The National Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Rabiya

I attended services today at The National Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Rabiya. Dr. Johnny Awwad, N.E.S.T. Professor of New Testament, is a member and Elder at this church. The church is a bit North of Beirut. Along with the church is a school and the offices for the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon.

The Church is large and has stained windows that provide opportunity for the imagination. Jesus and the other faces are blank. The windows also included Cedar Trees, which are a national treasure in Lebanon. Worship is in Arabic and Dr. Awwad was kind enough to translate the service. I am constantly amazed at the power of the holy spirit. It would seem that hearing a service translated might remove some of the impact. I was so moved by the opening Prayer, where Rev. Mrad prayed for those with cancer. He opened the prayer so beautifully that it lifted up my dear friends that I’ve been holding in prayer during this trip, right along with those in this church body. He included a prayer for all in Iraq and a prayer for the murderers in Iraq, that they may be transformed and know that they are not the authors of life. The translation was loud and clear and I treasured the prayer to our Creator who is the author of all life.

Pastor George Mrad preached from the book of Matthew 22: 34-40 about our greatest commandment: Love. He said if you don’t love, you don’t live; and that in any language the strongest emotion is love. He noted that in Arabic, there are two kinds of love but he talked about love in general and lifted up the song, “You’re Nobody ‘til Somebody Loves You”. Clearly God loves everybody and he celebrated with us that we are all somebody because of this love.

He quoted C.S. Lewis, “When I learned to love God more, I loved my friends and family better than I used to love.” So with many wonderful illustrations, he said when it comes to love, say it... when it comes to love, show it... when it comes to love, live it!
Rev. Mrad is also a Judge in the Spiritual Court of Lebanon which deals with family law and divorce, so he has an interesting perspective for this message.

He was realistic that love is risky. But said, “Let us risk with love to overcome hate.” To conclude a beautiful sermon he challenged us to love those we are in conflict with. He said we should first address the conflict within ourselves and then go to the person. He reminded us that hatred and envy don’t kill except the one that has it.

Later in the service a screen was lowered and Rev. Mrad made announcements, which includes a full preview of the November Christian Education offerings. With my U.S. Christian Educator friends in my heart, I was jumping out of my skin. When asking later, I was told the beginning of each month the Pastor highlights what the children will be learning for the coming month so the church body is informed. Wow! I have a photo here of the poster that shows the month’s activities. One week is about a cartoon character named Milo who will teach the children how to pray. Another week the lesson is entitled,”If You Don’t Take Care of Your Body, Where Else Are You Going to Live”. They will also have a Puppet Skit about Smoking written by Esther Muller, the Sunday School Coordinator. Esther showed me the Sunday School rooms after church and I show her in a photo with the displays of the November activities. The rooms are so inviting. In fact, the whole church was so inviting for children and it was clear how important children are in the life of this church family.

The final Sunday of November the younger children will make a Manger sticker scene and the older children will be making scarfs. I took of photo of Mira Kassab, Jennifer Muller and Tala Kassab holding the scarf which is made from fleece.

Esther shared with me the difficulty of getting Christian Education Materials through customs and into the country. The church, as most churches in the area, rely on having people who come from the U.S. bring the curriculum in their personal luggage.

This highlights the great need for the N.E.S.T. Christian Education Resource Center and part of the dream. Having a center where Curriculum and Resources and Teaching Aids are made available will be a great help to the churches in this region. Again, we are asking friends in the U.S. if you have recent curriculum or resources that you could provide for the C.E.R.C. to help local churches, please contact Shake Geotcherian at: Shake.Geotcherian@theonest.edu.lb OR shake_g@hotmail.com. I’ve already told Shake and Esther I would be happy to bring a suitcase of Christian Education materials next visit to the N.E.S.T.