Forbidden is a talk show that deliberately doesn’t try to duck controversial topics for people in the region. Presenter Imed, is a Tunisian Pastor and poet who hosts the live programme that tries to challenge viewers attitudes.
More than two-thirds of Syrian refugees in Lebanon are living in extreme poverty, according to a United Nations study released in December. In the second of three articles, Lindsay Shaw from SAT-7 UK, describes visiting refugees in Zahle, Lebanon, where he saw their precarious existence on the margins of a society where 1 in 4 people is now a refugee. […]
Beirut National Evangelical Church pastor Revd Dr Habib Badr tells Wazala why he sees “quality Christian presence” as the key to future peace and inclusion in a fragile and volatile country. A wall of coiled razor wire stands guard over the entrance to Evangelical Church Road in Central Beirut. It’s there not to protect the church but to control access […]
In the first of a series of articles from Lebanon, Lindsay Shaw from SAT-7 UK reports on how God is changing lives among Syrian refugees in the Bekaa Valley A soaring unfinished entrance wing announces a church in the midst of major expansion. But it is the hundreds of people the church is serving that reveal the real growth at […]
In a month when suicide bombers killed 43 civilians on the streets of Beirut, residents of the Lebanese capital also had the opportunity to hear far better news in a ground-breaking Gospel media campaign. The Power to Change united volunteers from some 57 cooperating churches for the first time. It also combined city-wide advertising using roadside and overhead billboards with […]
A Palestinian musician who played on the soundtrack of the film The Passion of the Christ joined SAT-7’s weekly We Will Sing hymns programme recently. Playing the oud and singing a number of songs he had composed, Naser Musa added a new flavour of Arabic worship to the popular worship show – the Arab Gulf tune. Among his songs was […]
An accidental faux pas sometimes teaches you a lot about a culture. On this occasion it was a warning from a Lebanese friend that saved me – a Lebanese American living in Beirut – from breaking convention. What crime against custom had I been about to commit? Simply, I was planning to wear my very Californian flip flops in public. […]
Well of course a man should beat his wife if she cheats on him!” It has been three years since my friend made that comment with a laugh, as I stared at her with a stunned expression, and yet I still remember it clearly. It was the first time since coming to Lebanon that I realised the depth of the […]
In the fall-out of war, the need for food, shelter and other basic needs is obvious to all. But refugees’ “spirits also need care”. Dr Kathryn Kraft describes how Lebanese churches are doing this and how we can learn from them. A few weeks ago, I was sharing with a friend at my church in London about my research with […]
As I mentioned in my previous post, materialism plays a heavy role in Lebanese society. Here, “keeping up with the Joneses” takes on an entirely new dimension. Appearance is important; your reputation is everything. Wedding on the Beirut corniche (cwirtanen/Flickr Commons) Lebanese women are famous for being beautiful. A few years back, when I told a taxi driver in Cairo […]