Hey Guys,
June 5th - 10:30am
This email will probably be written throughout the course of several days. We only have one laptop here and probably about an hour for our whole team. Right now, we are just finishing part one of our tour of the camp and are waiting for the KCHAG committee leaders to start the vision meeting. Yesterday afternoon, our team flew into Beirut over the city. I was astounded at how western the city looked and it reminded me a lot of New York. Driving up to the camp was a real treat with rolling hills and being able to see so much of the Lebanese landscape. Looking around the camp, you can actually see some of the more modern buildings, which look like multi-story houses that could fit in Hollywood, sporting pools on their patios. Our camp is situated on the side of a hill, about 500 meters above sea level. We have an awesome view of Beirut and the night sky is spectacular. The camp itself is on a grade of approximately 15%, in some places 20%, so walking anywhere is a treat.
If you've been reading the newspapers, there was a bus-bomb in Beirut last night around 8:30pm local time. We actually heard it from here, but rest assured, we are quite safe and pretty far away from where it happened. Speaking to several of the locals, it becomes a part of normal life. There is not much else you can do after one goes off, so people here have learned to get on with life.
KCHAG, the camp we are working with, and the life surrounding it are amazing. We arrived here last night and the people received us very warmly.
June 5th - 10:00pm
I had the privilege of being able to meet the staff of KCHAG several hours early because I came with the team leaders from Jordan and heard of the heart that drove the Armenian Evangelicals here. Maria, who is originally from Armenia, was our main contact and boy did she have everything prepared for us, especially dinner for all of the nights (the most important part =P). She was sharing how thankful and how grateful the Armenian people were to have us. They were astounded that people like us, who have no connection to the Armenian world whatsoever, would come to Lebanon in its current state in order to help them with their project. We are simply amazed at how they have welcomed us and treated us as their own. Before we even unpacked our cars, they stuffed our mouths with chocolate cake and pockets with pocket knives.
Let me explain the ministry of KCHAG and the history behind it now that I understand it a little better. During WWI, the people of Armenia fled their homeland into different nations trying to avoid being part of a 1.5 million person purge now recognized as the Armenian Genocide by a number of countries. Lebanon was one of the countries that received many refugees. In Lebanon, there are approximately 200,000 Armenians, and about 1-2% of those are Armenian Evangelicals. That comes out to around 6,000 people, so the direct population we serve here is small, but the effect is huge.
KCHAG is the name of the camp here, an acronym that stands for Armenian Evangelical Summer Camp... but in Armenian. It was established in 1949 by the Armenian Evanglical Christian Endeavour Union or CE envisioned to serve and provide a home for the youth in the Beirut area. It started with a few businessmen coming together and purchasing a plot of land that now holds about 30 structures and a basketball court (and also a couple landmines). The first summer camp held in 1949 was in tents. Slowly, year by year, buildings were constructed in KCHAG and by 1952, a chapel was opened. A community of Armenians began to spring up around KCHAG as it became the hub of life, a place where people came to spend their day and even for Sunday service.
June 7th - 11:00am
There's a lot that's going on and I haven't been able to complete a lot of thoughts, but I have to go with the flow here. They say the motto of eMi is flexibility. Being put on a plane to the Middle East 36 hours after being told of my itinerary change, I think I have experienced that full well. I'll try to polish things up for a newsletter, but for now, I'll try to give you as much as I can in the time given me.
We have met over a dozen people who have been at KCHAG for over 30 years and have even met one lady who was at the very first KCHAG camp in 1949. That was 58 years ago! There are five young men who have volunteered to sleep over at KCHAG despite work and final exams during the day to make sure the camp is secure by taking shifts walking around at night as we sleep. People tend to use KCHAG as a shortcut through the hills, so they are keeping us safe.
Also, we have met with five local architects and engineers during the past two days to learn about common construction practices and codes and to hear their input and suggestions on the design being implemented here. Last night, our group of three architects conceptualized a plan consisting of 5 phases of appromixately $100,000 US each to be implemented in 6-10 years and it looks great. Today, we are continuing to meet with local professionals and have begun to look into various aspects of existing buildings, including structural integrity, electrical systems, and water systems. The electrical wiring here is pretty crude. The camp is fed minimal power from the municipality and from the bottom, a long (long long long) string of extension cords jump from building to tree to tree to building all the way to the top. That gives you an idea of how run down this place has become. This morning, the power went out for a few minutes until they powered up the backup generator. It supplied 1.5 kW, which is about good enough to power two floodlights and a refrigerator. Also, they had to refill the water tank with a 10 cubic meter truck four times in two days. One of those trucks usually lasts them several days. That gives you an idea of how much water we Americans can waste.
There's so much more I wish I could tell you about but time is short. I'm reading through this email and it looks like there's a lot to read through so I'll send this off and maybe start another chain tomorrow morning.
All is well. The food is great. The people are wonderful. The view is better than what you all are looking at, I'm pretty sure. Especially those of you looking into your cubical wall =P Thanks once again for all your prayers. If you run out of things to pray for, here you go.
Pray that...
1. God be the focus of our work here in Beirut.
2. We would have excellent communication between the team and the community leaders and the local architect/engineers to produce an appropriate design.
3. Unity amongst the team to work together with all of our different disciplines.
4. Safety and protection from any sort of harm.
5. Resolution and peace between the Lebanese government and the militants and PLO camps.
6. Physical strength and perseverance as we only have three more days to complete a presentable project to the camp committee.
As always, if you have any prayer requests, please send them over.
In Christ,
-irwin
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