Manara International Facilitated by

In 2014 more than 1,000 Christians marched down Queen St in solidarity with Christians in Iraq

BCC showed love and care…. People in the church were genuinely moved by the plight of Chrisitans from Iraq many of whom had become refugees. Many of you marched on the day and were encouraged to petition the government to accept Christian refugees seeking asylum in NZ. Many more were moved to pray. In march 2015 the missions team came across a mission partnership opportunity that would allow the church to help in a more consistent way and a partnership with Manara international began.

Based in Amman, Jordan

Let’s ask someone who has lived there! Sam Sarah What is Jordan like? Let’s ask someone who has lived there! Sam Sarah

Manara’s focus areas: 1. To distribute the Word of God to people in the region 2. To meet the spiritual and physical needs of people in the region through development and relief 3. Reach out to and develop Christian youth This includes Bibles, Christian materials and literature. Manara has a Christian Bookshop in Amman and they were able to put 50,000 Bibles into Syria before the war got too bad. The bookshop is open to everyone, not just Christians. Because of war, Manara is now restricted to activities in Jordan but they were previously involved in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. Their efforts are aimed at the poorest of the poor. They encourage and support Christians and the church to remain in difficult places. Manara has an extensive network and often gets asked to get involved and help in crisis situations - sometimes they just act as an agency or broker. Through camps over summer Manara helps young people find their passion and giftings. Many key Christian leaders in Jordan came to Christ through Manara's 'Camp Gilead' and the camp has a huge legacy.

Refugees They are currently unable to get into the largest refugee camps as it seems that the international agencies do not like locals to be involved. They are working with refugees who come out of the large camps in conjunction with the churches closest to the areas they settle in. They recently lost a sponsor and need help funding food and donor support

Sewing training This project is about empowering the women, teaching them sewing and embroidery skills, which will help them in both the short and long term, wherever they end up. They have 15 women learning how to sew at any time They are producing good quality work and appear to catch on quickly Manara would like to start another sewing project in a Christian village where there are a lot of Iraqi refugees and they already are working with a local church distributing food. They will need support to pay rent for the space they want to use and money to pay the instructor

Youth/camps Suhail is very focused on getting the training material out to the Christian youth generation of the Middle East. He had meetings in Egypt about this. His priority is the development and distribution of the resources on social media. The young guys are getting ready for the summer camps coming up. Last year they did refurbish the bathrooms at the camp which was a real blessing. This year they would like to refurbish the kitchen and put in some containers.