Dear pastor Ramzi,
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus.
Thank you for your phone calls every day to check on our situations and for your sincere prayers and support. We trust that the Lord will lead us out of this difficult time in a better situation.
Knowing that you do not spare any effort or funds from your own support to care for us and the other brothers in the South since decades, I want to know that pastor Najib (pastor of the church that we established in Marjaeoun, in Southern Lebanon) told me that already there are people from his church who are already penniless, and that he already started feeding them from his own pocket. I told him he has to organize a relief fund for this crisis until it ends. I hope that what is happening now, as violent as it is, that it would make Lebanon safer in the future.
Yes indeed we are in the war zone, and we had lots and lots of bombs around us, which destroyed all the bridges, and dislocated us from the capital and even from the deeper South. Most of the hills around our town were bombed. Many people are leaving North to Beirut, and then to outside Lebanon if they are holders of foreign citizenship. They use a mountainous road which is under the danger of being shelled by military aircrafts. However, we are staying in our towns and still holding worship in our churches here in Sidon, in Marjaeoun, and in Ein Ebel. Amazingly, we still have water, phone and electricity some times, and we are still having access to food. We feel relatively safe, and we know that we are under the wings of our Sovereign God and in His mighty Hands.
Public buildings in safer areas such as schools and churches are now full with refugees, but no one approached our church yet, as it is located near a famous dangerous Palestinian camp. Our sister church, Marjayoun Baptist Church, and our Mission church in Ein Ebel are under more serious danger, as they live just across the borders from Israel, where they are daily showered with shelling. As you already know from your daily phone calls to Pastor Najib, there are about twenty families (around 60 people) hiding in the church building there, along with Pastor Najib Khoury and his family. The worship meetings have turned into prayer and fasting meetings every night. In Ein Ebel the situation is even worse according to pastor Fursan there. As for our mission in Rashayyah El-Fukhar, sad to know that one Christian family in our congregation there was injured. Pastor Elie(whom you won to the lord 17 years ago) is doing well. In Hasbayyah, the baby new mission that is one month old, as you are aware, the services are halted until the war is over.
Although we know they are all in need, we cannot have access to them except by phone, unless they want to jeopardize their or our lives, since all
bridges are destroyed. The Israeli airplanes have even thrown flyers to warn people to leave and evacuate the area, but how, if all the roads are closed? Pastor Najib had his father at the hospital two nights ago, but he became better, but not without going through the adventure of seeing some rockets being shelled from the neighborhood of the hospital, and then the retaliation by Israeli aircrafts, which shook the whole hospital.
There are thousands and thousands of refugees filling the schools in our village and the neighboring villages, to whom we do not even dare to think of doing something, because it needs huge humanitarian organizations to offer such help.
As for the church members and friends here in East Sidon, if the situation will continue as it is now, I guess that within one or two weeks, most of the people will run out of money and consequently of food supply. Of course there are no jobs, and even those who are employees most likely will not be able to get their salaries. We need to be prepared as a church to do something to help in this regard, but I do not yet see the means. For instance, this afternoon, in order to provide safe housing and means of life for one lady of our church members who comes from a Muslim Shiite background, along with her children and mother and sister, I made contacts with some people in Beirut and made sure they have room to receive her, and I went down and met her in Sidon, as she was coming from the neighborhood of Biblical Zerepath, and I gave her from our humble church benevolent fund $200 for the expenses of the road and else, so that she can go to be safe in Beirut. We just do not have the means, but we have the will. I wonder if the Lord will lead you to do anything on a wide scale in this regard, in cooperation with your friends & churches, in order to have us prepared for an expected disastrous time in our area. Now we have the means of communication with you, but if the land Israeli invasion will take place, it will be devastating, and may be we will lose means of contact by phone. Thank you so much for the role you are playing in contacting each one of us and keeping us in contact. However, if the Lord will lead you to help, please be sure that your prayers are most appreciated, and if you could do something more than prayer, it would be highly appreciated and relevant.
If we lose contacts by phones, please be sure that we will be under the protection of our merciful Father, and as soon as we stand up from under the ashes, we will contact you again. Please feel free to share this message.
May the Lord Jesus bless you in every way
Yours in His Service
Pierre Francis
