Trips Blog

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 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.

by Julie Burgess, for the team

...but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.  Isaiah 40:31

How did it get to be Friday already? Now nearing the end of the women’s conference, the hour for good-byes is not far away. What this means is that the rate of picture taking increases among us so we can capture that one last special moment of hugs and smiles before we part in tears. If our cameras measured the photos in hundreds per day, we will probably be in the thousands by later this evening!

How special it is when sisters in Christ gather to share their faith, their hope, and their love.

by Evangeline Paschal, for the team

“We don’t call it a crisis, because a crisis usually lasts just a short time.”

A woman from Mhardeh is sharing with us her story of how hope has figured in her life. Standing before all of us during our morning worship period, she explains that life has presented her with many hardships since she married a few years ago. First, her new husband suffered serious health problems. And now she lives in an area of Syria, north of Hama, that has seen heavy fighting. Her house has been hit twice during the fighting, and just last week there was an explosion that destroyed 65 houses in her town. Her family is afraid to leave, though, because they worry that if they do their home will be confiscated, and they will have nothing to return to. For this sister, just attending this conference is an expression of hope.

by Sheryl Wood, for the team

Hello, here is Sheryl again to fill you in on what is happening under the skies of Lebanon. I must admit that I was flat on my back for about two days. I only share that with you not for sympathy but to continue to show you why you must make the trip with me. You may say I simply can’t go. What if I get sick? I am here to tell you prayer upon prayer goes up for you as very patiently all human needs are cared for and you get well, just as if you were at home. I was delighted to open one eye to check on my condition and find I was back in the ball game and up to bat for a home run.

Before I began to actually engage with the beautiful multitude of faces that awaited our little team, we walked across the courtyard and sat on the steps of the Cedar House and had our devotion together. Marilyn suggested that we begin by praying with our eyes open. It was not my first time praying with my eyes open, but I cannot recommend it highly enough. God spoke through our eyes as we prayed.

by Julie Burgess, for the team

Marilyn gathered our little team at the front of the conference center for the morning worship portion of the daily schedule. Sweet Elias Jabbour, now assigned as pastor to the congregation in Yazdieh, Syria, and his beautiful wife Petra, lead worship each morning so beautifully in word and song. Marilyn was doing a reflection for the group on hope, which is this year’s theme. You read about it yesterday. The theme verse is Psalm 71:5, but she took us two verses farther into the text.

“I have become a sign to many...”

As Christians, followers of Jesus, we do have this hope. It is not the wish kind of hope: I hope I get a close parking space. I hope I get into the university I want. I hope the cancer goes away. No, this hope is not about circumstance, but the assurance that a gracious God has already written the end of our story and accompanies us along the journey.

by Julie Burgess, for the team

It is the Sabbath, the Lord’s day, and one of the joys of traveling to be with the church in the world is the gathering with brothers and sisters to celebrate and worship together. Language barriers don’t have to be a problem: hymn tunes are recognizable and if we don’t know the Arabic, we can sing the English snippets we know or create whole new hymns. We can confess in any language. And we stretch out our hands to receive the benediction. We were made to worship and to glorify our Lord, and that is what we set out to do on this Sabbath day.

by Sheryl Wood, for the team

Upon hitting the morning air with Evangeline and Marilyn at 6:30, we set out on our morning constitutional upon the campus of the American University of Beirut. It was a typical walk except for the fact we were walking down the serpentine hill where the Mediterranean Sea lapped along the shores. There was an occasional gaggle of cats tussling along our path, but other than that the campus was still. The students were out for their most needed breaks. The quiet walk was broken as Marilyn read the plaque on the walls of the 1866 building. It read,” I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.”

I knew what lay ahead in my day. I was going to a church that housed a school for the children of refugees from Syria.

by Julie Burgess, for the team

The simplest definition for the word commencement is the start of something new, which seems counter-intuitive as I tend to think of commencement as the end of something. We graduate from high school or college (or even kindergarten nowadays) and we celebrate commencement. We’re done! School is over! No more teachers, no more books... you know how the old rhyme goes. But of course commencement is not about the end of something, but the beginning of the new thing: first grade, college, life.

Today, our first full day traveling with The Outreach Foundation, we found ourselves climbing up 105 steps to visit one of the six schools for Syrian refugee students run by the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon (NESSL).