In 1985, the village of Aabra in southern Lebanon was destroyed. Its churches were destroyed with it. Today, we are asking you to help rebuild one.

Only a few kilometers from the ancient city of Sidon, the Greek Catholic village of Aabra was home to generations of Christian families. They baptized their children, married, buried their dead and gathered around the same altar for centuries. At the heart of the village stood its historic church dedicated to Our Lady, which reporting from the time described as roughly 300 years old.

Then came the Lebanese Civil War. In May 1985 the people of Aabra were displaced. Contemporary reports describe approximately 250 homes dynamited and bulldozed, and the village's two churches destroyed.

A land touched by the Gospel

The Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon, where he answered the prayer of the Canaanite woman: "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." (Matthew 15:28)

A longstanding Christian tradition also remembers that Mary accompanied her Son into this land and waited for him on a hill outside Sidon. That place is the shrine of Our Lady of Mantara, "Our Lady of Awaiting," in nearby Maghdouché.

For decades, the people of Aabra have waited too. They have waited to see their village restored and their church rise again.

Aabra has done this before

The parish church at the center of Aabra was also destroyed in the war. The community rebuilt it, and it is where the village worships today. Aabra has raised a church from ruins once already. This is the second.

What your gift does

Your gift supports the rebuilding of Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Aabra. It helps preserve a Christian presence that has endured in southern Lebanon for centuries, and it gives children and grandchildren a place to stand before the same altar that sustained their ancestors.

Every stone placed says: We remember.

Every wall that rises says: Our faith survived.

Every bell that rings again will say: Aabra lives.

How your gift is handled

Gifts to this campaign are made to St. Therese of the Child Jesus Catholic Church, 8315 S 107th E Ave, Tulsa, OK 74133, in support of its mission project to rebuild Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Aabra, Lebanon.

How you can help right now

Donate, whatever you can. Every gift is a stone.

Share this page with family, friends and your parish.

Pray for Aabra.