Work Produced by Faith, Labor Prompted by Love, Endurance Inspired by Hope in our Lord Jesus Christ

A Letter from Elmarie Parker, mission co-worker serving in the Middle East

Fall 2024

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Dear friends,

 “We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”  1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

This text, this refrain, has grounded my thoughts, words and heart this summer and early fall as I have had the privilege of visiting PC(USA) presbyteries and congregations across the United States. Paul’s words have called me, again and again, to remember with gratitude the faith, love and endurance demonstrated through the profound lives and ministries of our many siblings in Christ and interfaith partners across the region where I have been privileged to live and serve these past 11-plus years. His words have also called me to remember with gratitude the faith, love and endurance demonstrated through the lives and ministries of the many PC(USA) congregations and presbyteries I have recently visited. Together, we are part of God’s family that stretches across time, circumstance and geography.

Linda’s team assembles sandwiches. Photo Credit Linda Macktaby

This text, this refrain, has also grounded my spirit and soul as I have borne witness, via daily and often hourly WhatsApp messages or emails, to the utter devastation that violence and the determination of human beings to extinguish one another has brought to the land and peoples I have come to call home and to deeply love. These messages carry the pain, horror and confusion my friends and our PC(USA) partners are living as bomb after bomb falls day and night—destroying lives, families, homes, businesses, hospitals, schools, monasteries, churches, mosques, ancient olive groves, pine forests and agricultural fields. Yet, even as munitions of various kinds literally tear human life apart and shatter any confidence in humanity, our partners press against the daily horrors they are living to insist, through their actions, that faith, love and endurance will yet survive.

Dr. Martin Accad, the newly installed president of the Near East School of Theology (NEST), wrote on October 4. “Let’s say that for now all our community is safe. But the nights are out of a horror movie … at least we still have a roof over our heads, which cannot be said for nearly 1.5 million people at this point! Our programs are moving online from Monday. We have reached out to 200 displaced people currently housed at the National Protestant College with some food packages and helped a young girl there with mental disability to obtain a wheelchair through Arc en Ciel. We are in conversation with contacts at neighboring universities to see how we can house some of their emergency staff who have otherwise to commute. We are seeing if we can put our facilities to good use with some NGO who is doing humanitarian relief work.”

On September 25, the message arriving from Rev. Joseph Kassab, General Secretary for the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon (NESSL), opened with Lamentations 1:2. “She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks.” He continued: “We are writing to you today with a heavy heart, but also with a renewed hope in the love of God and the power of humanity. Lebanon, once a beacon of hope in the Middle East, is now grappling with a devastating war that has left countless families displaced and in dire need of assistance…As Christians planted in this land for a purpose, we believe in the inherent dignity and worth of every human life. It is our moral and spiritual obligation to reach out to those suffering and offer them the support they desperately need…Today, the disaster in Lebanon is coming out of broken human nature which never learned the lesson that violence produces violence, and innocent people are the main victims sacrificed for power and control. Together, we can show the world that compassion and solidarity transcend borders and faiths.”

Rev. Linda Macktaby, the fifth Arab woman to be ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the region, has been sending me daily reports of the work she is doing as an individual, which includes helping local schools in her neighborhood convert their space into shelters for at least some of the many tens of thousands of internally displaced people and families who have flooded into Beirut. She and some of her family and friends are daily making more than 300 sandwiches or hot meals to distribute to those in the shelters or on the streets. The initial supplies for this came from their own kitchens and now they are receiving some cash via Western Union from friends in other countries allowing them to continue to buy food for this purpose.

Our partners are preparing interventions focused on immediate relief needs. Through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA), the PC(USA) is sending solidarity grants of $10,000 with more to follow depending on the scale of each initiative. These partners include so far: Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), NESSL, Adyan, Waznat, and Forum for Development, Culture, and Dialogue (FDCD). Their work ranges from immediately needed relief aid (food, shelter, clothing, water, hygiene supplies, etc.), to trauma-psycho-social support, to providing medicines in areas where the pharmacies and hospitals are no longer functioning, to providing cooking fuel, to looking ahead to re-cultivating social cohesion/reconciliation to address fractures in Lebanese society. The situation is extremely fluid, so this is their focus right now.

Lebanese American University has two mobile medical clinics to serve more isolated communities at a time when people cannot easily move around. You may read more about LAU’s response here: lau.edu.lb/emergency-lebanon.

To contribute to this emergency response work in Lebanon and beyond, please give to this PDA Account online:
pma.pcusa.org/donate/make-a-gift/gift-info/DR000007.

Or send a check to:
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
P.O. Box 643700
Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700
On the memo line, please write: DR000007—Lebanon Emergency Response

I also invite you to join me in praying for the region and for our siblings in Christ and interfaith partners … for grace enough for the day and all that this means. And for a durable ceasefire that will allow the deeper work of seeking a truly just peace across the region to continue.

Thank you for your many messages of concern (I am in the U.S. right now), your continuing prayers, your love shown through financial collaborations with our partners’ work, and for sharing in God’s steadfast work towards a new heavens and new earth where all will thrive under Christ’s reign of just peace.

Lord preserve us from our worst selves; Lord empower us to be towards one another the humans you created us to be.

Elmarie