BEIRUT (ABP) — As fighting between Israeli forces and Islamic radicals continued to decimate Lebanon July 24, groups of Baptist volunteers from the United States who had been trapped in Beirut were reported safely evacuated.
The American Baptist News Service reported that Jennifer Wallace, a short-term volunteer with the American Baptist Churches International Ministries, had arrived in Baltimore along with other evacuating U.S. citizens July 22. She was planning to return to her home in Ohio, the agency said.
Wallace, 19, had been in Beirut to work as a short-term missionary at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary there. She also was in Lebanon to attend a peace conference and study Arabic.
Two of her American Baptist missionary colleagues at the seminary, the news service reported, remain safe as of July 24. Dan and Sarah Chetti work, respectively, as a professor and administrator at the school. The news service said the two “have chosen to remain and minister with ABTS and others responding to the humanitarian crisis created by the ongoing military conflict.”
Meanwhile, the Southern Baptist Convention's news service reported July 21 that two groups of Southern Baptist volunteers had safely evacuated Beirut. According to Baptist Press, groups from First Baptist Church of Forney, Texas, and Eagle's Landing First Baptist Church in McDonough, Ga., had been safely evacuated from Beirut.
The 19 volunteers from the two groups were transported, along with other U.S. citizens trapped in Beirut, to Cyprus on the Navy vessel U.S.S. Nashville. They were scheduled to return from there to Baltimore by plane and then continue on to Dallas and Atlanta.
Both groups had been participating in summer ministry projects with Lebanese Baptist churches when the fighting — between radical elements of the Islamic Hezbollah organization and Israelis — broke out July 12.
John Brady, the SBC International Mission Board's leader for the Middle East and Europe, met with the volunteers after they arrived in Cyprus. “They were elated to be out of Lebanon and praising the Lord for His protection,” he told BP. “They also had some very kind words about how the Lebanese Baptist brothers and sisters helped them every step of the way, as well as the way the U.S. government responded to rescue Americans.”
After the fighting broke out, the Texas and Georgia groups joined Lebanese Baptists and others at the seminary providing aid to refugees from the hard-hit southern and eastern parts of Lebanon. At last count, the seminary and the related Beirut Baptist School were housing more than 700 people who had been displaced by the fighting. The vast majority of those were Shiite Muslims.
According to the United Nations, at least half a million Shiites and others from Hezbollah's strongholds in southern and eastern Lebanon and the Shiite areas of Beirut have been displaced by the conflict. In addition, approximately 400 have died since the conflict began — the vast majority of them Lebanese. Most of those have been civilians.
Nabil Costa, executive director of the Lebanese Baptist group that administers the schools and other Lebanese Baptist ministries, said in a July 21 report that the sight of hordes of Shia flocking to Christian organizations for relief was difficult for Lebanese Christians. Prior to the latest conflict, Lebanon was just beginning to recover from a long and disastrous civil war that pitted Christians against radical Muslim groups.
“For us Lebanese believers, this is not so easy,” Costa wrote. “Those we are helping are linked to those who tried to destroy us during the Lebanese war (1975-90). But the loving eyes of our crucified Lord have directed us to the narrow road, to be his heart and his hands to those in need.”
Noting that the Muslim refugees flocked to the seminary and Baptist school spontaneously, he continued: “It was as if God were telling us, 'It is not easy for you to go to these people, so I will bring them to you to serve them and reveal to them my love.'”
Costa also cited the “unexpected blessing” of “the presence of 'American refugees' who had come to serve our children and youth,” referring to the Georgia and Texas groups.
“Their presence during these horrendous days was of great spiritual and emotional encouragement to us, and to them, as well as to the believers from the local churches who attended our twice-daily meetings,” he said. “These meetings are still continuing and will do so until this trauma is over.”
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