Author: Gia Janisse
I have been involved in Global Outreach for about five years. I have gone on many trips, served in the Refugee ministry, and I have even taken PathWays (a 10 week course geared towards educating about reaching the Nations for Jesus). God has so clearly put the NAME Region (North Africa and the Middle East) on my heart! He has also given me a passion to serve others and a passion for children! All of these factors guided me towards going on a Compassion Global Connection Trip to Lebanon this past fall.
On this trip, we were there to serve Syrian Refugees in Lebanon who have been displaced. These refugees now find themselves in camps and rely on organizations like Heart for Lebanon to provide basic necessities, schooling for the children, and medical attention. While on our trip, we helped Heart for Lebanon pack materials for distribution and we also had the opportunity to meet with many Syrian refugee families in their tent-homes.
What I did not expect to happen is the feel hopeless after hearing the devastation of the refugees’ heartbreaking realities. These families have fled terrible violence, their homes are gone, and the world as they knew it has been completely turned upside-down. And now, these families were stuck in refugee camps waiting on a very length process to approve them or not for relocation to another country to begin rebuilding their lives. While listening to their stories, I felt just as lost as they were. I was lost for words, lost for hope, lost for everything. I was crushed and felt defeated because I could not take away the pain they have gone through. Nothing I could say or do could take away their situations.
And then it hit me. We were not there to create hope for them, as if when I spoke there would be some kind of lifting of their dark spirit because I was a believer or by being there. We were there so we could talk about the hope we have when you give your life to Jesus. I was focused on the wrong type of hope. I was focused on providing hope for the refugees so that they would be able to be free from their physical situations, not their spiritual situations.
"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better.” Ephesians 1:17
Man did I miss the boat on this one. I was selfishly thinking that being in Lebanon and serving with my hands was the only thing I was there to do, but I really should have been focused on how to engage with the families to prompt a conversation about Jesus and how He is our ultimate hope! Jesus’ hope isn’t going to make everything better in an instant or take all the pain away in a single moment. Hope in Jesus provides an angelic light at the very thought of Him. Jesus’ hope is knowing that Jesus has the power to take something so dark, so distraught, so evil, and turn it around to be something so beautiful. I’m now praying that not only are the physical needs met for these refugees, but also that they know the hope of Jesus!!
“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you…” Ephesians 1:18