The other sisters had fled together with the girls, but Sister Maria, who was about to leave the house, suddenly thought of the little ones who might still be in the house and came back. It was then that they shot her.

As the official death toll tops 1,500, with several thousand more injured and more than six million people directly affected by the worst flooding in the past 30 years, urgent aid is needed to prevent the aftermath of the rains from being worse than the flooding itself.

"These institutions play a vital role in maintaining relations between Christians and Muslims in Lebanon that are an example of coexistence for the entire Middle East."

“With the rapid increase and spread of Protestant Churches, we thought looking for a place in the outskirts of town and building a new church would eventually help us to develop a new parish for evangelization.”

“90 percent of the territory of my diocese is flooded due to heavy rain. Many churches, parish houses and schools have been damaged by the rain flood. The people are left homeless and hungry besides the families grieving for the loss of their loved ones.”

Without a van, securing the needs of the refugees is simply impossible, but unfortunately Father Ivan Koltun, the shrine’s custodian, did not have a car until now.