An oasis in the desert

Uel Marrs reports from a recent trip to Syria and Lebanon where the church is striving to be an ‘oasis in the desert’ as it faces difficulties unimaginable to our Western minds.

While the Western media has largely moved on, Syria and Lebanon continue to experience significant challenges. In Syria, the major battles may have ceased, but it is still caught up in what is now a 12-year-old war. As for Lebanon, over the past four years it has experienced crisis upon crisis. The Covid pandemic, the port explosion, followed by political and economic collapse. What about their Christian communities – marginalised minorities whose very existence is at stake? In May of this year, Dr John Kirkpatrick (PCI Moderator at the time) and I visited Beirut in Lebanon to find out more. We had the privilege of participating in a three-day international partners conference with brothers and sisters in Christ from the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon (NESSL).

Refugees

Church leaders, ministers and experts in Middle East affairs highlighted circumstances currently being faced in Syria and Lebanon. Concerning refugees, Syrians continue to leave their country and some 1.2 million of them are now in Lebanon, on top of the existing population of 4 million. Proportionately, that’s rather like the population of Mexico moving to the USA! While Syrian refugees have been receiving a basic level of assistance, the same provision is not in place for the struggling Lebanese. This has been fuelling anger and prejudice, threatening the delicate equilibrium between ethnic groups.

Economic collapse

Then there is economic collapse. Whether we are speaking of the Syrian or Lebanese currency, both have lost 98–99% of their purchasing power. What would have bought a house a few years ago will now buy only a pair of shoes! The average monthly salary is about US$10–12 a month. Health care systems have deteriorated and medication has become unaffordable. The only people appearing to prosper are smugglers, drug dealers and those politicians living off the money siphoned out of the country. Growing numbers are unemployed and living under the poverty line, dealing with shortages of fuel, water and electricity. Increasing numbers of people are depressed and despairing, and crime and prostitution are on the rise. In Syria, the infrastructure has collapsed, the country is fragmented, its future unstable. In Lebanon, the social fabric, internal security, the very nationhood of the country is now under threat. It’s on the brink of becoming a ‘failed state’.

NESSL… holds on to a vision of being an oasis in the desert… fighting hostility with love, praying for its enemies…

Migration

Not surprisingly, there is a rise in migration. In addition to the ongoing flow of refugees from Syria, more recently Lebanon has seen an estimated 10–12% of the population leaving. About 40% of doctors and nurses have left the country. Conflict and economic collapse are not the only drivers in the region; climate extremes are also contributing to migration northwards due to more frequent droughts and water shortages. When it comes to education, in Lebanon some 90% of graduates are leaving and few young people remaining are able to afford to go to school or university. In Syria, the Christian population is estimated to have fallen significantly below the pre-war figure of 10%, while in Lebanon it has more recently declined from 33% to 24%, with few likely to return. This places a question over the very existence of Christian communities in these two countries in the future.

Opportunities

Nonetheless, despite all the challenges, the church is eager to see things from God’s perspective, knowing that there are also opportunities. Perhaps ongoing crises will somehow prove to be the electric shock needed to shake off indifference, a Kairos moment for revitalising faith and practice, leading to creativity and achievement such that a small, marginalised, church might yet be transformed into a mighty sign of hope. There is a remnant, crying out to God: “Will you not revise us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” (Psalm 85:6).

While NESSL has only about 12,000 members, it is the only denomination whose 40 or so congregations are spread strategically throughout Lebanon and Syria. It holds on to a vision of being an oasis in the desert, of being faithful, of ‘irrigating’ the land with justice and peace, fighting hostility with love, praying for its enemies, believing that ultimately sweetness will come forth from bitterness. Of course, that means digging channels under the hot sun. To this end, NESSL continues to put on the gospel-providing programmes for children, young people, women, and to train leaders to the highest standards at the Near East School of Theology. Migration may have led to significantly fewer church members, but many congregations are finding more people attending than ever before, including inquirers from all kinds of religious and ethnic backgrounds.

The international partners reflected together on how they too readily move on to responding to the next global crisis while losing sight of NESSL’s ongoing programmes. Rev Ibrahim Nassir, minister of the Presbyterian Church in Aleppo, whose congregation was deeply impacted by the devastating earthquake that hit North West Syria in February of this year, pointed out that they now have enough funds for their work supporting earthquake victims, but face deficits in so many areas of the synod’s ongoing work.

Take, for example, the six schools run by the synod, first established by missionaries even before churches were planted. The conference learned how these nation-building schools help to shrink cultural gaps and increase common spaces in which young people from all backgrounds facing so much instability, uncertainty and social pressure are able to tackle issues.

What would have bought a house a few years ago will now buy only a pair of shoes!

Then there is NESSL’s relief programme, running since shortly after the outbreak of the war in Syria, regularly providing basic support for 1,200 Christian families at times close to starvation. While a relief programme still running after 12 years was not what was envisaged, it means survival for families who are able to earn so little.

Three years ago, in order to reach out more widely, NESSL set up a faith-based NGO, the Compassion Protestant Society. It seeks to engage in humanitarian and development initiatives with the motto ‘Faithful to the Call, Compassion to All’. It was fully engaged during the Covid pandemic and is currently prioritising the running of four Syrian children’s education centres in Lebanon given that there are 600,000 school-age children from Syria stretching the public-school system far beyond its limits.

The fulfilment of NESSL’s vision through life-giving programmes will not succeed without its church leaders and pastors, many of whom are in danger of burnout. It is so disheartening for a pastor, after painstakingly training a congregational leader, to see that person leave the country. One minister expressed the fear that he was so occupied with people’s daily needs that he was missing Kairos moments of opportunity, and had no time to develop any kind of strategic plan for ministry and mission. Conference participants were urged to pray for resilient, faithful, visionary leaders, who would model holiness, integrity, humility and selfless service.

NESSL is very thankful for its international partners, recognising that each brings their own flavour and value. While financial support is deeply appreciated, more fundamentally it’s about friendship, long-standing relationships, pastors meeting pastors, congregational twinning, partnership that reaches the pews! On one level, it does seem that the Christian community in Syria and Lebanon is on a life-support system, and very much in need of the ‘oxygen’ of partner support. On another level, international partners recognised they had so many lessons to learn from their faithful, resilient brothers and sisters, especially that hard times can turn out to be hopeful, fruitful opportunities in which the Lord achieves what might otherwise prove impossible. As one international participant reflected, we have to keep showing up, spending time around the table together, and “to be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith” (Romans 1:12).

Rev Uel Marrs is PCI’s Global Mission Secretary.