March 2019, Beirut, Lebanon
“The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” - Duet. 33:27
We have come to love Lebanon so much and there is lots to love! The people are very friendly and interested in foreigners. One man that we chatted with while we were out walking asked us to come to his home and have coffee! It is a place both ancient and modern with ancient ruins and a rich Biblical history but also there are wonderful hotels and malls and lots of restaurants. The driving reminds us of Manila and that is not a compliment but somehow everyone gets where they need to be. The Lebanese are famous for their food and hospitality and they want to fill you up and won’t take “No” for an answer!
When we arrived in Lebanon in March of 2019, we saw many uniformed officers everywhere. There were frequent checkpoints, even in alleys. Something was clearly different from the last time we were there. It turned out that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was visiting Lebanon to talk with Lebanese officials about US/Lebanese relations. Things were strained all over the Middle East as President Trump had just announced that he was in favor of making the Golan Heights (formerly of Syria) a permanent part of Israel. Articles in the local paper also reflected the disapproval of the Arab world. So this was the setting for our adventure at the airport.
One of our suitcases had arrived on a later flight than ours from Paris and we had to go back to the airport to retrieve it. Our hotel shuttle gave us a ride there but said that we would have to take a taxi back.
It was an adventure just to get to where the suitcase was being held! We had to walk from one part of the airport to another, up an elevator, then to an official’s office to have our paperwork stamped, then back downstairs again, going through two security screenings. Finally, we made it to the room where they held the lost luggage. There were hundreds of suitcases and other items there! Our first thought was “How will we ever find it?” but it was right in front of us! Amazing! How good God is to His children! We left rejoicing that we had it and it wasn’t the ordeal we had first imagined. Little did we know that we had an ordeal of another kind coming quickly.
We went outside the airport to find a taxi and a man approached us asking if we needed one. His price was higher than we had been told at the hotel but we were anxious to get back to the hotel and get some rest. So after asking for some identification, which the man showed us, we got into the car that he pointed us toward. Another man got in to drive, not the man we had paid. We began to feel uneasy about this. We asked if he would give us a receipt and he nodded yes. We said we wanted a receipt right then or we were getting out. He kept nodding and he drove over to another taxi driver and asked him in Arabic for a receipt. Something was not right with this and we were sure of it when he sped off out of the airport and drove in the wrong direction for the hotel we had asked to be taken to! We were protesting and telling him he was going the wrong way but he just kept driving and not saying anything! The question “Are we being kidnapped?” hung silently in the air as Jack kept giving names of landmarks near the Lancaster Tamar Hotel, where we were staying. Jack pulled up Google Maps on his phone and brought up directions for the hotel and handed it to the driver. He just looked at it and kept driving. We were praying fervently at that point and not sure what to do. He pulled over and we wanted to jump out but he had our suitcase in the truck filled with thousands of dollars’ worth of medicine and equipment. We couldn’t just abandon that or we would have no ministry in Lebanon. The driver pulled out his phone and called someone and Jack began to feel better about the situation. I was still thinking that we were being kidnapped and maybe this was an associate. Whoever he called must have told him he was going the wrong way to the hotel we had asked for and he began to change direction. At that point we were hopeful everything was going to be okay but there were some awful moments where we had wondered if we were going to be political prisoners! We finally made it back to the hotel and realized our taxi driver could speak no English, the reason for his silence along the way. We weren’t happy with the man and the one at the airport who had set up a taxi scam to make money, but we were grateful to be safe and at our familiar hotel. We collected our suitcase, gave him a tract and went inside to collapse in relief in our room. God had delivered us again!