Update on Lebanon Crisis With Tom Atema

This faith and finance podcast is underwritten in part by Heart for Lebanon. The country of Lebanon is no stranger to crisis. Decades of war, natural disasters, and political corruption have destroyed much of the country's infrastructure.

An epic economic collapse is driving most families below the poverty line. And now there are more refugees per capita than any place in the world, creating both a crisis and an opportunity. Heart for Lebanon comes alongside families living in despair by helping meet physical needs, providing access to education, and building authentic relationships that allow them to introduce these families to the hope found only in Jesus Christ.

And right now, you can help. Your investment of $116 brings to a struggling family food, emergency supplies, and the good news of the gospel. Give now at faithbuy.com slash lebanon or call 888-201-5577. That's 888-201-5577. The conflict in the Middle East has taken a toll not just in Gaza, but also in Lebanon to the north of Israel.

Hi, I'm Rob West. Fighting between Israel and the terror group Hezbollah has caused what many are calling a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon. Tom Adama joins us from Heart for Lebanon today to bring an update. And then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is faith and finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, our guest today is my friend Tom Adama, co-founder of Heart for Lebanon, a unique ministry that provides basic necessities of life to refugees and others in Lebanon, all while sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Tom, great to have you on the program. Hey, Rob, thank you so much for this opportunity. It really is an opportunity I've been looking forward to for some time.

Thank you. We have as well. We're delighted about our partnership, Tom. And for folks who aren't familiar with Heart for Lebanon, tell us what the ministry does there in providing relief.

Well, since 2006, when we were founded, we're a non-denominational Christian organization. I like to put it this way, Rob, that's creating faith-defining environments to give those under-resourced families in Lebanon, whether they be children or parents or both, a chance to encounter God and to grow spiritually. Wow, that's powerful. And boy, it is so needed right now. It's, of course, a huge task. But how has the recent fighting affected the ministry's ability to carry out this mission?

Well, it's given us more ministry than we ever dreamed possible, to be honest about it. In southern Lebanon, our center is about 15 to 20 miles from the border. And so therefore, we're the first line of defense for many families that are fleeing down there. As we're speaking, about 150 to 175,000 families have fled north. Most of those are single moms with six children.

Most of the dads are fighting, have been killed or have abandoned their family, which is unfortunate, but that seems to be one of the latest crises. So when they get up to our Hope Ministry Center, just south of Sidon, just north of Tyra, we're there to welcome them. We're there to assess their needs to find out if we can help them. And most of them need some, just the basic needs of life, which we call family care. These are supplement food, shelter, medical care, education, hygiene, even jobs, whatever it takes to help them sustain life, we want to provide that for them. Jesus put it this way, give them a coat, give them a cup of cold water, but do it in my name. And that's exactly what we do. So we share for their physical needs.

Then we sit there and we talk to them for their emotional needs and be drawn into a conversation about Jesus Christ. Wow, that's powerful. Well, Tom, of course, the fighting creates a unique environment. But just in general, Lebanon is a unique opportunity for ministry.

So share with us some of the compelling opportunities that are right there in front of you. Well, you know, Lebanon, I have everything from the pork explosion to 400% inflation rate to no government for two years. And that environment has built a crisis inside of a crisis. And by my count, right now, there's seven major crisis is going on in the country of Lebanon, without having the Hezbollah Israeli conflict. Yeah.

So everybody in that country, 87%, if I buy the numbers, and I do have that country is living at or below the poverty line. 38% of the total population of Lebanon has never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. Wow. What an opportunity. It sure is talk about their thirst for the gospel there in Lebanon.

Well, it's interesting. Just the other day, I was talking to our manager there in our Hope Ministry Center in the south, a lady by the name of Martha comes up and Martha has six children, three boys and three girls, all bare feet, boys in shorts. And basically, an oversized T shirt. That's all they had on the girls had on absolutely filthy torn and ripped little skirts. Mom was no better. And they look straight in the eyes of our conference coordinator and said, Milad, can you help me?

Can you help me? And of course, we could we provided for him some clean clothes, a washing machine to wash what little bit they had, and provided a place to stay some food, some shelter, something and then we talked to them about what their hopes, their dreams, their hope was. What was interesting to me when Milad shared with me this story. He said their dream for the future was to live in peace. Just live in peace. Can we ever live in peace? All I've ever known is war.

Why? And if we're not there to fill this gap, Rob, we have a problem, because the radical groups are filling the gap. So this is our Esther moment for our generation.

Wow, folks, and this is your opportunity to respond. This is incredible kingdom work that's taking place. faithfi.com slash Lebanon is where you can learn more.

That's faithfi.com slash Lebanon. Tom, thanks for stopping by. Thank you.

We've got to take a quick break, but much more just around the corner. If you have a question today, call right now. 800-525-7000.

Stick around. Are you looking for a financial professional who aligns with your biblical values? Certified Kingdom advisors are trusted financial, legal or accounting professionals who have completed a rigorous certification program to ensure they provide biblically wise financial advice as part of their practice. You can find a local CKA professional in your area by going to faithfi.com and clicking find a CKA.

Absolutely free. We know you've learned to be suspicious of those words, but really you can get biblical financial wisdom delivered to your inbox each week. Absolutely free articles, videos, podcasts and special offers on biblical resources. Nearly 60,000 people receive our free weekly wisdom email and you can to create your free faith by account by going to faithfi.com and click sign up to begin receiving weekly wisdom in your inbox. Welcome back to faith and finance. I'm Rob West. All right, it's time for your calls and questions today. We'd love to tackle whatever you're thinking about financially speaking. The number is 800-525-7000. That's right.

It's 800-525-7000. Let us know how we can help you apply a biblical worldview to whatever financial decisions and choices you're making today. As you live, give, owe and grow God's money.

Think about this. There really are an unending number of ways we can allocate God's money and yet the basic principles of how we apply biblical wisdom to our financial decisions can be quite simple. You see, it starts with God owns it all. That idea should shape everything about how we manage money because it helps us to recognize that it's not ours, it's his and therefore we have a high calling. We've been tasked with the calling of managing God's money faithfully.

It's kind of like the parable of the talents, right? So the servants were entrusted each according to their ability and then they were to manage it for the master, but ultimately they knew the master would return and they were charged to be found faithful and some were and one was not. But I think the key is for us, we need to do the same thing. We need to manage the master's money according to the master's heart and we go to God's word to find that. So as we apply these principles to our financial lives, it doesn't mean we're going to be without financial difficulty or hardship. It really means that we've at least put ourselves in a position to experience God's best. It means that when we stand before the Lord and give an account to what he has entrusted to us that we will be able to say that we've handled it faithfully and according to his will. That's our goal here to make God our ultimate treasure and then money becomes a tool to accomplish God's purposes. So as you're thinking about your financial life today, whether it's a spending plan you're trying to balance, maybe it's a debt that you're trying to pay off and you just are struggling to get that done.

Maybe it's your short term or long term savings and investments or giving more wisely and intentionally in a new year, whatever it might be, give us a call. We'd love to tackle it with you. 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open today.

Again, 800-525-7000 you can call right now. Before we dive into your questions today, a couple of emails that have come into us recently and this one comes from Angelica. She says, we're thinking about purchasing a home at the end of 2024. Do you think rates will be lower and do you think home prices will stay high?

Angelica, it's a great question. We do know that the Federal Reserve has at least indicated that they expect to lower interest rates six times in small increments in 2024. Will it play out exactly that way? We don't know. In fact, some recent wage data just this week would help us to understand that this economy is still very strong and very resilient. That's good news and yet it's not going to give the Fed much encouragement to lower rates anytime soon. So could it be four?

Sure. It could be as many as six times though in 2024. Where do we think interest rates are going on home mortgages? Probably, I think the best guess would be that we'd end the year this year somewhere in the fives. Right now, the 30-year mortgage is just under 7%.

So if we could get down in the fives, even in the high fives, that would still be quite a bit lower than what we are today. So that's at least an idea on where mortgage rates are going. What about home prices? Well, certainly we know that the demand for housing is still outpacing supply and because of that, we are not expecting home prices to come down at all. If anything, we'll see a slowing of the rate of increase for home prices, but I don't and most economists don't expect housing prices to fall.

So what do you do with that? Well, I would say just refocus on your own rules of thumb with regard to home purchase. Make sure that mortgage payment, including taxes and insurances, is no more than 25% of your take-home pay and make sure you have at least 20% for a down payment. That's going to ensure that no matter what happens with mortgage rates or home prices, that you're ready to buy and not do it in a way that's going to stretch you too much financially. The last thing I want for you is for you to get overextended in this housing area.

It's just going to throw everything else out of whack. All right, let's head to the phones here today. We've got a few lines open. We'd love to hear from you.

Whatever your financial question is, we'll help you tackle it in light of biblical wisdom. The number is 800-525-7000. You can call right now. Let's go to Cleveland, Ohio. Jackie will be our first caller. Go ahead. Hi, Rob. I'm Jackie here, and I'm going through an unfortunately long and ugly divorce.

The good news is that I found God, and I'm going to be going on for some further treatment for my Lyme disease and to also cure my son's battle. With all that said, I wanted some estate planning advice, or at least thoughts, because I know that you may not be able to comment very much on that. Although I think as a CPA, you have some knowledge regarding estate planning. Since I'm going out of the country, I wanted to revise my estate plan. In case, heaven forbid, something happens to me and or my son.

Do you have any attorneys that you can refer to, or is there someone in touch with your office that can give me further information and knowledge as to what to do? Yeah, well, I appreciate that, Jackie. I'm so sorry to hear about your divorce. I'll tell you, though, I'm delighted to hear that you said that you've met the Lord recently, and that's the most important decision you will ever make is placing your trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. So we certainly celebrate that with you and look forward to what God has for you in this next season. I know it's going to be challenging, and yet, you know, I'm confident that the Lord has great things in store.

And I'm also delighted to hear that you're thinking about just being well planned. Do you have a minor child or is this an adult child? It's an adult child. He's 19 years old. Okay, yeah. So, you know, if you have a minor, it's really important that you have a will because that would name the guardian.

In this case, he's obviously an adult. But, you know, in terms of where to go to find an estate planning attorney, and that's really what you need because you'd want to update your will, especially in light of the change in your marital status. You're going to want to make sure that you have a durable power of attorney, somebody to act on your behalf if you're incapacitated financially and legally, a health care surrogate, somebody to make decisions related to health care if you're unable to do so, even a living will.

Not something we want to think about, and yet we want to be able to make those end of life decisions and have our wishes known, and that's where you would do that. So what I would do is head to our website, faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com. Right there at the top of the page, Jackie, it'll say, find a CKA, and that stands for Certified Kingdom Advisor, and any of those folks could help you as you look for a godly estate planning attorney.

They'll all have one that they can refer you to, and I think that would go a long way to helping you get connected with somebody who could sit down and help you think through all of this. Again, that website, faithfi.com. Jackie, thanks for calling today. May the Lord bless you. We're going to take a quick break, folks. When we come back, we've got a lot of questions coming up.

We'll tackle those around the corner. I want to spend the rest of my life telling people about Jesus and his salvation. Give now at faithfi.com slash Lebanon, or call 888-201-5577. We're grateful for support from Eventide Investments on the faith and finance program. Eventide's approach to values-based investing is grounded in the belief that humankind was created in the image of God with intrinsic dignity, value, and worth. Eventide calls this investing that makes the world rejoice. More information is available at eventideinvestments.com. That's eventideinvestments.com. Welcome back to faith and finance.

I'm Rob West. You know, folks, our hearts desire on this program is that you would see God as your ultimate treasure and that money would become a tool to accomplish God's purposes. A good blessing from the Lord, his creation, money. It's not the money that's the root of all evil.

It's the love of money. So, money in and of itself can be used for good or for evil. And so, we want to take it and make it a tool to accomplish God's purposes. Align it with the principles and passages in Scripture and use it to bless others through our generosity and meet our needs and enjoy it.

Perhaps build relationships and create experiences with our family members. Whatever it is, we want to do it as unto the Lord in such a way that it doesn't allow money to compete with God for first position in our lives. We want to help you do that in light of your practical financial decisions and questions today.

So, what are you thinking about as you live, give, owe, and grow God's money? We want to help you think through it. Give us a call. We've got lines open 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. You can call right now. Let's go to Pembroke Pines, Florida. Hi, Ingrid. Go right ahead. Hi, Rob. It is so good to talk with you today and thank you for all that you do to help us.

I'm telling you, we need it. Thank you so much. Well, thank you. I appreciate that.

I have a quick question. So, I have a 403B, but when I look at my online, it says 403EE. I don't know if that makes a difference. I contribute about $600 per month. So, my employees, they match it. But recently, starting this year, my employees said they're going to give us the IRA.

We have that option. So, I wanted to find out 300 that I do, 600 which is 300 every two weeks, to the 403B. I want to know if I can split that and put some of that in the IRA.

And I need some help. I'm illiterate. Yeah, no problem. An IRA is an individual account. And so, if it's offered through your employer, it would have to be either a 403B or a 401K. So, what they're probably doing is making the Roth 403B available to you. You may want to clarify that, but a company wouldn't be able to offer an IRA. The letter I in IRA stands for individual.

It can't be opened by a company and offered to its employees. But if the question is around Roth versus regular 403B, I like the idea of you splitting it. Let me ask, if you don't mind me asking, what is your age? I'm 59. 59? Uh-huh.

Yeah, okay. So, the reason I ask is some University of Arizona researchers actually studied this issue around whether or not we should put money in traditional versus Roth or both. And what the traditional kind of thinking on this or the typical thinking is that if you're at the peak of your earning potential, that it's better to put everything in the traditional 403B to get the current tax deduction. Because in retirement, your income is going to be lower because you're not working anymore. And although that's typically true, what that fails to recognize is that tax rates may be higher in retirement. So, what these researchers were looking at is perhaps it's not always wise just to assume that as you're approaching retirement, it's best to put everything in the regular 403B.

And so, as they studied literally hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of scenarios, they came up with a rule of thumb that they said produces near ideal results. And their rule of thumb is that you add the number 20 to your age, and you put that percentage into a traditional account, and then you put the rest into a Roth. So for you, let's say, I know you said you're 59, let's use round numbers. So let's say 60.

So in your case, you'd take 60, you'd add 20 to it, that's 80. So you'd put 80% into your regular 403B and then 20% into the Roth. And what that would do is it'd give you a portion that would be able to grow tax-free.

You could pull it out in retirement. If rates are higher, tax rates are higher, you may want to prioritize pulling out of that first and let the traditional 403B continue to grow. The other benefit of the Roth version is that there's no required minimum. So when you get to 73 or 75, whatever it is at that point for you, you won't have a required minimum coming out of that Roth where you will out of the traditional or the regular 403B.

So there's a lot to that, and I don't want to overcomplicate it, but I'm just throwing this out that that rule of thumb was at least what these researchers came back with, which for you would be 80% toward the regular 403B and 20% toward the Roth. Does that make sense? That makes sense. Yes, it does. Thank you so much. You're welcome, Ingrid. Thanks for calling.

All right. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. We've got a few lines open today. We'd love to tackle your financial question.

Let's go to St. Louis. Hi, Ed. Go ahead, sir. Hi, how are you?

I'm doing great. Thanks. Okay. Always wanted to say this, so here we go.

Longtime listener, first time caller. Oh, great. Well, I'm delighted you made the call.

Yeah. The reason of my call today is that we've been saving for a long time. We're right at the edge of retirement, and CDs have been a tool that we've been using, and right now the rates are pretty decent compared to the past.

For sure. And online banks seem to be the choice for the best rates. That being said, my wife especially, we hate doing stuff online, and I was wondering what your thoughts on that was.

Yeah. Well, I don't have any problem with the online banks, and you're right, Ed. That's where you're going to get the most attractive rates without question, and the reason is they're able to pass that additional yield on to you because they don't have the extra expenses that the brick and mortar banks have. So as long as there's FDIC insurance, I mean, you're probably already doing quite a bit online anyway. You're probably buying things through online retailers. You may be logging into your financial accounts.

I mean, I don't think this is any different. It's still a bank. There's still the full faith and credit of the United States government backing it through FDIC.

It's just that you can't walk in the door and look somebody in the eye. But for me, the trade-off is worth it to get those better rates. So I'd be completely comfortable with it as long as you're under $250,000 per bank and you have the FDIC insurance.

You can find the best rates at bankrate.com. Ed, thanks for your call. And that's going to do it for us today. I really appreciate your taking time to listen to this program and to committing the principles we talk about each time to your financial life. You see, God's plan isn't difficult, but it does take discipline, and I hope we can encourage you along the way as you listen to this program. Incidentally, if you've been helped by what you've heard here, would you mind helping us? This broadcast, the Faithfi app, and the other great resources we provide wouldn't be possible without the financial support we receive from listeners like you. We offer a lot of our resources for free and even have a free version of the Faithfi app, and that's only possible because of the generous gifts from listeners like you. If you're not yet one of our financial partners but would like to be, would you visit our website, faithfi.com, and then click the Give button to sign up. Thanks for listening and sharing, and I hope you'll come back and join us again next time for another edition of Faith & Finance. Faith & Finance is provided by Faithfi and listeners like you.