First of Many Trips to the South

Yesterday I had my first trip to the New Horizons Center with the Kids Alive Lebanon Director Joseph Ghattas.  We met together with the teachers, discussed the year ahead, and began putting things in place as we plan to welcome children back on October 8^th.  It’s an exciting ministry to be a part of; the impact it is making is very real and there are many opportunities for growth.  I look forward to giving it my attention and energies.  It’s a great opportunity to do ministry and pray that I can be a productive member of the team assembled there.  No doubt you’ll be hearing a lot in the coming year(s) about the center, the children, and the different services being offered.  

A view from the roof of the New Horizons Center.  It's just south of  the coastal city of Saida (A Bible town, look for it in the gospels!).

One of the classrooms

This orchard of lemons trees will be transformed into a playground for the children in the coming weeks (the trees will stay!).  I'll post an after-picture at some later date.

A Pinch when Comfortable

We had a very comfortable summer.  During the course of two months we spent quiet times in the country, on the ranch, and at the lake cabin.  There were visits to the big city, fair, museum, gallery and stadium.  We stayed with family and friends, enjoyed recreation, shopping and dining.  It wasn't excessive, and I wouldn't call it overly indulgent.  But it was comfortable, fun, and enjoyable. 

None of that is wrong, but it is risky.  It’s risky because over the course of weeks I was startled by how easy it was for me to forget the situation facing masses in the Middle East.  War is impacting hundreds of millions in Lebanon, and included in the suffering are people that I love and care about greatly.  Yet in the ease of comfort I found myself easily detached from the pain of others.  Maybe you could say the season of rest was necessary or that a break from the stress and struggles was deserved.  I don’t know. 

I read this article back in August and it woke me up a bit, like a pinch of reality.  It still is a timely read.  I’m not physically far away from the troubles now, but that doesn't necessarily make me closer.  The challenge is to continue to engage in the pain, take a step out of comfort, and try to be part of a solution.  

http://imeslebanon.wordpress.com/2013/08/08/is-there-a-limit-to-hospitality/

Opportunity Call

For a long time I communicated my energies in the Middle East in problem-centric way.  I’d articulate my efforts with problem terms like ‘poverty,’ ‘injustices,’ or ‘darkness.’  It wasn't the whole story, but it was a big part of the story I was thinking about and I wanted to do something about.  So I saw myself as responding to problems, and I’d articulate it with words like ‘addressing,’ ‘restoring,’ ‘transforming,’ and ‘healing.’  None of this is wrong.  Language is limited and the words we use rarely are sufficient for capturing who we are and what we do.  Even so, language does have value and it can reveal the kind of approach we take.

Lately I’ve been challenged to be careful about how I focus on problems.  We should never fully dismiss problems, for we live in a fallen world and part of living is dealing with problems.  However, we can choose to emphasize the opportunities.  Just as problems are part of the story (one could say especially so in the Middle East these days) so are opportunities.  This is more than just self-help or warm fuzzy feelings.  This is about acknowledging that God is God and hope is hope.

In the process of trying to foster a sustainable, hope-driven attitude about what I do I’ve come to celebrate the opportunities that God is opening all around.  We can say children come to Dar El Awlad because of problems, or we can say children come to Dar El Awlad because of opportunities.  Ultimately both are correct and we say both, but I’ve found that when I emphasize the latter I’m compelled to believe in a hope that there is something bigger going on.  There is something that I may only see in glimpses, but something wonderful indeed.  

So I do not want to answer the call of a problem (because frankly, I don’t like problems) but rather answer a call to an opportunity.  With God in heaven and the work of the Cross in the bank, there is always, absolutely ALWAYS, an opportunity for hope.