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Newsletter Dated 6 August 2002
Dear Christian friends and partners,
The academic year 2001-2002 was a turning point in the life of our school. The
main objective was to continue our ministry to visually impaired persons. The
major challenge was our serious financial difficulties resulting from the
inability of our society, L.E.S. (The Lebanese Evangelical Society), to continue
funding this very expensive program. The vision was to diversify our ministry
and use our building to its full potential in order to reach a reasonable
financial standing. The answer was the incorporation of a program for children
with special needs (mentally challenged children).
Major changes were required, and many obstacles were to be overcome. Negotiating
a new amended contract with the ministry of social affairs, and the need for
funds to launch a totally new program, were our two major challenges. Yet God
was in our midst, and we had the most wonderful experience witnessing our Lord
removing mountains of obstacles before our very eyes. We were truly blessed and
thus we adopted the new name: BLESSED (The Benevolent Lebanese Evangelical
School for Special Education and Development).
We praise our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for his wonderful work at BLESSED,
and we express our most sincere gratitude to all our Christian partners and
friends, who were the arms of God, reaching out to us, and helping us achieve
our objectives.
Work started with a “Youth with a Mission” work party that transformed our
school both in its appearance and in the hearts of everyone. Team members not
only painted walls, windows, and doors with fresh new paint, but also painted
our hearts with the pure love of our Lord, through their kindness, charity, and
love.
"DONOR" surprised us with a very generous
donation of U.S. $ 12,773.70 which certainly had divine timing. It could not
have arrived at a better time. We received it when we badly needed funds to buy
equipment and make necessary adjustments in our building. Later on during the
year "DONOR" sent us an additional donation of U.S. $ 1,500. Through the very kind
and generous donations of "DONOR" we were able to implement our new program.
M.E.C.O. (Middle East Christian Outreach) sent us a kind donation of U.S. $
1,130. We had planned to use it and the second "DONOR" one for the gym project, but
the arrival of the bakery equipment from the Rotary Foundation required moving
our workshops to the subbasement. A lot of repair work was needed there. So
these funds in addition to those from the English church in Ostend - Belgium,
Mr. and Mrs Smeaton, Dr. Fuad Farah and Mrs. Mona Farah, were used to make the
necessary repair work on our building to accommodate the bakery and move the
cane workshop and the carpentry workshop to their new locations.
Two mission volunteers, Debi Calvert and Vicky Leadbitter, from “Make a
Difference” program of the Church Mission Society were with us last year. Both
were an enormous help and a great blessing. Vicky helped with the program for
children with special needs, and Debi helped with the program for the visually
impaired. Both transformed life in our school and provided a wonderful Christian
witness to our students, staff, and our local community. CMS also helped us
through Margaret Knill’s visit to our school for on-site training. The condensed
study-course she gave covered mobility, exercising, Braille, map layout, and
life skills. We are very grateful to her for the very valuable time she spent
with us. Everyone in our school learnt and benefited from her expertise. We also
received a very kind donation from CMS of £2000 towards the gym project.
The organization, Help Lebanon, was doing a development project in the area of
Achrafieh decorating the outside walls of buildings in order to enhance the
beauty of the region. God blessed us by including our school in that project.
Over the Easter holiday all the external walls of our school were decorated with
beautiful colors.
BibleLands U.K. kindly sent us a donation of £1000 for embossing the new Arabic
translation of the New Testament in Braille. The old translation, known as the
Van Dyke, is similar to the English King James in language and form. The new
translation is much easier to read and understand. Thanks to Biblelands, we
completed the four gospels and Acts, and we hope to complete the whole New
Testament in due course. Copies are distributed free of charge.
The equipment for our new bakery was donated by the Rotary Foundation: Beirut
Cosmopolitan Rotary Club, and the Rotary Club of Royal Oak, Michigan, USA. We
also received two Poet Compact (Baum) Standalone Reading Machines and a Tieman
Twinkle Spectrum CCTV from the Rotary Club of London and the Beirut Cosmopolitan
Rotary Club. Both projects were kindly arranged by Mr. Toni Asfour, a dear
friend and a staunch supporter of our school. Thanks to the Rotary foundation we
now have the equipment we need to assist our visually impaired students in their
daily studies. We were also able to implement one of our pilot projects in our
vision to enter new vocations that recently benefited from technological
development.
We also received delightful news from Miss Mo Burnley and Miss Janet Blade that
BibleLands decided to sponsor the soft-room project (play room) which we badly
need. Children with special needs will benefit greatly from this facility.
Having such a room will be very helpful to our teachers and very therapeutic to
our children. We received £4000 for that project. It will be completed in
September and will be ready for the next academic year.
Our dear friends the Yaghdjians (Tamar Yaghdjian's family) continued their
wonderful friendship and support of our school. They continued their regular
visits to our school bringing home-made cakes and food to all our students. They
also donated a band saw and a circular saw for our carpentry workshop. When we
equipped our carpentry workshop, we did not have funds for heavy machinery, but
now, thanks to the Yaghdjians, our workshop is fully equipped.
We were thrilled with the visits of many of our partners and friends through the
year. The list includes Miss Mo Burnley of BibleLands, Miss Margaret Knill from
CMS, Rev. Peter Hayes MECO mission leader in Lebanon, Miss Joan Crooks, Rev.
Nigel and Mrs. Linda Schibild of All Saints' Anglican Church - Beirut, Debi
Calvert’s parents, Mr. Alex and Mrs. Judith Calvert, Miss Barbara Shaw, CMS
regional director for the Middle East, Mr. Andy Jong of BibleLands, Miss Hazel
St. John, former principal of B.L.T.C. (L.E.S.G.), A Rotary delegation
comprising of Mr. Fahed Assaf, President of the Beirut Cosmopolitan Rotary Club,
Mr. Toni Asfour, and Miss Lina Moukhaiber, and Mr. Collin and Mrs. Joan White
(former principal of LESGB). It is a great privilege for us to receive our
Christian friends and partners at school, and to show them the wonderful work
they are enabling us to do.
We are also very grateful to Mr. Jiryes El-Malouf whose donation enabled us to
buy presents to all our children last Christmas.
This is a brief account of the many blessings God bestowed upon us last year,
and I want to name just one more. The ministry of social affairs raised the
number of challenged children it will sponsor in our school next year to twenty
five. This is the maximum number we can accommodate in our building in addition
to the visually impaired students. So we will reach our full operation level
next year, praise God!
Our student numbers last year were as follows:
The Bartimaeus Program for the Visually Impaired: 15 students
14 boarders and 1 day student
10 male and 5 female students
13 Lebanese and 2 Syrian students
Average age: 32 years
Youngest: 19 years
St. Luke’s Program for Mentally Challenged Children: 18 students
14 boarders and 4 day students
9 male and 9 female students
All Lebanese
Average age: 17 years
Youngest: 9 years
We have students from all denominations and faiths: Maronite, Catholic,
Orthodox, Protestant, Sunni, Shiite, and Druses.
The conclusion is clear: our new program was a great success. We are now, more
than ever before, guaranteed to continue our ministry to the visually impaired,
and we have added an equally important ministry to our program. The Spirit of
God has revived our school. We owe this to our Loving Lord, to you our dear
partners and friends, to Miss Therese Khoury and her team of dedicated teachers,
and to all our teachers and members of staff at BLESSED.
We praise God, and thank you all for your prayer and support. We know that our
partnerships will continue to grow and develop, as we, together, faithfully
serve our one and living Lord.
Sincerely,
George
D. Haddad.
Rev. George D. Haddad.
Beirut 6 August 2002
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BLESSED
