Hope 4
Children

Purpose: To assist local churches in raising a generation of children who love the Lord and are effective agents in both church and society, by providing children with a holistic ministry that serves them spiritually, academically, physically, and emotionally/behaviorally, along with equipping Sunday school leaders for the task.

“Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom like a child shall not enter it”
(Luke 18:17)

“And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me’”
(Mark 9:36-37)

EGYPT

“May I call you, ‘mom’?”

Priceless words expressed by a precious little girl to her teacher. Words that offer a brief glimpse into the much deeper, largely inexpressible impact this teacher has had upon the girl’s life.

We are deeply indebted to the Lord for the 12,500 children He has graciously entrusted to our care since 2014.

Beginning in the first grade, children attend Hope4MENA classes four days a week for three consecutive academic years.

The children in these highly impoverished areas receive a very poor education—if any—in government-run schools. Close to a hundred children are crammed into very small classrooms with barely any furniture, hardly learning anything, with many “completing” their primary school (elementary) education barely knowing how to read and write. When our team began forming classes with 12 to 15 children per class, with teachers who genuinely cared for every individual student, the children couldn’t contain their joy, and excitedly came to class with a renewed sense of humanness and love for learning!

Here’s an overview of what we are able to holistically bless each child with:

Spiritually: a curriculum that aims at inviting children into a deeper relationship with, and knowledge of, God and His Word.

Academically: a curriculum that teaches primarily Math and Arabic, and aims at creating a passion and eagerness for learning in children.

Physically: a curriculum that teaches health awareness and basic principles of caring for one’s personal hygiene and nutrition. In addition to the curriculum, medical teams pay regular visits to the children to assess their needs and offer necessary medical attention/medication.

Emotionally/Behaviorally: through the comprehensive equipping of teachers in child education, covering a wide range of topics such as children’s deepest needs and learning styles, discipline strategies, the various challenges children face, etc.

Aware that teachers play the most crucial role in the holistic development of children in the classrooms, we invest a large part of our efforts in equipping teachers for the task through:

A comprehensive academic curriculum; teachers are trained prior to each academic semester and mid-semester.
A comprehensive spiritual program; teachers meet with their leaders on a monthly basis for spiritual growth and edification.
An annual camp that is both spiritual and recreational.

In this current 2021-2022 academic year, we have over 4,300 registered children, close to 300 facilitators, 50 class leaders, 12 local area leaders, and three committee members in about 200 different churches, in 200 different villages, in 7 different governorates throughout Egypt.

Facilitators (teachers) are not only responsible for the children in their classrooms, but visit the children’s families at home as well, ministering to the family as a whole. These visits also help the Hope4MENA team learn of any pressing needs (medical attention, serious financial burdens, etc.) that a family might need and that we can help meet.

Class Leaders serve both the Facilitators and the children.

Local Area Leaders serve the Class Leaders and Facilitators and manage relationships with churches and church leaders/priests.

Committee members serve Local Area Leaders and manage the strategic planning/training of the entire team.

Trainings, spiritual edification meetings and camps, and logistical meetings are held within the team year-round to help facilitate all the fine operation details.

In addition to the holistic ministry done in conjunction with the academic calendar, Hope4MENA also holds an annual summer school during summer break, led by the same aforementioned team. Meeting three times a week for two months, children from various classes join together for recreational Bible-based activities, crafts, and teaching on various life skills. This is all part of a summer curriculum which their facilitators receive prior training on.

SOUTH SUDAN

The Hope4MENA team has been blessed to minister to children and equip Sunday School Leaders in South Sudan.

Two annual leadership trainings are held for 120 Sunday School teachers in South Sudan. We also meet directly with the children, presenting a three-month long curriculum to approximately 1,200 children every three months!

Utilizing our center in Juba, we also hold two annual 3-day camps there; each for 50 kids from various churches. Also in the center, is an organized “school” of three levels that reaches around 70 children. The main topics covered are Biblical, but emphasis is also placed on topics such as personal hygiene, helping others, and learning how to serve their communities. A fun activity for children is a competition that our team runs among 45 churches based on a curriculum which covers Biblical concepts and Scripture memory verses. The children study the curriculum and then gather to compete. The competition closes with a final celebration. The kids love it!

NORTH SUDAN

“Many churches in North Sudan don’t even have a Sunday School, while there are hundreds of children roaming around, for an average family has ten children,” shared the Hope4MENA team in North Sudan.

Given the lack of attention given to children, the Hope4MENA team launched a ministry for children in cooperation with various churches. Our goal is to bring the children to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We recently produced and printed 45,000 copies of a children’s Bible in the local North Sudanese dialect and held one training for Sunday School teachers from various churches to equip them with the knowledge needed to use the children’s Bible as a Sunday School curriculum in their respective churches. Given the impoverished and war-stricken conditions in North Sudan, the church is suffering as well. Church leaders have very limited Biblical knowledge. And so alongside our training of leaders on foundational Biblical stories for children, are essentials of the Christian faith, along with basics of child education/discipline. Children often face corporal punishment, not only at home and at school, but in Sunday School classrooms as well! Our team longs for the day when this practice will be completely abolished from churches.

Along with the training of Sunday School leaders, Hope4MENA plans on holding large-scale competitions for children who complete the Bible curriculum, to encourage them towards deeper study and memorization of Scripture.

Another desperate need is the teaching of basic hygiene, which our team offers alongside the spiritual training. A giveaway that our team leaves with the children and which they consider a luxurious item is a bar of soap! Most have never seen- let alone used- a bar of soap!

IRAQ

“If a family has a special needs son or daughter, they are kept at home: no schooling, no outings, nothing outside of the home due to family shame issues. For some, the center is literally the only place they are permitted to go,” shared our team in Iraq. It is based on this dire need that Hope4MENA began a Special Needs Center in Irbil, Iraq. The 15 staff members who run the center attend regular staff meetings where they are equipped spiritually, academically, and in terms of behavior-management; with particular emphasis on every special need in the precious children entrusted to their care. 34 children ages 2 to 15 are admitted to the Center and have a wide variety of special needs such as cerebral palsy, autism, Down Syndrome, and speech delay, among many others. They are provided with physical therapy, speech therapy, behavior modification, oral motor therapy, preschool education, and most importantly, they are taught about the love of God! Our staff are trained to relay God’s love, pray with them, and teach them as each of their disabilities allow. Children come twice a week for about one to one and a half years. Serving families who have no means of affording this level of care, the center fully supports the children. Many of these children need additional intervention such as wheelchairs or emergency surgeries, which we cover for them as well. We welcome children of all cultural and religious backgrounds and have students who are Syrian Kurds, Syrian Arabs, Iraqi Kurds, Iraqi Arabs, and Yazidis. Many of those children do not speak Arabic, so we have staff who help with translation.

Not only does the Special Needs Center serve children, but their families as well. The center provides meetings for mothers where they receive psychological support, learn how precious and valuable their children are to God, and that God is by their side. They also learn special parenting skills for their special needs children.

One of the groups most heavily impacted by ISIS were the Yazidis. The Lord provided the Hope4MENA team the opportunity of starting a center in a Yazidi village in Duhok, in cooperation with the Free Methodist Church in Duhok. Along with six staff members, this center serves 25 children ages 5-14 both educationally and spiritually. Children spend two full days a week in the center and the third day is a fun day with some of the time spent in the center and some of the time spent outside the center doing various activities. Kids learn principles through play and story time, and are provided with a snack. Our team also visits the families of these children to ensure them that their children are in safe hands.

Also in service to the Yazidi peoples is a special Yazidi Ministry that is held in our Special Needs Center. The story behind the launch of this ministry is amazing! A group of parents who, since being displaced by ISIS, have been living in unfinished buildings with no walls, reached out to the Director of our Special Needs Center, requesting assistance for their children in learning Arabic. The Director shared that we don’t have an Arabic curriculum from which to teach, but do have the Bible in Arabic that we can teach. The parents agreed and following a written consent, our staff started Sunday School classes tailor-made for these children to teach them Arabic through the Bible! This ministry has grown and been such a blessing to those precious seven to seventeen-year-old children who come to the Center for two and a half hours weekly to learn Arabic through Bible stories, Christian concepts, how to have a relationship with God, as well as spending time worshiping the Lord in Arabic and English! They share meals together, enjoy times of fellowship, receive tutoring for their schooling, play games, and even develop their favorite talents such as playing the guitar, learning photography, and various sports!

SYRIA

The Lord has also blessed us with the opportunity to minister to children in Syria through a center that we opened in Jaramana, Syria. Two and three-year-olds spend around six months in the center and five to eight-year-olds attend Sunday School.