Sauson and Ned Erickson
We were all left speechless. “The beauty was in the camp,” Sauson wrote me later. “The smile you drew on our faces by your good hearts. It was a lot of fun to learn about the cause of my faith.”
How do you reach a city when it’s illegal to share your faith? Five years ago, Hunter and Lauri Lambeth moved to Nazareth with their daughter to start Young Life in the Middle East. He had been working with Yousef (the speaker in the previous Sauson is beautiful. story) to help launch Young Life’s first club in the I admit when I saw her sitting by the fence region. There are now clubs in nine cities, eight instead of joining in the action, I thought she was indigenous staff and dozens of volunteer leaders. not a camper but a bad leader! Later, when I saw This summer, nearly 800 Arab and Jewish her walk to lunch I realized there was more to teenagers went to camp. her story. Yet there are areas of the country, not Sauson’s body is broken. Her arms, legs, even to mention neighboring countries, nearly her tongue simply will not obey what her mind is impossible to reach because of the institutional telling them to do. It’s painful to watch. And for a restrictions imposed by authorities. woman with as sharp a mind as Sauson’s, it must “But,” said Lambeth, “the be incredibly painful to live with. government has relaxed the rules when She was crying by herself during you work with special needs children.” lunch. Ruba, one of the most impressive to show and receive This is the creative response that leaders I have ever met, approached love to and from keeps Young Life relevant in the world. her and warmly asked her how she “Just as when you’re feeding the these mothers could help. Awash with humiliation, poor,” Lambeth continued, “these and children with Sauson explained she was unable to Muslim parents don’t see anybody disabilities ... made eat. Quietly, Ruba got her food and fed caring for their kids or giving them every moment of fun, her. Just the two of them. From the attention. The fact we’re Christians outside looking in, it could have been activity and laughter is not a barrier because they are so two friends having lunch together, so significant. starved for help.” which is what it became. For the first time Lambeth and I shared dinner with Sauson that his team decided to let parents come evening, and along with Ruba and to camp with their children. “We had to,” others laughed, sang and even danced with explained Lambeth. “It was the only way these Sauson. It was the first time in Sauson’s life she parents would let their kids come. We saw it as actually felt like a young adult. You should have an opportunity to share the gospel with them seen her on the dance floor that night … as well.” The next day, our camp speaker was finishing One of our leaders, Jessica Kok, said, up his final talk when Sauson, to the shock of “To show and receive love to and from these everyone, struggled to her feet. Yousef, the camp mothers and children with disabilities (normally speaker, stopped mid-sentence and asked her marginalized and rejected by their communities if there was anything he could do for her. She and denied that type of interaction), made asked if she could say something. every moment of fun, activity and laughter Believe it or not, I have had things like this so significant.” happen to me. And let me tell you — they rarely Following up to the tremendous response end well. Generally speaking, it’s never smart at camp, Yousef and the team have launched to give the mic to a camper — but that’s exactly Jericho Young Life this fall. Boys and girls what Yousef did. like Aida are there. Sauson wants to become This is what Sauson said: “I have never in my a leader … life experienced moments like this. No one in our Looks like the walls around Jericho are village cares for us like this. And what I realize crumbling down once again. here is that it is not the person who has the problem with their body who has the problem. No, it’s the person who has a problem in their mind toward the person who has a problem in their body that has the problem. Thank you for showing us we are special and we can do things that normal people do.”
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