Marian Choueifati

It can be easy to think that there is nowhere safer for your kids to be than inside the walls of your home. But think for a second beyond physical safety. Who is offering emotional, psychological, and spiritual protection for your children?

Behind closed doors, a battle is raging for their minds and hearts. Teenagers and young adults grapple with challenges less tangible but just as real as physical needs and safety. Gender identity, sexual and pornographic material, and substance abuse are complex, deep-rooted issues affecting youth. It has become abundantly clear that teenagers need help navigating these issues and that parents and churches lack the knowledge, guidance, and equipment to help them do so.

Tragic events made this reality even more clear to us earlier this summer. In May, Lebanon’s internal security forces arrested a group of TikTokers who used the social media app to lure and molest children and to sell exploitative images of them online. The news shook parents, who worried that their children might have been a victim, or could fall prone to similar schemes.

About a month later, Dar Manhal Al Hayat (DMAH), a ministry of Thimar focused on Arabic translation and community events, hosted a workshop for parents to provide training, resources, and support for addressing issues like social media addiction and cyberbullying; vaping and substance abuse; gender identity; pornography, sex, and sexting; and suicide.

Alongside Youth for Christ (YFC) and Shi Bi Feed, two other local Christian organizations, DMAH centered the training around a book launch for its English-to-Arabic translation of Behind Closed Doors by Jessica L. Peck. Throughout the book’s pages, Peck uncovers the challenges of mental health in teenagers and the lurking dangers behind screens and the world of social media.

For DMAH, every book serves as a ministry, not a product. DMAH strives to gather people around the ideas contained within books by providing a space for individuals to engage with concepts and new perspectives. Through training events like this and another conference earlier this year focused on pornography, DMAH has become a trusted and reliable source of information on taboo topics. Through ongoing work, we aim to normalize the safe and open discussion of difficult topics.

Highlighting the necessity of providing spaces where teenagers and youth feel safe opening up, guest speakers emphasized the role of parents, youth leaders, and caretakers in offering guidance to teenagers and direction in discerning misleading information.

We were blessed with the participation of “No for Drugs” (NFD), a Christian organization and hub for the treatment and recovery of persons with life-controlling conditions and addictions of various kinds. During the conference, one attendee approached the leader from NFD and asked for help in dealing with drug addiction. This young man is now on his journey of recovery. Please join us in praying for him.

Today, we need your prayers and support to help us spread awareness and protect our loved ones. Let us put our hands together in breaking the barrier of silence. Let us open those doors today!