August 2006

Dear Friends in Christ:

Greetings from Beirut, in the name of the Prince of Peace, Jesus the Christ: to Him be all glory and honor and power.

As I write you this letter from my eighth floor apartment in west Beirut, I can hear—very loudly—the sounds of bombarding in the southern suburbs, less than five miles away. When this senseless war began, I was in Tucson, Arizona, after spending time in Louisville for the Regional Liaisons meeting. My family was glad that I was not in Beirut, and, in fact, I was happy for their sake, as I did not want them to be worried about me. When friends in Lebanon and in the U.S. found out that I was home in Arizona, they expressed relief that I was not in harm’s way in Beirut; but the truth is, I felt that I needed to be back in the region. As I watched the news from the comfort and security of Tucson—praying that the war would end so that no more lives would be lost—I grew increasingly unsettled, and on July 31, I started back to Beirut.

Although my return ticket was routed to Beirut, once in Paris, I was able to change my final destination to Damascus. Once there, I spent a day meeting with some church leaders and the local Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) office director in order to get to know the situation of the many Lebanese who were displaced in Syria. The government had opened the schools and universities and other public buildings for them and provided all the necessary needs such as food, medicine, water, and cleaning supplies. I was gratified to hear that the people of Syria had generously contributed both money and supplies to these centers and that the government had deducted one percent of the July salaries of all public and private workers for this relief effort—a remarkable show of humanitarian solidarity, in light of the tensions between Syria and Lebanon last year.

After resting a day in my village, which is located near the Lebanese-Syrian border, I called upon my nephew, Bishear, to help me get back to Beirut—no small undertaking, considering the conscious destruction of all the major routes connecting the two countries. Bishear is an intrepid driver, and despite the fact that we had just learned that yet another bridge on our return route—this one near Tripoli, the city through which we had to pass—had just been bombed by Israeli jets, he made his way to Beirut via an old seaside road which was still in tact. Colleagues in Beirut couldn’t believe that we had safely made our way from the north, confirming God’s providential care all along my journey.

A miracle happened today: all parities have agreed on a ceasefire as of Monday, August 14, starting at 7:00 p.m. Beirut time! Let us pray that it will last forever and that the peace for which we have being yearning (for almost 60 years!) finally will prevail.

Since I arrived here in Beirut, I have being coordinating the MECC relief program which, at this time, is aimed at providing food, water, medicine, and other relief items to the displaced people from the south of Lebanon and from the southern suburbs of Beirut. In cooperation with MECC partners, through ACT International, we are implementing a budget of over $4 million in Beirut, the mountain areas, and in the north of Lebanon which are flooded with refugees and displaced persons. Over 1,200,000 have left their homes—many of which have been damaged or destroyed—and have taken shelter in schools, universities, and public buildings. In fact, two of the Presbyterian schools in Sidon and Nabatieh are now housing 1,500 refugees.

A few days ago, I brought a World Council of Churches delegation to one of the schools in Beirut which has become a center for the displaced. We met ten-year-old Kassem. He told us that he and his family had left Bent Joubel just before the city was destroyed, but as they left, they saw many bodies in the streets. “Even now, I see this in my dreams and I hear the bombardment when I am awake in middle of the night,” he said. When I asked him, “what is your wish?” he replied, “that the war will stop and I could go back to my town, even though I do not know if my home and school are still there … and I want to see my friends again.” Abu Hassan, in his late 70s, wants to go back and try to save his crops and the fruit trees … hoping that they still exist. “But at least my family and I are saved,” he said, “and my hope is that the war will stop and those who made it will be punished. God will punish them.”

The future work of the church here will need to be even greater than its present relief efforts. If the war stops today, Lebanon will need 20 years to rebuild. But for now, I hope and pray that God will perform another miracle and by the time you are reading this letter a just peace between Lebanon and Israel will have come to be established for ever. Amen

Nuhad Tomeh

The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 168

P.S. I will be available for speaking to presbyteries and churches during my interpretation assignment in April and May of 2007.