Thursday, June 09, 2005
More from Lebanon
Got another email from my brother today...

Kelly and I are still alive and well. This last week has been very busy for us. There was a car bomb assassination last week that you may have seen on the news. It was [a] Lebanese anti-Syrian reporter who was believed to be killed by the Syrian government as a scare tactic. The bomb was far, far away from us and we are all safe and there have been no repercussions that I know of since besides the face of the man killed plastered all over the city in honor of him. He looks just like the singer of the Flaming Lips for all you music fans.

We have spent many days in distribution of New Testaments now and are very comfortable now doing so. Distribution is the primary "labor" of our trip. Most people are very peaceful, some are receptive and very few turn us away or act in hostility. Today Melanie and I came across a flat where two girls were living as private nurses for a patient. They can never leave the flat and were very hungry for Bibles and friends that would come visit them. As we went down the stairs we could hear them jumping up and down, screaming with excitement. Austin and Lane met a guy who had skipped his university classes for the day. He is a traditional Muslim and was pondering his hunger to truly know God when the knock at the door came. He was very receptive. Every day we come across people like these... people who know that God has brought us to their door with his message. It is really exciting. The long-term team said that the more serious contacts have come through our team than in probably all last year. Tomorrow is our "sabbath" for rest and Arabic lessons. Tonight we are worshipping downtown, which we have done twice. Those times have been the most fruitful, as many people approach us to meet us. Saturday we will go to Balbek, which apparently has the largest Roman ruins remaining in the world.

Thank you for your prayers. Pray for the strength of Jesus to overwhelm us. As we are getting into a routine pray that we won't fall into habit but continue to be in battle for the kingdom of God. Pray for safety. Pray that a community of believers would stand in the neighborhood of Basta. Pray for dreams and visions of Jesus. Pray for miracles and healings. Pray for redemption from drug addictions and mental diseases. Pray against the veil of Islam that thrives on keeping them in the dark, in fear. They feel forbidden to read the Qu'ran. They are simply told what to believe, what to love, who to hate - and to be loyal to it.

It is odd to me the loyalty based culture. We come from a logic based culture, which makes for some really funny conversations, in particular with a peer who had somehow come to be loyal to Tupac and only Tupac. We try at all ends to avoid theological discussions because we don't want to talk them into the kingdom but demonstrate the kingdom, yet sometimes they can't be avoided. I’ll tell you about it more later.

muchlove jason

posted by Peter at 11:28 PM
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