The Ambivalent Attitude of the Lebanese Towards The Return of Syrian Refugees by Chaden Hani News The topic of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has been exhausted, and the issue of their return to Syria has been discussed at length behind closed doors and within international circles. In the past few […]
By Rupen Das* A 2009 study by Tomas Rees on the relationship between poverty and religiousness found that personal insecurity (due to stressful situations, such as poverty) was an important determinant of religiosity.[1] The poor tend to be more religious. I find the faith of the poor both intriguing and challenging. […]
By Martin Accad In recent months, I have received a number of invitations from the West to speak about the crisis in Syria, and particularly about the massive refugee migration into Europe. The question that keeps coming is: ‘How should the church in the West respond to the massive refugee […]
by Kathryn Kraft A few weeks ago, I was sharing with a friend at my church in London about my research with churches in Lebanon. As Rupen Das described in a post several months ago, many churches in Lebanon are providing assistance including food, blankets, clothing, or education, to refugees, most […]
Lugging a big wooden drum, about a dozen tambourines, and an assortment of other percussion instruments, we walked onto the big green astroturf. Some members of our team got to work assembling berimbaus, the staple instrument of a Brazilian dance/music/sport called Capoeira. Others began assembling several dozen young Syrian boys […]
By Ashley Wollam* “But where will I get food for my children? What can we do?” It was one of the few moments I was glad that my Arabic is still far from fluent. One of my Lebanese brothers or sisters on the ministry team would have to find the […]
By Kathryn Kraft* I love a good story. Stories can make me laugh or cry, burn in anger or melt in love. I tell stories when I’m trying to make myself understood, and I understand other people so much better when they tell me stories. So I am always on […]
By Martin Accad I witnessed, last weekend, the physical transformation of a Syrian young lady sitting in my living room. As my wife and I helped her and her younger cousin complete an application for a university grant for Syrian refugees, they had just returned from a last-minute visit to […]