Sara Miles, an Episcopal priest and an extraordinary theologian of earthy spirituality, calls it “the most important word in the Bible”: with.
Seven or eight years ago I came across her short essay, entitled with those words, and it deeply impacted me. It echoed what I have learned after 111
mission/vision trips: the most significant thing we can do when we travel to encounter God’s work in another place is just to “show up” …to be with.
Coming back from Aalma Ech-Chaab after worshipping there yesterday, I have struggled for a way to frame our Sunday. Upon waking up this morning, it came to me from Mark’s sermon about his friend Barnabas, from Acts 4:32-36. Check it out along with many stories of Barnabas and Paul as Luke tells their stories in Acts. And there was my frame: Luke. When I did a brief foray into a master’s program on ministry, I loved my New Testament professor who had spent much time in Syria. When Dr. Brubaker was teaching us on Acts, he asked if we could be a character in those stories, which would we choose. I chose Luke himself, because he was the recorder/storyteller, so to speak. That has been my joyful task on this journey.
Read MoreIt came to me this morning after a good night’s sleep: how to tie together the morning and the afternoon of Friday, and I have come up with a new parable.
The kingdom of God is like inside kittens on the fresh grass...let those with ears hear.
We spent the latter half of the day up in the mountains at Hamlin Hospital, a care facility and rehab center that began life over 100 years ago as a hospital to treat patients with tuberculosis. It is run by Sana Koreh, who bears the legacy of the woman who founded this place, Dr. Mary Eddy, and the woman who trained Sana as a nurse during the Lebanese war (1975-1990), Mrs. Winnie Nucho. The parable is about all three of these women who have imbued Hamlin with a spirit that exudes from the walls.
Read MoreThe brand new door was ajar and awaiting our arrival (the old door had been blown away by the August 4 explosion in the port). We caught a glimpse of a picture of Jesus on the wall within and noticed a sign on the door. It announced that tailoring services could be found here, and soon we would meet that tailor/seamstress Jacqueline, who lived here with her special needs sister, Lodi.
We had come here with partners from the Synod who work for the Compassion Protestant Society, the Synod’s diaconal arm. I had met Joyce Sakr over Zoom but this was my first encounter with CPS’s new executive director, Fadi Riachi. Both combined caring and competence in equal measures, and as we walked the street where the nearby blast had crumbled building facades and left a “carpet” of glass inches thick upon which to drive, I was grateful that Outreach had joined with this ministry, within days of the explosion, to provide resources for more needy families to begin repairs in their humble homes.
Read MoreCompare Jesus’s words in the book of Mark, tenth chapter, fourteenth verse, and echoed in Matthew and Luke, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these,” to the words of a juvenile court judge in Beirut speaking of street children: “Why do you care? They come from the streets and they will return to the streets.”
We spent the morning at the Home of Hope Beirut, a ministry of the Lebanese Evangelical Society, which also oversees Blessed School, which we spoke of earlier in our trip. The words “home” and “hope” are linked together here in the most blessed way. Home of Hope is a one-of-a-kind ministry in the densely packed city of Beirut and its surrounding area. Abused children – sexually, physically, emotionally – who have been living on the streets, many trafficked, are placed by court order in their loving hands. There are currently nineteen here, ages 7-18.
Read More“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.'”—Revelation 21:5 (ESV)
Fresh. It is a word we hear on a daily basis on our travels around Lebanon and in our visits with TOF partners here. It modifies the word “money.” Fresh money. Coming from a printing family, I imagine they are speaking of freshly printed banknotes, the ones that come easily from the ATM when we insert our plastic cards and punch in our PINs.
But fresh money here is something different. It is the money that comes to you after the economic crisis began in Lebanon many months ago.
Read MoreWhen visiting a place where the language spoken is not your own, it is most helpful to learn key phrases such as, “hello” and “goodbye.” Perhaps more important than these, however, is to learn how to say, “thank you.”
As our Outreach team continued our visit with partners in ministry both old and new in Lebanon on our first such excursion since the outbreak of the pandemic, we learned a new way to say thank you. “Shnorh agaliem,” was the answer when we asked the Rev. Dr. Paul Hadostian, president of Haigazian University in Beirut, the school founded in 1955 to train pastors and teachers for the Armenian Evangelical Church. Literally, shnor alegiam means, “I have received grace,” he told us. Indeed.
Read MoreWhat sweet reunions on this Pentecost Sunday at the Presbyterian Church in Tripoli today! I really do feel like I have come home when I walk into this beloved church and thank God for the long friendship with their pastor, Rev Rola Sleiman. Our worship was wonderful amongst so many dear friends, and The Outreach Foundation’s board chair, Rev Jack Baca, brought the message (made even more eloquent by our colleague Rev Nuhad Tomeh doing the translation into Arabic!)
Read MoreThe question has been asked since the beginning of time. Theologians have been quick to write their responses. The Bible gives its “Emmanuel” answer. Still, the question announces itself seemingly not fully satisfied with our words or our thoughts.
Today the question was asked again of me as our team visited a refugee school operated by the Synod of Syria and Lebanon near the Syrian border, only two hours by car north of Beirut. Upon arriving at the school and hearing from its leadership that question announced itself loudly.
Read Moreby Julie Burgess for the team
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11
The person who thinks that when an immovable object meets an irresistible force that nothing happens has probably never met Linda Maktaby. She personifies the hopefulness and belief in that promise in Jeremiah.
Linda, a graduate of the Near East School of Theology in Beirut, is the executive director of Blessed School, a ministry established by the English in 1868 originally as a school for the blind. 153 years later, it still serves those with vision impairments, but its main focus is now on those with disabilities on the autism spectrum. As we sat with her on Friday, we encountered another fully-turned-on spigot freely flowing with the love of Jesus. If the firehose analogy can be used again here, encountering Linda will leave you drenched with that love.
Read Moreby Julie Burgess for the team: Marilyn Borst, Rev. Mark Mueller, Rev. Jack Baca, Rev. Nuhad Tomeh
We have all made our first travel outside the U.S. since the pandemic began here to Lebanon, a place familiar to us all. Traveling seems different, like everything else. We have learned a new language of COVID forms and PCR tests and even the mysterious CovidLebTrack app that baffled us all. What hasn’t changed is the length of the journey and the almost mandatory three flights, depending on where you began the journey. Needless to say, you arrive exhausted. I know I did.
Read Moreby Marilyn Borst, Associate Director for Partnership Development
“It’s about time…” is an expression that we use (often, with a hint of impatience, or, perhaps, standing with our arms crossed over our chest, tapping our toe and wearing a bit of a scowl) to express the arrival of a long-awaited person or event.
Ecclesiastes 3 begins with this divine reminder: To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven…
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