A Different Christmas Season!

The last month has been so busy, we have barely had time to write down and think about what we have been doing. Throughout the last few weeks we have encountered our first Lebanese funeral, the Lebanon Philharmonic Orchestra, a very English carols by candlelight, said goodbye to our friend Jess who has gone home to America to get married, seen about five different ‘Papa Noels’, lived through examination time at school, and spent some lovely time as a team wondering through Beirut’s beautiful downtown with all its Christmas lights.

Paul and Naomi were also given the opportunity to visit the south and see the project; the ‘New Horizons centre’ that kids alive is running down there. This gives the opportunity for Bedowin children to be given some form of education, in between being sent to Beirut to beg by their families. We also saw the camp where they live, in conditions we can’t even imagine. We really felt it opened our eyes to the lives that some people have where they have no opportunities or future. Of course we hear about it all the time but to be actually there and meet these children made it very real.

Camp where Bedowin communties live who are offered facilities at the centre.

A memorable day was the day we decided to play pass the parcel with the boys, complete with crazy forfeits. Becca and Naomi had spent hours writing forfeits, buying the prize-a little Santa snow globe and wrapping 30 odd layers in whatever they could find in their house. The first obstacle was that after carefully arranging different games for different ages many of the boys were punished at different times, this meant that they were all mixed up meaning boys couldn’t read their forfeits or understand what they had to do and we had wrong numbers so some boys didn’t get ago and we had to try and slip them a treat but we felt so bad. Then in the first game the parcel suddenly became sodden and we realised the snow globe had been smashed, probably when one of the boys threw it on the floor for fun...that was the end of that game. It generally just became a bit crazy as it always does with a lot of young boys in one room, but this gap year is definitely teaching us patience, to be flexible and to stay calm when things aren’t quite going to plan!!

We were also able to enjoy the school play. It was lovely to see the children we have all grown to love talk from the heart about a Jesus that they loved. It was also a proud moment, as some of the boys we had spent hours practising their lines with read them beautifully with lots of expression.

It was quite difficult for us to adjust to the idea that we would not be spending Christmas at home with our families but in a foreign country. All of us felt particularly homesick around this time, particularly as the boys went home and we were left on a very quiet campus, and felt quite lonely. Naomi also came down with the flu which meant she was in bed over Christmas, but looking back this really gave her some time to relax and talk to her family on the phone. We were however treated to a lovely Christmas dinner at the Browns house and boxing day lunch at the Gregory’s which cheered us all up a lot. Paul and Becca also played some English carols on Christmas day for the Arabic congregation which contrasted quite a lot to the loud enthusiastic music they are used to but they enjoyed it all the same.

Church youth group!!!

We have spent the last couple of days with boys who are not able to be at home at the moment because of circumstances at home. We enjoyed entertaining them over new years, although they did not understand why we got so excited at midnight but they made our New Year very special and it's one we will never forget.

For all those who are supporting and praying for us we would like to wish a very Happy New Year!!!!