Exciting update from the Beqaa Valley:

The following is a report from one of the Horizons Staff members who visits the refugee camps in the Beqaa valley every week.

There is one specific family that we have been visiting as a team, that we are especially excited about. The first time we visited them, we brought them food and shared the gospel. I shared the story of Jesus healing the 10 lepers. We talked about how Jesus cares for us, he heals us, and he hears our prayers. The mother and her children listened intently to what we shared with them, and asked questions.

Before leaving, I asked if I could give them an audio Bible as a gift from us to them (many of the refugees can’t read). The mother accepted the gift graciously.

We came back to visit them after sometime and I reviewed with them the story I shared about Jesus healing the 10 lepers. Then I shared with them the story of Jesus healing the paralytic. After sharing with them I asked the mother if anyone in the family had a chance to listen to the audio Bible we gifted them.

Her response was the following: “Yes – we all are listening to it!” 

Then, one of her daughters – “B”- who is between 11-13 years old, started to tell us the story of Joseph that she learned from the audio Bible. Wow! We were blown away! The daughters were also acknowledging that we need to pray in the name of Jesus.

After some time we visited the family again. When “B” saw me, she ran up and gave me a big hug! I squeezed her and kissed her on the cheek. This visit was really amazing…. they had been listening to the Bible stories and even memorizing them. Our team tried sharing with them our favorite stories, but one of the daughters, “M”, would get soo excited that she knew the story, and she’d finish the story for us! We had to actually think what new stories we could share with them because they knew them all! What a great problem that was!

One of the other women on the team wanted to share the story of Jesus calming the storm but “M” knew this story, too. Then I got a fun idea. “Let’s make a play of the story of Jesus calming the storm! Let’s do it right here all together!” The children lit up with excitement. So the women on our team and the children of the family stood up and pretended we were disciples on the ship. We swayed back and forth, pretending to be rocked by the waves. We crashed into each other, saying “Help! help!” We appointed the mother the role of Jesus, and she obliged and we played out the entire story. It was a very fun and engaging way of sharing the gospel!

After we settled down, “M” asked me specifically about the story of Jonah. So then I shared with her the story of Jonah and that led into a beautiful conversation about walking in obedience and trust in the Lord, and the importance of grace and mercy and loving our enemies.

Moving into weekly discipleship

We have decided to visit this family every Friday in order to get into deeper discipleship with them. Their hearts are open and they are soaking up Bible Stories! We are very excited for God to use and allow us to walk with them into a deeper relationship with the Lord.