Making God’s Love Visible: Daily Life And Ministry In War-Torn Lebanon

Monday, March 2^nd, 4 a.m. – heavy bombing in Southern Lebanon and Beirut’s Southern suburbs. Natalie’s phone rings. On the other end, a desperate mother is pleading for a safe place to stay. Natalie knows the woman. They met during the war in 2024, when she and her family found refuge in the local school-turned-emergency shelter. Since then, Natalie and others on the team have visited them regularly to witness by acting out Bible stories together.

Daniel and Bettina don’t sleep a wink that night, their three children in bed still unaware that it has started again. While the children continue dreaming, Daniel and Bettina ponder what to do. School will likely get cancelled. How can they continue their ministry? Do they have to cancel the Alpha course they’d just started because participants will be too scared to go outside? How can they encourage their neighbors and support those who are now in such great need?

Natalie’s phone keeps ringing all day with many similar requests. She can hardly wait to be back in Lebanon to embrace the Lebanese people displaced from the South, pray over them, and share her hope in God.

Bettina and Daniel organize a games-and-movie day with the neighborhood kids around the house, while all the adults keep a nervous eye on developments via their phones in the background. Their scheduled outreach—sharing the Gospel with almost 900 teenagers during a school devotional—gets postponed.

The next day, Natalie arrives in Lebanon and quickly searches out her contacts among the 150 newly displaced people who have been housed in mass-accommodation-style quarters in Damour’s school. Exhausted by their rushed escape, sometimes with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and a horrendous night spent in the car desperately inching North, they greet Natalie warmly. There is trust: “You were with us in the last war; you visited us in the South, and now you’re back. You Christians love our children, and our children love you.”

Meanwhile, the war has intensified. Daniel and Bettina are rolling up their sleeves in Beirut to share God’s love in very practical ways with internally displaced people by transporting and distributing groceries, clothing, and hygiene kits as well as helping to prepare hot meals—whenever possible as a whole family. The Alpha course is resuming after a break—more than ever, the Suters want to point people to Jesus. Other projects and ministries will have to wait as plans are adjusted on a day-by-day basis. At the same time, Natalie continues carrying hope to others as she deepens relationships at the emergency shelter, where she plays with the children and encourages their mothers on a daily basis.

The recent temporary truce might not, and things are likely to keep getting worse rather than better, but Natalie, Bettina and Daniel know they are in the right place. From time to time, they manage to meet up to strengthen each other or collaborate in service.

With your support, Natalie and the Suters can share God’s love with many through both words and deeds and empower local churches and Christian ministries to let their Christian witness shine brightly. Please pray that peace would come to Lebanon and the entire region in these challenging times.