June
/ July 2016 - Vol. 86
The People of God community in
Beirut, Lebanon celebrated its 40th anniversary on
the 17th of April 2016
The
40th Anniversary of the People of God,
Lebanon
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A report and reflection by
Danielle Younan
We are a
community of 800 brothers and sisters from
different church backgrounds and traditions,
Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants. The Holy
Spirit at work in us, transforming our hearts,
teaching us to worship and serve together as
one, has allowed us to reach out to many people
around us. God has called us to be a bulwark
amidst an enflamed Middle East, missionaries
called to be saints and martyrs seeking to
follow Jesus Christ every day of our lives in
spite of our weaknesses and our differences. God
knows they are many!
Our branch group in Kuwait, and two member
groups in the UAE and in Qatar witness to the
open doors of mission that God has been speaking
to us about. They, too, carry that same
ecumenical dimension with members from different
cultures and church traditions seeking to follow
the Lord. Our community building led to the
development of a sister Armenian community in
Lebanon, and other community developments in
Istanbul, Turkey; Antioch, Turkey; Aleppo,
Syria; and Haifa, Israel.
Living, working and serving in the People of God
has been a source of great blessing in my life.
It has given me the opportunity to put into
practice every basic Gospel truth I have been
taught. In my work, I get to serve alongside a
lot of brothers and sisters in the Lord. I have
learned to love them for who they are, the way
they are, and most importantly, to serve them
all with the same zeal and fire of love.
When I first started working at the community
office, my boss said to me that I had to invest
in the “Love Bank” (what you give will return).
I have been trying to do so ever since.
Investing in love hasn’t been without a cost but
the returns were much greater than the cost.
More love, tolerance, joy, trust and peace are
some of the fruits I have experienced over the
years. Working for the president of the Sword of
the Spirit, a man of vision and mission, has
deepened my desire to serve the Lord with
greater zeal and to be ready to go wherever the
Lord leads, and to do what he is asking of me no
matter the cost.
My service with married women and with young
women in our University Christian Outreach (UCO)
program, two different generations, has helped
me understand the real meaning of being part of
a trans-generational community of disciples on
mission. It has also helped me realize the
importance of passing on the baton to the next
generation - now that the foundations for
community life and mission have been
set.
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of our
community, a series of events were planned,
starting with an exhortation from our senior
coordinator Elias Baz who explained the
significance of the 40 years in the life of our
community. A party to celebrate with song and
dance preceded the covenant celebration. A month
later we did a field day involving games and a
UCO concert. A documentary relaying the history
of our community was prepared for the occasion
and displayed on screen during the field day.
The script at the top of the banner,
written in Arabic, reads, “Faithful is the Lord
who called us and his faithfulness endures from
generation to generation.”
During the
community covenant celebration on April 17, our
brother Bruce Yocum, who had witnessed the birth
of our community from the beginning, while
honoring the founding generation, addressed the
next generation as well. I was deeply touched by
what he said. I quote:
“I
want to honor the founding generation - to a
great extent their [foundational] work is
done. Now I don’t mean by that, that they
don’t have more work to do. There isn’t any
retirement from the call of God, we serve up
until the final day the Lord calls us home.”
[To
the next generation Bruce said] “…If you do
not honor where you came from [your spiritual
heritage], and if you do not honor what
brought you to where you are now, you dishonor
yourself. If you do not honor the history of
what God has done among you here, you dishonor
yourself… Your failure to honor those who went
before you doesn’t harm them because they will
be honored by those who are honorable and by
God. They don’t need your honor, but you owe
it and if you don’t give it then you,
yourself, become dishonorable and cut off like
a spiritual suicide.”
Our anniversary
celebration will continue in June, when our
coordinators return from the International
Coordinators Meeting (ICM), to inaugurate
the new offices and meeting rooms we have been
able to build thanks to the generosity of our
community members.
Belonging to the older generation, a mother of
three young women, and recently now a
grandmother, I feel privileged to be part of a
work of God greater than my imagination, my
limitations, and my own strength. I walk in
faith totally relying on God and on my brothers
and sisters in the Lord.
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Danielle
Younan, member of the People
of God since 1988, is married to
Tony Younan, also a member of the
People of God since 1984. She and her
husband are physiotherapists. They
have three daughters, Esther (27 yrs),
Marie-Jo (21 yrs), Christie Louise (19
yrs), a son-in-law Fadi Barakat, and
their first grandson Noah James (1
month old). They lived and worked in
Sweden for a few years, then returned
to the People of God in 1997. Danielle
has been working as the Sword of the
Spirit president’s executive assistant
since 2008. Part of her time is
dedicated to the community office. She
and her husband serve as pastoral
leaders in the People of God, and as
senior leaders in the Kuwait branch
and UCO.
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