MEET BROTHER DAVID

Our church started in a small apartment, ministering mostly among Iraqi refugees. Quickly, the place got too small and God provided us with a bigger place. Now, we are about 60 members but more people are attending our services. Apart from the traditional church activities, we have an important relief ministry that I oversee. Our vision is to help Syrian and Iraqi refugees in our area, to show them Christ’s love. Our ultimate hope is of course that they get to know Jesus, but we serve them unconditionally.

Through MERATH, we provide every month food vouchers to 270 households and diapers to about 80 families with babies. We also distributed blankets and winter items to around 350 households during the cold season and we have vocational trainings. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we distributed about 500 hygiene kits and additional emergency food assistance. Now we are also supporting households who have been affected by the Beirut explosion, with food vouchers, shelter rehabilitation, and hygiene items.

With the Lebanese economy falling apart and the hyperinflation the country is suffering from, the situation is worsening for everyone in Lebanon. Not to mention the recent explosion in Beirut that left us all in shock. We see more and more Lebanese families in urgent need of assistance. Many have lost their jobs and are in debt, and cannot pay their rent, put food on the table, or care for their health anymore. Many too have lost their homes in the Beirut explosion, which was all they had left.

The worsening of COVID-19 situation in the country is making us take more precautions as a church and as a community as we serve the families around us. It has impacted the way we work and because of it, everything we do is taking much more time and effort. Please pray for protection, both spiritually and psychologically. The ministry is sometimes difficult and tiresome, and we are but human beings with our weaknesses and limitations.

What keeps me going is seeing the fruits of our ministry. Because we are a church and not any organization, we witness drastic changes in the lives of the people we serve. Changes in their personalities and in their perspective about Christianity and Christians.

But what makes me the happiest is seeing someone new give his or her life to Jesus as an indirect result of our work. And we have seen a lot of this in the ten years we have been ministering in our community. 

As things around us seem to be getting worse and worse and as we are clueless about what the future holds, we try to take every day as it comes. More than ever, we are reminded not to put our trust and hopes in men, but in our Lord only, and to lift all things, big and small, to Him. We continue our ministry because we know God is on our side and He is blessing our work. We believe He has a purpose in bringing all these people to our door.

If God wasn’t with us, we would be utterly devastated. And I see people around us who are experiencing that. But we have a living hope in God. And that is what encourages us and lifts our spirit. We see no hope in this situation except in God.