She came to Beirut straight from High School in the UK to find herself in a heavy care job. She openly admitted that if she had known what she was coming to, she would not have come but, having come, she would not have missed the opportunity for anything. Some of the girls have tragic family backgrounds and come to Cedar Home with little sense of security. One girl saw her father killed before her eyes. The residential setting makes it possible for Joyce to hold discussion groups with the grils and Chadi s mother goes every Wednesday to do Bible Studies with them.
Optimistic dreams are now possible.
With Chadi s and Joyce s guidance, as one girl graduates from university with her coveted Degree, others are following with their own dreams of careers in visual communications, biology, nursing, etc. Before leaving the Orphanage, the senior girls are gradually distanced from the support group at the Home through independant living in a nearby flat. If she is not already a Christian, she is living by Christian principles and values. Their futures do not look so bleak, after all. Many girls in Lebanon have been orphaned in recent years but, because some people who love God cared enough to give their own lives for a redemptive process to begin, the orphans of Cedar Home can stand with dignity in their own society.