which is why I have not gone to Lebanon. This is the more timely announcement I made elsewhere: "Project LEAP has been canceled due to the escalating sectarian hostilities in the region. I am disappointed, but mostly that this is the reason that the area is deemed unsafe for volunteers. Sectarian violence has claimed too many lives, has hindered too many programs like LEAP that are already meant for populations who have been displaced by years of conflict. Disputes that are not worth a single life. Keep those children in your prayers. We won't be visiting them this year, but we have the CHOICE not to be in the region. They don't." This decision was made by the coordinators of LEAP after the violent clash between the Lebanese military and followers of Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, a Salafist preacher in Sidon. Since then, there was a car bombing in Dahieh, a Southern suburb of Beirut and stronghold of the Hezbollah party - an area that has been heavily bombed in the past in the Israeli-Lebanese conflict of 2006. Sitting an ocean away from this, reading about where I could and should have been, I decided to reach out to a Lebanese friend. She was certain that the Lebanese people were committed to peace, and directed me to news about a large, peaceful protest of the Lebanese government in Beirut, despite intimidation and harassment by police forces. It was a remarkable story. And I note, sadly, that here it is so much easier to find and hear news of bombings and violence in the Middle East than it is to find news about the people living there. Keep everyone, the children living in the refugee camps and the citizens of Lebanon, in your prayers.
