lent study guide 2018 - embrace the middle east all... · can also include the ‘fresh look’ in...

Making allthings new

Join Embrace this Lent to explore six beloved biblical passages that voice God’s passion for new beginnings – and enjoy six redemptive stories that show how we can join in with Jesus’ transforming work to bring fresh starts to people across the Middle East today.

Lent Study Guide 2018

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Written by Liz Baddaley

Our 2018 Lent Study Guide has six sessions which all include Bible study, prayer, information, ‘fresh look’ creative writing pieces and simple actions you can take. Each session revisits a beloved Bible passage to illustrate how it brings to life God’s passion for beauty-from-ashes new beginnings; and then shares stories of Embrace’s partners and individuals in the Middle East who are working together to make things new in powerfully redemptive ways.

You can use this resource individually or as a small group, or extract particular sections (such as our case studies, ‘fresh look’ creative reflection pieces and prayers) to include in your church services each week. However you choose to use this study guide, you’ll find lots to inspire and challenge you and other members of your church.

This Lent, join in with God’s vision to make all things new; embrace those who need new beginnings in the Middle East.

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A note to church leaders

Each of our ‘fresh look’ reflections are accompanied by a visual ‘Bringing

this to church’ idea. Use them as starting point for all-age talks and sermons alongside the Bible passage. You can also include the ‘fresh look’

in your service, print in your magazine or email round as

encouragement.

Please note that we change the names of children and vulnerable adults whose stories we include in this study guide. Pictures are for illustrative purposes only, unless otherwise stated.

Making allthings new

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An 11-year-old boy rides his bike amid the ruins of Khan Yunis, Gaza.

1. Pray for the Word himself to speak freshly through familiar words.

2. Read John 1:1-18

3. Explore• Welcome to an abundance of new beginnings: • This is our first session… • It’s the beginning of Lent, a fast inspired by

Jesus’ ministry starting. • We’ve read the opening words of a book;

a book written by a man whose life was completely reorientated by Jesus.

• The words discuss the incarnation, the start of a brand new way of God reaching out to people.

• They also reference the very beginning of creation.

• Our scene takes in wherever you are, Israel and outside the cosmos; we’re time travelling through thousands of years and outside time itself – it’s a lot to take in! But it’s unsurprising…

• God is in part characterised by beginnings. He is ‘Alpha’; the only ‘I AM’ with nothing preceding. What tense is verse five in and how is that significant?

• God is constantly creating… Can you think of some new starts he gave before Jesus came? (It might be hard to stop!)

• Reread the passage in a modern translation – perhaps The Message or The Voice – what stands out?

• John mirrors Genesis 1 to underline Jesus’ divinity but how does he also illustrate the important relationship between what is spoken and what is begun? (See Isaiah 55:11)

• To what extent do you think all new beginnings come from God? (See James 1:17)

• Read verse 14 again. Jesus’ coming is a more glorious beginning than creation – this second Adam will initiate the new creation and redeem the bad ends brought to so many of his previous, beautiful beginnings. What does this suggest about:

• the quality of God’s second chances? • the lengths he will go to, and the price he will

pay, to give them?• We are made in the image of this creating God;

we are following this redeeming Saviour. How can we imitate him by investing in other people’s fresh starts? Will anything need to end in us in order for us to do this? And if so, what?

4. New beginnings in the Middle East: Read Emani’s story, opposite, and think about how relationships have to change to be able to grow.

5. Go further: Turn the page for prayers and a fresh look at ‘The God of new beginnings’.

Beginning with the Word: Introducing the God of new beginnings

Before we start…Think about: some of the most significant – or recent – beginnings in your life… What did they involve? How did you feel during them?

Speaking new value

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session 1

Eleven-year-old Emani is bubbling over with everything she’s learning. She loves art, dreams of being a graphic designer and is mastering modelling clay!

But this is all new. Emani explains: ‘We are Syrian so have escaped lots of fighting.’

Things weren’t much better when her family first arrived in Lebanon. They lived in a single, damp basement room. The children couldn’t go to school and were often left alone:

‘We always slept hungry. There were so many bad people outside our door. They tried to hurt me and my sister once. There was no chance of learning.’

Emani’s new beginning started when her mother got word of an offer from one of Embrace’s partners. Three of her daughters could spend the majority of their time at a safe centre for vulnerable children in Beirut. She bravely accepted it.

Now Emani is warm, clean, well fed, in school and having lots of fun. She is thriving. But best of all she knows her true identity and worth:

‘I feel I am someone now, I’m proud I’m Emani. I understand I’m God’s daughter and I am very valuable in his eyes.’

Emani (left) and her sister at school

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Designing a brighter future for Emani

session 1Session 1: Speaking new value

Session 2: Growing new lives

Session 3: Inspiring new visions

Session 4: Softening hearts again

Session 5: Fuelling perseverance

Session 6: Crafting transformation

session 1

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…with symbolsYou will need: A pencil and a notebook

• Look at the clean, empty white space a fresh page offers.

• Thank God for each educational institution you went to and every time you received a new notebook to write or draw in!

• Pick up the pencil. Run a finger down its length. Pray for every child who has had to flee home and journey a long way to safety. Pray especially for those whose education has been interrupted.

• Draw an ‘Emani’ stick girl.

• Pray for her and her family.

• Draw a heart shape around ‘Emani’.

• Thank God for Embrace’s partner providing a safe, stimulating space for Emani.

• Draw some concentric heart shapes going wider…

• Pray for all Embrace’s partners in Lebanon, and everyone who gives to make their vital work possible.

Pray for more new beginnings:…with wordsGod of every good beginning and every redemptive second chance, thank you for placing your renewing love right at the heart of your creation – and right at the heart of your image in us.

Help us to say yes to every invitation you speak to design brighter futures for refugee children like Emani in Lebanon and across the Middle East.

Lord, you know all they have left behind, take away the lingering threat of lost childhoods and bring them safely into a hopeful future with Embrace.

And may we ourselves forget any remaining apathy, stepping forward with you into greater demonstrations of restoring love.

Initiate a chain reaction: to educate more refugee childrenEmani is not an isolated case. The Syrian conflict has put 2.8 million children out of school – 700,000 of them are refugees.* But we can speak up for them by:

• signingtheUN’spetitionatwww.unhcr.org/withrefugees/petition

• writingtoyourMPand/orthePrimeMinisteraskingformoreaidtobegiventowardseducating Syrian refugee children

• choosinganAlternativeGiftforMotheringSunday,like‘Schooliscool’,whichprovidesrefugeechildren with books. Visit our shop shop.embraceme.org to see our range of Alternative Gifts or call 01227 811646.

A fresh look at: The God of new beginningsIn the beginning was the God of new beginnings.

He was there because he is the God who was before all beginnings started. Alpha – the very first but with no starting point. The only ‘I AM’ with nothing preceding or needing to make him so.

The only original. The one true initiator. The author of the notion of story. The inventor of the idea. The establisher of time. It was he who decided to begin beginnings. It was he who said… ‘Let there be light’.

He is unimaginable because he devised imagination; unfathomable because he fashioned thought.

He is the creator not just of creation but of creativity itself. And so he cannot help himself. In love, he begins again and again and again – even after those he makes bring so many of his creations to ruin.

He sculpted Adam and Eve, wiped the world clean with Noah, called Abraham out of Ur and set a people free from slavery to know him. He was there every step with chance after chance; miracle escapes and provision, tablets of stone, priests, judges, kings, prophets. Covenant love.

And then, he outdid his own perfection. He gave his very best.

Jesus.

The Word who spoke the very first beginning has come among us. He has spoken fresh, life-giving words to us; died to offer new, abundant life to us; invited us to be co-creators in his adventure of making all things new.

In the beginning of this Lent is still the God of new beginnings. He comes, as ever, with a fresh, beckoning chance to retrace his story with more attentive steps – to put down our distractions, disappointments and discouragements to follow him back to the Middle East again.

Here we can listen with newly opened ears to all the Word wants to teach us; see with freshly opened eyes the wonder of all he has done for us; and catch a glimpse of how we too can bring redemptive beauty out of ashes.

Here and now we can newly respond: ‘Begin again in and with and through me Lord.’

Bringing this to church

Think about dramatising this reflection by having the reader come in with the biggest book you can find (or make!) to open

and read it from.

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session 2

1. Pray for new life to come into any dry areas of your faith this Lent.

2. Read Isaiah 43:16-21

3. Explore• This is the first of three sessions exploring new

beginnings passages written by prophets. This emphasis is unsurprising as prophets often speak out how things need to change now and how things will be in the future.

• What do you remember about Isaiah? He was a public official in Jerusalem writing to Judah in the eighth century BC when the kingdom was declining. His prophecies speak into lots of different times – including ours.

• Chapter 43 comes from the second section of the book of Isaiah (chapters 40-55) which emphasises restoration. Can you remember any other passages from this part? (See 40, 42 and 55 if you’re stuck.)

• Verses 19-21’s promises are not floaty – they are life-saving water for the parched. Look back at verses 1-2 for context; how do they confirm how much these promises will be needed and why they can be trusted?

• A river in the desert is a beautiful image of transformation. But why would it have spoken particularly powerfully to the Israelites? (See Exodus 17:1-6.)

• Judaism has a wonderful tradition of building faith by repeating what God has done (eg Psalms 78, 105, 114 retell the Exodus miracle) and God’s voice also does this in verses 16-17. But how might a tendency to look back at previous glory days also threaten to diminish faith?

• Read verses 18-19 again. How do they redress this balance by emphasising a completely new level of breakthrough?

• Come back to the new life promised in verses 18-21… life that we have experienced in Jesus – the living water himself. Pause a moment to celebrate.

• But… has the desert disappeared? And is it risk-free to be the one speaking or bringing new beginnings to barren environments?

• Think about your walk with God – and the church reaching out here and in the Middle-East:

• How does looking back sometimes hinder the new beginnings we are called to bring?

• How can we be, and bring, water in desert situations?

4. New beginnings in the Middle East: Read the stories opposite, and think about how something as simple as a microloans can change the lives of the poorest in Egypt.

5. Go further: Turn the page for prayers and a fresh look at ‘The God who does a new thing in the desert’.

Beginning with the Word: Rivers flowing in the desert

Before we start…Ask yourself: Have you ever faced a dead end only to find the seemingly impossible happened? What made this dramatic change possible?

Growing new lives

Session 1: Speaking new value






Flooding Egypt with miraculous new possibilitiesAt first it might be hard to see how a microloan could be like water.

But it gets easier when you remember that more than a quarter of Egypt’s population live below the poverty line with little prospect of changing their circumstances. So when Embrace partner, the Bishopric of Public, Ecumenical and Social Services (BLESS) invest to bring an individual’s vision to life, it must seem like rivers in the desert to people like…

Ali who bought a pool table to hire out, repaid the cost in just fifteen days, and expanded his first success into a thriving shop and phone repair service.

Or Nadeen who was able to start reselling clothes and now runs a thriving grocery business.

Or Tarek who used to struggle to sell his goats but after discovering a raw talent, got a loan for equipment and training to become a hairdresser, and now makes a good living.

Or Heba and Magdi who can send their children to school thanks to microloans to buy a new compressor, which helps them run their business, and a new chicken plucking machine!

Or Therese, pictured, who is now making so many bed sheets she’s not only repaid everything she was lent, but is starting to think about going wholesale…

session 2

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Heba and Magdi have secured an income by creating a business using their compressor

Tarek proudly demonstrates his hairdressing skills

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…with symbolsYou will need: A handful of loose change

Lay out a row of coins in a curvy line, one at a time, as if they were a river flowing along, placing a fingertip on each in turn as you pray for:

• moreblessingtoflowfromand/ortosupportandfund Embrace’s work

• Embrace as they support and fund microloans in Egypt

• Ali’s pool games and shop

• Nadeen’s grocery business

• Tarek’s haircuts

• Heba and Magdi’s compressor

• Therese’s dream of a wholesale business

• all the Egyptian entrepreneurs who will also soon be starting their own new beginnings…

• all those in Egypt still waiting and praying for something to suddenly change in their circumstances.

Pray for more new beginnings:…with wordsGod of rivers in the desertand water pouring out of solid rock,thank you for weaving your transforming powerdeep within the heart of your creation – and deep within the heart of your image in us.Help us to let go of anything holding us backfrom bringing new life and growth to barren places.Thank you for the living, lively blessingthat BLESS and Embrace are pouring outfor so many individuals in Egypt today.Strengthen and grow each existing micro-businessand provide an abundant flow of generosityto water and flourish even more life-changing new beginnings.

session 2

Initiate a chain reaction: for other enterprising EgyptiansCould you get together with your friends, family, work colleagues or church to raise £150 this Lent?

If so, by Easter you could give the gift of a new beginning by enabling another person to receive the microloan they need to bring their vision for a new business to life.

• Useyourtalentstoraisemoneythroughanevent,sponsorshipchallengeorsaleofhomemadeitems,visit embraceme.org/fundraise for ideas and inspiration.

• Donateanymoneysaved from giving things up during Lent into a central pot.

• Clubtogethertomakeajointdonation.

A fresh look at: The God who does a new thing in the desertThe thing about the desert is that any water that’s there stands out all the more for having less around it. It matters more here; you always remember what’s most essential when you desperately need it.

God knows that of course. He’s the one who painted wild, rugged beauty out of sand, then chose it to be one of the primary landscapes in his story.

He knows the desert inside out; how many grains there are; how hot the sun is; where he has stowed secret water sources.

He led his people there to teach them dependence. He wanted them to learn to listen to him; to show he was their provider. He wanted to make sure they knew he would always help with anything he called them to do.

He led Jesus there too to prepare him for what lay ahead. And after forty days there resisting every temptation to shortcut obedience to his calling, no wonder Jesus came back teaching puzzling kingdom riddles that imply you’re sometimes somehow better off with less because you will see God’s more all the more clearly or when it comes.

He leads us to deserts too – to times where loss, uncertainty or disconnection actually work together for good to help us find crystal clear refreshing in God’s words. We drink deeper precisely because we are thirstier and this gets us ready to stride on to fresh levels of obedience. These deserts get talked about a lot.

But God leads us to another kind of desert too. Deserts of others’ need which cause our eyes to release moist, loving tears, and our hands to drop whatever it is we’ve been holding on to so tightly for ourselves.

Here, we ourselves become part of God’s miracle river as we pour out what our abundance was always given for onto the dry places waiting so desperately to receive it. We see new life grow. And suddenly Jesus’ riddles make complete sense to us; giving really can be more blessed than having.


Think about illustrating this reflection by bringing in sand to create a ‘desert’. Place a jug of water on it during the opening paragraph and pour it out as

you finish.

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session 2

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session 3

1. Pray for the true hope of these familiar verses to really dawn on you this Lent.

2. Read Lamentations 3:21-23

3. Explore• Lamentations means an expression of great grief.

It contains five poems mourning Jerusalem’s ruins that are worthy of its title. In The Voice translation, chapter 1 begins ‘Aaghh!’ which says it all. This is the kind of devastated heart-cry referenced in Exodus 2:24 or Romans 8:26.

• Read the whole of chapter 3 to get a sense of how bad things are. It hardly seems the right source for two of the most quoted inspirational verses on hope. Or does it?

• Have you ever received words of empathy and encouragement from people who have experienced great suffering? What was different about what they said, how they spoke or the degree to which you trusted their perspective?

• Can you think of other hopeful verses whose extreme contexts are sometimes forgotten? Think about Jeremiah 29:11 which was spoken to the prophet about his highly sacrificial ministry.

• Why do these wider contexts get edited out? And why might it be more hopeful to remember them given the reality of our world?

• Look more closely at verses 22-24: • What is the source of the poet’s hope? • How does this show there is no situation on

earth that could be described as hopeless? • Think about the meaning and language used to

describe each attribute of God’s character here. What particularly stands out to you today?

• Look back to verse 21: • Why is this such an important bridge into the

following verses? • Which do you think is the most important word

in this verse? • What does this verse suggest about our role in

keeping hope alive?• What would it look like for us to be more like

Jeremiah (and Jesus!) in speaking more honestly about suffering and rooting our faith and actions more faithfully in God’s character always bringing new hope no matter what?

4. New beginnings in the Middle East: Read Sami’s story, opposite, and consider the kind of hope needed to make the broken whole.

5. Go further: Turn the page for prayers and a fresh look at ‘The God whose mercies are new every morning’.

Beginning with the Word: Faithful sunrises on dark days

Before we start…Ask yourself: How do you stay hopeful when you’re tempted to lose heart?

Inspiring new visions







Hope is starting to dawn on SamiSami is Palestinian. He’s already woken up to more than six thousand mornings. But he’s never seen the sun rise in the land his parents were forced to leave behind. Instead, every one of those mornings has started in Dbayeh refugee camp, Lebanon.

Like many other young people here, Sami gave up on life.

He dropped out of school, slept all morning and tried to lose himself in the moment, riding his motorbike recklessly through the camp.

Each day was the same. The sun rose and set but there was never any sense of hope. Just relentless days of feeling cut off from opportunity.

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Until one day when a totally new way of seeing began. Sami noticed some of his friends were starting to find value in life because they were learning new, useful skills from training sessions run by the Joint Christian Committee (JCC), an Embrace partner. So Sami went to their centre too. Now he’s learnt new skills which help him provide for himself. And he’s found another sense of purpose in helping younger refugees.

Sami still watches all his sunrises dawn from the refugee camp. But now he sees mercy in his days and hope in his future.

Sami has found a sense of purpose in helping young refugees

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…with symbolsYou will need: A calculator and an image of a sunrise, for each person

• Calculate how many new mornings God has given you so far. (Your age x 365, plus an extra day for every leap year!)

• Thank God for them and for his every day mercies within each one.

• Thank God for all Sami’s days so far too.

• What’s the most beautiful sunrise you’ve ever seen? When were you most glad of morning coming?

• Thank God for these memories.

• Pray for a different future to dawn for Palestinian refugees and for fresh, faithful hope to keep rising in your heart – and theirs – every morning until then.

• Hold the image and thank God for the tangible ways in which JCC and Embrace are keeping hope alive now.

• Leave the image by your bed. Each morning you see it, pray again for all it reminds you of now.

Pray for more new beginnings:…with wordsGod of inexhaustible hopefaithfully given brand new each morning,thank you for painting your dawn rising merciesall over the heart of your creationand all over the heart of your image in us.Help us to be relentless in love,holding fast to our belief in betterand our prayers and actions to serve the forgottenuntil we see many more young men like Sami – in Dbayeh camp and elsewhere – finding purpose and opportunitythrough JCC and Embrace.And keep us wrestling until we see the greater dawn of long-term secure homes and futures for every single Palestinian refugee.

session 3

Initiate a chain reaction: to remind others there is hope for changeThe Palestinian refugee crisis often goes forgotten. It’s decades old. The world wakes up every morning to fresh refugees. It struggles to remember the old ones – it doesn’t always want to remember them.

But we can be faithful to remind it by building a culture of mercy, hope and commitment to change.

This week, find a new person to share Sami’s story with every day. Spread the word about his new beginning and the challenges Palestinian refugees face. And, if you’re really brave, suggest they do the same…

A fresh look at: The God whose mercies are new every morningWhat is it about a sunrise that always spells hope? Light, warmth and colour ascending; a fresh reminder every day of the first one there was and the One who was before he made it.

There are different theories about how many sunrises there have been since that very first beginning, but God only knows the true number he has held together in his mercy – or the number he will hold together for each of us.

The average person in the UK sees about 29,500 days begin, which is a figure too big to visualise and too tiny to make any impression on the total number of new mercies God gives even in one single day.

Some are woven into the fabric of creation, stored up ready and waiting like the huge aquifers discovered under Kenya recently, just as the country faces increased drought from climate change. And some are given brand new in the moment like the answered prayer of a Lebanese pastor who sought a way to help refugees, and found he could join with Embrace to distribute emergency supplies...

Our headlines are full of new disasters but so many new mercies go unreported; perhaps partly because they are less sensational, but probably mostly because it takes a perspective that has been renewed by mercy to recognise them in the first place.

This is especially true when they are glimmers of hope or kindness initiated only because the night grew so black around them. But even these moments are not rooted in the darkness they shine against. They are sourced in the character of God – that’s why they keep coming no matter what.

The God of new beginnings is also the God of endless mercies. Because he is hope. And not just hope as we know it but steadfast, showing up every day hope. Hope who put on skin and bones to prove his promises and died to bring them to fruition. Hope who teaches us to look for mercy and through mercy. Hope who gives us thousands of opportunities to become his mercy for those in need.


Think about how you could start this reflection in darkness and

increase light during it. Or show a video of the sun rising while

you’re reading it.

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session 4

1. Pray for your own heart to soften and stay open to redirection as you continue through Lent.

2. Read Ezekiel 36:26-27

3. Explore• Ezekiel was in his mid-twenties and training for

the priesthood when he was taken captive with 10,000 other statesmen, soldiers and craftsmen in 597 BC. His whole life was interrupted. He was taken away from his land and his people to Babylon (in modern day Iraq). How must he have felt? And as time went on, how do you think resentment might have grown in him towards the foreign, pagan people around him?

• Ezekiel 36:26-27 is strongly connected to the main emphases of this book, which looks forward to some of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) in its focus on individual responsibility and the centrality of the heart. How did Jesus respond to people – however ‘devout’ they seemed – who had hard hearts?

• Read the whole of chapter 36. There are a lot of physical changes promised – the return from exile means a location shift and fruitful harvests. But internal transformation is key. Look again at verses 26-28; what is it that will enable Israel to do the right thing?

• The Jewish understanding of the heart was of the whole, essential person. ‘As he thinks in his heart, so he is’ says Proverbs 23:7.

• Look up Proverbs 4:23; why is the heart so important to everything we do?

• Physical heart hardening occurs if deposits of calcium, carried in the blood, build up in the arteries, making the soft, supple tissue hard and brittle. Spots can be tolerated but more than that gets dangerous. How does this speak wisdom into the spiritual reality of our attitudes and actions towards those in need?

• Remember that although we have a responsibility too, Ezekiel 36:26-27 is ultimately a promise of grace. Who gives us the new heart and spirit we need to start right, new beginnings? How is that encouraging when we are struggling?

• Look ahead to another transformation into flesh coming in chapter 37…

4. New beginnings in the Middle East: Read Christina’s story, opposite, and talk about how it must be hard for those who have lived so long, and suffered so much, to find new heart.

5. Go further: Turn the page for prayers and a fresh look at ‘The God who turns stone into flesh’.

Beginning with the Word: Turning stone into flesh

Before we start…Think about: a time when you had a real change of heart towards someone. What helped you feel differently?

Softening hearts again







A change of heart for ChristinaWe’ve already explored two wonderful stories of new beginnings for refugees in Lebanon this Lent – Emani’s and Sami’s.

But every welcome offered here is costly. And often it has to be paid, at least in part, by the Lebanese people.

When you don’t have much yourself; when there’s no longer enough for your children and you’re frightened they won’t have a future because your population has swelled so dramatically… it’s hard not to give resentment a home too.

But thankfully Embrace’s partner, the Inter-Church Network for Development and Relief (ICNDR),

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Women of all ages attend literacy classes provided by ICNDR

realises this. They encourage the women in their language and vocational training sessions to tell each other their stories… and as connections are built, hearts grow newly soft.

One of these hearts was Lebanon-born Christina’s. She had been full of worry about her son; he was struggling to find a job because of all the extra people in Lebanon. But as she listened to what Zeinab went through in Syria all her hostility melted away. To see this older woman’s tears; to imagine her terrifying midnight escape – there was nothing she could do besides put her arms around her new neighbour, ready to give her a brand new level of wholehearted support.

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session 4

…with symbolsYou will need: A stone and a slice of bread

• Break off a small piece of the bread. Hold it and close one hand around it. Hold the stone in the other, feeling the difference.

• Thank God for how Christina’s heart softened towards Zeinab when she heard her story.

• Thank him also for ICNDR’s soft hearts towards both refugees and their host communities in Lebanon – pray a blessing on all their work.

• Open your hands.

• Offer to God every heart that remains hardened towards refugees, in the Middle East or anywhere else. Pray for the Holy Spirit to bring the right stories to the right people to build further connections and soften more hearts.

• Eat the bread.

• Remember Jesus gave us a new heart of flesh by sacrificing his own flesh – which he represented with bread. Ask him to keep your heart soft towards refugees too.

Pray for more new beginnings:…with wordsGod of the most miraculous transformations of all – of crumbling down resentment towards the stranger – thank you for revealing the heart is at the very centre of your creationand rules the very core of your image in us.Help us to be ready – like Christina – to truly listen to refugees’ stories with wholehearted empathyand full, willing acceptance ofwhatever the cost might beto receive the privilege of protecting each one.Bless the work of ICNDRand all Embrace’s partners who seekto build and maintain genuine connectionsbetween welcomed and welcomerin Lebanon and right across the Middle East.

Initiate a chain reaction: examine your own heart more deeplySet aside some time this week to spend in further prayer. Ask God to show you any areas of your heart which he wants to soften towards the people and nations of the Middle East. Ask yourself:

• Arethereanynations,peopleorsituationstherethatyou’vegivenuphopeon?

• Doyouneedtofindsomenewstoriestoempathiseandunderstandmore? Visit www.embraceme.org/embrace-stories

• IsthereanythingGodmightbepromptingyoutochangeyourmindorheartabout?

• Isthereanythingyouwanttoprayordodifferentlynow?

A fresh look at: The God who turns stone into fleshThere’s no mistaking stone for flesh. One is hard, cold – immovable. The other is soft, warm and pliable.

People have always been made of flesh; ever since God first sculpted Adam and Eve out of dirt and bone then breathed life into them so they could love each other and him.

Don’t misunderstand. Stone is good. It’s useful in its place. It builds strong walls and safe houses that protect. But you can’t be alive and made of stone.

That’s why it’s such a chilling picture of evil when C.S. Lewis describes the White Witch turning creatures to stone in Narnia.

You’d have thought we’d want nothing to do with hardening ourselves. But the thing is… stone builds strong walls and safe houses that protect. And sometimes it’s just so risky to live alive and vulnerable – or to really let your heart connect with others. So we often go ahead and harden our hearts anyway.

But stone’s death sentence is no longer the end for us and those we are trying to hold at a distance once we encounter the love of God. C.S. Lewis pictured that too when Aslan breathed over cold, lifeless grey stone and restored it to warm, coloured, living flesh.

God vastly exceeds Aslan’s healing work. He sculpted part of his very self into flesh, made himself completely vulnerable, told everyone how important living from the heart was, then let the pain of the world kill his. But when he rose in flesh made new, he underlined the point. A soft heart will lead to suffering yes, but love is the only way to ever truly win.

As we get closer to Holy Week, ready to walk through its events again, is there any hardness left in our hearts we still need to lay down? Perhaps it’s Jesus himself we’ve been holding back from? Or individuals made in his image? Perhaps it’s groups of people who threaten your safety or comfort?

It’s time to newly receive this gift of grace in all the risk it brings; to begin to be softened again so we can truly live as he intended – open hearted to him and all who he has made.


Can you borrow a few garden statues of people or

animals. Lay them out and walk through them – or sit among

them – as you read.

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session 5

1. Pray for even more focused resolve to follow Jesus and his way as we move towards Easter and beyond.

2. Read Philippians 3:12-14

3. Explore• Paul is writing to one of his church plants in

Philippi, Macedonia (in modern Greece). • What might Paul have needed to keep forgetting

about his past to focus on following Jesus? How did his life – and the lives of others in the early church – embody ‘pressing on’? The image of a race is used a number of times in the New Testament. How is this helpful for illustrating the kind of lives Jesus calls us to lead?

• Verse 13 says ‘straining’ – what level of investment does this suggest? Have you seen any sporting moments that visually captured this sense for you?

• Read Hebrews 12:1-2 and 1 Corinthians 9:25. How do they strengthen Philippians 3:12-14’s message by:

• emphasising the importance of focus as you run?

• encouraging you that you’re not alone, nor the first to try?

• affirming the discipline needed to keep choosing love’s way?

• Following Jesus is about putting one foot in front of the other to achieve constant forward motion – every step is a choice to keep up the new beginning we first received in grace. (See Philippians 2:12 and Ephesians 2:10.) How is this reminder challenging and reassuring?

• How does ‘the upward call’ inspire thanksgiving – and obedience – as you think about Jesus moving from desert and temptation; to ministry; to the long, lonely climb up the hill where he was raised higher still on the cross?

• What are ‘the prizes’ of persevering in sacrificial love?

• There are many Christians who give their all for others in incredibly difficult circumstances… for example, Embrace’s partners over more than 160 years. How might they, and we, need to keep forgetting what lies behind so we can press on?

• If we are to help make all things new in the Middle East, our past disappointments must be forgotten and we cannot just rest on our previous ‘laurels’. We must keep hoping, praying and acting for transformation.

4. New beginnings in the Middle East: Read Ayur’s story, opposite, and reflect on the kind of perseverance needed to keep going when you been through so much.

5. Go further: Turn the page for prayers and a fresh look at ‘The God of perseverance’.

Beginning with the Word: Determined to keep running forward

Before we start…Ask yourself: Are you good at persevering with things? How do you motivate yourself to keep going when it’s hard?

Fuelling perseverance







A brand new family for AyurAyur is enjoying this brief moment of calm in the shade of Cairo Cathedral, just two weeks before the birth of her second baby. She’s not Egyptian though.

Her family was forced to flee home at the end of the second Sudanese civil war more than ten years ago.

Egypt hosts tens of thousands of refugees from South Sudan, many of them unregistered.

In 2011, Ayur and her mother tried to return to their country, which was intent on making a brand new start. But within two years, ethnic tensions erupted again and Ayur returned to Egypt alone.

She clung to the hope of a new family when she fell in love with another Sudanese refugee. But twice he got her pregnant then abandoned her because his family disapproved of her tribe.

But Ayur is not alone. New life is coming into her world again and Embrace’s partner, Refuge Egypt, is providing antenatal care and going the extra mile to sort out formal refugee status for her children so she can access government help.

Ayur is determined to keep moving forward for the sake of the next generation. So is Refuge Egypt.

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Ayur is able to hear her baby’s heartbeat because of

the care provided by Refuge Egypt

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…with symbolsYou will need: A pen and some paper

• Fold – or draw – a series of three lines so that your paper is divided into four ‘lanes’ to represent a race track.

• Draw a stick person runner at the start of each lane, and label each one in turn; Ayur, Refuge Egypt, Embrace and their partners, your name.

• Pray for each person, or group, in turn… for the course set ahead of them. Pray that God would help them to have courage and perseverance – to keep facing forward, committed to each new step.

• If you would find it helpful, you might like to draw and label some specific ‘hurdles’ in each lane to represent the challenges they have faced or might face in the future.

• Praise God for all that has been overcome and pray for strength to conquer all of the challenges still lying ahead.

Pray for more new beginnings:…with wordsGod of all strength to put the next foot forward,who left everything behind to walk to the cross,thank you for giving your life to restore the heart of creationand to redeem the heart of your image in us.Help us to persevere with everythingyou have laid out before us,wherever our course leads us,for no matter how far.Thank you for Ayur’s courageous exampleand the host cheering her on at Refuge Egypt!Strengthen all Embrace’s partnersand each and every one of their supportersto run the race of compassion for youand to cheer each other on right till the very end.

session 5

Initiate a chain reaction: bringing people together to pray‘Our team is wholly supported by prayer. Of course, they get physically and mentally exhausted. Many of them are refugees themselves…’

These words are sent to us from an Embrace partner who organise humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Each week Embrace staff meet together to pray for our Christian partner’s, their projects and the people whom they serve.

You can join us in these prayers. Request your copy of our Prayer Diary and maybe you would like to request one for each member of your Bible study group, or even your whole church. You can also reproduce the prayers in your church newsletter – we just want as many people as possible to pray for the Middle East’s Christians and their work to bring new beginnings.

Visit www.embraceme.org/pray or call our Supporter Care Team on 01494 897950.

A fresh look at: The God of perseveranceThe thing about beginning to run is that, to be honest, it’s usually not the hardest part. It might feel a big deal when you start a new routine and it might require considerable willpower to get going. But it’s the carrying on that’s really hard; the repeated decision to put the next foot forward when the incline gets steep and your breath gets short… when it’s tipping it down or dark.

Races are even more like this. You choose a goal to push yourself so it feels possible you won’t make it. The stakes are high; people are watching and there’s no fair weather guarantee.

So what keeps you pressing on?

The knowledge that the course is set and you can just keep moving forward.

The hours of training you put in that help you forget the aches because your feet know what to do by instinct now. Left, right. On, on, on.

The veteran runner who’s pitched up to encourage you, cheering you on from the sidelines because he knows what it takes.

The people you’ve been training with, running nearby. You keep pace for each other. They help you when you slide over in the mud on the upward climb. They stop with you to help someone who’s lost on the way, knowing that’s more important than achieving any other kind of personal best.

The thought of finishing! There will come a point where you don’t have to strain like this anymore.

And above all, the inspiration of that one incredible, first runner to cross the finish line; the one who ran alone, marking out the course as he went. The one who had the most to do and was prepared to run the hardest with the least encouragement.

This running – this race – this is the Christian life. It’s the commitment to keep beginning every day and every step. It’s the decision to see helping those who are struggling as the point of – not a distraction from – the main race. It’s the resolve to cheer on everyone to keep going – whether they’re running in the UK or the Middle East. And it’s worth it!

Bringing this to churchConsider asking whoever

reads this reflection to dress in sports gear and run on

the spot whilst delivering it.

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session 6

1. Pray for childlike ability to imagine what’s truly been won for us this Easter…

2. Read Revelation 21:1-5

3. Explore• These famous verses from the apocalyptic visions

of Revelation contain a series of highly symbolic mixed metaphors, half falling over themselves to capture what Christ’s resurrection has won, and what his second coming will bring to full fruition forever. The stakes are high; these words must speak unshakeable hope to persecuted people – something is coming that will make facing the worst worthwhile.

• Verse 4 says there will be no more death, mourning or pain. What are some of the things you most long to see end?

• Find somewhere to write it down where you’ll keep seeing it: ‘God is making all things new – these words are trustworthy and true!’ A new Middle East is coming with no more war or refugees. Pause and thank Jesus!

• Do you find the image of ‘no more sea’ surprising? For the Israelites – a desert people – sea was the main symbol of chaos and creatures lurking in its depths were their most fear-filled imaginings. Revisit Genesis 1:1-10:

• Can you see how the creation narrative reinforces this?

• What images would you choose to symbolise the end of chaos and threat?

• Often people think of eternity as endless rest in a new Garden of Eden or a constant worship service… but what kind of existence does a descending city – however heavenly it might be – imply?

• What qualities does the image of a bride suggest? What emotions are evoked by referencing weddings here?

• In movements focused on justice, there can be a tendency to think too much focus on heaven is a bad idea. Why do you think this is and why is it healthy?

• But many Christians have found the courage to risk sacrificial bravery now by focusing on the permanent joy to come. Do you think you could take greater risks now to make more things new for others, if you were more focused on the time ahead when all bad endings will end forever?

4. New beginnings in the Middle East: Read Nasib’s story, opposite, and consider how transformation occurs when the odds are so stacked against you.

5. Go further: Turn the page for prayers and a fresh look at ‘The God who is making all things new’.

Beginning with the Word: The end of all painful endings

Before we start…Reflect: What do you think of the saying that people who are too heavenly minded are of no earthly use?

Crafting transformation







Carving reality out of visionNasib is an expert at making ideas take physical form. He shapes and planes these ideas in solid wood life.

He’s been a carpenter at the Princess Basma Centre, an Embrace partner, for almost twenty years now – a vital new beginning is lasting decades.

When he was a boy, Nasib was badly affected by the polio epidemic that spread in Palestine due to lack of vaccinations; it left him disabled.

Life was hard. But against all odds he finished high school. He wanted to find a sustainable job so he could continue his education and support his family, but it was almost impossible to get most employers to see past his disability.

‘I am forever grateful, the Princess Basma Centre saw the good in me and gave me the courage to overcome my disability. Dreams at the sheltered workshop do come true. People with disabilities have the right to live in dignity; they do not need charity – all they need is opportunity’.

Recently, Nasib was given a new opportunity to build another beginning – the centre’s helping him complete a B.A. degree in special education.

No more discrimination. No more isolation. No more limited opportunities.

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A beautiful example of traditional Palestinian design and

craftsmanship created at the Princess Basma Centre

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session 6

…with symbolsYou will need: tissues, a marker pen and a bowl of water. Write Nasib with a marker pen on a piece of tissue, then dip into a bowl of water to test first.

• Thank God for everything that’s already been made new in Nasib’s story.

• Then, take a tissue and write on it the things that remain sad about Nasib’s past and present.

• Think back over the stories in this study guide and other situations in the Middle East that cause mourning to people living there – and to you.

• Take more tissues and write these things on them; things that have not yet been made new. Offer the tissues – and the suffering they represent – to God.

• Now place them in the water and as their writing dissolves, thank God there is a day coming when he will wipe away every tear. Thank him too that we can join in with making all things new now. Ask for greater faith and courage to do this still more.

Pray for more new beginnings:…with wordsGod of the resurrection, the new creation; the kingdom come, coming and still to come,thank you for promising to end pain for your creationand issuing a beautiful invitation to the heart of your image in us.Help us to live with such certain hope that we risk freely to help make all things new.Bless the Princess Basma Centre and Embraceto keep making dreams reality in Palestine.And thank you for Nasib’s visionto carve out a dignified life.Until our last days, or until you returnfind us doing the samefor everyone living in these lands you so love.

Initiate a chain reaction: keep making more things newLike Nasib, all of us have unique gifts and talents. Could you keep using yours with us after Easter to bring more new beginnings?

• Ifyou’readventurous,explorebeingsponsoredinthechallengeofalifetime.

• Ifyou’reenterprising,enlistfamiliartalentstoraisemoney.

• Ifyou’recreative,findfreshwaystoexpressorperformwhat’sstruckyouthisLent.

• Ifyou’renotsureyet,keepintouchwithEmbraceformoresuggestions.

Whatever your idea, visit www.embraceme.org/join-embrace or call 01494 897950 to help make it a reality.







A fresh look at: The God who is making all things newIn the ending will still and always be the God of new beginnings. So his promise for the end always had to be a new beginning.

No images can convey to us – so familiar with false starts – what it will be like when everything is fully and permanently restored.

The most we can maybe imagine of it is the no more pain, mourning and death part; but it’s still almost impossible for us to truly picture the glory of a world with no more war, poverty or injustice.

But Jesus promises we can glimpse it now; because he – the Resurrection and the Life – has risen from the dead. Hallelujah! Love has already won. And he has invited us to join him in making all things new now by praying and working to bring order, peace, abundance, justice and good.

The more we truly get a taste of even the smallest amount of this resurrection life – always brought about through some kind of death to self in service of others – the less we will mind about the cost.

And the more clearly we can begin to imagine and believe what it will be like when all is new, the more we will be willing to risk to build more of it now.

How wonderful that we don’t have to wait; that we can speak up against injustice to ensure refugees get help; that we can redistribute resources so that those born in places with little opportunity can access education and microloans to fulfil their potential, express their unique talents and enjoy plenty.

This is the nature of the kingdom. Yes it’s the stuff of visions but it’s also the stuff of skin and bones, wood and nails, cities and communities.

So Lord Jesus, let anything holding us back pass away; help us roll up our sleeves and – with our hearts set on the sure and certain completion of what you have won for us – let’s carry on making all things new with you; here in the UK and all across the Middle East.


Think about dramatising this reflection by having the reader

stand by the biggest open book you can find (or make!) and getting them to close it

forcefully, turn it upside-down and re-open it to

start reading.

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Embrace the Middle East, 24 London Road West, Amersham HP7 0EZ 01494 897950 [email protected] www.embraceme.orgReg. Charity No. 1076329

This Lent, find out how you can play your part in making all things new. Our study guide helps you dig deep into scripture and brings you inspiring stories of beauty-from-ashes new beginnings in the Middle East.

lent study guide 2018 - embrace the middle east all... · can also include the ‘fresh look’ in...

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