Breaking the Cycle for Girls in Lebanon with Jack Hibbard

This episode of the Faith and Finance Podcast is brought to you in part by Heart for Lebanon. True financial freedom begins with putting God first, and generosity is one way we live that out. Our partner, Heart for Lebanon, serves vulnerable young women at risk of exploitation, early marriage, and violence, offering them safety, education, and the hope of the gospel. To give or learn more, text the word FAITH to 98656.

That's FAITH to 98656. Or visit faithfi.com slash lebanon. Learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless – Isaiah 1-17.

Hi, I'm Rob West. As believers, we're called to defend the powerless and stand up for those who can't stand for themselves. Right now, few places need that more than Lebanon, especially for its girls and young women. Today, Jack Hibbard is with us to share compelling stories of hope and how you can be a part of this important mission. Then we'll take your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, one of our favorite parts of this program is the opportunity we have to highlight incredible kingdom work that's being done by our ministry partners around the globe.

It's an opportunity to celebrate God's faithfulness and to show you how you can be a part of it. Today, we want to draw your attention to a ministry that's especially close to our hearts – Heart for Lebanon. While headlines may focus on the recent war and the country's political and economic collapse, there's a deeper crisis affecting the most vulnerable – young women and children. This year, Heart for Lebanon is working to prevent human trafficking, early marriage, child labor, and violence for the girls and young women in Lebanon. Joining us now to share more about how this happens is our good friend Jack Hibbard. He's a long-time advocate and a former board member of Heart for Lebanon. Jack, great to have you back with us. It's great to be with you, Rob, and I'm so excited about this opportunity to once again partner with FaithFi.

We are grateful that you placed such a high value on connecting to God's work and being generous with the resources that he's put into our hands. Well, thanks, and it's great to have wonderful partners like Heart for Lebanon. Jack, as you know, this is a difficult topic, but understanding the urgency of Heart for Lebanon's mission means facing the harsh reality on the ground.

You've just returned from Lebanon. Can you help us understand what life is like for girls and young women there right now? Well, I got to tell you, I'm really encouraged by the optimism of the country right now, but Rob, my heart's aching over the plight of young women and girls there. Because of the recent war, the epic economic collapse in a culture that just really doesn't place a value on little girls and young women, they are at risk.

In fact, I would say they're more at risk than any other time in our ministry there. On the trip to Lebanon, you mentioned I was there just a couple of days ago. I was with a lady born in America who said to me, you know, I grew up impoverished. I was actually homeless for a time, the daughter of a single mom.

But the one thing my mom always told me was you could be anything you want to be. And our Hope Center director was standing by and he said, you know, that's what's different about Lebanon. Dreams and opportunity, they just don't exist here for women born in this culture.

The stories are heartbreaking. Josue, a teacher at our Hope educational program, told me this. I remember a woman. She is married. She has a lot of kids. She told us that her husband hits her, shouts at her, and he forced her 14 years old girl to get married. She said she don't want this, but she has, she has nothing to do.

She can't do anything. She said, I thought that she would live a better life because in the home she is living like in an abusive way. But sadly, her husband also is treating her badly.

He is hitting her. She said, I'm afraid that this will happen with her younger sister. Now she's 22 years old. She has kids, four kids. She got divorced and she has a baby. But through our club, we also shared a topic, how to be a good mother, how to treat your children when you get married.

Do you want them to live the same way as you lived or no? Jack, as you hear this, obviously you just experienced this. How common is that woman's experience in Lebanon?

Well, unfortunately, it's very common, you know, especially among the refugees, the marginalized communities, this issue of early marriage, gender-based abuse, forced labor, they're distressingly common. But I've got to tell you that God is doing some incredible things there in Lebanon. And I'm excited to talk about that as we continue our conversation today. Well, I am too.

Jack Hibbard here today. We're honored to spotlight the work of our ministry partner, Heart for Lebanon. Right now, you have the opportunity to make a life-changing difference in the life of a girl or a young woman facing unimaginable risks. A gift of $114 can help protect three at-risk girls from early marriage, child labor. Just text faith to 98656 or go to faithfi.com slash Lebanon to give.

We'll be right back with much more. Jesus said, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Today, put your heart into something that makes an eternal impact. Heart for Lebanon is sharing the gospel and protecting girls from early marriage, child labor, and violence. Your gift of $114 helps reach three at-risk girls with hope and a brighter future.

Give generously. Text faith to 98656. That's faith to 98656 or visit faithfi.com forward slash Lebanon. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance.

I'm Rob West with me, my friend, Jack Hibbard. Jack is here to share more about Heart for Lebanon, the ministry we have the opportunity to partner with this quarter. We take one ministry each quarter that's doing incredible work in the name of Jesus and put a spotlight on it as an opportunity for you to give because we know as you live as a faithful steward, you want to align the resources God has entrusted to you with ministries where God is at work and clearly that's happening in Lebanon. You may hear about the recent war and the political and economic collapse, but the deeper crisis is affecting the most vulnerable young women and children who are being trafficked and being placed in early marriage and child labor. And there's, of course, violence.

Jack Hibbard has just returned from Lebanon and giving us a report. And Jack, before the break, we heard a testimony of a mom talking about one of these young girls. And the problem is there's just nobody there to come alongside them, is there?

There really isn't, Rob. And that's really the difficulty in a culture that doesn't value women. They don't have any legal protection. They don't have access to education. Many of the things that we take for granted here and they really do grow up believing they have no value apart for what they can do for somebody else. And typically that's the man in their life, whether it be a father or a husband at a very early age. And in this cycle of poverty and trauma and silence, things just continue to get worse for these young ladies.

But, you know, Heart for Lebanon is there. I saw it in first-hand experience over the last several days, just working to break that cycle with the hope of the gospel and the dignity that can be found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. We do that through trusted relationships in things like our Hope Educational Program, special counseling sessions, Bible studies, literacy programs, skill development programs. That's just to name a few things that we're doing with these young ladies and women. But all in all, we're providing a safe place where they can learn who they are in Jesus.

And knowing that, as we know, Rob, gives a person real hope. Well, we know the gospel can do that, bring hope to the hopeless. But I want to talk about what this looks like as this ministry unfolds. I know you just visited with some of these girls and young women. Jack, how is Heart for Lebanon responding to these challenges? And in particular, how is the gospel bringing hope and transformation to the lives of these girls? Yeah.

And as I said, Rob, I just saw it. I mean, we had the opportunity to visit with an impoverished family that had come from Syria. We've been ministering to this family for several months now. A single mom, husband, had abandoned them. She has three little girls, daughters, 14, 11, and four.

The 14-year-old we actually found on the street as we were looking for their home. She was out, had just been working in a shop trying to support the family, just put food on the table, that kind of thing. That's very typical in that culture. But as they shared the horrifying story of what had happened to them in Syria and how they ended up in Lebanon, I just noticed the whole time that the woman that was speaking, the mother was just full of joy. And she said through a translator, you know, this is the best thing that has ever happened to us. And what she was trying to say is, and she went on to explain is, yeah, if I didn't have to flee my home, essentially become homeless here in Lebanon, I would have never been introduced to Jesus. And her girls would have never been accepted into our school. They would have never accepted Jesus as their savior.

And that's why this is the best thing that ever happened to us. She said, you know, my prayer now is that they're going to grow in the Lord, that they're never going to have to experience in this culture what I experienced as a woman. And I honestly believe that that's the impact that we see day after day in what the gospel is doing in people's lives. You know, as we said a couple of moments ago, when you realize who you are in Christ, when you realize that God loved us so much that he gave his son to die for us, as a woman that has no value, that begins to build and instill that in your heart.

And everything changes. We're seeing this day after day, people coming to Christ. I don't think the story is being told here in America. But you know, I sat down with Meili Melki. You had the opportunity to talk to her a couple of weeks ago, Rob, and Meili's the daughter of our co-founder, Camille Melki. I had the chance to sit with her. She told me a story about a very special encounter that happened while we were there in Lebanon.

And I want to play that for you right now. I had a very special hot chocolate session with a young girl in our fifth grade. She shared with me some of her struggles that she actually is forced to work and labor after she leaves our school. She works only to make $20 a week. And that $20 usually she is completely expensed on needs that her siblings want for her to buy for them. And then after she goes home she is asked to help her mom in the house. She serves her older brothers.

She prepares their clothes and is asked to do things that are things that no fifth grader is doing in addition to their education. I realized that she doesn't understand her worth, that for her she doesn't exist. She exists to serve others and to fulfill what others are imposing on her. And so once I felt that she understood her worth, we went into her worth in the eyes of Jesus and how He views her and why He wants to lift her up in her dignity. And there was a big transformative moment where once it all clicked to her that she can be living in the light. Even though her brothers, her mom, her father are maybe living in darkness, she can make a decision to live and abide by Jesus's teachings and be in the light. And at that moment she asked me if I would pray with her to accept Jesus as her Lord and Savior. And this morning this young girl accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior and has made a decision to live in the light despite the darkness around her. Incredible.

Wow. So obviously this goes well beyond meeting urgent physical needs of these vulnerable girls and young women. Jack, what kind of lasting spiritual impact do you hope to see in their lives? And I know your heart is with us here at FaithFi as well.

What do you hope for our listeners? Yeah, I think that I'd have the same answer for both audiences, really a growing and deepening relationship with Jesus. I mean, you know, we believe that will ultimately prevent in these young women's lives all the things that so adversely are affecting these girls, you know, the trafficking, the early marriage, the gender-based abuse. As we said, when you have dignity and you understand who you are to God, that changes everything. And so we believe the gospel prevents, not rescues, because it does rescue, but we want to prevent it before you ever have to rescue. And that's the opportunity we have today. And as I said for the listeners, the same thing, Rob, you know, we share the same heartbeat that FaithFi does, although we're going to ask people to stand with us financially to make all this happen.

It's not about that. It's about connecting to where God is working. And God's working in the lives of these young women and girls in Lebanon.

I saw it firsthand. And so as the listeners give generously today, we know that that means they have to loosen their grip on money. And you know what happens when we do that, when we let go of what is the chief competitor in our relationship with Jesus, that deepens our trust in Him to provide for us and we grow closer to Him. That's what this is all about. Well, Jack, as you well know, we have a very ambitious goal this year is to help provide the funds to reach 500 girls and young women in Lebanon, helping them understand how valuable they are to God so we can prevent things like early marriage and child labor.

And we are so encouraged by the progress we've made so far. More than 150 of you have reached out so far. But Jack, how can we reach this goal of 500? How can folks get involved? Well, all you have to do is text the word FAITH, that's FAITH, to 98656 FAITH to the number 98656 or you can visit faithfi.com slash Lebanon. Every investment of $114 is going to help prevent early marriage, child labor, violence, and introduce three young girls to Jesus.

That's the opportunity right now, folks. Text the word FAITH to 98656 or go to faithfi.com slash Lebanon. That's faithfi.com slash Lebanon. Let's reach this goal together.

We'll be right back. God has entrusted His finances to you and we at Faithfi have designed our Faithfi app to help you live, give, owe and grow with that perspective. Our Faithfi app is the leading biblically based finance app. You can manage your money, get top biblical financial resources and interact with a community of like-minded believers where you can ask questions, get answers and share what you're learning.

Go to faithfi.com and click the word app to get started. As the leading advocate for the Christian financial industry, Kingdom Advisors serves the public by promoting the integration of a biblical worldview across every aspect of the financial services industry. And we serve a growing network of thousands of Christian financial professionals, equipping and empowering them to carry biblical financial wisdom to their clients, peers, and community. For more information, visit kingdomadvisors.com.

That's kingdomadvisors.com. Let's have you with us today on faith and finance. This is the program where we help you see God as your ultimate treasure and money, a tool to accomplish God's purposes. You have a financial question today, any financial topic in play today, whether it's your spending plan and how to reign in spending, or perhaps it's paying off debt, the most effective means to do that. Perhaps it's giving wisely or thinking about wealth transfer and how you do that effectively.

Maybe it's just living as a faithful steward, whatever's on your mind today. Give us a call with those questions. 800-525-7000.

Let's head to Indiana. Hi Charles, how can I help? Hey, Rob, thank you for taking my call and your answer is really a godsend.

Thank you. What I wanted to know is I have two funds that I don't know exactly what to do with them. One is a TSP left over from my last days in the military. When I retired, they had just started the TSP and it's under 5,000. Another fund is a annuity that I got that when I retire, I changed over to annuity.

So I had to pay taxes on it. And that annuity is from New York Life is only pay about 2% and it's around 50,000 in there. But I was wondering if I should change it to an index annuity, which I don't need the funds or either of these funds. So I'm wondering what should I do with it?

Should I just let them keep on taking out an RMD instead of an RMD? Yes, great question. Yeah, so with these, you know, I think the first question, let's tackle the annuity. You know, it really depends on what kind of annuity it is. Do you know if it's a qualified annuity, meaning it's pre-tax dollars? No, no, I have to pay taxes on it anytime I take out from it. Okay, but when you put it in, was it put in pre-tax? So you only pay the tax when you take it out?

Yeah, it was put in pre-tax. Okay, so that would allow you to roll that to an IRA, assuming you've had it long enough where you understand any kind of penalties or surrender charges that you might have for taking it out of the annuity, because you don't want to leave it there. And I think you've already hit on that you can do much better than 2%, whether that's repositioning it into another type of annuity or rolling it out. If it's a qualified annuity, then, you know, certainly, you could roll that out to an IRA. And that would keep it in that qualified environment. And then you could also roll the TSP into the same IRA, and then you can have it managed there.

So everything's kind of in one place. And then you'd pick the investments that are suitable for you based on your age and risk tolerance. So I think that could, you know, serve you well, if you wanted to leave them each in their respective places, I think with the TSP, if you don't need the money, you could put it into, you know, some of the stock funds like the C, or the S, or even the I, I'd put most of it in the C. And then you could do some in the F, which is the fixed income. And, you know, the the stock funds have averaged seven to 10% a year, long term. And then eventually, if you wanted to, you could start to take it out and pay tax on it as you take it out to supplement your income.

But I think getting everything in one place and then selecting those investments that are the best fit for you would, you know, remove some of the complexity it wouldn't be, you know, tied up in an insurance product any longer. But, you know, you can have that working for you and growing. Does that make sense? Yes, it makes sense.

I wanted to ask you, I'm on the high side of 75. So I didn't know I could go into IRA. Oh, yeah. So as long as the the asset that you're rolling to an IRA is qualified, you can do that rollover. And so that's a non taxable event. And then you can continue to contribute to an IRA, there's no age limit, you just have to have earned income. So you can't have unearned income like interest or Social Security, you need earned income from your work. If you're working part time or something like that, if you're not working any longer, and you don't have earned income, you'd not be able to put new contributions into an IRA.

But you can always roll existing qualified money over to an IRA regardless of your age or your income. Well, thank you. I didn't know that. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. And God bless you and the listener. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that, Charles. Lord bless you as well.

We're gonna finish in Waukegan, Illinois. David, go ahead, sir. Yes, thank you for taking my call. My wife just passed within the last two weeks. And I haven't paid a bill in 25 years. Basically, she took care of everything.

I don't really have a budget of any type. Before she passed, she passed of cancer. We tried to reach out to a CKA. And we didn't get anywhere with that. And I just don't know where to turn. I've shut down some credit cards.

And I've been told not to shut down too many credit cards at one time. Yeah, yeah. I don't know what to do.

Yeah. Well, we're gonna help you, David. First of all, I am so sorry to hear about your wife's passing.

You're going through a really difficult season right now. We're gonna ask the faith and finance community to be praying for you. I'll certainly join you in that.

I realized you were not the one who handled things. And so we need to get somebody to come alongside you who can help you put all the pieces in place. The biggest thing right now is not to make any major life decisions, but to keep everything paid and current. And then we'll settle into a new rhythm here with regard to managing your finances.

What I'm going to have you do here in just a second is hold the line. And I'm going to have one of my team members get your name and information. And we're going to get you connected to one of our certified Christian financial counselors. This is going to be somebody who's trained in all the things you just described—spending plans, budgets, how to manage debt, how to control the flow of money in and out, getting everything in place with regard to understanding what are your assets and your liabilities. And then on a monthly rhythm moving forward, how do you operate and set up a plan that works for you and your temperament and your wiring? We're not trying to make you an accountant, but we want to get you into a good rhythm where everything's current and you've got a good system.

And that's where they can walk alongside you over several meetings via the phone or, you know, a video conference. And as long as we need to, we'll walk alongside you until you feel like you're in a good place. Okay? Thank you. Yeah, David.

Happy to do it. And I'm going to pray for you here in just a second. But David, listen, our hearts go out. The Lord is going to walk alongside you. We're going to pray the Holy Spirit would be really near to you. And we know the Lord has told us in His Word.

He's close to the brokenhearted. We're going to get you to a place where there's not a lot of questions anymore, but you've got a good plan and a good rhythm for how you're going to manage things moving forward. And then we know that God has more in store for you before we all reunite with those that we love in heaven someday. Listen, hang on the line.

We'll get your information, get you connected. Father, we just lift David up to you. We know, Lord, he is in a difficult spot right now. Thank you that we know that those who know and have placed their trust in you are with you, absent from the body, present with you. Lord, we long for that day to be reunited with you first and foremost, but with those that we love as well. I pray that you'd walk alongside him, you'd be near to him, bring just a multitude of people around him that can love him and encourage him, and that through FaithFi, we'd be able to help him financially as well. Thank you. May I ask all of us in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you, David. Thanks to my team today, Devin, Sandy, Taylor. Couldn't do it without them. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye. Faith and Finance is provided by FaithFi and listeners like you.