\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Like all other Lebanese villages that have not yet been bombed, Biacout is crowded with both Christian and Muslim families, that fled from the southern regions of Beirut.\u00a0Here there is a small pilot project set up by the volunteers of the Focolare Movement during the war of the 80\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0 They wanted to create an oasis of peace where people could live together in harmony.\u00a0Presently, it is living a new phase of its \u201cvocation\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At the Medical Social Centre we\u00a0met Acia, a lady we first met 20 years ago, when together with her family and hundreds of other people, she fled from her village at the south of Lebanon. We\u00a0 met her at the beach.\u00a0 She had neither shelter nor food; she had nothing.\u00a0 We tried to help her and since then our relationship became much stronger.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Today the story is starting all over again. Acia has welcomed in her home three families, who come from her village, and two old people.\u00a0 Her precarious situation does not stop her from sharing her belongings with others.\u00a0\u201cWe try to do the best we can\u201d, she told us.\u00a0\u201c As it is summer, men can sleep on the terrace;\u00a0 but we still need mattresses.\u00a0\u00a0 Most of all we\u00a0 need medicines for the children, for my mother and my mother-in-law. Even my husband needs medicines.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0In fact, about a year ago it was discovered that her husband is suffering from muscular sclerosis and since then he has been receiving treatment.\u00a0She continued, \u201cToday, other families have been offered shelter\u00a0 by my neighbour. They are in\u00a0 a very\u00a0 bad state,\u00a0 in need of everything\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We shared with them all that we had and then continued our round. We arrived at Notre Dame Home, built when the war was at its worst, to be a haven of peace and of sharing.\u00a0Sawsan, the kindergarten teacher is presently giving shelter to 8 Muslim families. They thank \u201cAllah\u201d that they are here and hope that their relatives, who live\u00a0 very near to the border, are safe and\u00a0 sound.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Very angrily, one of them blurted out, \u201cLet us hope \u201cAllah\u201d burns all those who are killing us\u201d.\u00a0 But immediately she said:\u00a0\u201cThis is too much for me!\u00a0 I become upset and I\u00a0\u00a0 become very angry when I see what is happening and what has happened; but I know that even the people on the other side are suffering because of this war\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Fatm\u00e8 confirmed: \u201cWe are all God\u2019s children. May the almighty Allah instil calmness in hearts and in spirits and may he help us to live again in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Meanwhile Ward\u00e8, a young Christian arrived. During the last war she fled from the south together with her husband and children\u00a0 and she found refuge in Biacout.\u00a0Lately she returned to the south. \u201cNow, thank God, we are back to Biacout!\u00a0None\u00a0 of us has been wounded or struck.\u00a0 We are three families who live together. We have nothing; we are afraid of what is happening\u00a0 and of what might\u00a0 happen to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While we were talking, I saw\u00a0 some Schiiti women holding long rosary beads in their hands.\u00a0They were praying to the Great \u201cAllah\u201d, praising and thanking him.\u00a0And we left each other on this very beautiful spiritual note.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ward\u00e8 accompanied us and we tried to share her suffering.\u00a0We went back to the car and\u00a0 in our hearts we could feel the pleasantness of the moments lived together at Notre Dame Home and the bitterness of the cry of suffering that re-echoes everywhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Witness of Christians and Muslims<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-291326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}