Five years ago, when the Missionary Group of Charity started its mission it was solely directed towards the poorest and how we can find the image of Christ in our fellows, the poor. Five years later we grew to learn that, with love, great stuff can be accomplished and this is how we travelled into our fifth year, when we started to work closely with Syrian refugees all around Lebanon.
Syrian refugees have been distributed in camps across Lebanon, and this year we decided to work within a big camp located in Beqaa, a region where hundreds of thousands of refugees are residing. The camp we minister to has more than 800 people located in tents. Throughout the year, and through our preparation as a committee, we got the chance to visit the camp many times and determine their needs – which are not always financial.
This camp along with many others faced a lot during the winter season. The camp flooded, and some of the few belongings the refugees possessed were destroyed. Disease also increased so we weren’t aware of what might occur. In the face of all this, we knew that our one Vincentian group was not going to change the world or accomplish majesty stuff, but could still serve those poor in the camp. That is also why we tried to connect with other charity groups, both local ones located next to the camp and to another group in the Vincentian Family, as we realised that such a great crisis will require any help available.
Beirut, Lebanon. Photo: World Bank
It took us around 5 months of preparation to begin our ministry proper, ensuring we had enough supplies, food, materials. We prepared activities for women, kids and men.
In each person we met, God was waiting for us, welcoming us and teaching us how to serve Him humbly. In the context of such a vast crisis, we completed only a little. But it was a lesson for us: we learned that living the life of a missionary is not enclosed in space or time. We are invited to live as a missionary in our daily life, but it is choice that each one of us needs to make. As for the Missionary Group of Charity, next year we have new plans and projects to serve Syrian refugees, knowing that even before we begin our ministry God is waiting for us, planning to meet us in each person we encounter.
Diaries of a Vincentian takes a closer look at some of the more personal experiences of Vincentians working with homeless people, slum dwellers and refugees. They shine a light on the moments that inspired us, the situations that left us speechless and shocked, and the people that crossed our paths and showed us that more must be done.
What connects them is that Vincentian commitment to the poorest of the poor; and the hope that as a Family, we can do more.
Rodolph Haddad, FHA ambassador in Lebanon
We are really challenged by the word of st. Vincent de paul you must always go out to seek the real poor in order to know the real needs and wants that is why visitation of the poor is very important in our service of those who are poor.
Again,because the complexities of the world we lived in we need a serious collaboration and teamwork in the service of those who are poor. We are only to do our little best in services in our various works.