For more than a decade, the layered humanitarian crises in Lebanon seemed to go from bad to worse, plummeting to detrimental most recently with the war between Hezbollah and Israel. But the November 2024 ceasefire and the nomination of a new government brought people in Lebanon some hope at last.

Unfortunately, this newfound hope was quickly thwarted by increased displacement caused by airstrikes and crossfire that shattered the fragile peace of the ceasefire. Meanwhile, as global political trends continue to shift away from international humanitarian policies, UNICEF1 estimates that an additional 500,000 children and their families in Lebanon lost critical cash support from UN agencies. These abrupt funding cuts come on top of previous UN cuts across the region, which in one instance alone, affected 5.5 million food insecure families in a neighbouring country.

Millions of people around the world who had been helped—even minimally—by foreign humanitarian assistance now have no help at all, but the reasons they needed humanitarian aid keep expanding. Simple math paints a dire picture for us:

Expanded causes of suffering minus assistance while suffering equals increased suffering.

It is in contexts like these that affected people live without hope for a better future for themselves or a better life for their children. What lies before us are dark circumstances for those who suffer and for those who seek to help.

“To be the beacon of God’s love is not just an opportunity; it is an obligation for all who call themselves Christ-followers.”

God’s Church is not bound by borders

Within the darkness, the global Church has an opportunity to shine its brightest. As members of a global body of believers, we can show up for and support our brothers and sisters in crisis wherever they are in the world, despite shifting global politics. While UN agencies and other NGOs increasingly suffer from cuts in foreign aid, local churches sometimes remain the only assistance providers in their communities. One of our local church partners explains it this way:

“We need your prayers, because nothing is getting easier around us. We face many challenges when it comes to safety or education for our children and youth. But mostly, humanitarian needs continue to increase, and overall support has been drastically decreasing. Last year, the UN stopped all their food assistance, and many NGOs had to close. Not one day passes without people coming to us to beg for help, because we are the only ones still helping. Despite the many challenges, we feel blessed to be able to continue serving. When they receive the food boxes, the people feel it is a gift from God himself. It is encouraging to see that our help results in thanksgiving to God. People really see the hand of God and the love of Jesus through this.”

To be the beacon of God’s love is not just an opportunity; it is an obligation for all who call themselves Christ-followers. God’s Church is one—we are united in our common faith and mission in the world (Ephesians 4:1-5), and “having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind”, we are to look to others’ interests, not just our own (Philippians 2:1-4).

God’s commission extends of the ends of the earth

As Christ-followers, we are all called to love the world as Jesus does, even if modern politics preaches something else. God’s Great Commission extends to the ends of the earth, not the ends of our national map. The first Bible verse many of us likely ever learned affirms the truth of God’s global love:

“For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

Throughout his ministry on Earth, Jesus tells us that God’s love for the world is impartial, merciful, and unconditional. We see examples of these values throughout Scripture—from the Old Testament to the New—but we clearly see all three of these in Jesus’ seminal teaching to us on how we are meant to demonstrate our love for God: by loving our neighbours as ourselves.

In the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37), Jesus taught his followers to love our neighbours as ourselves, wherever we find ourselves and wherever our neighbours are from (impartiality). This is juxtaposed in the story, with a Jewish man in need who was first passed by along the road by two Jewish “neighbours” (religious leaders, at that), but ultimately was helped by the travelling Samaritan man, who would have been considered the Jewish man’s enemy.

Unlike the ways of our world, Jesus never defined neighbour by proximity; he defined “neighbourliness” by helping people in need (mercy), especially those in highly vulnerable situations. In this parable, Jesus also illustrates for us what the material love of God looks like: the Good Samaritan bandaged the man’s wounds, put him up on his own donkey, cared for him overnight at an inn, and covered all the man’s expenses—even promising to come back and cover any extra costs incurred, without any expectation of anything in return (unconditionality).

At the end of Jesus’ teaching on how we should love as God loves, Jesus commands us to “Go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:37) This is what it means to be a Christ-follower: that as we go about our lives, we do as Jesus did.

God’s call is for us to love as we have been loved

At THIMAR, we and our partner churches believe this, and we work out our faith accordingly. As they go about their ministries, our local church partners show mercy—they help their neighbours in need—out of a recognition of their own need for God’s merciful love, and as an expression of their own love for God. Our values as an organization are undergirded by the foundation set by Jesus’ example of the Good Samaritan: we and our local church partners help our neighbours in need by operating through impartiality (Matthew 5:45), dignity (Genesis 1:27), and stewardship (Genesis 12:3).

We believe that God calls us to love and serve all, even our enemies. Thus, we seek to work unconditionally, for the benefit of the most vulnerable irrespective of colour, creed, gender or race, and without placing any obligations on those whom we serve.

We believe in the intrinsic worth of humanity as creatures created in the image of God. Thus, we seek to uphold human dignity through a holistic approach that prioritizes the emotional and spiritual needs of human beings as well as the material.

We believe that the skills and resources we have are gifts from God to be stewarded on behalf of humanity. Thus, we seek to empower local faith communities to invest their financial, spiritual, and social capital in the service of the vulnerable and oppressed.

Through these biblically based values, our guiding principles direct us to love our neighbours in these ways:

• Relief assistance should only be from love of God and his love for people
• We must seek out those most in need within communities
• We must push ourselves into our communities to serve the whole community without expectation of return

If we were in desperate need of help—as so many of our neighbours in Lebanon and our region are—we would want to be helped in this way. We would want a helper who sought us out, offered us mercy, and did not base their help on any conditions that we must first fulfill. This is a reflection of God’s unconditional love for us through Jesus: that in our greatest need, Christ sought us out and offered us mercy that we cannot earn (Romans 8:10). If we do not recognize our own need for mercy, it is difficult for us to be merciful towards our neighbours.

As Christians, we are harbingers of hope

We have an obligation, as Christ-followers, to love our neighbours as ourselves. While boundaries on a map may cause us to ask, “Who is my neighbour?” Jesus teaches us that if we love God, we must show mercy—to our neighbours, to our enemies, and to the least of these. Full stop. The parable of the Good Samaritan exemplifies that for us.

While global political systems around us may shift to isolationism, God’s Church remains a global body of believers called to love the world impartially, mercifully, and unconditionally. The reduction of international humanitarian aid funding does not and should not affect the way we, as followers of Jesus, live out God’s call to love our neighbours in need.

Local churches are best-suited and best-positioned to show the love of Christ to their communities in times of crisis and ongoing need.
Their shared context, language, and history make local approaches to humanitarian ministries highly effective. Local churches’ commitment to and presence within their communities also make their ministries sustainable—a poignant reality in humanitarian or crisis contexts. While international agencies might pull out of a country in times of war, or while changing political priorities reduce humanitarian aid funding altogether, local churches remain. Local church-based humanitarian ministry is a viable and powerful approach that brings long-lasting hope to long-suffering people.

What really lies before us

The resurrection of God from the darkest of circumstances—even from death—enables us to have and to share a hope that is not in vain. We can boldly hold onto this hope even amid suffering.

While regional crises continue to cause displacement within and across borders, and while global funding crises increase human suffering in our midst, THIMAR will continue to serve displaced families unconditionally through local church partners, thanks to the generosity of faithful worldwide supporters. While global funding crises increase human suffering in our midst, THIMAR continues to meet people’s basic needs with dignity as we provide educational, vocational, health, and emergency assistance. And while current circumstances threaten to thwart all hope, we continue to embrace opportunities to share the hope that lies before us with people who desperately need it.

“Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.” (Hebrews 6:18-19)