Lebanon Travelogue 1
DAYS 1-3: Well..cat’s out of the bag. We did indeed leave on a jet plane…to a land far, far away. Let me make a very long story, moderately less long. (I stopped saying “long story, short” a while back because there’s never been a universe where Eva has told a “short story”…or even just one story at a time, for that matter.) We have been long-time supporters of a seminary in Beirut, Lebanon, known to most as ABTS. Arab Baptist Theological Seminary is the only seminary in the Middle East that can train muslim-background believers. Students can be on campus or get their degree online, but they then go back to their own people to plant churches and share the good news of Jesus in their own culture. Chris has long been a big proponent of training national pastors so he’s got a big heart for the places like ABTS. As a matter of fact, we’ve been supporting this ministry for a couple decades, both at our previous church in Indiana and now Iowa…and have sent many, many short term teams over here to do whatever is most helpful. (labor, medical, etc.) Bryce was even over here once…he and one of our pastors were the only non-medical personnel on the medical trip…but Bryce was quickly recruited to take vitals and assess medical needs! Oh my. Talk about on-the-job training!! We’ve also enjoyed having some of our dear Lebanese partners visit us in the States over the past couple decades too!
Suffice it to say, we love ABTS and the people here. Fast-forward to earlier this year (that’s the shortest long story in the history of Eva, btw) when Chris received an invitation to celebrate the 25th anniversary of LSESD, the Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development (the umbrella organization for ABTS and 5 other ministries that also do amazing work…who will now be known as Thimar…”fruits” in Arabic), we decided it would be great for us to do this together!
At 7:30am on Tuesday morning, we said our goodbyes to the church group that stayed with at the “colorful” bnb (including giving Peyton a few extra hugs to pass along to our Iowa fam). Given what we now know about that trip to Lebanon, it may have been better to send an email with overflowing affection and grabbed an extra couple hours of sleep! But you don’t know what you don’t know. I will say this…I can stay up late…let’s go with “very late.” This is part of my DNA. The old Eva…wait, I am the old Eva…should’ve said the “previous” Eva…could’ve even thrown down the occasional all-nighter, without batting an eye. But 32 hours is pushing it even for the likes of me. There was the drive to Chicago from Indy…where we made it by the skin of our teeth with only 3 hours to spare. :/ WHEW! Just defriend me now if you think that was cutting it close. No, for real. We can’t be friends. I can stay friends with the one I married, but the rest of you nut-jobs gotta go. Regardless, we were able to enjoy a leisurely lunch at Chili’s so that’s the upside of the arrival time. Our flight to Frankfort, Germany was 8 hours and 40 minutes. Normally, I’m solid on super long flights…give me all the movies, tv, and books…golden. BUT no…spoke too soon…all the screens in the land were down, then not down, then down…you get the idea. I spent more than 2 hours (all together) just restarting it and starting over. I’ll take “What would make Eva go completely bonkers?” for 1000, Alex. Ironically, as I’m typing this a few days late, I kept asking Chris what catastrophes happened on our flights to Lebanon…because I remember feeling traumatized! He couldn’t think of anything, but IIIIIII knew. It was the technology that I was counting on. 1st world probs and all that but yea. When I finally got it to work, all I could get to play was…Avatar, Way of Water. Yea, should’ve left well-enough alone. We had 3 hour layover in Germany which just fleeeeeeew by. Then we hopped…more like limped, army-crawled, cried…our way onto the next flight that would take us into Beirut. I’ll just say this here…European travel is not the same as any other ilk…and I’ve had to bite my tongue quiiiiiiite a few times so as not to get us into a heap of trouble. Also I was feeling all kinds of ick on that last hour or so of the final leg and spent that time (while Chris took a little nap) trying not to hurl all over myself, the dude beside me, and most of all the white sweater that I thought would be a good idea to wear. Lebanon is 8 hours ahead of CST so it was 4:30pm the NEXT DAY when we landed and headed to meet our driver/rep. As we headed away from the airport, our sweet Thimar rep said, “Would you rather go straight to the opening ceremonies or would you like to checkin at the hotel first and freshen up first? You have 40 minutes.” This would be the moment when the “I can do anything I set my mind to” side of Eva started to panic, openly whimper, and plead for mercy. But instead, Chris just said, “We’ll take the 40 minutes at the hotel please.” On the way up to the room, Chris reminded me that we did know about this (ok fine, I then remembered the countless emails I’d been sent, BUT MY BRAIN COULDN’T COMPREHEND WHAT WAS HAPPENING ANYMORE!)…and also that this was the more formal event that we had to dress up for! Emotional trauma, I tell you. (For the record…this is all one continual paragraph because THIS DAY JUST WOULD NEVER END.) We grabbed quick showers, ironed clothes, and were back downstairs at the exact time…although we were a little extra snug because we added an extra Thimar guest to the car. Cue sweat-box 1.0. We arrived just before the ceremony began so we were ushered to the balcony of the church. All the people in the land were attending. Cue sweat-box 2.0. Good news was that all the constant up and down for singing, prayer, etc. did serve to keep Chris and I awake in the very warm temps and close quarters. Promptly following the 2 hr ceremony…not even kidding…they announced that there we would be moving to the outdoor reception where more performances would occur and grazing food provided (which we ate, to the glory of God)…still not kidding. Buuuut then we had to wait an hour for the shuttle back to the hotel…which ended up closer to 90 min…I have no jokes in even a fraction of my being at this point. Suuuuuper kind and generous people…not on them. Just the 32 hours could’ve been 30…that’s all I’m saying. Ok…not true…it really was all wonderful! Sending no shade their way at all. But my brain was like a Woodstock groupie by that point. Let’s just say, even the fact that my heating pad wouldn’t work in Lebanon at all (but ESPECIALLY after that 32 hours) did not keep me awake that night. I literally woke up in the EXACT same position I went to sleep in!
Stay tuned for more chaos…because you absolutely know it’s coming.