Canadian Mennonite
Volume 10, No. 16
August 21, 2006
From death to destruction: One man’s escape from Lebanon
Winnipeg
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On July 28, Bechara Azar, a Lebanese Canadian from Manitoba arrived in Winnipeg after being evacuated from Beirut. His plans for a month-long visit home to mourn the passing of his father were disrupted by “a rain of bombs” signalling the outbreak of a war with Israel that has killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians, left personal lives in chaos, and devastated the infrastructure and fragile economy of his country.
“The bombing started at the airport just two hours after my arrival in Beirut early on July 13,” Azar said at the airport, sounding jet-lagged and dazed. “My brother had told me about the kidnappings of two Israeli soldiers [which Israel used as justification for its incursion into southern Lebanon] when I arrived. We expected some problems in the south, but not on this scale…. It never crossed my mind that there would be such a huge bombing campaign in Beirut! We heard the bombs very strong in the nearby suburb where we stayed,” he continued. “You could feel the vibration...and the pressure pushing against you….”
In such a chaotic setting, holding a memorial service for his father in the Greek Catholic (Melkite) Church became impossible. Instead, the family shifted into survival mode—as they had many times in the past—extending hospitality to about 15 refugees, and helping Azar’s sister and family, whose husband works in Jordan, escape to the Jordanian embassy.
“That was very dangerous, getting her there,” said Azar. “Ten minutes later, the road was bombed and a helicopter shot down. It was quite a moment. We thought we wouldn’t get back.”
As for his own evacuation, initially he thought the war might stop at any time and he would take the road to Jordan.
“But the road kept getting more dangerous,” he said. So when his wife, Joan Barkman Azar, phoned to say that Canadian citizens did not have to wait to be called by the embassy to get onto the evacuation ships, he decided to go to the port to see what would happen. He was surprised when he showed his passport to a Canadian soldier, who told him he could go straight on board.
Thinking he was going to Cyprus, Azar actually ended up in Turkey. “There were about 200 people on the ship, including young families,” he said. “It was an okay journey. They did a good job,” he said of the Canadian rescue mission.
After staying for a night in Turkey, Azar continued on by air to Montreal and finally arrived in Winnipeg on July 28, where he was warmly welcomed by his wife and a small group of well-wishers, including friends from Aberdeen Evangelical Mennonite Church in Winnipeg, where they attend.
Azar is glad to be safely back in Canada, but he is clearly distressed over those he left behind, especially his mother, with whom he hardly had time to visit.
“She’s a very strong woman. We went through many wars together,” he said ruefully. “Bombs, shrapnel in the house in 1982…. But the bombs are bigger now and shelters are no use.”
“I don’t know why [the Israelis] are doing this,” he agonized. “They say it’s because Hezbollah is using villagers as human shields. But there is no army there. These are just accusations….”
According to Azar, Israel’s most recent incursion into Lebanon just “creates more enemies. It doesn’t help the peace process. It will affect people for years to come. But if war stopped, they would forget.”
While he appreciated the Canadian government’s assistance in getting out of Lebanon, Azar is upset at Canada’s response to the war itself. “I don’t understand why they respond as they do,” he said. “They just talk about violence on one side. At least they should condemn violence on both sides. Canadians should be writing to their governments, but I don’t think it’s going to change,” he sadly concluded.
MCC accepting donations for Middle East crisis
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has launched an appeal to help people in Lebanon and Gaza who are suffering because of the current conflict.
About a half-million people in Lebanon are homeless and many have little hope of returning to their homes or businesses, which have been severely damaged or destroyed by Israeli military strikes, says Rick Janzen, a director of Mennonite Central Committee’s (MCC) programs in Middle East and Europe, who has recently returned from Beirut.
“A long-term humanitarian crisis is inevitable,” Janzen says. “People don’t have homes to go back to; there are literally city blocks of housing that are now uninhabitable. There are no services and streets are full of rubble. When the bombing stops, where will they go?”
He expects access to food, medicine and other supplies will become more difficult. “Inflation on some items is already 500 per cent,” he notes.
Contributions to the MCC appeal will help partner organizations in Lebanon meet basic needs of displaced people finding refuge in parks, streets, schools and other government buildings.
An emergency response of $45,600 has been allocated to provide emergency assistanc e to people fleeing the fighting. About 100 families are living in a makeshift refugee camp at the Sanayeh public park in Beirut, about two blocks from the MCC office.
Financial support from MCC makes it possible for MCC’s partner organizations in Lebanon to distribute food, water, medicine and mattresses to people living in the park and other temporary shelters. A more comprehensive MCC response is being developed to meet the long-term needs of the displaced people.
MCC is also working with partner organizations in Gaza, where tight border controls and damage to electrical power plants and other infrastructure exacerbates ongoing economic hardships and trauma. In Gaza, MCC provided $29,600 to a partner organization that works with children and teenagers. [See “Palestinian group gets MCC aid following Israeli attacks,” July 31, page 20. Ed.]
MCC has been working in partnership with local organizations in Lebanon since 1977. In recent years, MCC has been working with local partners to strengthen projects that support peacemaking and justice programs.
People wishing to contribute to MCC’s response should mark their contribution “Middle East Emergency Assistance.”
To stay abreast of MCC’s emergency relief work in the Middle East, visit mcc.org and follow the “Middle East Emergency Response” link.
Middle East Christian ministry in jeopardy
As Mennonite workers in Israel and Lebanon sorrowfully followed reports of the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon and Hezbollah rocket strikes on Israel last month, they faced the possibility that their ministries could be compromised or even ended.
Several workers from the Middle East met as part of a larger gathering in northern Indiana hosted by Mennonite Church Canada Witness and Mennonite Mission Network just days after Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers to set off the latest round of hostilities. The workers asked to remain anonymous due to ongoing security concerns.
“So many innocent people are struggling because of Hezbollah and because of Israel,” a worker in Lebanon said. “They destroy so many people’s lives.”
A worker from Lebanon recounted looking forward to an unusually smooth North American ministry assignment, but said, “In just one week, our lives here have been radically shifted.” Without knowing whether they will be able to return to their friends, belongings and ministry, the worker continued, “I feel I’m suddenly stranded in the U.S.”
One Jerusalem worker said residents in and around the Gaza Strip are separated from the range of the rockets currently being used by Hezbollah. However, tensions between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Hamas group continue to escalate, as an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas has still not been freed. Fears of resumed suicide bombings were again resurfacing, said the worker.
Despite the danger, the workers in Israel plan to return and those assigned to Lebanon hope they too may be allowed to resume their work, if any of it remains after the bombing stops.
Workers also expressed concern that tourism to Nazareth Village, which witnesses by showing visitors a slice of Jesus’ first-century life, would disappear.
Pacifist Christian voices muted
The voices of Christians in the region, especially pacifist Christians, have not been heard locally or globally, since most outsiders see the conflict as simply Muslims versus Jews, a worker from Israel said.
“The Christians are ignored, even by the president of the United States. At the practical level, they also don’t exist,” the worker said. Christians, he continued, must move past supporting or hating Israel.
“If we take Christ as our bottom line ethically, violence is never justified,” said a worker in Lebanon. “It doesn’t lead anywhere. It just spirals downward.”
In Lebanon, Christians constitute a large portion of the population. A worker said that, despite the fact that Christianity is often limited to a political and legal identity, and pacifism has taken little root, many Lebanese Christians do seek to follow Jesus in their lives and reflect critically on the use of violence.
Lebanese Christians, as well as Muslims, have no desire to return to civil war. They have shown remarkable strength over the last several years, said a worker, resisting the temptation to violence.
Although a civil war ended in 1990, Lebanese society is now again under great stress as masses of people—both Muslims and Christians—flee the south to escape the Israeli bombardment.
In Israel, where only a small percentage of the population is Christian, there is no unified Christian voice for peace due to disagreements over the Zionist movement.
“Why should your Christian voice be a better Christian voice than the other Christian voices that are louder?” an Israeli worker asked. “The voices that are heard usually serve U.S. and Israeli national interests—those are the voices with money behind them.”
The workers are asking for prayer for the region and for the ministries at risk due to the continuing attacks.
What you can do?
Pray for:
• Mennonite workers in the Middle East, their colleagues, friends and families affected by the escalation of violence, destruction, and evacuation.
• Innocent parents, children and families who have already endured generations of conflict, that they might yet know peace.
• The aggressors, that they may see the senselessness of their actions and reconcile their positions.
• Those without power who feel bound to follow orders.
• A conscientious objector movement in Middle Eastern militaries and around the world.
• Leaders in the region, that they may act on what they surely already know—that violence only begets violence.
• Influential leaders around the world, that they may wield their power for good.
• Hope for all those in despair.
Encourage:
• One another in your communities, demonstrating the love of God and the peace of Christ in your families, congregations and social circles.
• Mennonite workers you may know in the Middle East with personal notes of encouragement and hope.
Give:
•A financial gift of hope to a ministry in the Middle East. Mennonite Church Canada supports ministries in Jerusalem and Nazareth.
The latest escalation of violence will surely result in a decline in tourism and travel. These ministries rely in part on visitors from around the world. Your gift at this time will help bridge a gap until the situation once again becomes safer for travellers and employees of these ministries.
—MC Canada release
Congo holds long-awaited elections
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
On July 30, the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo voted freely in national elections for the first time in more than 40 years. And for the first time, the three Congolese Mennonite denominations—whose combined membership totals 194,000—took an active role in electoral politics, fielding candidates and encouraging church members to vote.
Pascal Kulungu, a Mennonite Brethren candidate for parliament, said that his objective is to encourage the government to work for peace in eastern Congo, where militias continue to fight in the wake of the civil war that officially ended in 2002. But Kulungu said that he and other Mennonite candidates lacked the money to pay for big political campaigns. Wealthier candidates distributed food, clothing, cash and other gifts to people at rallies. “People have that culture of getting something from parliamentary candidates,” Kulungu said. “It’s tough.”
The United Nations helped to conduct the election—a monumental effort that involved 50,000 voting centres, hundreds of thousands of poll workers, and tens of thousands of Congolese volunteers who observed the voting process to verify that it was conducted fairly.
Congo’s national council of Protestant churches organized teams of election observers in the capital city and several other parts of the country. At the invitation of Congolese Mennonite churches, Mennonite Central Committee organized a group of 22 observers from Canada, England, Holland and the United States to assist in this effort.
Despite fears of political violence, the scene was mostly calm and orderly. The observers reported a few difficulties in the voting process, such as voting centres that opened late and six-page ballots with 33 presidential candidates and hundreds of parliamentary candidates to choose from. However, the consensus was that the voting process ran smoothly and without partisan interference.
It was the first multi-party election in Congo since Mobutu Sese Seko seized power in 1965, ruling as a dictator for 32 years. When Congo’s civil war officially ended in 2002, a transitional government was installed, with former rebel leaders serving as vice-presidents.
The election was the first for the vast majority of Congolese voters.
Philomene Matondo, a 40-year-old Kinshasa woman, said she cast her ballot in the hope that Congo will become a more democratic country. “I want elected officials who will try to accomplish every promise that they make,” Matondo said.
Congo’s problems are enormous, however. Although it has many valuable natural resources, misrule and civil war have left the Congolese people among the poorest in the world. Basic public services and infrastructure are severely lacking—no paved roads connect Congo’s vast rural regions, and school teachers and medical workers are paid next to nothing. In Congo’s troubled eastern region disease and hunger kill one in four children before their fifth birthday.
Organizers say they will announce the election results in several weeks and hold a run-off election in October if no presidential candidate wins a majority.
Sidonie Swana Falanga, a Congolese Mennonite election observer, asked for prayer on behalf of the Congolese people during this uncertain transition period. “I am asking you to pray for us, that we will have calm in our country and that we will have changes that people want to see,” she said.
Election observing is part of a missional response to the world
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Waterloo, Ont.
When Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) put out a request for volunteers to join an election observation team in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it was overwhelmed.
The official team was joined by two other teams—one from Menno Simons College (CMU) in Winnipeg and another from Waterloo North Mennonite Church in Ontario.
The Waterloo North team included Dave Klassen and his two daughters, Aleda and Kara. The Klassens have a long history with the Congo. Aleda and Kara were born there when their parents were working there for MCC in the 1980s. Dave’s parents served in the Congo as well. A high point for Aleda was meeting a church leader who had been baptized by her grandfather.
Mary Lou Klassen explained that politics in Africa is different. Party politics is little known. The 33 presidential candidates represent different groups in the country, each nominating someone whom they think will care for their needs.
Mostly the observers had high praise for the election itself, as well as the continuing compilation of the individual polls.
David Ott, a Waterloo North observer now living in Ottawa, had a more difficult experience, as the poll he was assigned to had a number of irregularities reported.
Dave Klassen noted that seeing the compilation efforts in action he could see how it could take weeks to complete the vote totals. And then there might be a need for a run-off if none of the presidential candidates received more than 50 percent of the vote.
The Canadian Mennonite observers were invited by the Congolese Mennonites, who gave them the opportunity to interact with a group of women theologians for worship and conversation. These women see the church’s involvement in the election as part of their missional lives.
“These theologians care for other women,” Aleda wrote home in an e-mail. “When asked what they do in response to various women’s issues, they each listed similar activities: helping widows and the elderly in the church; assisting single mothers; counselling victims of violence, sexual or otherwise; and educating young women driven to prostitution in a desperate attempt to earn a little cash.”
Tim Sauer said that a sermon about the problems of money was “obviously aimed” at the North Americans.
MB churches can now appoint women pastoral leaders
Calgary
“The Women In Ministry Leadership motion has passed.”
With this sentence, Willy Reimer, moderator of the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, wrapped up Gathering 2006’s most critical piece of business—one that everyone knew would define the convention and the future of Canadian Mennonite Brethren.
The decision delegates made last month—to “bless each member church in its own discernment of Scripture, conviction and practice to call and affirm gifted men and women to serve in ministry and pastoral leadership”—marked a significant turn in a decades-long slog through the question of women and ministry in the Mennonite Brethren Church.
When it was announced that the motion had received the support of 77 percent of voting delegates, the room remained quiet. An attempt at applause died with a solitary handclap or two, an “Amen” reached only a pocket of delegates’ ears. The delegation’s muted response reflected an understanding that this resolution was, in one person’s words, “a motion of respect.”
It did not ask Mennonite Brethren to adopt a uniform theological stance on women in ministry leadership. “It is evident that individuals and congregations practise a diversity of convictions based on different interpretations of Scripture,” the resolution stated. It asked, instead, that diversity of practice be accepted within the denomination on this “non-confessional issue.”
The delegation’s response also reflected procedural carefulness, even caution, shown by the Board of Faith and Life (BFL) during its three-year round of discernment about Women In Ministry Leadership (WIML) that began in 2003 after the Manitoba conference requested that the national BFL re-visit the question. A call for unity had accompanied the process at every step.
Delegates to Gathering 2006 had three opportunities to speak to the WIML resolution—two workshops hosted by BFL, which drew the highest attendance of all workshops, and the plenary discussion before the vote the following day. Many spoke, often passionately, offering a variety of affirmations or concerns, but the conversation generally remained cordial and careful.
Exploration of biblical issues involved Paul’s letters to the churches, the gospels and Acts, the “restrictive” texts, and historical issues in the Ancient Near East.
BFL vice-chair Ken Peters showed delegates a thick red binder representing the resolution’s history: letters, survey results, findings of study conferences, and other documents. Complicating the board’s task, he said, was the fact that these results showed Mennonite Brethren “split right down the middle.”
Many delegates who spoke expressed appreciation for the board’s thorough work. Asked why BFL would bring a recommendation forward when views were so divided, Peters responded that BFL must not “be intimidated” by divisive issues. “Its mandate is to lead as well as reflect back,” he said.
Mennonite Brethren have dealt with other “deep conflicts” in the past, noted participants in the “Where do we go from here?” workshop presented by the BFL and provincial conference ministers. These include the language transition from German to English, non-resistance, and mode of baptism.
Some delegates, however, contended that this matter was different, or questioned the distinction between polity and confessional issues. Others expressed concerns or hopes about the resolution’s implications for the future.
One pastor said he fears the issue will “fragment” his congregation.
Two pastors noted that young women are coming to them and asking that men be encouraged to take spiritual leadership.
“Let’s dedicate as much time, energy, money to men leading,” urged Mark Burch of Kelowna, B.C.
The BFL’s own list of “implications” reiterated calls for unity as well as its counsel that the matter “remain at the level of polity.”
Delegates were reminded that if the proposed resolution had not passed, the recommendation approved in 1999, “that women be encouraged to minister in the church in every function other than the lead pastorate,” would have remained in effect. Several people pointed out that there was still much work to do even on that.
Several delegates expressed the wisdom of compromise they saw in the resolution, and gave compelling pledges of their own commitment to trust God as well as one another.
“All of us have to let go of something and receive something,” said Connie Epp of Winnipeg.