Our Lady of the Cedars Church | Houston, TX

By Susie A. Hage, Director of Parish Administration

Our Lady of the Cedars has had lots going on since school resumed. We launched this year’s CCE and Arabic Programs in September along with our newest group, The MYKids, and we had our annual Fall Village Night as well as our Fall Banquet in honor of Lebanon’s Independence Day.

Our CCE and Arabic classes welcomed over 160 children this year. The MYKids Group has over 66 members (grades Kindergarten-6th) and they are getting to enjoy awesome activities such as PumpItUp, Lock-Ins and painting parties. Our MYO and MYA groups always have things going on as well. As usual, our Fall Village Night welcomed well over 2,000 people who showed up to enjoy wonderful Lebanese food and entertainment. Among our attendees was the Honorable Gaby Issa, the Lebanese Ambassador to the United States. Our Parish Council hosted a trick or treat for the entire parish and many families came out to enjoy good food and lots of fun on All Saints Day. Finally, the Fall Banquet, held in our Cedar Hall, had over 300 attendees this year. Our keynote speaker was Phillippe Ziade, a successful entrepreneur and Lebanese immigrant, who is also the Honorary Consul of Lebanon in Las Vegas. He shared with us his experiences and plans to help the young people of Lebanon.

Bishop Elias has made his wishes for the future clear in all of his messages, and we, as a parish, are in total agreement. The future of our church is the youth. The young children are tomorrow’s leaders, and it is our responsibility to make our parish their second home so they may grow to love it and want to participate in keeping it growing for generations to come. We are blessed with an amazing community of leaders, parishioners, and volunteers, who always make it seem so effortless to undertake the various activities and functions in our parish. We are so grateful for all of them!