Please Excuse Our Absence...

Marhaba! We apologize for the long silence…this past week has been quite busy during the conference which overall was quite successful despite the lack of participants from outside the country. Yes, there were other countries represented, but mostly because they were already working within the region and could easily come to Lebanon. Besides ourselves there were a handful of students from Gordon Conwell Seminary and an elderly couple from the States… Now seriously, if they could come of their own volition, what about others?

It was good to hear from an Eastern perspective on some of the larger, complicated questions of life and politics and theology. This is what we hope to take back with us. In the evenings we had a few dialogue sessions with Christian and Muslim representatives that were also quite interesting and fruitful. We are constantly impressed with the relationships that ABTS has been able to build. We won’t say much more about the conference, but just know that it was a full, full week and at the end we found ourselves quite exhausted, but pleasantly so.

Alethia was asked to help MC the finale banquet (she was so good everyone thought she worked in broadcasting :) ).

Some of Alethia's Lebanese friends. Martin affectionately calls them "the ABTS angels." (From left to right: Marcel, Alexi, Alethia, Gladys, and Rosette)

Some of Ryan's friends. (From left to right: Micah (Sudan), Daoud (Sudan/Syria), Ryan, Samir (Syria), Gentleman (Egypt), and Ayad (Egypt).)

Some more of Ryan's football friends (From left to right: Barhaf (Iraq: he has a wife and two small children who cannot go back to Baghdad this summer because of the US occupation), Ryan, Samir, Ashuraf (Jordan)).

As for our weekend activities, we spent a Saturday rock climbing with Martin and some friends up north, and this past weekend were out on another “excursion” to some other cities we would rather not name just now. But this country is beautiful and diverse which makes the current tensions all the more painful. It’s better to dream about what Lebanon might become—for the good.

Alethia pulling a pretty sweet stemming move half-way up the rock face.

Ryan on the wall with another friend.

The "Sea Castle" in the background with a minaret in the foreground.

Some ancient Roman ruins with a minaret in the background.

The grandstands and stables of the hippodrome (a chariot race track like the one in Ben-Hur). (From left to right: Ryan, Alethia, Alia, Martin, and Rich).

This coming week we are going to be studying Arabic again, only in Beirut this time around, which is helping us to get to know the city a bit. We spend our whole afternoon in class and the evenings in study, but during the morning and early afternoons we will be meeting up with some students from AUB (American University of Beirut) to chat about some of Alethia’s pressing questions regarding life, religion, and conflict—and hope? And next week we will be partnering with an important and impressive ministry here in the area (inshallah, if all goes well). We went to this office today actually for a visit and to get to know the site and the people there. We are quite impressed with all that this particular “office” is carrying out. Sorry for the vagueness, but we’ll fill you in upon our return. Because of the tensions here it’s often better not to say exactly where, what, who etc ☺ Just know we are under good and capable guidance.

So we are very much looking forward to these next two weeks and we shall see where we go from there. Also because of the current situation, we are basically making decisions about our time for just a two-week period and reassess constantly. So far, so good, we are very much enjoying our time even if getting back into Arabic is a bit of a challenge! For sure many of you are keeping an eye on the news here, but keep in mind that for all the horridness and unrest you may read about, there are plenty of warm and visionary people and projects going on parallel to this other darkness. We meet people who are discouraged, but we hope to do something to encourage those we meet during our time here. We are encouraged ourselves at some of the projects that offer hope in an otherwise (almost) broken land.

The sun setting into the Mediterranean Sea over Beirut.