“How do I know my calling from God?”
LSESD’s Baptist Children and Youth Ministry (BCYM) held a one day youth conference in July led by the well-known Arab speaker Br. Adel Abd el Malak, who was on a visit to Lebanon with a team from Emmanuel Faith Community Church to participate in two BCYM camps for children.
“I was impressed by the attentiveness of the delegates,” he said. One particular question that was raised by the young women and men who attended the event was how a call to full-time ministry seemed to go against ambitions to ‘get on in life’ – good job, responsible position, good marriage… Adel explained that ambition is not wrong but it must be for the right reasons.
In addressing the theme of the conference, the Speaker looked at God’s call to Samuel, to Isaiah, and to Jeremiah. A highlight for one of the participants is “how God reveals Himself when He wants us to serve Him. It is not a guessing game. Just like He did with Samuel. It was so clear.” Another participant was touched by God’s patience with Samuel’s ignorance of God’s voice.
“…Yet I will rejoice in the Lord”
This was the second Youth Conference this year. The first was organized by LSESD’s Dar Manhal Al Hayat publishing house in partnership with BCYM and the Convention of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Lebanon. The theme was “… Yet I will rejoice in the Lord” and focused on singlehood, abstinence, and following God’s plan for one’s life. The main Speaker was Dr. Lina AbuJamra, a Lebanese American who is a Pediatric Emergency Room doctor alongside being an author. The event was attended by around 140 young women and men and included the launching of the newly published Arabic versions of two of AbuJamra’s books, namely “A Vessel for Honor” and “1 in a World of 2”.
Colin Gibson | LSESD