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December 2001
Advent Greetings from Beirut!
It is the second Sunday in Advent here in Beirut as I write here
to you from my small apartment. It is been a long day, which I
began by preaching in one of our local Presbyterian churches and
continued at a memorial service for one of our great high school
principals, Ms. Wadad Jeha, who served the Presbyterian Synod
of Syria and Lebanon for almost 40 years. The service was very
touching, and served as a witness to the love and appreciation
so many people had for her and her ministry.
Wadad was deeply committed to education. She served on a PC(USA)
global education committee that focused on improving education
in Third World countries such as India, Iran, and Africa. Deeply
committed to international leadership development, she advocated
for nationals to take leading position in the foreign educational
institutions of the PC(USA). (She herself was a graduate of the
first college for women in the Middle East, which was founded
by the Presbyterian Church in 1924 here in Beirut.) She left behind
a 40-year legacy of preparing the way for thousands of girls and
boys to be future leaders in the Middle East.
In a divine coincidence, “preparing the way” had also
been the subject of my sermon that same morning. John the Baptist
had been so humble and dedicated to his task of calling people
to repent and be ready to receive the Lord. Always in this season
of Advent, we are called to wait for the coming of Christ. But
as we wait, are we using the time to prepare ourselves and those
around us? Are we waiting passively or and actively? During these
confusing days of war and violence and terrorism, are we sitting
quietly and hoarding the good news of that “peace which passes
all understanding,” or actively dispensing the message of
hope so desperately needed in our world?
Now, as the late afternoon winter sun begins to set over the
Mediterranean, my apartment grows colder as the chilly air sneaks
in under the old windows and doors, which no longer shut properly.
This turns my thoughts to my recent trip to Iran and the Afghan
refugees whom I visited across the eastern border (accompanied
by my colleague, Melik, the Middle East Council of Churches’
liaison officer in Teheran). The “lucky ones”¾some
10,000 (mostly children and elderly men and women) in two different
camps¾have a small kerosene heater, which they use for
cooking and warming the tent. But there are hundreds of thousands
more, displaced and homeless, without even a tent to stay in as
the bitter winter sets in.
The faces of the children I met there are still vivid in my head.
Khoja, a 9-year-old boy, when asked if he were happy there in
the camp, said that he wished he were back in his village (in
Taliban-controlled territory) but at least here there was no gun
shooting and no war plans and fighting. Samia, a little 7-year-old
girl said, “Our village was very nice and we lived peacefully
until the war started and the village was bombed and we lost every
thing—so we had to come to this place to be safe.” I
know that children like to be photographed, but when I said, “Smile!”
they did not know how. In fact, I don’t remember having seen
one smile among the thousands of the people I saw in the two camps.
I am proud of the fact that PC(USA)’s disaster assistance
program (Presbyterian Disaster Assistance), which was one of the
first to respond to the needs of these Afghan refugees. By working
through ACT International and the Middle East Council of Churches,
blankets and tents quickly reached the refugees on the Iranian
border. “As you have done [good] to the least of these my
brethren, you have done it to me,” Christ reminds us. In
this season of Advent, as we wait—in hope—in
this broken world, can we also give hope to our broken
world? We can and we must, for in so doing we prepare
the way for our Incarnated Lord.
Grace and peace,
The Rev. Dr. Nuhad Tomeh
The 2001 Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 137
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