Latter-day Saint Life

Restaurants of Love: The Surprising Way the Church Is Helping in Lebanon

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Nonmembers, missionaries, and LDS Charities are banding together to create Restaurants du Coeur, or restaurants of the heart and restaurants of love, to serve the people of Lebanon.

Elder Werner Gysler stood outside a location of the Restaurants du Coeur in Lebanon where he received a delivery of rice and lentils.

With his wife, Sister Lilly Gysler, he carried the supplies upstairs to Antoinette Kazan’s café and went to work.

Food was prepared and tables were set. Hundreds of people arrived to dine during the busy lunch hour; most also filled containers with food for dinner. Ms. Kazan and the Gyslers personally greeted every guest. No one was given a bill.

“We want people to come here to keep their dignity,” Ms. Kazan said. “We don’t take their names. We don’t take their pictures.”

The Gyslers left their home in Switzerland to serve a full-time welfare mission in Lebanon. They also function as the country directors for LDS Charities.

Lead image from Deseret News.
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