When Elizabeth was 20, she was already a mother of 2—a boy and a girl. Not religious per say, but interested in spiritual matters, she decided to register her children at an Evangelical school in Beirut. She wanted her children to have a good Christian background and education. While her children were there, she started taking them to then Sunday school that the church responsible for the school held. Slowly, she started attending the adults’ worship gathering. She was touched; yet, she took no decision to follow Christ.
“I would pray for my children that they be kept safe, but I did not really know what I ought to do for myself. My husband had to travel a lot, and I had to take care of my children and my disabled mother; I was very busy. I wanted to read the Bible, but the only Bibles we got from the school and the church were Armenian Bible—I am Armenian, but I do not know how to read the language,” Elizabeth said.
“Then tragedy hit my home. In Christmas 2011, my daughter called and said that she had pain in her abdomen. Doctors ran tests and it was cancer. She was only 26. When her brother knew, he suffered what is until today unknow—he was unable to walk for a while and bled internally. We almost lost him! I shouted out to the Lord, “Help her! Help us!” I saw His hand in the strength He gave my daughter and I. My boy was still very sick!
“For a year and a half, I took my daughter to her chemotherapy sessions. One day at the hospital, I held her hand in the elevator, and that was the last time I saw her alive! My daughter was gone! I wanted to blame the Lord but I could not! I was broken! My joy and my smile were gone with her! Not only was gone, but her brother was dying too! I shouted again! I cried before the Lord! I did not know what to say! I remembered what I heard from an old Swiss pastor that used to visit us when I was a child! I told God that He took what is rightfully His, but asked Him to keep my son! I demanded that He does! My mother had died, and my daughter followed instantly! How could I have held on with my family and children dying one by one? The Lord was there to answer! He healed my son!”
Elizabeth decided to move from Beirut to Anjar in the Bekaa after her daughter’s death. She was told that a group of believers were holding Bible study meetings at her village. She went there. Her tears rolled as a team from Heart for Lebanon was sharing Bible lessons! The Lord was working in her heart! The Spirit was on the move.
“I heard about Christ’s love—His care and salvation! I wanted that! I accepted that! I was born again! The Lord saved me! He even filled my heart with the joy and peace that I Had lost! I still did not know why my daughter was gone, but I came to know that He is a good and wise God regardless of what happens around us!”
Elizabeth decided to join Bible study classes at Heart for Lebanon’s center in Bekaa. “The very moment I entered the center for the first time, I felt the presence of God like never before! I could not hold my tears! He was there!”
… and so, her journey began! She went through discipleship classes, and reached missional leadership. She was growing in faith, and reading God’s word with a great hunger.
“Missional leadership classes taught me wisdom! I learned how to be wise with my family, my neighbors, and in taking decisions. These sessions taught me what a Christian really is! I learned how to testify and how to be a testimony in all that I do and say!
I am forever changed! I now am encouraged to take others with me to the center and to church! I take 12 to 16 ladies with me every Sunday! How can I not talk about Jesus that saved me from the pit of sin and depression?”
Elizabeth decided to get baptized! During her baptism, she could not but laugh from the joy that swelled up in her heart! She joyful once again! “As I stood there, I saw my family, and I saw the many troubled waters that the Lord has gotten me through, all the way to His cross where I was saved with His blood!” Elizabeth concluded.
