）；約旦126萬人；德國70萬人。難民當中超過50%是18歲以下孩童。Notes
Hard refugee life
Friends continue to care about some refugees from Syria and we visited several of the families. What impressed me most was a mother with seven minor children whose father had been missing for three years. The hostess said that maybe he had been killed, or imprisoned in some prison, or wandering in some corner of the world. They received UN refugee cards. The monthly cash subsidy received is not enough to pay the rent for the simple building. Two 16- and 17-year-old boys went out to do odd jobs; the 15-year-old girl was at home and not in school; the 13- and 11-year-old boys just came back from school and politely greeted us with a hug and a kiss on the cheek; the youngest was 7 years old. Girl and 6 year old boy.
The two school-going children originally stayed at home. Because they lived in a remote area, they had to walk nearly two hours one way to go to school. If they took a bus, the monthly fare would be about 10 Jordanian dollars (14 U.S. dollars). Friends asked them to do handicrafts and exchanged the finished products with them in Jordanian currency every month, on the condition that they had to go to school. The 39-year-old mother suffers from diabetes, and a doctor friend observed that the cuts on her hands had not healed. Due to lack of medicine, her condition cannot be effectively controlled; due to lack of food, we dare not mention dietary management. After all, survival comes first.
Friends care for Syrian refugees in various ways: visiting, providing financial assistance, teaching young people various skills, or setting up small factories for refugee women to make castile soap. They conveyed God’s love through various actions and effectively lived out their Christian testimony.
Lebanon─Special Gospel Field
When you think of Lebanon, you think of cedar trees. The Bible describes this as a place full of aroma. Lebanon is bordered by Syria to the east and north, Israel to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. It is located at the hub of Europe, Asia and Africa, with a total area of more than 10,000 square kilometers. In the Bible, Lebanon is mentioned at least 64 times. 95% is a descendant of the Phoenicians. Tire and Sidon are both in Lebanon.
Although Lebanon has a domestic population of just over 4 million, it has more than 15 million immigrants from all over the world. Originally, Christians accounted for 80% of the total population. However, due to repeated civil wars, immigration, low birthrate, and the fact that Islamic believers generally have many children, the proportion of Christians has dropped to about 35% in recent years.
Lebanon is the most Westernized country in the Middle East and the country with the most liberal evangelism.
Wall-E's story
Friends have opened a school specifically for refugee children, and most of the teachers are Syrian refugees. Although it is not a formal school, I can see the dedication of the volunteers. With limited resources, our friends are doing their best and moving forward with confidence.
We visited the Lebanese Evangelical Church. This is a gathering for the Kurdish people who escaped from Syria to preach the gospel to them. Here we meet refugee Walli and are invited to visit his home in a dilapidated building.
Wali was a grindstone floor worker in his hometown, and his family fled here six years ago. Because her children attended refugee schools, Mrs. Walli had been in contact with refugee schools for a long time and believed in the Lord. She prayed quietly for her husband, but did not dare to let Wali know for fear of being kicked out of the house. Three years ago, the school invited parents to a Christmas celebration and she convinced Wally to come along. The protagonist of the celebration is Jesus, a name that Walli has heard but is unfamiliar with. The Christmas talk about Jesus piqued his interest, and he received a gift - an Arabic Bible. After that, he read carefully and also read the Quran as usual. He couldn't help feeling confused and said in limited English: "This Quran tells me to kill, kill, kill, and this Bible tells me to love, love, love, which one should be true to follow?” (The Koran tells me to kill, kill, and the Bible tells me to love, love, love. Which one is true?)
He went to church and asked the pastor. The pastor said that he had to decide the answer and suggested that he pray and ask God. So he prayed seriously and became more and more attracted to Jesus.
One day, Wali prayed to Jesus. From that moment on, he was willing to follow Jesus, and his whole family, including five children, converted to the Lord. Therefore, he was repeatedly threatened by his fellow tribesmen to kill him and moved away.
When he was threatened, God gave him wisdom to respond: "Look, as my brothers, what have you done to help me besides threatening me? But those Christians, from the very beginning, took the initiative to help my wife, My child has never asked me to be a Christian in return. You have been helping me for several years. As a normal person, do you think I should be close to you or to them?”
Wali said that he looks forward to returning to his hometown to establish a church every day. Could this be dangerous? He said, "Jesus died for me, wouldn't it be right for me to die for Jesus?"
The refugee camp is horrifying, what should you and I do?
The most unforgettable part of my trip was the refugee camp, where the living conditions were unimaginably bad! There are endless tents next to each other, and the passage in the middle is always muddy. When it rains, the water is knee-deep and full of stench. Children wander around in the dirty and smelly camp area. The refugee camp is far from the city and has no public facilities, schools, or medical equipment. Thousands of people have lived here, and the longest one has been seven years. I don’t know when they will be able to leave! And there are dozens of refugee camps like this one.
I peeked into a tent, and upon seeing this, the host warmly invited me to come in and sit down. I called my friends and invited all the people in. He immediately started making tea to entertain us. I felt that time and space were intertwined, as if I had met Abraham, and I was suddenly moved to ask for blessings for this family. I asked a fellow translator to convey the message, and in the name of the Lord Jesus, I announced that salvation and blessings would come to this family.
On the plane, I asked the Lord what can I do? In Middle Eastern societies with extremely tight interpersonal structures, building trust is an absolute necessity. I witnessed how missionary workers activated Father God’s unconditional love into their lives and established trusting friendships with local people. In an environment where Christ cannot be preached publicly, when people experience the love of the Heavenly Father, at the right time, their hearts will be opened to listen to the gospel of the kingdom. The gospel strategy of living out love requires complete trust in the work of the Holy Spirit with faith, and God will reap the harvest in wonderful ways.
The journey is actually not over, but has just begun. I need to think carefully, discern, reflect, and ask the Lord’s will. After all, He has led me to see and hear.
Note: Regarding the number of refugees in various countries, there are large differences due to different sources. The number of the United Nations Refugee Agency is based on the number of registered and approved refugees, while the number of Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and other countries is based on domestic statistics of each country, which is much larger than the United Nations statistics. Because many refugees travel to and from different regions, and many even dare not register, the actual number of refugees is not only larger than the number in the United Nations files, but also larger than the statistics of various countries. This article uses Wikipedia information for reference.
From a painting to an education program
The picture on the right was made by a refugee girl. Like many refugee children, she experienced unimaginable horror scenes during war and flight, and suffered mental and emotional trauma. The missionary took the initiative to care for her and encouraged her to express her inner feelings through painting. She painted the painting on the upper right - "Christians Embracing Muslims with Love."
Can love become a number to measure missionary effectiveness?
After returning to the United States, I often shared this picture, and many people asked: "Is this girl a Christian?" This reminded me of many missionary workers who said that the most difficult thing for them is that supporters often ask how many people there are. Decision to believe in the Lord, it seems that the number of decisions or baptisms is the only indicator of the effectiveness of the work.
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you, and I am with you always, even to the end of the world. ” (Matthew 28:19-20) Today, has a system or standard been formed in the church, using the Four Laws or the Three Blessings, or personal testimony to invite others to pray for confession and repentance? In this way, there is one more Number of people saved? Can such systems and standards be used across different cultures? Can you truly lead people to become disciples of the Lord?
When the Lord Jesus talked about the gospel with the woman at the well, with Nicodemus, and with the young ruler, it was so natural and contextual, yet so touching.
A girl who paints and feels that Christians love Muslims unconditionally. Missionaries knew that openly professing their faith could lead to the death of girls and the deportation of missionary workers. Missionary work in such an environment requires great faith, looking to the work of the Holy Spirit, serving with the love of Christ in various ways, but not being eager to prove the effectiveness of missionary work by the number of decisions or baptisms.
We on the home front should try to understand and fully support the missionary workers on the front.
Lord, what should I do?
How disturbing and heart-wrenching it is to witness firsthand the suffering caused by global injustice! Refugees need immediate help with practical life and education. Among the out-of-school children wandering in refugee camps, boys aged 10 to 18 may become recruitment targets for terrorists. Without education, without experiencing love or learning what love is, they are trained to hate, and this is what I fear in my heart.
We are both in the global village, but we cannot enjoy the same educational opportunities. What can you and I do? How to bring schools to the many refugee children? What's the fastest and cheapest way? The idea of providing education through the Internet began to grow in my mind.
After returning to the United States, I immediately shared and took action to convey this urgent need, and began planning an online school program for refugees. A sister happened to invest in an online education system a few years ago. It is now in normal operation and can immediately start and provide English teaching courses to refugee schools! Soon after, ESL teachers who had visions and burdens about this were also in place to start the first phase of the experiment.
If the Lord allows, I hope that in the near future, this online school will also be able to provide online education courses for the children of missionary workers around the world. It can even set up open-air schools near refugee camps to provide children with various distance learning and bring God the Father to the world. love and convey it to them in a more practical way.
Bringing education to refugee camps without schools through the Internet
Online School Project—Eagle's Bridge Institute of Learning
The vision of Yingqiao College comes from the "Moses Covenant": "I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself..." (Exodus 19:4-6). The eagle here symbolizes God the Father, and through this online education program, many people will come to Him. A bridge connects people and metaphorically refers to cultural exchanges. Using "English" instead of "Eagle" as the name of the school also prays that this institution will cultivate talents for the Kingdom of God.
Phase One: Exploration and Experimentation
‧ To meet the immediate need, provide refugee school teachers to teach English courses.
‧ Train local English teachers.
‧ Provide demonstration teaching through the www.lumalearn.com online education system.
Phase 2: Establish the British Bridge College website, establish and register a U.S. federal non-profit institution
‧ Provide English courses for children of missionary workers.
‧ Provide free English courses in language schools run by missionary workers (gradually expanding to provide multiple language courses, such as Chinese, Spanish, French, German, etc.).
Phase 3: Start online school in refugee camps
It started by providing English courses and expanded to a variety of different subjects.
Phase 4: Develop Yingqiao College into a certified online education learning platform
If you are moved and have the burden to participate in missionary work through online education platforms, whether you are a professional teacher, network technology talent, or participating through prayer or financial donation, you are all welcome. In the first phase of "exploration and experimentation", approximately US$5,000 to US$10,000 is needed to pay for ESL teachers' course fees. In the second stage, full-time staff need to be hired to prepare the required computer equipment and systems, and pay teachers for course fees. The initial budget is US$200,000. For further information, please contact lilykyang@gmail.com.
Donation method: United States, Canada and overseas/Check donation method. Please make the check payable to KRC and indicate China Mission – Education in the note. Check mailing address: PO Box 901, Pleasanton, CA 94566 USA
Let us work together, ride on the wings of eagles, ride on the high places of the earth, eat the produce of the fields (see Deuteronomy 32:10-14), and follow God the Father to write a new story in the history of missions.
Lily is the founder and CEO of Kingdom Resources for Christ. After spending many years as an executive in large companies, she now serves in full-time ministry, often speaking, teaching, and leading retreats throughout North America and Asia. She also founded and runs the natural and ethical skincare and cosmetics company, LordnLily.com.