The Middle East: More Encouragement!

**This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

I try to stay in touch regularly with several friends in the Middle East.  Over recent years, and contrary to the usual news from the region, we have heard one good story after another.  These have strengthened my faith, so I want to share this one more widely:

It was a cold wintry Monday morning in the church. 9 Syrians, 2 Palestinians, 1 Egyptian and a handful of YWAMers. We were gathered for our last class of the Shine Women’s Program. Shine is a biblically based women’s empowerment program produced by Hillsong Australia. For the last eight weeks we have been meeting together, looking at our value as women, our strength and our purpose in life. Rania, Nermin, Suhayr, Hayat, Muna, Martha, Lama, Tamara, Abiir, Sabriyya and Sabriin. Names and faces known by God, created by Him and loved by Him.

Every week we were challenged by Truth and we saw change in the ladies lives. Today, at the final class, they shared what this program had meant to them. What we had meant to them. Hayat said that every week she would go back home after our class and share with her neighbor who was anxiously waiting for the next lesson. Hayat would share with her and she would cry, beginning to understand her worth in the eyes of God. Martha, shared that the course had changed the way she related to her children and her husband, that their whole household had changed. Sabriin shared that her husband was shocked at the change in her when she did not respond in anger anymore in the house, but waited and tried to understand him when they had a disagreement.

Another lady said that she felt that she had been created a second time – that the revelations of who she was had changed the way she saw herself. Tamara who never left the house before this course said that she had courage now to go out and help her husband in their coffee shop, covering shifts when he could not work in order to bring in more income for her family. Two of the ladies said the course changed their world.

God’s truth is TRUTH. All of these precious women were changed. They began to understand their worth in the eyes of God. Now we will do part two and meet them in their homes sharing the full Gospel message of their worth – that the God of the universe gave His only begotten Son to die for them, that they would know their eternal worth in His Kingdom. What an honor to partner with God and bring His truth to the marginalized and poor of this world. Thanks for being a part of all of this through your prayers and partnership,

Lynn Green.