By Valerie Carter Smith
Executive Director/ Treasurer of Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia
Going on a trip brings with it much excitement!
As we have adapted to a new way of life during a pandemic there was no need to do much planning for this trip sponsored by LSESD. Within the first ten minutes, excitement bubbled in my soul as I recalled my mission work in Beirut, my study-abroad experience during college at the American University in Cairo, and my love for the people in the Arab world.
Although I had the privilege of breaking bread with Alia Abboud, Chief Development Officer of LSESD while at a Baptist World Alliance Meeting before the pandemic, I quickly realized on this virtual trip how much I did not know about the work of LSESD.
I was impressed with its very solid infrastructure with clear goals and objectives. LSESD is committed to not only preaching love theoretically but practicing love even amidst people who are reeling from cumulative generational trauma.
I learned about their holistic approach from meeting basic human needs such as ministering to displaced persons with food, hygiene supplies, blankets, and stoves to ministries that uplift. I learned of a church that is educating children and has an agricultural project towards communal self-sufficiency. As a university instructor, the Publishing House and Seminary with its e-learning opportunities open to people of the Arab World brought tears to my eyes. LSESD is breaking down the walls of partition that separates God’s people.
Join us on a virtual vision trip!
If you’re interested in sending a team (virtually or in-person) to meet with LSESD ministry leaders in Lebanon and find out how God is moving through the Arab Church, contact Rosette Mansour at rmansour@lsesd.org.