NCM in the MIDDLE EAST

The Loss of a Leader and Friend

2011-03-16T11:04:00.018+02:00

UPDATE November 20, 2011
With great sadness I share with you that Pastor Samaan passed away on November 13, 2011 due to complications with his liver transplant. The surgery took place in July, and Samaan has been in the hospital just about every day since.

The Church of the Nazarene has lost a talented minister, and many people from the Middle East Nazarene family have written emails to express their appreciation for Samaan as a brother, colleague and friend. He will be remembered for his fun spirit, beautiful smile, and compassion for the people in Egypt.

We are asking people to join us in prayer for his wife, Margaret, three-month old son, Evan, and his extended family.

UPDATE July 25, 2011

On March 16, 2011 I sent out an urgent appeal for people to help a young Egyptian Pastor by the name of Samaan who desperately needed a liver transplant. Samaan had his surgery on July 19th (last Tuesday), and we give thanks to God that all went well. He should be out of ICU in a day or two, and he should be able to leave the hospital between August 1st-5th.

I want to thank everyone who gave towards this need. The surgery cost over $70,000. We still need $7,000 to come in before August 1st... but we know God will provide.

Samaan's 25 year old nephew, Tamar, donated half of his liver, which is expected to grow inside of Samaan into a full, healthy liver. Tamar's liver is also expected to grow back to a normal size. I told Tamar he is a hero for what he did for his uncle.

Of course we were praying to God for a miracle so that we could avoid paying so much money for an operation, but perhaps the miracle was that people responded with such generosity and love.

I want to thank NCM International for providing a large amount to help Samaan as well as anonymous donors all over the world. A lawyer from Iraq gave $5,000 when he heard about this pastor in need.

So... I just wanted to share the good news. It took four months to happen...lots of tests and screenings...but it all worked out for the good.

To God be the glory.

==========================

This is an urgent appeal. A young Nazarene pastor in Egypt needs a liver transplant, and we are asking everyone we know to help us raise $30,000.

You can help us by giving generously to our Middle East Crisis fund. Simon has no medical insurance, and his extended family will rally around to give all they can.

Now here is the story (Simon is pictured with his wife, Miriam. She is now pregnant with their first child)... Liver problems are, tragically, common in Egypt. Simon probably acquired his blood disorder at a young age during group vaccinations performed by health professionals reusing needles.

Simon has been in the US since January of this year. He collapsed at a terminal in North Carolina and was rushed to a hospital for surgeries to stop bleeding in his esophagus. His doctors told us that Simon was just hours away from death before this intervention. A generous family in North Carolina and their church community have nursed him back to health and paid $75,000 for these surgeries, and the doctors are saying Simon has about three months to live unless he receives a liver transplant.

The kind of transplant he needs is for a person to donate half of their liver, which will grow inside Simon into a full, functioning liver. The cost of the surgery would be $350,000 in the US, and it will cost around $70,000 in Egypt. We are talking with one of the best hospitals in Egypt for Simon to receive the best possible care.

Will you help us? Anything you can give will be greatly appreciated....BIG or Small. Would you ask others to help? Do you think your church would take a special offering?

Thanks so much for your help to this young family. Your prayers are also appreciated.

Email your thoughts or pledges to reugreen@gmail.com

Blessings Past and Future

2011-01-09T23:43:00.009+02:00

January 2011

I admit I have Eor tendencies. Eor, Pooh's friend and pessimistic stuffed donkey, doesn't ever expect anything fantastic to happen in his life. He accepts the mundane and steadily works through the difficult times. I can be hopeful and optimistic, but I lean towards Eor and find him to be a kindred spirit.

Last summer in a Jordan School Board meeting, I happened to voice a possible scenario that ended up scaring me and some of the board members. I asked out loud, "With economic uncertainty as it is in Jordan and prices for basic amenities increasing...would this be the year that parents would stop sending their children to our schools and opt to utilize the free public schools?" These are the facts:our enrollment two years ago was 235, enrollment last year was 189, and in order for our 2010-11 budget to break even we would need 196 students.

It does not make much business sense to operate private schools in poor neighborhoods. It makes perfect kingdom sense, but terrible business sense.

I left Jordan 5 days before the start of the 2010-11 school year for a four-month sabbatical. Knowing I did all I could, my inner Eor placed this particular worry and the Nazarene schools in God's hands and asked my close friends to pray. Two weeks after the school started, an email arrived saying our enrollment was 214 students...18 students more than we need.

That's a blessing from 2010 along with a new science lab at the Amman Nazarene School(see the "before" pic on the left and the "after" pic on the right). Nazarene Churches in Owosso, MI and Anderson, IN helped us accomplish this beautiful facility to teach science at a higher level than we have ever before been able to teach.

Now we have a challenge to build a third floor onto the Zarqa Nazarene School (in Jordan)...a place for a library, science lab, computer lab, and additional classrooms (including one for Christian Education). Challenges and Eor do not mix well, and I mimicked him as I said quietly to a close friend, "We'll never get enough work and witness teams to come and help us do this." But once again, Eor was wrong. In the final three months of 2010... four teams signed up. They include:

* Central Church of the Nazarene, Lenexa Kansas (June 2011)
* Richland Center Church of the Nazarene, Wisconsin (July 2011)
* Kansas City First Church of the Nazarene (Summer 2012)
* Northwest Ohio District (Summer 2012)

There are other churches that are considering. We probably need about 3 more. If you are interested and curious about the project, try going here.

At this point, the Eor inside me is baffled. He is quite amazed and thankful, in his own cautious, laid-back fashion.

Work and Witness at Amman School

2010-08-16T16:00:00.005+03:00

Owosso, MI Team Gives School a Make-Over

A group of 24 volunteers descended upon the Ashrafiya Nazarene School during the summer vacation and did some major sprucing-up of the place. The team, led by Jerry Polmounter, accomplished the following:

• Painted six classrooms, many hallways, and the KG playground walls.
• Helped build a block wall around the main playground.
• Began work on transforming a normal classroom into a state-of-the-art-science lab.
• Repaired and painted about 70 desks.

The Owosso team finished all of this work in about 4 ½ days, giving them time to see the wonders of Petra and tour Jerusalem, Nazareth, the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee.

The team is pictured in front of the beautiful wall they designed and painted for the kindergarten playground. Also pictured are some former students of the school that helped the team each day get the work done.

We are so grateful to the Owosso Church of the Nazarene for their time, hard work, and investment in the lives of young people in Amman, Jordan.

Anyone on the team care to comment?

Point Loma Students Volunteer in Amman

2010-06-19T16:10:00.022+03:00

Point Loma Nazarene University has a volunteer program called "LoveWorks" that gives college students opportunities to travel to other countries, learn about the culture, make new friends, and volunteer for worthy causes. This Spring, LoveWorks sent out 150 students...and 9 of them traveled from San Diego, California to Amman, Jordan.

In Amman, their main base was the Ashrafiya Nazarene School where they taught classes and renovated the school library.

Here's a complete list of what they did:

** Taught English, Art, and Sports at the Ashrafiya Nazarene School
** Totally renovated the school library ("before pic is on the right and "after" pic is on the left)
** Held a "goodbye" party for the 10th Grade "Graduates"(10th grade is the current highest level the school offers)
** Provided daily 7:45 am chapel services for the younger and older grades
** Put on two morning camps for about 400 Bedouin children in southern Jordan.

The students also had time to visit Gadara, Mt. Nebo, Jordan River site of Jesus' baptism, the Dead Sea, Petra, Aqaba, and ride camels and camp in the desert sands of Wadi Rum.

All of this in three weeks. Whew!!

The team of students, led by Sylvia Cortez and Dr. Bill Wood, just may have been the best volunteer student team ever to visit the Middle East.

GREAT JOB! LOVE WORKS! THANKS FOR COMING!

PS... A volunteer group from Owosso, MI comes soon to build a science lab, repair desks, and get classrooms ready for the new semester. Woohoo...thanks, in advance, Owosso!! Oh, and the Anderson, IN First Church of the Nazarene just gave a donation so we can stock the new science lab, upgrade the school plumbing, tile the stairways and pay some bills. And a good number of their members sponsor children in the Middle East! We are so thankful to these churches and all others who support our schools.

Speaking of Support our Schools... If you want to give to any of our four schools in the Middle East...help a needy student, buy some library books, and help us fix buses... just go to our link on the right called "Support our Schools".

Got any questions or comments? Please post them below.

URGENT...Child Sponsors Needed

2009-12-08T20:44:00.016+02:00

Update 3-14-2010: Well, this will be the final entry in a three-part thread which started in urgency back in December.

The Acts of God after-school program for refugee children had lost its funding, and the program was in jeopardy. We put out the call for people to sponsor children and to donate.

It appears we have seen another act of God. The Church of the Nazarene in the Netherlands has given over $10,000 to Acts of God and a number of other churches and individuals have in the past three months donated enough resources along with our regular donors and sponsors for the Damascus Church of the Nazarene to run the program through December 2010. We give thanks for everyone who responded, and to the Lord who prompted. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you.

Holistic child development is the major focus of NCM in the Middle East. Our four schools in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan were, honestly, started over 50 years ago to pave the way for churches to be planted in strategic cities. The schools continue serving children because dedicated administrators and teachers continue to have a vision for playing a huge part in the healthy development of children and youth. Please take a moment to say a short prayer of thanks for these people who invest a lot of sweat and tears in our schools and the lives they touch. Say a prayer that we will not lose our vision of mobilizing the church for holistic ministry.

Our schools operate 75% on tuition and 25% on donations. Private schools located in poor neighborhoods ensures we will struggle monthly to pay bills and salaries. Please keep the schools in mind when you feel the need to donate to something worthwhile. You can give to the schools by using the Support our Schools link to the right.

Below is a poem by Dorthy Law Nolte which I found in Too Small to Ignore by Wess Stafford:

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.

If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them
If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.
By Dorothy Law nolte, "Children Learn What they Live"

UPDATE 1-12-2010: Happy New Year everyone! I made this appeal in December, and 27 people signed up to sponsor a child! I am happy and grateful. Our need and goal is 100 sponsors. So...just wondering...if you read this, will you please sponsor a child or get one person to sponsor a child. It is a great cause. THANKS!! The original blog from December with information about the Damascus After-School Project starts now:

The Damascus Church of the Nazarene and 135 Iraqi refugee children and youth need our help. Four days a week the students come to the Damascus church and the small adjoining school for 3 1/2 hours of chapel, food, and classes (English, math, Arabic, discipleship, computers). It gives the children something to look forward to, and it gives them hope while they wait with their families to be relocated.

The Program is called, Acts of God, because it began as, well, an act of God. The Damascus church knew they needed to provide this program for the students, who are unable to attend regular schools due to their refugee status and because the older students are too far behind in their grade level. Many have not been to school in 5 years. God provided the right people, resources, and strength to get the ball rolling two years ago. We feel the program needs to continue until all of the refugees have a safe place to go, and it costs the Damascus church $2500 a month.

Now...we can support these children through Nazarene Child Sponsorship. It costs a sponsor $25 a month, and we need 100 sponsors to join us now in order to keep this important program of intervention and enrichment in place.

You can help by:

1. Going to the Nazarene Child Sponsorship website and searching for kids in Syria

2. Calling toll-free 866-247-9399 and ask to sponsor a child in the Acts of God program in Syria

3. Making a one-time donation by clicking on the Acts of God link on the right of this page.

4. Getting one of your friends to help, too.

This week, one of the Acts of God students told Nancy, the director of the program who was threatening to kick him out for not behaving like he should, "Look, you can either have me here or I will be on the streets." She told him, "OK, you can stay. But I am watching you."

Nancy is tough when she needs to be, but the students know that without her vision and compassion there would be no Acts of God for them. Nancy knows when to show love and when to lay down the law. Her staff of church members also are skilled at getting the kids to respond to their leadership, nurture and care. Recently, I was amazed to hear the youth give their testimonies of how the Lord had helped them stop using drugs, how knowing Jesus is one of the best things that has happened to them, and how they know the church reached them at a critical time in their lives.

If you would like more information you can email me at reugreen@gmail.com. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Middle East Nazarene Schools Start a New Year

2009-09-17T17:07:00.019+03:00

The Nazarenes operate four schools in the Middle East for children in grades K-10. They are private schools serving low-income families (a portion of the students are refugees) which, to be honest, poses daily challenges for our directors and administrative boards. The schools may just be our best-kept ministry secrets. About 800 children from many backgrounds are in our care 5 days a week getting large doses of smarts and hearts. What I mean is...we work hard to provide a good education in a way that tells the kids they are loved and valued by God, their teachers and the church.

Why do parents who are struggling financially pay for their children to attend our schools? The public schools are improving their infrastructure, but the classrooms are still a bit crowded. Each year, the private schools in Jordan have been losing children to the public schools. Nazarene schools have lost their share of students, but often times the parents will bring their children back and say something like, "Please enroll my children again. I don't know how I am going to pay, but all I know is I like the way they behave much better when they are in your school."

I like hearing those stories, and I also like it when 11th graders move on to other schools and report back that they are some of the smarter kids in their new classes.

We have a scholarship program to help children attend our schools through Nazarene Child Sponsorship. Anyone can sponsor a child for $25 a month, and it gives the child about a 20%-30% break on their tuition. Every little bit helps. This week I read a letter from a student telling his sponsor that he started a new life in Christ this summer at a Nazarene youth camp.

Also this week one of our Christian education teachers told me that 13 new students in her 7th grade class renewed their faith in the Lord.

So far, I would say it has been a good year. Please pray for our 4 schools in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan...for the students, staff, and directors...to build on these recent blessings. And check out the video about the schools, here:

Hurting, Healing and Hoping in Beirut

2009-07-13T12:41:00.012+03:00

Tragedy struck the Church of the Nazarene last September in Beirut, Lebanon. Rev. Raja Nwaisser died of a heart attack in a combined church service in front of most all of Lebanon’s Nazarene church members as well as a large number of visitors. It happened as Pastor Raja was baptizing the second person in a line of seven people ready to give witness to their new life in Christ. Pastor Raja was only 40 years old, and he is survived by his wife, Seta Kejelian, and two daughters, Glory (6) and Holy (4). He was pastor, Bible College President, NCM Coordinator and former Lebanon District Superintendent (D.S.) for the Church of the Nazarene.

We are all baffled by God’s planning and timing in all of this. Nazarenes in the whole Middle East are now in the process of grieving the loss of this talented, beautiful servant of God.

Nine month’s after the memorial services for Pastor Raja, Andrew Salami, Lebanon’s D.S., and Seta asked NCM to help guide the church as they continue to grieve individually and collectively as the body of Christ. When we asked ourselves, “Who can help us in this task?” Rand and Phyllis Michael immediately came to our minds.

Rand is Associate Professor and Program Director of Marriage and Family Therapy at the George Fox University’s Graduate Department of Counseling and his wife Phyllis is Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Warner Pacific College in the Portland area. Rand and Phyllis have been partnering with Middle Eastern Nazarenes for the past 25 years, and they spend most of their summers passing on their wisdom and skills to leaders in many different areas of the world.

The Michaels shared with me that around February they had decided to turn down every ministry request for the summer of 2009… unless someone from the Middle East called. About a month after they sealed their pact, we appeared in their outlook inbox asking for their help.

Rand and Phyllis flew to Beirut the last part of May and held 4 sessions at the church, helping us understand the typical and unique responses to grief, how to be helpful to people who are grieving, and how to move on with daily living while working through our grief. Between seminars, Rand, Phyllis and Tom Gray (who is on staff with us in the Middle East and is a professional clinical counselor and PhD candidate in counseling education) met with many people who wanted to speak in private with a professional counselor.

When Rand and Phyllis finished their last session on specific ways people can help others by empathetic listening, many of the church leaders expressed an interest in receiving more training so that they can provide proper emotional support for people in the community. It seems that there is a great need for counselors in Beirut, and people are hungry for help.

Perhaps this is why…Two generations of Lebanese people have suffered a long civil war, a war and occupation by its neighbors, and political as well as religious strife. The Lebanese are wonderful, resilient people, but events of this magnitude produce festering wounds that affect individuals and families at a deep level.

Consider this… Marlene Mshantaf (NCM Coordinator in Beirut), who managed the logistics of the counseling event, is the assistant principle of the Nazarene Evangelical School which serves 160 children in grades K-9. When I peeked into her office and commented that she looked really tired, she replied, “Yes, I am. We are trying to finish all of our final exams for the children early this year because next week there is an important election and depending on the results we are not sure if there will be a war or not.” It seems every trip I make to Lebanon there is a rumor of a possible war starting. The country is full of people who have endured war in their lifetimes and are often expecting new outbreaks.

Earlier we asked Marlene to tell us what it was like to live through 16 years of civil war. She started telling a story about the time the killing was so fierce that she had to live in a shelter for a whole month without leaving. The shelter was home to 2,000 people sharing one bathroom and very little food. She gave only a few details, then she stopped, apologized, and said, “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

This is the context in which Nazarenes in Beirut are building communities of faith. What impact could a church in Beirut have if leaders were trained in lay counseling skills to help people understand the circumstances that brought them to their present “life troubles” and help them make changes in their life outlook and behaviors?

Rand and Phyllis Michaels have developed just such a series of courses to train community mental health advocates. The finished a cycle of training last summer in China, and we are studying the possibility of training people in the Middle East.

And we need this not just because of the trauma in Beirut…but also to help Iraqi refugees, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, Iraqi’s who just yesterday endured 6 church bombings, children in our schools who are living in a society which is changing rapidly, and ministers and teachers who experience burnout due to the stress of serving this population.

Want to help us do this? Feel free to comment and ask questions…right here on this blog. Go for it.

First Work and Witness Teams to Nazarene Schools

2009-05-09T22:05:00.015+03:00

Two work and witness teams visited Jordan in April 2009 to do maintenance projects at our two Nazarene Schools...one in Amman and one in Zarqa.

Amman: A team from the Chicago area led by Ken Silvers was the first team to do a project at the Ashrafiya Nazarene School in Amman, Jordan. The team was big (25 people) and were big-hearted as well. In a nutshell, here's what they did:

Gave 14 heating units to be installed in classrooms so children no more have to freeze during the winter months.
Painted classrooms and hallways.
Installed and painted an outside safety rail, keeping children out of the traffic in front of the school.
Painted a long stairwell down to the playground.
Installed false ceilings in 4 classrooms.
Made curtains for 4 classrooms.

Zarqa: A team consisting of regional leaders and their families hosted by Lindell and Kay Browning (about 35 people) worked three-days at the Zarqa Nazarene School. Here's what they did:

Painted hallways and about 9 classrooms.
Installed a partition wall between the KG and higher grades.
Installed a new window to provide light in the stairwell.

The added benefit teams bring is a breath of fresh air to the community. Many Jordanians have commented to me that they were inspired to see people having so much fun and getting a lot of satisfaction out of volunteering. Nadia Malkawi, the Amman School Director, said that the best thing the team provided was challenging our way of thinking ... that when people work together they can accomplish great things and build good friendships.

Twenty students from the Amman school joined the team for two days of work. One of the parents said that they had to cancel a picnic because their son insisted on working at the school with the "foreigners". Many people in the community have asked me when the next group is coming (as if we have them lining up). We hope another team will sign up to come soon. There is so much to do.

I was so busy I did not take any pictures...so if people have them, please send them to me and I will try and post them.