Sports Camp: Learning for the big and then the small

We are extremely blessed this week to have some excellent individuals join us at Dar El Awlad for a sports camp.  The heart and mind behind the program has been Alan and Tim from Northern Ireland and Charlie from Egypt.  They have helped coordinate clinics and activities for DEA home and school children as well as dozens of refugee children from the surrounding areas.  Overall, over 60 children have received top-notch coaching on football and, most importantly, living a life with God.  As valuable as the experience has been on the children, it has been even more helpful for staff and volunteers who are gaining firsthand experience on how simple sports camps and sessions can be to develop character in youth.  I’m confident that the training we are receiving will help us build on this camp long after our guests have gone.  It is encouraging to see how dynamic yet straightforward children’s ministry can be.  No doubt this week will continue to have meaningful impact on the ministry in the times ahead.  We’re so thankful for people who have passion to share their gifts with us here at DEA, and we thank God for friends like Alan, Tim and Charlie.

The Sports Camp Team

Getting coaching about what matters most

Volunteers like these guys demonstrated how much potential we have around us.

Camp Season Comes to a Close

Our summer camping season has come to a close.  Last weekend Ruth and I wrapped up the Christian Missionary Alliance Church teens camp after enjoying a great week of fellowship, teaching, and activities together.  This is the second camp I helped direct this summer and once again I was surrounded by a great team of leaders and campers.  The camp was held in the pristine Qadisha Valley of the north Lebanese, a mountain setting that has boasts some of the oldest churches and monasteries in the world.  It is the kind of scenery that alone can minister to our hearts in powerful ways.  We’re blessed to have such environments accessible. 

Throughout the week of camp we explored the theme of “Selfie.”  First we looked at God’s Selfie; how He is beyond our knowing and comprehension, yet in Jesus we have a selfie of what God ‘looks’ like. (Col. 1:15)  Secondly we discussed our Old Selfie and New Selfie and the transformation we experience in Christ’s redemption. (2 Cor. 5:17).  Then we thought about the Group Selfie, how God desires us to be part of His community of believers and agents of love to a hurting world.  (Mat. 5:13-16)  The camp was wrapped up with a reflection of how we can balance our Selfies by placing Christ in the center of all we are and do.  Hopefully the campers walked away with a whole new concept of the Selfie as they pondered the living God and experienced His love and grace.  We pray that the camp sustains the teens and the church youth ministry in their journeys of faith.  

The Camp Team

The view of the campsite at the appropriately named Beit Monzer 

Holding meetings under the tent.

Eggs breaking on heads...just has to be done in some way or form.


I recommend every camp include devotions at a 1600+ year old monastery.

 You cannot have a Selfie camp theme without having loads of Selfies!

The First Graduate

We experienced a milestone among relatives this past week; my cousin Ahmad became the first of our extended relatives to complete a university education.  The achievement is a result of significant endurance, devotion, and support from him and many others who help make this possible.  Ahmad’s Bedouin community in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon suffers from severely low rates of education that have contributed to a cycle of poverty.  I recently did an ethnographic study on his particular community and found that of the estimated 800 individuals in the area only five have completed a Grade 9 education.   You can imagine how few university graduates the community boasts.  As a young boy Ahmad showed the desire and potential to continue in his studies, and my father committed to support him in his academic pursuits.  It was a long journey that had many bumps in the road, but he maintained on course until finally arriving a graduate.  The accomplishment is more than one young man receiving the tools to build a better future; it is about a marginalized community producing an example of the value and possibility of education.  I’m proud of my cousin and privileged to have journeyed with him on this road through university.  Unfortunately I could not attend the graduation ceremony, but I know the achievement will require more than a onetime celebration.  It’s a lift to my spirits to hear Ahmad with such thankfulness and gratefulness of the many people who have helped him reach his dreams.  Success is rarely an individual thing, and many of us are feeling good about this milestone! 

My Cousin Ahmad and Aunt Hamda.  She never had the chance to learn to read and write but now she can at least say she's the mother of a university graduate.