Lebanon (MNN) – When life is challenging, often the last ones ministered to are kids. Yet, Pierre Houssney, of Horizons International, explains that many ministries are doubling down on children’s’ ministries.
To Houssney, kids are a vital part of the Church. “They are the future and they are the present of the Church now. And a lot of people have been discussing the four/fourteen window. Which is the age range of four years old to fourteen years old is the window when most people globally come to Christ. So realizing that opportunity so I think a lot of ministries are realizing that.”
A Group of Marginalized Kids
While more literature is being developed for kids, often writers focus on children in a particular economic, geographic, and ethnic group. A group that is very different than the one including refugee kids in Lebanon. In general, there is very little written to serve the needs of underprivileged Muslim children like the ones Horizons serves.
Houssney explains that new curriculum developers often forget these students. “And so when we’re talking serving refugee kids in Lebanon, which is what we do, we’re talking about serving the marginalized of the marginalized.
“Like the refugees themselves are already marginalized, and within that, there are the children that are marginalized. So these are not just semi to illiterate kids, also their parents are illiterate. So, they are the children of illiterate or semi-literate people.”
New Curriculum
With these challenges facing them, the staff at Horizons Kids decided to develop their own curriculum on creation. They wanted to reach the kids where they are at.
Housney says, “It roughly corresponds with the six days of creation and also they did a session for the day of rest, the Sabbath. On each day they are doing a different craft, they’re doing songs about that day. They’re doing teaching time and discussion, and games that relate to that phase of creation so that we’re really hitting the content from a lot of different angles, including the five senses.”
Bringing it Home
These creation lessons have also revolved around Bible memorization. And it is sinking in. Kids are building stores of memorized Scriptures and sharing verses with their families.
“So the refugee parents will hear all these songs and Bible verses that their kids [learn]. And a lot of the parents are just saying, ‘wow there’s a light in our kids that’s different than what we’ve been experiencing in this kind of dark depressing time in our lives since we lost our homes in Syria’ or whatever. And it’s just bringing that light of the Bible into the families by way of the kids experiencing it in many different ways.”
(All photos courtesy of Horizons International)
The fruit of these lessons has been amazing, but over the last month there have been many other challenges.
Storm Norma hit thousands of refugees in the Bequaa Valley, flooding their tents with freezing water. Even as the storm has subsided, many families are still feeling the effects of the storm as winter continues to settle in.
Join the Ministry
Join Horizons International and Horizons Kids. Visit their website to discover how you can join a short-term missions trip, pray for change, or financially support Horizons’ work with refugees.
Please keep Horizons’ workers and Syrian refugees in your prayers. Thank God that despite storm Norma, children with Horizons Kids found rest as they learned about the true Creator. Pray also that families would continue to witness the love of Christ through Horizons International and other groups serving them.
