MEET CHEIKHA

My name is Cheikha. I am Lebanese and I have four grown-up sons whom I raised as a single mother. My son Charbel suffers from autism and despite being 30 years-old now, he is still in a wheelchair and cannot be left alone.

The story of how I met Roula is quite unusual. It was just two or three days after the Beirut explosion. I was walking down the Gemmayze street, still in shock of the explosion and filled with rage and sadness looking at all the destruction and damage. I was walking and talking to myself, worried about my own difficult situation and crying. I was asking myself and God “how can this happen to us?”. None of my children has a job anymore. Where on earth were we going to find money to pay rent, electricity, or simply food?

Then I reached some kind of tent on the street where people from the church were giving some food and drinks. I asked for coffee and a woman at the stand invited me to sit down for a while. The woman saw that I was sad, tried to cheer me up and I started telling her everything that was burdening me.

One of my sons got married and traveled to France in the hope of working there but things are not working for him there. I miss him terribly and he cannot visit. My son here got married as well but he got fired from his job. I can’t tell him that I want money to buy bread, where are they going to get me money from? The lady asked if she could pray for me. I agreed and as soon as she began praying, I started to cry. When she saw I was crying, she started crying as well.

Later on, she followed up on me and paid me a visit with Roula. Since then, they have been helping me with so many things.  Basically, they helped me with everything I needed, from the kitchen to the bathroom! They gave me food vouchers, winter items, hygiene items, and so much more. I couldn’t believe it.

Are there really people like this in the world?  When I am around them, I feel the most wonderful peace, just knowing some people have such hope inside of them, and that they are willing to help strangers without anything in return. Roula even thought of my son with autism, stuck at home because of the lockdown, and she got him a tablet so that he isn’t too bored and doesn’t give me a hard time.

From this day, I’ve been getting to know them more. Their faith really inspires me and they became very dear to my heart. At Christmas, I never received from my parents what I received from Roula. This Easter, she was so thoughtful as to get me all the needed ingredients so I can bake the traditional “Maamoul” sweets. Can you believe it? I couldn’t have afforded the ingredients if it wasn’t for her. After seeing her, I feel like dancing from joy. I don’t even have words to describe it. May God protect her husband, her family, her parents, her mother…I really love them, really.

I always ask myself why they were on my way and are helping me like this. I thank God because he placed her in my path. I was walking in Beirut crying and thinking out loud. I was wresting with God, I was worrying all the time. There was no life anymore. Roula and the church came and gave us life. They are such a blessing to us.

Cheikha’s story is a perfect example of why we choose to work through churches. We come alongside them as they are already reaching out to people out of compassion and genuine love. Most of our partner churches have a pre existing relief ministry which was born out of their own vision and which is sustained through various Christian organizations. We only complement where we can and where there is a need, but if we were to disappear, the churches would still remain and continue their fantastic job.