Middle East

“At such times, our hearts ache for all victims of this atrocity.”

“There are no words to describe how much love is there between all of you and how much love you have given us.”

The Bednars may have been in a new place with a new culture, but their testimonies of finding hope through Jesus Christ serve as an important and powerful message for every country on earth.

Hungry refugees in Syria are receiving food in an unusual way, thanks to a collaborative effort between the Greek Catholic Church and Latter-day Saint Charities. Armed conflict in the region has displaced millions of people and food shortages have caused great suffering. Now, however, a mobile bakery that can be moved about to supply freshly baked bread is feeding tens of thousands of people every day.

On August 4, 2020, an explosion occurred at the Port of Beirut in Lebanon, killing more than 200, injuring more than 7,000, and destroying or damaging an estimated 300,000 homes.

The humanitarian arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Latter-day Saint Charities, has donated nearly $2 million USD to provide desperately needed food and medical supplies to people in Lebanon. The charitable donations are in response to the August 4, 2020, explosion that occurred at the Port of Beirut, killing more than 200 people and injuring more than 7,000. The homes of an estimated 300,000 people were destroyed or severely damaged.

Following the explosion in Beirut, the Middle East/Africa North Area Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued the following statement:

Currently, the 8,000 Latter-day Saints living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the surrounding regions have to travel to Ukraine, Italy, or Germany to attend the temple. But those long travel days will soon end as President Nelson has announced plans to construct a temple in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

In the Anbar province, Iraq, near the end of March 2019, four Utah National Guard soldiers saw a surreal yet familiar sight: the Salt Lake Temple drove into view on the Al-Taqaddum Air Base. The men were 45 miles from Baghdad and 20 miles from Fallujah, Iraq's city of 200 mosques. In the heart of Iraq near one of Islam's ultra-conservative strongholds, the green trees and glinting angel Moroni of Temple Square was one of the last things any of these men expected to see.

After meeting with President Nelson, Elder Holland, and Sister Eubank, chairman of AMAR International Baroness Emma Harriet Nicholson tweeted it was a "special day" for the organization and a "pleasure and honour" to meet with Church leaders.

“Go home! You can’t enter Jerusalem! Go back!” the soldier at the checkpoint screamed at me. This soldier who had invaded my country was now telling me that I was denied access to the city of my birth. I tried to form angry words to respond to his unjust act but was halted by the words of the Savior echoing in my ear: “Love your enemies.”

Sahar Qumsiyeh, a Palestinian born in Jerusalem, often faced extreme difficulties attending LDS sacrament meetings in Jerusalem, the closest services to her home in Bethlehem. Facing checkpoints, blocked roads, the possibility of arrest, and even Israeli soldiers shooting at her on numerous occasions, Qumsiyeh continued to press forward in order to partake of the sacrament on a regular basis. The following is an excerpt from her story, Peace for a Palestinian: One Woman's Story of Faith Amidst War in the Holy Land.

“Go home! You can’t enter Jerusalem! Go back!” the soldier at the checkpoint screamed at me. This soldier who had invaded my country was now telling me that I was denied access to the city of my birth. I tried to form angry words to respond to his unjust act but was halted by the words of the Savior echoing in my ear: “Love your enemies.”

Earlier this year, 16 young adults participated in a YSA conference in Beirut, Lebanon, the first conference ever to be held in the Middle East.

It is amazing to see how the Church really has touched nearly every corner of the world.

"When we came to America as refugees, in 1986, the very first people who embraced us were Latter-day Saints who were open-minded and open-hearted. We were from a terrorist country then, but the church didn't care," Iranian Mehrsa Baradaran says. "I understand that America took a risk on us. I was that little Muslim kid from a terrorist country 'yearning to breathe free,' and you took me in."

Single adults from nine countries in the Middle East gathered in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to build faith, serve others, and come to know, as a Church, Latter-day Saints are one.

Members in six congregations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in northern Virginia participated in a local drive to collect, sort and pack more than 4,100 boxes filled with thousands of blankets and coats weighing more than 124,000 pounds that filled seven large moving vans for Syrian refugees.

What a great message to remember this time of year and with all that has been going on in the world. Peace--deep, abiding, true peace--is a state we can attain, not something that just comes and goes.

The Middle East Africa North Area encompasses 20 countries, with Morocco on the west and Afghanistan on the east. In this vast geographical region stands just one building constructed by the Church solely as a meetinghouse for its members. That building is the newly completed Abu Dhabi Stake Center in the United Arab Emirates, which Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve dedicated on Feb. 22. Constructed of concrete masonry with a stucco finish, the stake center has approximately 14,000 square feet of space on three levels, said David McMillan, director for temporal affairs for the area. He said that one of the architectural features is a dome-shaped "steeple" in keeping with the local culture. Included in the building are a chapel, offices, classrooms and a small cultural hall.

It seems that returned Mormon missionaries make good U.S. ambassadors. President Barack Obama this week nominated Robert S. Beecroft, a Brigham Young University graduate who served a two-year LDS Church mission to Argentina, as the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq. From 2008 to 2011, Beecroft was the ambassador to Jordan.

The Fourth of July celebrations mean so much more to one BYU history professor who spent the past school year among people in the process of having their freedom restored.

During a historic trip through the Middle East on April 6-20, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve visited eight nations and addressed several thousand members of the Church. Growth in the area prompted the division of the former Manama Bahrain Stake into the Manama Bahrain District and the newly named Abu Dhabi Stake.