I am sitting in my family room after a very good sleep in our own bed but memory of the journey is still very fresh. It began with an on time taxi picking us up at 1 am at ABTS which relieved my untrusting self a lot (!!). We were initially quite confused because there was no obvious place to get our boarding passes so we could get through security. Turns out the check in desks are behind the first security screening. Our flight to Frankfurt was wonderful. Nice breakfast with real silverware (I like Luftanza!) on a half full airplane. We established our place at B28 for the seven hour layover. I did see a job I think I’d like to have. It had nearby power outlets but there was no way to get a PIN for our free 30 minute wifi access since our phones don’t work in Europe. I very much enjoyed reading about half of the draft of Mark Driscoll’s new book on Ephesians. Of course I have a few suggestions!

I now have a good definition for true love: it is choosing to take a seat in the very middle of an A340 behind a lady who preferred her seat leaned all the way back for a 10 hour flight so Sherry can have an aisle. Fortunately my iPod Shuffle playing Strongholds music (FB here and Youtube here) is quite small. Every inch was precious!

The fellow next to me was from Addis Ababa. He is from a remote village and had surgery to straighten his spine and was now coming to visit the sponsors of that surgery and speak at a fund raising banquet to support the ministry. He was quite short because of the malady which made his normal length arms not fit in the seat. Actually they didn’t fit in my ribs either though they spent a lot of time there. You can read his fascinating story here.

Let me finish with the story of one of our new ABTS friends. Mina and Christine are from Egypt. They both became Jesus followers as adults, which radically changed their lives. They decided to come to ABTS to study, bringing their daughter Joyce. They joined Faith Baptist Church, where they have been mentored by ABTS graduates, Pastor Rudolphe and Rana Hayak. Now they have heard God’s call to go to Morocco to plant churches, something no Westerner could ever do. It was a great privilege to have tea with them join them in their tiny ABTS apartment and to pray God’s blessing on them. During their final year of studies, they will be preparing for this very challenging missionary ministry to a completely non-Christian region supported and sent by a missions minded Lebanese church. That is part of why I so enjoy investing in the strategic ministry of Arab Baptist Theological Seminary.

Let’s see: Long good day. 4 hours of not so good sleep. Heading off at 1 am to catch our flight that will be 25 sleepless hours from gate to gate. Does that qualify as insanity?

We went downtown with Daniel and Sarah Chetti to see the center of this religiously complex beautiful city. The historic Anglican church they area a part of is more than a century old. It is in the middle of the some of the most expensive real estate in the world, right next to the incredibly expensive new condo tower built by the Saudi princess, the Four Seasons Hotel within sight of the marina full of super fancy yachts. They faithfully speak and live the gospel to the people who live in that area. Sarah is involved in one of its central ministries is in the women’s prisons where maids who are imported, shamefully used and abused, and then cast aside without papers or status end up under ground in the prison under the freeway. They do Bible studies and use their influence to shorten their torturous time.

Look closely at this picture on the right with the beautiful blue mosque in the backdrop and see if you can find the deep irony. That mosque was built by the super wealthy businessman/prime minister who was murdered in a bomb blast that has become an international incident. The world court has been conducting the trial for years but because of political sensitivities, it cannot pronounce judgment. I found it fascinating that it is built on top of Roman ruins which you can see below the beautiful building.

We had prayer with the woman who fled persecution to Lebanon. She will go to Security Monday to see if her visa will be renewed. If not she will be taken to the airport. On Thursday when her case was postponed, they kept all her papers. She talked about how scary it was to walk around Beirut without papers. That’s how you end up in the women’s prison. We pray her visa will be extended and she will be able to get into ABTS for studies in the fall.

The stories of imprisoned foreigners without papers became more real Friday night. We were returning from dinner with Elie and Mirielle when traffic unexpectedly stopped to the slowest creep. Elie observed that there was probably a police check point ahead and casually said, “Of course you have your passports.” They were securely in our room at ABTS. I had forgotten my wallet so I had no identification at all. I wondered what prison might look like!

I just couldn’t help but laugh at this building. Makes me want to go to Stumptown! 

Last day of class is a sad time. I have just gotten to know the students and now it’s over. Fittingly for a spiritual warfare class, we ended in a prayer circle. The last notes on the board were of the work that God has done in all believers. Most of the students had extensive experience in dealing with evil spirits but their foundation was more experience than Bible, so the instruction was very encouraging and in some cases, a major change of direction as they evaluated the practices they had seen from a biblical basis. That’s exactly what I want.

I began the day with speaking in chapel from Philippians 2:6-7. I asked of what the Second Person of the Trinity emptied Himself. I suggested that the “form of God” means His divine nature, but noted that He could not have been Emanuel then. Then I looked at “form of a servant/slave” and suggested that meant role or way of life. That rang true, so we worked through the idea that He emptied Himself of His divine way of life and equal status with God to take on the way of life of a perfectly Spirit filled human. If that’s true, then we can really be like Him. It turned out to be a very good word.

Unfortunately, teaching entails paper grading. Ugh. Walid read the Arabic papers to me and I dictated comments for him to translate and type into their papers. It is a very long process! I was glad to see that the students did quite well in their papers. But still Walid’s smile was large when we were done. Mine too!

I did have a very interesting visitor who wanted to find out about more about spiritual warfare. 

Just after I came back to the room the telephone rang. It was Walid. There is one more paper to do. Tomorrow!

Our evening was spend with Elie and Marielle Haddad. He’s the president and they are great couple. The Lebanese feast down town was followed by a continuation of last night’s theological discussion with Marvin at their home. It went late enough that everyone else was falling asleep but us.

The days are getting fuller as the week winds on. Chapel, class, lunch (which is a social event), teaching the staff a 90 minute module of spiritual warfare followed by another 90 minutes very personal interactions. We had a bit of a break to do Portland work via email then supper with Rosette and Sarah, two of our longest time ABTS friends. They are the ones closest in the picture. Ironically we went to a Mexican restaurant. Other than ABTS cafeteria meals we have had only one Lebanese meal. Somehow we end up with lasagna or Starbucks – though the Starbuck’s here are a little different than in the USA.

Shock!! Rosette introduced her nephew’s wife as we got in the car, noting that she was from Ukraine. Immediately, I asked, “from where?” “Odessa,” she replied. I told her I’d taught at Odessa Theological Seminary many times. As Rosette’s car moved into the illumination of the street light, I recognized Maria. She wasn’t in my classes since she was in a different program, but we’d talked briefly several times. What a small world that I’d come from the USA and meet a student from the Ukraine in Beirut. To build on the irony, her husband is on a business trip to the Ukraine and her work made it impossible for her to join him.

I ended up sitting across from Marvin, Rosette’s son, and Jade, his best friend. They are both avid, well read theology students so we got into it quickly. Maria, sitting next to Marvin, went back and forth from conversation with the women and theology, ending up with theology. After supper we went to Rosette’s house for tea and sweets and they got me into a conversation on what the Bible actually commands for husbands and wives. The idea that submit (following Jesus in the Garden) means give your feelings, desires and trust was almost as revolutionary as the point that husbands are never commanded to be the head but to love by giving themselves for their wives and to love by nurturing and cherishing their wives. I think we could have gone all night.

Class days are good days! Teaching spiritual warfare with Dr. Martin’s 7 week old is wonderful. We are working through the biblical material with excursions onto side trials. But 12 class hours – excluding breaks and lates – limits severely the trails we can go down.

Mornings include breakfast where the choices are varied but quite different than the breakfast buffet in America as you can see. Sherry asked Ellie to identify the cheeses but it was not helpful. There are no western names for them. You just grab some pita, some cheese, yoghurt, Middle Eastern style olives (which I love), a cup of tea and enjoy!

Afternoon included an hour and a half with Alia who explained all the dimensions of the Lebanon Society for Educational & Social Development (LSESD), led by Nabil Costa, a most effective leader. ABTS is one of six arms and it was wonderful to hear stories of students, many of whom I got to know, doing church and evangelistic ministry all over the Arabic world. Ironically, the 2006 war was a stimulus to several of the ministries. 

One story that touched deeply comes from the Institute for Middle Eastern Studies, which focuses on Christian Muslim dialogue. When the Israeli bombs began to fall on south Beirut, a heavily Hezbollah area, one of the leaders here telephoned the Shi’a sheik there with whom he’d had dialogue and asked how he could help. That resulted in many homeless families living in facilities owned by LSESD. Later that highly influential sheik spoke publically of a Christianity he’d never experienced before. That’s what happens when genuine Christian concern for friendship and understanding reaches out to a friend in need and offers service in the name of Jesus.

We spent a wonderful evening with Wes and Katy, Brittany and Kyle. They are ministering here with International Mission Board, working with Rudolphe and Rana at Faith Baptist, where we worshipped on Sunday. What a great family. The common commitment to serving Jesus  in culturally diverse places makes for instant friendship. That was made even easier by their wonderful friendliness and hospitality.

It is time for me to join the rush for breakfast so I will have strength for three hours of class, two hours teaching the faculty and staff and then dinner with Rosette and her family.