MEET BAHAA

My name is Bahaa and I am in charge of overseeing the sustainable agriculture project our church is working on with MERATH. Prior to that, we had already been working with MEARTH on winter distributions, which helped us support around 700 vulnerable Lebanese and Syrian families in the community, as well as hygiene kits for around 300 families.

The crisis we are passing through is affecting everyone. While we used to help those vulnerable in our communities, we now see more and more church members needing assistance themselves. Generally speaking, more and more people are getting desperate and are begging for assistance. This puts a lot of pressure on us, as we have limited resources.

The village where the church is located is in North Lebanon, very far from Beirut. Residents mainly live off agriculture. However, the economic crisis has put such pressure on farmers that they are no longer able to pay for fuel to turn on generators to water plants or to purchase seeds, pesticides, and the necessary ingredients to make preserves. As a result, farmers are seeing a decrease in yield and are no longer able to sustain their livelihoods.

Two years ago, with two other members of the church, I attended a sustainable agriculture training through MERATH and felt inspired to use our existing land to start our own project. One church member was already planting a small piece of land and providing a few families with vegetables. After attending the training, we realized that we could assist food insecure members of our community on a much larger scale. We already had approximately 9,000 m2 of land that was not being used, since we did not have the means to cultivate it. We wanted to use this land to design a self-sustaining project that can help provide not only food but also income to those working the land.

During the first year of implementation, we faced several challenges, as we were still new to sustainable agriculture. Our yield was smaller than expected and it felt a bit discouraging. We ended up thinking maybe our dream was too big. But we persevered and MERATH continued to support us and showed a great deal of understanding.

Thanks to them, we were able to add a cow farm to our project, and we feel like the pieces of the puzzle are all coming together. We are now able to fully produce our own compost thanks to the cows’ manure. At the same time, we now have eggs and we started producing milk. The yield from the vegetable crops seems much better than last year already. It is true that we work hard, and agriculture can be tiring, but what a joy seeing our harvest and the fruits of our labor! We are so excited to be slowly but surely moving toward self-sustainability, so we can continue helping the most vulnerable in our community.

This project is helping a lot of people, starting with the six families who are involved in working the land. They have greatly benefited from the increase in income and it is helping them stay in the village. But it is also helping all the families who receive fresh and organic vegetables for free. They are so thankful, and the distributions are always welcome given the difficult situations most people are in. We decided to sell the milk to cover the project expenses, but we do it at a very decent price. People love buying from us because they trust us and they know they are getting organic and clean products that haven’t been tampered with, which people really worry about these days.

At the same time, this is a great support and testimony for our church, because we are building strong relationships with new members of our community. We get to know them and are aware of the challenges and difficulties that they are going through. Our church congregation is approximately 100 members and has been growing as people felt more and more supported by the church.

On a personal level, I feel God has been teaching me a lot through this agriculture project. Learning how to plants seeds, how to take care of it while praying that it germinates and grows, made me better understand the words of Jesus: “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” And as the apostle Paul says, we have to work hard on the seedlings and to take care of new believers so that they can get closer to God and build a strong relationship with Him. The project made me get closer to the Word and helped me understand it in a practical way.

Before being involved in this project, I didn’t really believe in this type of ministry. I was convinced that our only duty as Christians was to share the gospel with words. But as I grew closer to Jesus, I remembered that His own ministry was twofold. Jesus used to have empathy and show mercy, and He would help, heal, and feed people from many different religious and social backgrounds, without showing partiality. Just as our God shines His light on all, we likewise need to show God’s love to all, without discriminations. We pray that we can always have empathy and serve others the way Jesus did.

I’ve been wondering what God might be trying to teach us through all this. I believe that when things are going well, we tend to feel like we don’t need God in our lives. We become comfortable and proud. I think more people have turned to God during this time of crisis. People are seeking. God teaches us to count on him during hard times. People have started realizing that in the end, everything disappears, and the only lasting thing we have is our relationship with God. It is more important now than ever for us to demonstrate God’s love through our actions.