Dear family and friends,
 
“The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding.” Nehemiah 2:20
 
This month was a historic one for me at the George Bush Institute in Dallas, TX. I finished training through the “We Lead” program and was honored to meet Mr. and Mrs. Bush. We Lead is a six-month journey of learning and gaining new experience in leadership as well as networking with 19 women from the Middle East, North Africa, and Afghanistan. I’m so grateful and excited to put the knowledge into action. I was able to sign my book The Arab Woman: Embracing Her Potential for women leaders from the MENA region.

We are trusting the Lord for 2019 with all its challenges and relying on our partners’ prayers, encouragement, and support. 

Nabeeh & Ruba Abbassi

• Mother's Day at the Irbid Community Center

Much of the Arab world, including Jordan, celebrates Mother's Day on March 21. Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society.

God exhorts us to honor our fathers and mothers. He values honoring parents enough to include it in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:12).

ACCTS community center celebrated Mother's Day at the center in spite of the sadness many Syrian mothers face resulting from the Syrian crisis. There were dozens of stories to remember on this day. So many children have lost their moms, and so many moms lost their children.

ICC believes that mothers deserve appreciation for the support and strength they have provided to their families in particular and for the society in general.

The children had their own way to honor their moms and showered them with love by having crowns on their heads with the phrase "I love you, mom." They also dedicated a special song for them. After that, each child gave his or her mom a flower of love with a card that has special phrases for the occasion. It was the kind of moment that drew tears spontaneously from the attendees.  They also enjoyed tasting different kind of sweets prepared by the ICC staff and the children’s mothers. By the end of the celebration, moms expressed their gratitude to the center saying: 
 

"Thanks to everybody in the center for remembering us on such a special occasion, which greatly impacts us and lifts our spirit."

• Irbid Community Center

Mr. Edwin, the representative of the main donors who supported ACCTS Irbid Community Center for almost three years, met some of the beneficiaries who attended the center. Beneficiaries were invited to share how they benefited from the center and its impact on their lives. Nabeeh Abbassi, Mr. Edwin, and the manager of the center expressed their warm-hearted feelings because God used them to help the people who suffered from severe crises in a distinguished way. While we are saddened this strategic partnership has ended, we are grateful for the impact and trust God for his provision so the center may continue serving others.
 

Read more about this visit to the ICC here.

We thank the Lord for your partnership and friendship throughout the years.
 
Our main Dutch partner organization made a sudden decision at the beginning of 2019 to move all their operations to Syria, resulting in an unexpected deficit of $90,000 for the end of 2019. A partner church in Texas took the challenge to give a very generous one-time extra gift of $10,000, leaving us with a deficit of $80,000. 

We will soon be inviting new partners for 2020, but at this time we invite you to consider a one-time gift of any size to help us meet the 2019 budget. With these gifts, the community center can continue to serve those in need. So, will you help us serve the refugees for the next month?
 

Donate here
 

We are trusting the Lord and know that you will stand with us in this challenging situation. 

• Nouara Program

Last month, we mentioned our new program called Nouara. In this program, women learned from biblical examples of women who experienced victory and went through sessions on forgiveness and reconciliation. As we plan and develop the curriculum for this program, we are excited to see more groups take place. Another Nouara group began meeting outside of Amman with twelve ladies attending the sessions. After the women started opening up and sharing their stories, they provided the following feedback:

“You have said all that I’ve been thinking about but wasn’t able to speak out.”
“You are bringing out the old and healing me!”

Read more about this exciting new program here.
 

Other Highlights Include:

·      AWT held a women’s meeting at a local church. Forty women heard about the four thieves of joy based on the book of Philippians.

·       Our TV show, Balshi Min Hon, re-aired some previous episodes on women stereotypes. The broadcast is on SAT-7 which is a Christian TV Satellite that covers the globe. Arabs can watch it everywhere at any time.

·      The ACCTS community center held an awareness session on family protection. Read more about this event aimed toward raising awareness and protecting the vulnerable.
 

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