Syria #2: The Life of the Church
The Life of the Church
For the team, Julie Burgess
West Hills Church, Omaha, NE
They stand just outside the door of the Presbyterian Church of Latakia: six headstones, marked with the names of missionaries who first came to this part of Syria in 1856, from the Reformed Presbyterian Church and the Free Scottish Church. Marilyn gave us a resource about them to read on this journey if we desired a bit more information, so I took her up on it. Family names like Balph, Metheny, Wiley, and Dodds, are on these stones, and although they themselves are not resting underneath the stones, it is a reminder of the deep and rich history of the life of this church.
What a pleasure to spend the day with Pastor Salam Hanna who leads this congregation, the largest in the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon, and his young counterpart, associate pastor Kerallah Atallah, elders, ministry leaders, and much of the young parts of its flock.
If you’re keeping a spreadsheet or a roll (I am not), you would note these facts.
There are 750-1000 enrolled members, with a Sunday attendance of about 150.
Those numbers might seem not out of the ordinary, but they hardly tell the story of what we saw today, Saturday, before Sunday worship when that number of 150 would gather on what is a regular workday in Syria, the weekend being Friday and Saturday.
Today, we spent time with approximately 180 children (aged kindergarten to third grade), 100 teens (aged 12-15), and 60 or so youth (aged 16-18), many of whom had just transitioned to this group after graduating from the next lower grade level.
We sang JOY with the young ones (J is for Jesus, O is for others, and YYYYYY is for you, you, you, you, you, you) complete with hand signals. We listened as one young girl enumerated the fruits of the spirit. We visited them in classrooms as they studied the parable of the talents, and one fifth-grader named Christine explained the whole passage to us, receiving a nice reward from Marilyn.
As the younger kids changed places with the older kids, we walked by the kitchen and had a great reunion with two of our dear friends from our many years attending the annual women’s conference in Lebanon. Yes, here were Mona and Arletta in the kitchen making the snacks for these children.
Later in the day, we popped in for the meeting of the teens, just as they were finishing worship led by the Latakia Church choir, another fine group of young people. Grace, a medical student, and leader of this group spent time doing a great explanation in English of all the facets of this ministry, and the kids engaged us with questions.
Meeting an hour or so later with the youth, we had a chance to have them explain how proud they were to be the first-place winners in their age group in a Bible challenge that all of the local churches engage in each year. They are prepped for this by an excellent teacher, Kerallah, who has been with this congregation for eighteen months, his third stop since graduating from the seminary about three years ago. Did I mention that this young man felt a call to seminary after graduating from medical school?
We had a chance to ask them questions, and after hearing about their experience at a 36-hour overnight when no one slept, I asked them about their time around a campfire. On a night when they were all joined together around a campfire, with no barriers and only the light of the fire, they felt free to share their dreams and their fears with each other. I asked them to picture that night and remember the only light, the light from the fire. Surely, their faith in the one who shines that light into their lives in dark and lonely times is the same Jesus they sing about and read about.
Walking out the door at the end of the day, I once again walked by those headstones. I couldn’t help but think that the life in this church, which was birthed some 170+ years ago and continues to this day, was bringing smiles to the saints. The talents given in trust to those Balphs and Matheneys and Doddses, had born more than a two-fold increase, as the names have been changed to Awad, Hanna, Naaman, and so many others.
“To everyone who has, more will be given. “ Luke 19:26a
