|PIC1|With the world united in its concern for the devastation and killings of scores of civilians in the Middle East over the past two weeks, Christian Today has been able to speak to Rev John Carrick, who is the UK Director of the Middle East Christian Outreach (MECO), which currently operates in: Egypt, Cyprus, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

MECO was formed in 1976 through the merger of the Arabic Literature Mission, Lebanon Evangelical Mission and Middle East General Mission, and works in the sectors of Church ministries, Education, Health and Welfare, and Media and Literature.

What do you know of the situation on the ground at the moment in Lebanon both for the civilians but also particularly for the Christian community in the country?

MECO has been involved in Middle East since 1860 so we have a reasonable track record of working with local Christian believers.

At the moment the Christian churches have a great opportunity to share their love with neighbours because they are based further north where there has not been a lot of bombing and that has meant that refugees have come. For example, in a village just north of Beirut a number of people have been driving up there and sleeping in their cars during the night.

A Christian church has taken the opportunity to open its doors and provide food and shelter and bring the love of Jesus.

One of the Bible colleges in Beirut, has opened its door in a similar way. One gentleman who was formerly the head of the Lebanese Bible Society has established a charity into which monies will be given from the West so that they can provide help so what we are trying to do is provide aid for the churches so that they can distribute it and be a blessing to their neighbours.

Do you know anything about the atmosphere of the people, the mood, what outcome they are hoping for in this situation?

|TOP|Obviously they hope there will be peace. I think there is a lot of concern and a great deal of apprehension about the future; they are not very optimistic. And that pervades the whole country. There is a great concern, a feeling that the neighbours in the south as we refer to them have really exceeded what they should have been doing. There is a recognition that there was trouble from Hezbollah. But the way they have dealt with has been an overreaction and that has been very difficult for Christians to cope with seeing their Muslim neighbours suffer as they have.

This is another opportunity then for the churches to give some kind of optimism, some kind of hope?

Yes, there are a number of churches across the denominational board in Lebanon. It is not just as bad as some countries where Christians are pilloried because they are believers. In Lebanon there is a great deal of freedom. A large number of the population, less than 50 %, but not far off it, would be Christians in the nominal sense and within that there are many true believers in the Lord Jesus. So they are not impoverished as they are in some of the other Arab countries. But nonetheless there isn’t a great deal of wealth.

And the fact is that many who have been able to get out have got out. Following the civil war there have been tensions under the surface. And a lot of people really have been preparing themselves to leave. In fact one of the church leaders said on a film I just made recently, ‘We equip our young people for export’; there is a desire to get out. So there is a sense pessimism. We hope at this time, in the midst of this terrible suffering, the Christians will be able to rise and give them the assurance of prayer support from the West as well as financial support and will be able to play their part in Christian and humanitarian aid support.

There are reports that other organisations are finding it hard to get the humanitarian aid to the people that are in need of it. Is that the situation MECO is facing as well?

|AD|Oh yes, MECO is in exactly the same situation; we cannot get people into the country. A few of our people have decided to remain there and we have accepted that provided they stay in safe areas. But what we are doing is in setting up a funding conduit to get funds into Lebanon, the persons acting as the trustees there can then inform people who are church leaders to say you come and you get this money and you take it to the people who are there. But in terms of actual personnel at the moment we have only less than a handful of people in the country.

It happened that because it’s the summertime time most of our people were out anyway. It wasn’t that they fled and some have come out almost under duress. It is that they really want to stay. Even in Tyre they wanted to stay.

Is there a part that your organisation and other organisations can play in securing some kind of long-term resolution to this conflict?

As a Christian organisation we would say that we want to raise a great wave of prayer for these two countries. God loves Jew and are of alike and we need prayer for both. We do not get involved in the political scene at all, we avoid that completely. So we wouldn’t lobby, we wouldn’t write to members of parliament. We are simply there to provide Christ’s love. That is not to say there isn’t a place for that but that we have deliberately chosen not to be part of that.

What can Christians in the UK do in order to help them as well?

I would hope that this coming Sunday there would be many, many people in churches praying and really praying that God will intervene in these circumstances and that there will be wisdom.

Another thing they can do is provide financial support. We haven’t yet heard if the relief organisations in the UK are going to as they often do, meet together and plan a strategy.

MECO is a fairly small organisation, some people have called us a niche mission, providing help for the church, that’s our role in the Middle East, in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, right down through Egypt and into other parts of the Middle East. But at this time we are asking people to consider giving to what we call the Lebanese Crisis Fund. And then that money would be channelled through this group in Lebanon called Bridges of Love.

So you are working together with other partner organisations on the ground?

In Lebanon, yes.

Is there any strategy you are pursuing at the moment or is it take it as it goes?

We cannot do any more than that at the moment. Just like the big agencies we are watching and waiting and if we understand from the Foreign Office that there will be word that will say essential workers can go in and our government will support that and approve it and the Lebanese government will.

There is humanitarian aid going in at the moment but it is through the United Nations, it is channelled. It is very limited. You can’t just walk into the country at this time. There no way of even transport unless you go overland from Damascus. So we are at this point waiting.

But schools will need to be rebuilt. We are involved in a number of top schools in the country. And we have a number of teachers who are out of the country at this time desperate to get back. And they are thinking now that maybe school will recommence say in October. Even some of the buildings have been damaged, so that will need to be dealt with.

So you are going to stay with them in the long haul?

Oh absolutely, our people are eager to do that. I made a film which is about to be released and we realised the film was made before this happened. And we are just looking at an add-on and actually we are going to get our team leader there to say to camera since this was made this has happened but we want to assure all our supporters and prayer partners that MECO are there for the long haul.