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Newsletter dated
26 September 2001
Dear friends of the Lebanese Evangelical School for
the Blind,
The challenges facing our school are enormous. The
most difficult one is related to our student body. In order for us to operate on
a healthy budget we need a minimum number of students, but we were unable to
reach this number for many reasons.
There are many schools for visually impaired people
in Lebanon now, and most students prefer going to schools belonging to their
religion and faith. The numbers of visually impaired people in Lebanon are
diminishing, and although this does not apply to neighboring countries, we were
unable to raise funds to provide scholarship to none Lebanese students. Many of
our students were in our school because they were rejected elsewhere, and our
school was reduced to merely a comfortable place of residence. Financial
difficulties prevented us from developing our old programs which are not
appealing to visually impaired people.
At the end of last academic year, we had to do a
very serious evaluation of both our financial standing and the programs we
offer. We will incorporate major program changes for visually impaired people.
We will no more welcome students who are not serious about following our study
and training programs. We certainly are firmly committed to our continued
ministry to visually impaired people, yet we had to incorporate other
disabilities in our program in order to receive the minimum number of students
that will allow us to operate on a reasonable budget.
The need for specialized centers for mentally
challenged children is enormous in Lebanon. As I knew a good number of well
qualified teachers in special education who only recently lost their jobs, I was
convinced that was the direction we need to take. Our
Lebanese Evangelical Society immediately indorsed my plan, and I had to
seek the approval of the ministry of social affairs.
Although this took quite some time and caused the
delay in sending this newsletter, I am very happy to report to you that we
finally have the approval from the ministry of social affairs to run two
parallel programs: one for visually impaired people (The Bartimaeus Program),
and another for mentally challenged children (St. Luke’s Program).
Our school building is spacious but needs some
minor adjustments. We are now making those adjustments to make our school a
convenient place for both programs.
I am sure eventually students from each program
will be a great blessing and help to those of the other.
Our Lord is a generous loving God. I want to share
with you a few of the wonderful blessings we recently received.
The Church Mission Society arranged for me to visit
institutions that serve visually impaired people in the U.K. The visit was
timely and wonderful. It totally transformed my vision and equipped me with
information and endless ideas that I will be implementing for many years to
come.
A team from Brass Tacks built some of the student
cupboards we badly need, without which we would not have been able to receive
more students.
The visit of the Youth with a Mission work-party to
our school was as timely. They decorated a large part of our building and
prepared the classrooms we needed for the mentally challenged children.
The very generous donation from our Christian
friends of "DONOR" was also as timely. We certainly
needed lots of funds to buy necessary equipment, and when I opened the envelope
and saw the cheque I said: Praise our loving Lord!
We needed to buy a television and a video machine
for the children. I went around Beirut looking for the best offer. Many refused
to give us any discount, and a few said they might give us a very small reduction.
When I went to the Samsung dealer in Beirut, the secretary called the owner of
the shop. He told her: “ask him how much he wants to pay.” I answered that
any discount would be highly appreciated, not expecting much. You can imagine my
delight when I was informed the discount was forty five percent (45%).
We needed qualified staff for the program for
mentally challenged children. I knew a very qualified person who also has a
wonderful and loving character. I thought she would have been ideal for our
school had she not immigrated to the United States. Although the idea of writing
to her asking her to come back to Lebanon to work for our school was so
ridiculous, I gave it a try. Would you believe it, Miss Therese Khoury is back
with us in Lebanon and will be the academic supervisor of the program for
mentally challenged children!
I
am counting our blessings, and I want to name just one more.
The
Church Mission Society is sending two volunteers to help us this year. Debi is
a talented musician and is gifted in crafts and handwork. Vicky worked
in schools with young people who had learning difficulties including sight
impairment and she also had fostered autistic children. An additional blessing
is the fact that we will receive two volunteers when we were only expecting one.
This is a great relief as they will be a great support to each other in this
difficult ministry far away from home.
God is at work in
our midst praise his holy name. We thank you for your prayers and support. I
want to especially thank our partners and friends: the Church Mission Society,
Biblelands, "DONOR", Samaritan Purse, MECO & Mrs.
Jocelyn Lane, The Caledonian Society in Lebanon, the International
Congregations of All Saints’ Anglican Church and the Church of God in Beirut,
Youth with a Mission, Brass Tacks, Evangelische Ausländer Seelsorge, Luweizeh
Evangelical School, TETCO SARL, Beirut Cosmopolitan Rotary Club, and our
Lebanese Evangelical Society. A special thanks also to Prue Deakin, and our dear
local friends: the Yaghdjians. I finally want to express my sincere gratitude to
the Church Mission Society, SeeAbility, RNIB Manor House, and Dorton House
School, St. Michael's Church - Mickleham, and Christ Church - Woking. I am very
grateful to all the lovely people who made my U.K. visit not only possible but a
wonderful one too. Thank you Pamela Harrison, Geoff Knight, Gene Hennessy,
Jeremy Woodham, Leslie Nathaniel, Sue Walker, Jill Read, Tom Fagan, Sue Coney,
Revd Barbara Steadman-Allen, Revd David Ireland, Mary Huggins, Margaret Davies,
Phil Simpson & family, Revd Malcolm Herbert, Mo Burnley & Janet Blade,
the Sunday School children of St. Michael's Church, and all others who made my
visit a very successful and blessed one.
In
spite of everything, we are greatly encouraged and uplifted. We will continue to
walk in faith and obedience to our loving Lord. The horrific events that our
world is experiencing these days prove without any doubt that we all
must continue to proclaim the wonderful gospel of our loving Lord. But for the
Grace of God, our world would be the incarnation of hell, so we will forever
pray: Thy Kingdom Come!
Sincerely,
George
D. Haddad.
Rev.
George D. Haddad
Beirut
26 September, 2001
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BLESSED
