A young Columbus woman plans to share her Christian faith in the war-torn Middle East by serving as a teacher for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon.
Julia Bowling, 24, is looking forward to this mission trip to Lebanon to teach at the Beirut Bridge of Hope beginning in August.
Her mother, Rhonda Bowling, admits to being nervous about her daughter’ decision, which will require living for a year in a school-provided apartment while working as a teacher.
“She will be connected to the American embassy, and they let American citizens know about the problem areas in Lebanon,” Julia’s mother said. “They have told us you don’t travel to the Syrian boarder or the Israeli border and she should stay in the Christian area of Beirut.”
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But when it came down to deciding between enrolling in Indiana Bible College close to home or signing on to teach a year in Beirut, Lebanon, Julia Bowling’s heart pulled her toward teaching.
“The Bible college would have been focused on me — and what I would be learning,” she said. “But with the Beirut school, I would have the opportunity to fill a need and to help these children. That is so much bigger,” she said of her decision.
The Beirut mission isn’t Julia Bowling’s first mission trip abroad. She worked in Norway as a part of Hope Corps, earning some college credits in the process last summer.
But Beirut, Lebanon, is a different sort of environment, something most Americans have never and will never experience.
The U.S. State Department has issued warnings about the region, advising travelers to reconsider travel there due to crime, terrorism and armed conflict, mainly on the borders with Syria and Israel and in the refugee settlements on the border.
The state department warns the Lebanese government cannot guarantee the protection of U.S. citizens against sudden violence, and that terrorists may attack with little or no warning in tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets and local government facilities.
The school itself has set up a safe house, and the U.S. embassy is on the route to the safe house in the event of such an attack, a route that Julia Bowling will learn as part of her assignment at the school.
“I probably ought to be a lot more worried than I am,” she said the evaluation of conditions in Lebanon. “I really feel I’ve received a lot of good guidance on what to do. Everything I need is centrally located nearby and I will not be traveling across the city or commuting anywhere and I’ll be staying in the Christian area of the city. It sounds about as safe as it could possibly be.”
School’s launch
Bowling and her family learned about Beirut Bridge of Hope when founders Toufic and April Azar and other family members came to the Apostolic Tabernacle of Edinburgh to talk about the Syrian refugee crisis and the need to help families that had fled to Lebanon.
The non-profit Bridge of Hope is staffed by an international group of volunteers, including the teachers who provide instruction in English as a second language. The school began two years ago and graduated its first class of 10 students in May 2017.
This year, 20 students are enrolled and the school hopes to have more than 50 children by 2019, according to its website. Syrian refugee children ages 5 to 8 are eligible to attend and learn arithmetic, English and Arabic writing.
The school is using the Horizons Christian Curriculum this year and also an online resource called Complex English Language Learnings, April Azar said. The teachers will go through a week-long training on the curriculum before school starts this fall, she said.
In addition to education, the school gives away food each week to the Syrian families who are struggling to survive in Lebanon as war continues to rage in Syria, trying to feed as many as 5,000 people in the next five years.
“During the times we were giving away food boxes, I noticed a large number of children accompanying their parents, though school was in session,” April Azar said. “I was shocked to find hundreds (of the Syrian refugee children) were not in school as the Lebanese public school system could not adequately accommodate the thousands upon thousands of children who have immigrated here since the beginning of the Syrian war.”
“The need is massive,” Julia Bowling said of the numbers of Syrian children who aren’t in school in Beirut.
Many of the Syrian families are placed in Lebanon with few if any resources, and are turning to nonprofits such as the school to help, including obtaining food to survive, she said.
There are other challenges for the students as well, created by years of warfare interrupting any formal education for the students, she said. That’s why her first-grade class may include students much older than 5 who have missed formal lessons and now must catch up.
She will also be working with some students who are hearing-impaired because of living in a war zone where loud bombs detonated around them, causing hearing damage, she said.
Her students will be Muslim and she is aware of the perception of having a Christian missionary teaching English in a Middle Eastern country where both she and her students are outliers to the normal culture.
“Julia is led by the Lord,” April Azar said of the school’s newest teacher.
“Our primary goal is to share the love of Jesus Christ with all of these children and their families. Most all of them are from a Muslim background. We feel God has placed them in our path for this purpose. We feel as though God actually chose Julia for us. We are simply following His lead,” she said.
There is more religious freedom in Beirut than most people realize, Julia Bowling said. Because of such turmoil over the years between Christians and Muslims, there has emerged a protectiveness for the religions there, she said.
Her role at the school is not to indoctrinate or change children from following the Muslim faith to Christianity, she said. However, she is allowed to use religious songs and reading material aligned with Christianity in her teaching, and the school is in the same building as a Christian church, she said.
Bowling said she will work to emphasize having a good learning environment, and being flexible about what she teaches and how she teaches it.
“They don’t have a lot of regulations (at the school) and whatever you can give the students, it’s better than what they currently have,” she said.
“The point of this school is sharing God’s love with the children,” she said. “I just want to help these kids.”
Preparing for assignment
She is currently working to pack two large suitcases of clothing, many pieces of which she has made herself, shrink-wrapping them in airtight bags to fit more items in.
She muses that she would like to take her sewing machine, joking that she’s desperately trying to figure out a way to fit it into a suitcase. It will probably remain in Columbus, along with shelves of literary classic books that line her room. When in Beirut, she plans to access some books online.
During her stay, she will communicate with her family through email, social media and FaceTime, and will have a cell phone with an international SIM card for backup.
Rhonda Bowling has been cooking some Lebanese dishes for her daughter to experience since the food in Beirut will be different than what she is used to.
While the school is providing her apartment, she is considered to be a volunteer. Julia Bowling will be paying $300 to $400 a month for food and incidentals, which is about the same as she would be paying for Bible college, she said. She’s also paying her travel expenses to Beirut.
Rhonda Bowling said she would love to send care packages to her daughter, but has been told that there is no guarantee the package will get to her. Therefore, school officials don’t recommend it.
Traveling to Beirut is expected to be a big learning experience, Julia Bowling said, but one that will give her an opportunity to help people.
“I really do want to do something with my life that has an impact,” she said. “Not just here, but for eternity. If I can help with the church’s outreach at this school, I’m making a difference now and for eternity. And it’s an opportunity to travel and leave my comfort zone.”
Although she is a teacher, Julia Bowling will also be learning, April Azar said.
“Julia will learn to see through the eyes of a war-torn child, one who is hurting and has lost his joy,” Azar said. “She will realize her role as a teacher is not only to educate but to help put the smile back on a tiny, little, innocent face.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About Julia Bowling” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Age: 24
Hometown: Columbus
Family: Parents Bryan and Rhonda Bowling, and brothers Nathaniel, 27, and Ethan, 19. Bryan Bowling is a CAD CAM engineer at Major Tool and Machine in Indianapolis and Nathaniel Bowling works at Cummins as a senior design engineer. Ethan Bowling is a sophomore at IUPUC.
Church: Apostolic Tabernacle in Edinburgh
Education: Home-schooled, has earned college credits through Hope Corps
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To learn more about Beirut Bridge of Hope, or to help with its ministry, visit bbhope.org/
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“Julia will learn to see through the eyes of a war-torn child, one who is hurting and has lost his joy. She will realize her role as a teacher is not only to educate but to help put the smile back on a tiny, little, innocent face.”
— April Azar, co-founder of Beirut Bridge of Hope school
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