After the end of another exciting school year, our inspiring School of Hope students went to a summer camp on the 18, 19, and 20th of July in a beautiful area of Baabdat Besferine. It was a big blessing to be able to host 45 students at the camp this year from the ages of eight to thirteen. A wonderful team from Canada came to the camp, and with the assistance of translators, lead many of the awesome activities for the kids.

The first day they gathered all ages together and passionately told them the story of God’s creation, followed by a question and answer session. Then they divided them into groups according to their ages for discussion, asking them questions about creation and worship. Questions included: What does the story mean to you? How does it relate to your daily lives? How can you apply it and learn from it? What is worship ? Why do we worship?

Afterwards the kids had free time to play a variety of games in small groups. The kids had 45 minutes of a lunch break before they all gathered again with all ages together where they got to watch a theatrical play about Joseph’s life with real Egyptian clothes and props. The play was divided into three parts and performed over the three days of camp after lunch. The main theme was forgiveness as it related to Joseph’s story with his brothers and how God gave Joseph the strength to forgive them. Many of these young kids have carried a lot of anger and hatred from the war that they have been working through, so the topic of forgiveness was especially important.

The Canadian team showed a lot of care in the way they approached the School of Hope students and were also impressed with the testimonies they heard from them and their faith in Christ.

One of the children said that his elder brother was forced to join the military and eventually died during the war in Syria. For a long time he was sad and couldn’t forgive his brothers killers. It even got to the point where he said he decided to kill the enemy who was the cause of his brother’s death, but when he came to Lebanon and started attending the School of Hope he learned about Jesus. He told us that Jesus gives him peace and Jesus helped him to forgave his enemies.

Another child said that his mother died during the war and he had been filled with the spirit of revenge for 5 years. He used to get so angry when he saw others with their mothers and said he felt like an orphan. After he joined the school of Hope he learned how to forgive and learned that he has his spiritual parent in Heaven. The great thing is that God gave him a big sister who is like a mother for him and who takes good care of him.

The students were all engaged in the camp and enjoyed the stories. It was truly a blessing for the teachers too as they learnt new methods of approaching their students. The Canadian team also learned a lot from our team of teachers and it was a blessing for all.

If what the Canadian team did sounds like something you would be interested in, visit our short term trips page!