Lebanon Day: Eleven - The Preaching Life
by Sheryl Wood, for the team
It’s Sheryl Wood on the road again in Lebanon. Greetings everyone. We started out this morning at 8:30 for about a two hour drive to get to our destination, which was The National Evangelical Church of Tripoli for a church service. There were just a few little spits of rain and then sunny skies ahead. We stopped by a real coffee shop for a moment. I only bring this up to say that vendors sell any kind of coffee right out of the trunk of their car, which we had purchased from time to time on our journeys.
We arrived at the church around 10:00. It was a little earlier than we had expected. We went down several steps and the door of the church opened widely before we could even grasp the doorknob. There she was with a radiance that is hard to describe. Introductions were not even necessary. She had been following our group on Facebook and knew our names perfectly, along with a little something about the newbies, Evangeline and me. Her name is Pastor Rola Sleiman. Yes, it is that time and I really mean it this time! You need to stop what you are doing and Google her name. Just for starters you will see that she was the first Presbyterian woman ordained in the Middle East. I will let you be duly impressed on your own as you read the website because I must continue on to tell you about my Sunday church experience.
To put it bluntly, I had arrived at my home in Tripoli. Rola took us in just like inviting us into her own kitchen table. We were seated in the fellowship hall in comfortable sofas and chairs and just sat there and caught up with an old friend to some and instant new friend to others. Her casual and loving demeanor filled the air. She was so relaxed and calm. There was not a single moment of her not giving us her full attention even though she was preaching in a little over half an hour. As usual Marilyn and Julie caught up on the news of the church and its members. The power of relationships in the Kingdom is strong and mighty.
The hour arrived and it was time for Rola to go to the pulpit. Our group went and took our places in the congregation so we could listen to the translations. The following hour proved to be an incredible hour of worship.
There was an opening prayer that was not translated but I did catch each of our names and amen. Also, I was very impressed that Julie had located the hymns in the hymnal and informed me that even the music was written from right to left. Imagine, two of the hymns were “How Great Thou Art” and “Holy, Holy, Holy.” We all praised God in the same song in different languages.
The sermon on John 1:29-42 (please read) began. Andrew tells Peter he has found the Messiah. The bottom line of the sermon was to say that people should be able to know we are Christian by our actions and we should not even have to use words. Our lives should preach. There was something that I had heard that Rola did that put meat on the bones of these words.
There had been a man outside selling socks from his rolling cart in front of the church who had to gather up all of his wares every day and take them home. It took a great deal of his time so Rola suggested that he just leave his wares inside the church. He did so and this began a wonderful friendship where today he is an unofficial guardian of the church. This church is not his family of faith, but it is his community of faith.
The service ended and we went to a warm time in the fellowship hall filled with delicious cookies and coffee and even a competitive game of foosball with a victorious Julie, teamed with the expert Reem, Rola’s sister. As we headed over to what proved to be an amazing fresh-out-of-the-ocean-fish meal in the Tripoli souk right at the port, I couldn’t help but have continued thoughts of the sermon.
I kept thinking about actions speaking for you. It brought to mind a man who quietly had a servant’s heart for our group. The Rev. Dr. Nuhad Tomeh is a retired Syrian pastor now serving as a consultant for the Middle East with The Outreach Foundation. He and Marilyn have been friends and colleagues for eighteen years. He first greeted me by helping me with my luggage. The next morning we set off and he was our driver. He listened and told us about treasures along the road as we journeyed. He even, during two meals, deboned our fish and served it to us. This gentle spirit with the eyes that twinkled is respected and loved by one and all in this part of the world. My husband, who traveled with him and The Outreach Foundation in April, calls him a legend. He lives and walks The Word.
Last night Nuhad sat at dinner and gave us an amazing lesson on the war in Lebanon. He lived through it as he stayed behind and watched over NEST, the seminary in Beirut. He brought the moments to life of the destruction and death. There was no bitterness or malice, just history. I sat and devoured each word. In his wise statesmanlike language, he instructed me in a way I had never experienced in school.
Nuhad is not a young man and when he was questioned about retiring, he softly smiled and then eagerly began telling of his next mission. It is a school named Love and Hope in his home village of Yazdieh, a Christian village of around 4,000 people. This non-profit will serve children ages 3-5. It will create jobs for widows of the war and provide hope for a tired country.
As we headed back from Tripoli I asked Nuhad what he had said at the church as his benediction. He replied it was a charge to challenge people to do what they had heard in the sermon...to go and be disciples not only by saying but by doing. He spends his life living into that word. My life has been enriched by being in his presence. Thank you, Nuhad.
And I thank you, too, for spending time with me. This is my last blog in Lebanon, and Julie had instructed me as I write it remember two words: distill and synthesize. I apologize; I am not always noted for following the rules.
There is one last statement that I must make if you will indulge me. As we say in the south, just to get Marilyn’s goat I asked her at lunch if she had some mission trip in mind where I could get my hands dirty. She immediately responded, “Our trips are about relationships.” Of course I knew that. She and Julie have developed unbelievable relationships with the people of Lebanon and Syria. There is total trust and unending love and for the past two weeks they have enabled me to experience the overwhelming joy found in those relationships. Thank you so much, Marilyn and Julie. And, yes, I will be back! Thanks for listening and letting me share. I will look forward to the next time we meet...hopefully in Lebanon.
Sheryl Wood
First Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia