Earlier this year, Mike Parker left his role as general secretary for the Evangelical Alliance in Scotland to become Middle East director for Middle East Christian Outreach. He and his wife Helen moved to Cyprus in June, the calm before the storm…
Week 1: Arrival. It has seemed like the long goodbye since we agreed to come to Larnaca, the best base for travel to the nations where Middle East Christian Outreach has teams and individuals. But now at last we’re here.
Weeks 2 and 3: Our organisation works as a partner in mission with Middle East churches. So I immediately leave for 10 days of travelling through Lebanon and Jordan, meeting our teams and visiting their churches. I’m very impressed by the vision and energy of our friends.
Term has just ended, but we tramp round endless schools and colleges, hearing of plans to expand them all. Can we help? Can we find teachers? Theological seminaries need Old Testament specialists: how do Arab churches handle scriptures about God’s people and Israel?
I was in Lebanon eight years ago on sabbatical, and since the civil war ended, they’ve done a fabulous reconstruction job. It seemed strangely fragile then; now it just feels like another frantic city.
While I’m away our boxes arrive in Cyprus. It helps that we are taking over a house and furniture from friends here. They left his and hers bikes, but while I’m travelling, Helen comes off hers – hospital, broken ankle bone, a back-slab for her. Most people here live in flats; now we wish we did, as she lumbers up 18 steps to bed.
Week 4: Many of our team members take summer opportunities to travel, visit and catch up with family and supporters, while their colleagues also take time out. So it all seems suddenly very quiet.
I continue to plough through the mission’s documents and procedures, and tentatively start to email or phone our members. I think it’ll be good if I can make contact with all of them by the end of July – or maybe August.
The military say it takes three weeks to adjust to a severe change in climate. But that’s for bright young things. After years in Scotland, we are melting melt in the Mediterranean heat. Helen’s plaster feels more like a noose as the humidity increases.
Week 5: Now we’re off to Egypt. We stay near the Anglican Cathedral in Cairo. "Better to pray than to sleep," cries the mosque at 5 each morning. Cairo is the real city that never sleeps.
Our people work in video production, run businesses, teach English and care for refugees. We hear of openings in all these areas - plus nurses, especially. Didn’t the BBC just report that Britain has more nurses than they can place now?
Egypt is young and energetic. Churches can do more or less what they wish inside their own buildings; outside everyone is watched and witness is not easy. But people are asking about Christian things. Questioning has sometimes been frowned on in this culture; the questions are coming now, and they need to be answered.
"Most of our colleagues are seperated from their family, but the strategy is to stay if they can"
Weeks 6 and 7: The crisis begins - soldiers killed and kidnapped, rockets fired, missiles launched, air attacks hit civilians in both Israel and Lebanon. Thankfully mobiles still work, so we can call our partners daily.
Most of our colleagues are immediately stranded, separated from family. But their strategy is to stay if they can. As the situation deteriorates, their commitment to remain moves their neighbours to tears; this indeed is "God with us". Everyone is aware of the daily wave of international prayer for them. But should they move? Where to? How?
I try to call Christian leaders. I hear moving stories of churches receiving the displaced, of schools full of refugees, of welcome and witness in the midst of the fear.
Evacuations soon take over the headlines. Our volunteer team in an orphanage near Beirut has to leave. As I write this, I’m preparing to go to meet them on arrival in Limassol.
What the next weeks and months bring is in God’s hands. All we can do is ask for prayer. Remember Lebanon and the other countries in the Middle East. Each needs to hear the Gospel of hope in Christ at this time. He alone can bring peace.
