Trips Blog

Marilyn Borst, for the team

Romans 12: 5 “…so in Christ, we who are many, form one body…”

When we pulled up to the Presbyterian Church in Fairouzeh, a few miles outside of Homs, I wondered if I had enough energy left to project joy and encouragement to the congregation which awaited us inside. They had, after all, come for this special 4:00 p.m. service just to be with us, having already gathered in worship that morning at their “usual time.” We had just finished an ample lunch (how many ways ARE there to do “kibbeh,” that ubiquitous local dish of bulgur, chopped onion and minced meat?!?!) with the church elders and leaders and then their pastor, Rev Yacoub “Jake” Sabbagh, his wife, Grace, and daughter, Celine. We were at the end of a rich and rewarding 12-day Syrian journey to stand with our family-by-faith

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by Ted Kulik, for the team 

“Have I not commanded? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)

In 2012 as war came to Aleppo, many members of the National Presbyterian Church of Aleppo began to flee the city. In the war years the church would go from 500 members to 80. Reverend Ibrahim Nseir and his wife Tami committed themselves to remain in Aleppo with their three children to be the church. At that time, he stated, “It is worth the risk to make the statement, the church is still here.”

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by Steve Burgess, for the team

Today has been another full day. In the morning we met with the Archbishop of the Armenian Catholic Church in Aleppo, His Grace Butros Mreyatee, who shared with us the many trials of the church in recent years. But his was a message of hope despite the damage to cathedral and the emigration of over half of his members.

Despite all of the losses, there has been a strengthening of faith with a renewed sense of dependence on God, the goodness of God, the renewal of hope, and a reminder that our God is the God of light and of love.

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by Julie Burgess, for the team 

I met Mathilde Sabbagh, now pastoring the church in Hasakeh, while she was a student at NEST, the seminary in Beirut, in May, 2013, on an Outreach trip. I remember her words very well and they are the title of this blog. This is the good news of the gospel: Jesus lived, died and rose again, and those of us in Christ die to ourselves and are resurrected in new life. This is what we celebrate in baptism. 

Today we left the comfort of the Beit Al Wali Hotel in Damascus and headed for Aleppo, about a six-hour drive to the north. Before leaving the crush of the city traffic in this busy old city to eventually get on the highway, we started to see the damage. The farther we drove the worse it got, until eventually we came to the Douma area which was the last part of Damascus to be relieved of the terror of radicals.

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by Lisa Culpepper, for the team

On this Lord’s Day, February 10, we are awakened by the light of a new day in the biblical city of Damascus. I had waited for thirteen months to be here. Traveling with The Outreach Foundation to Lebanon in January, 2018, we were not granted visas into Syria.

Turning in my Bible to Acts 9:3-9, I read of the light from heaven that flashed in brilliant life changing mercy for both the apostle Paul and the waiting world, and now the morning light had greeted me with a word of welcome to the narrow cobblestone streets that wound around tattered awnings and ancient doors.

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by Julie Burgess, for the team 

“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” Matthew 4:23 

Carlos led our devotion this morning as our team gathered at Qamishli church before breakfast with the elders. Using this one verse from Matthew’s gospel he illustrated how Jesus’ entire ministry could be summed up in four active verb phrases: he went, he taught, he proclaimed, he healed. He tied it all together so beautifully for us that I was determined to take this into our day to help me frame this blog for those reading at home. 

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by Mike Kuhn for the team

“And David ran quickly toward the battle line …” (1 Samuel 17:48) 

We spent the day in Hasakeh, a city in northeast Syria. The region is known as the “Jazeera” (peninsula) because it lies between the Tigris and the Euphrates. I learned that the area is dominated politically and militarily by the Kurdish forces who have cut a deal with the Syrian regime. The deal shielded the region from some of the atrocities of ISIS, but not all. What surprised me is that the Kurdish domination has led to the closure of many public schools. It seems the Kurds want all education to be in the Kurdish language, even though only about 20% of the population is Kurdish. Once again, it is the most weak and vulnerable (the kids) who become the victims of political aspirations to power. But church-affiliated schools remain in operation…a window of opportunity. 

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by Rob Weingartner, for the team 

It seems to me that one could return to this place countless times and always experience a deep sense of privilege and awe, privilege for the opportunity to be with God’s people in such a difficult place and awe at the Christian’s commitment to bear faithful witness to the Gospel. 

Yesterday (Friday) began with a visit to the Presbyterian School at Qamishli with 800 students from Grades 1-9. The school has grown during the war as other schools closed and as pressure mounted from the Kurdish leaders who control this area in an agreement with the Syrian government. The Kurdish leaders are seeking to close the schools and impose their culture on all in the region. 

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by Julie Burgess for the team

You know you are in a difficult part of the world when the flag that flies changes along the road from one set of colors to another and you have not left the country. We began the day where the Syrian flag flies and headed north and east about sixty miles to where Kurdish colors are flown. Land is contested here; it is relinquished involuntarily and yet it is relinquished.

Standing in the National Presbyterian Church of Qamishly this morning in the area of Syria known as Jazeera, we listened to the pastor, Rev. Firas Ferah, tell the story of losses through the years of war. Approximately fifty percent of the Christian families have left this area. They have relinquished their homes for other places like Sweden or Australia. The question was asked, “Why do they leave?”

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by Carlos Emilio Ham

The Lord has blessed me providing the opportunity to visit various countries, many times. I have been to Lebanon and Syria before when I was serving at the World Council of Churches, and I have met over the years numerous groups from the United States of America, but this occasion of visiting these countries with a delegation of The Outreach Foundation is indeed a unique one. I am very positively impressed on how this Foundation takes so seriously its outreach mission of sharing the good news of the gospel of God’s kingdom with the people, particularly in a desperate situation, in these lands.

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by Jack Baca, for the team

It is 7:00 o’clock Wednesday morning. I wake up thinking about all the day will bring and wondering just a bit if everything will go as planned. I’m in a hotel room in downtown Beirut, now a familiar place that feels like a home away from home because of three previous trips here in the past three years. My mind wanders back a few days to a gathering of leaders in my church back in southern California who have come together to discern where God may be leading us in the coming years. This morning, though, I’m wondering where God may lead us in the next 18 hours. And I’m praying that God will show up and help our group of ten elders, pastors and church members accomplish something that some of us were unable to do 13 months earlier. Our plan today is to drive from Beirut to Damascus, and then to fly to Qamishli, a small city tucked in the far northeastern corner of Syria, just a few miles from Turkey and Iraq. Last year some of us were not even allowed into Syria but now we are trying again.

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by Julie Burgess, for the team

Whatever you do, don’t travel with The Outreach Foundation. 

I know. Those are shocking words to open up the day one blog for a trip with The Outreach Foundation but stick with me for a few paragraphs and hear the words of one who is making her fifteenth trip with Outreach. In the end, you will know that if you love Jesus, you will not heed my words, but instead you will wonder why you stayed at home for this trip! So gird your loins. Steel your heart. Prepare to enter holy ground with this team.

I finished a course in the history of Christian spirituality last fall where I studied many traditions through 2,000 years of our faith. One of those streams of spirituality was the one defined by St. Vincent de Paul, whose work with the poor and marginalized of his time allowed him to experience the “privileged presence of grace.”  The poor became his masters and teachers; in his words, he turned the medal or coin over and saw the face of Jesus.

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