Lebanon #3: Getting to Know You
Getting to Know You
Christi Ensch, for the team
Historic Franklin Presbyterian Church, Franklin, TN
It was a beautiful morning, cooler and crisper than we had experienced lately, perfect for an early walk outside the gates of the conference center. As Mona, Susan and I walked we were captivated by the sights, the colorful flowers, fruit trees, grapevines, the red tile roofs on the limestone buildings and the houses built so cleverly on the side of the hill. I see God often in nature, and relish that I have friends that feel that way too.
One of the members of our group was not feeling well this morning and I saw God in the way two people prayed outside her door, and another collected some things that might make her feel better, or at least bring a smile to her face.
As we awaited the arrival of the women from Syria and Lebanon in the early afternoon, I had a chance to talk more with members of our group. One had been to the conference before and was very knowledgeable about the churches and some of the people we would be meeting. I learned about some of the trials and faithfulness of the churches in these countries. I also had a chance to hear the faith story of another member of our group and see how God has worked in her life and continues to do so.
By late morning, the women started arriving and we started hearing the stories of the difficulties they had encountered on their journeys: power outages at the border halting border crossings, visas that had not come through, car trouble. It took those of us from Tennessee 20 hours to get to Lebanon, yet it took one group from Syria 23 hours and another 20, all traveling by car. The dedication and willingness to overcome these difficulties was incredibly inspiring. I had been given a map of Syria and Lebanon with the cities the women were coming from and the location of the churches. As someone who is not always at ease meeting new people, I used the map to ask the women where they were from and to write their names by their hometowns. This generated some great conversations, and laughter when the first wrote her name in Arabic!
The conference opened with joyous singing, and we were even able to participate in singing in Arabic, as well as clapping along with the group. There was a very warm welcome by Rev. Najla Kassab, who introduced the theme of hope. Rev. Riad Kassis was the speaker for worship, and he talked about hope in the midst of despair, that we have no choice but to be people of hope as Christians, and that hope will be steadfast and unfading. Hope will not be cut: we hold one side of the rope while Christ holds the other and it will not be severed. God’s peace beyond our imagination fills our lives.
As someone new to the Middle East and a conference of this type, I’m filled with the similarities that a common faith brings, and a hope that the relationships we develop here can one day be felt by the whole world.
