Grain de Blé yearns to build a strong relationship with the local churches and to strengthen relationships between young workers from different churches.

The necessity and importance of training and equipping local leaders involved in children’s ministry is of crucial value. Thus, to help develop their abilities, gifts and talents in their work, Grain de Blé yearly trains hundreds of Sunday School teachers and youth workers from different church backgrounds.

These teachers come not only from Lebanon but also from other neighboring countries, namely Syria, Jordan, and the Gulf States. Trainees are provided chances to implement what they’ve learnt in different activities, especially in camps and clubs.

In 2007 Grain de Ble trained around 1200 Sunday School teachers and youth workers from different church backgrounds in Lebanon and other countries in the Middle East and the Gulf.

Lebanon
In February 2007 ‘Fondation le Grain de Blé’ conducted a training seminar on how to communicate the Gospel to children from other faiths. We also conducted training for the local churches in Lebanon and participated in giving seminars at the conference that was organized by the World Vision in Lebanon.

In collaboration with Urban Saints, Peter and Cynthia Empson gave a course on children’s Ministry to participants from Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. The Training Of Trainers conference was designed to train Sunday school teachers who went back to their churches to train others. Our aim was to develop Sunday School trainers in the churches of the Middle East.

‘Fondation le Grain de Blé’ in partnership with ‘KidsAlive’ organized a seminar on child protection led Ron Newby and Keith Drinkwater from Global Care UK. The conference motivated people to continue the work concerning child protection, and lots of ideas and projects evolved.

Syria
We focused more on training in Syria; six training events took place for the Evangelical Churches and to the Roman Catholic Churches there.

Jordan
Sixty five Sunday School Teachers, Youth Workers, and School Bible Teachers gathered from different parts of Jordan to join the training that took place at the Nazarene church in Amman. Eight Iraqi participants were present; the training was intensive but enjoyable.

Kuwait
Fifty participants from different churches came to the Coptic Church in Kuwait to join the training and participate in the workshops. The training was organized in partnership with the Bible Society in Kuwait.

United Arab Emirates
In February 2007, we were invited to take part in the Catholic Christian Formation Conference in Fujairah. Around 600 participants of different Catholic churches around the UAE and the Gulf were present. We also organized a training workshop in Abou Dhabi for the Evangelical Church.

Beyond Words 2007
Dubai, UAE – 12-15 October 2007
I can’t tell you how enthusiastic our people who attended are. They found it a wonderful experience, humanly and spiritually. It was absolutely excellent, and I think it will make a very big difference indeed... Thank you once again. You are making a great difference to our work.” “All the excellent presentations were really done with the spirit of Beyond Words, or perhaps, I should just say, the Holy Spirit!”

This is what Beyond Words Conference 2007 in Dubai was all about. Making a difference! Making a difference to those 250 participants coming from different churches, denominations, and Gulf states. Every morning for 3 days and before splitting into the workshops, those diverse people would come together in unity worshipping the Lord together, praying together and hearing God’s Word together.

Thanks a lot to our valued hard working staff and our valued partners in the event, the Bible Society in the Gulf, all our friends, prayer partners and generous donors, and especially to all our wonderful & talented workshop leaders; thank you! God counted on all of you to make it happen.