Talk about perspective......... I was feeling well, angst. Just on edge with life and yah, well, life. But then we started receiving some emails from friends in Nova Scotia. Reid grew up with Sandra and she married a fellow named John who is from Lebanon.
We've spent the last week reading and praying with them about their trials and tribulations in getting the remainder of John's family out of Beirut to Canada. They all have their landed immigrant papers but they are not officially activated (so to speak) until they set foot on Canadian soil. Obviously no easy task here.
In one email we read....
The Beirut airport is closed, where John's brother George and his family left from, for NS, on June 28. The second option would normally be from Damascus but there is only one road there and that has been bombed. If they leave via the northern city of Tripoli it would usually be a six/seven hour drive to Damascus but who knows how long it will take now? They could also leave by boat to Cyprus but Israel has closed all ports. As today continues, more and more roads are being closed, trapping the Lebanese in their country and sometimes within their town or area.
We have talked to Abla this morning; John couldn't get through yesterday. She told me, "Don't worry about us, the Israelis are only targetting the Hezballah areas." They can see the smoke from the airport and other areas from their homes. Their windows are rattling with the explsions. They are expecting phone and internet connections to be cut at any time.
and in another update.....
Some people are wondering why the Lebanese government isn't stopping Hezbollah from launching attacks on Israel. Hezbollah is a militant group financed, armed and instructed by Syria and Iran. They have essentially controlled southern Lebanon for many years. The Lebanese government, barely a year free from Syrian control, would risk civil war to interfere. Plus they do not have the arms or finances to stop them.
Israel says they will stop bombing if the Lebanese government will stop Hezbollah from attacking Israel and will get them to release the two Israeli soldiers they captured. Israel knows, as do the western-world goverments, that the Lebanese government cannot control Hezbollah.
John's sisters Abla and Jocelyne have told us that even though it is bad now with Israeli bombardments, the rumours there are that Israel is actually holding back until the foreigners are out. They think it will soon be much worse, if that is possible.
This morning Abla called and said that they have hired a bus (I don't know if it is a mini-bus just for them or a bigger bus to include others) to take them out through the north or any other way possible. They plan to leave tomorrow am. They will drive through Syria and down into Jordan. They have found a friend of a relative of a relative of a...... who is a travel agent and has found flights for them on July 20 from Amman, Jordan to Montreal - with delays along the way. Three days total.
Needless to say this is very dangerous and expensive, though no one is even thinking of money now.
They can't risk losing the bus to Jordan option. The border could be completely sealed at any time. But they would never take this long, dangerous, option if they can be evacuated. A decision has to be reached in the next few hours. (They are six hours ahead of us)
Abla said that all the schools are filled to overflowing with people who have fled from other regions. Even homes that have been left empty by people who have left the country are being taken over and occupied by other people who have been displaced.
Starvation is a real possibilty for some. Abla said she was at a nearby supermarket and there is nothing on any shelf.
Jocelyne's husband, Bernard, has been told that he will be conscripted by the Lebanese National Army for military service. They feel desperate to leave before he is taken for this.
So now John's family is driving through Syria to Jordan. We received word that they arrived in Syria only to have found that the driver they arranged failed to show up. They did eventually arrive in Jordan but have since had difficulties in getting on the plane to come to Canada. In explaining this Sandra gave some interesting background to her husband John's background. It made me so thankful that we live here in Canada and my kids are growing up with the sounds of birds and laughter - not missiles and bombs.
John was in Cyprus in 1990-91. He had previously been in an officer training program in Lebanon for the Lebanese National Army, during the civil war. Nine months into the training, Syria shelled the school compound for hours. Everything was destroyed. At one point John and others were on the first floor of a building unable to get to the shelter. The third floor was struck. There were casualties and so much destruction that the training was postponed.
John couldn't go home because a Christian militia (if you can put those two words together), which opposed the National Army, controlled his neigbourhood in Beirut, a few km away. All the ports were closed but he was able to take a speed boat, under cover of night, to Cyprus. His brother George and other friends and neighbours also got to Cyprus around that time.
That's the continuing story. At least they are out of danger. You hear on the news things like "Israel has struck the southern suburbs of Beirut." Keep in mind that the whole city is only about twice the size of Cape Island. When you hear about strikes "deep in the south of Lebanon" - that is a maximum of 50km from Beirut.
John checks a website that lists the minute-by-minute exact location of every bomb. Yesterday there was a strike about 300 meters from his high school where a truck with a drill used in construction was targeted. This is in a totally Christian neighbourhood which has no more to do with Hezbollah than you or I do.
And our final email this morning -
Thirty hours in and John's family is at a hotel in Jordan. There have been mix-ups and miscommunications. They thought they were only supposed to be a full day in Cyprus, but it is two days and one night. They couldn't get their visitor visas for Cyprus because they are flying on Royal Jordanian Airlines and this airline couldn't see in their reservation system that they have continuing flights with Olympic Airways as proof that they aren't planning to just stay in Cyprus. Andreas thought he could get visas for them from the Cyprus side but he couldn't.
John and I were so annoyed this morning that this perfect plan we had worked out for them to get a rest in Cyprus had fallen apart. Andreas and Maria had been so wonderful in helping out and it was for nothing.
Then John called Abla's neighbours, the ones with her cell phone. We know them from when we were there two summers ago. John told the man that everyone had made it safely to Jordan. He said, "They were lucky. The road they had used to get out of Lebanon was bombed later in the day." Once again our little annoyance didn't seem to matter any more.
My sister Carol has been telling her 7-year-old son David some of what is happening. He told her this morning, "I don't know why they just didn't take a submarine. It would have been easier. Or they could just dig a tunnel to Canada." Carol told him that would be a lot of work and he said, "I could help."
So here is your lesson in perspective today. We are in a country, a town that is not being blown apart by bombs, there is no lack of water or food and the odds of us surviving until tomorrow are pretty good.
Pray for the situation in the Middle East. Pray for peace
....and be thankful.
We've spent the last week reading and praying with them about their trials and tribulations in getting the remainder of John's family out of Beirut to Canada. They all have their landed immigrant papers but they are not officially activated (so to speak) until they set foot on Canadian soil. Obviously no easy task here.
In one email we read....
The Beirut airport is closed, where John's brother George and his family left from, for NS, on June 28. The second option would normally be from Damascus but there is only one road there and that has been bombed. If they leave via the northern city of Tripoli it would usually be a six/seven hour drive to Damascus but who knows how long it will take now? They could also leave by boat to Cyprus but Israel has closed all ports. As today continues, more and more roads are being closed, trapping the Lebanese in their country and sometimes within their town or area.
We have talked to Abla this morning; John couldn't get through yesterday. She told me, "Don't worry about us, the Israelis are only targetting the Hezballah areas." They can see the smoke from the airport and other areas from their homes. Their windows are rattling with the explsions. They are expecting phone and internet connections to be cut at any time.
and in another update.....
Some people are wondering why the Lebanese government isn't stopping Hezbollah from launching attacks on Israel. Hezbollah is a militant group financed, armed and instructed by Syria and Iran. They have essentially controlled southern Lebanon for many years. The Lebanese government, barely a year free from Syrian control, would risk civil war to interfere. Plus they do not have the arms or finances to stop them.
Israel says they will stop bombing if the Lebanese government will stop Hezbollah from attacking Israel and will get them to release the two Israeli soldiers they captured. Israel knows, as do the western-world goverments, that the Lebanese government cannot control Hezbollah.
John's sisters Abla and Jocelyne have told us that even though it is bad now with Israeli bombardments, the rumours there are that Israel is actually holding back until the foreigners are out. They think it will soon be much worse, if that is possible.
This morning Abla called and said that they have hired a bus (I don't know if it is a mini-bus just for them or a bigger bus to include others) to take them out through the north or any other way possible. They plan to leave tomorrow am. They will drive through Syria and down into Jordan. They have found a friend of a relative of a relative of a...... who is a travel agent and has found flights for them on July 20 from Amman, Jordan to Montreal - with delays along the way. Three days total.
Needless to say this is very dangerous and expensive, though no one is even thinking of money now.
They can't risk losing the bus to Jordan option. The border could be completely sealed at any time. But they would never take this long, dangerous, option if they can be evacuated. A decision has to be reached in the next few hours. (They are six hours ahead of us)
Abla said that all the schools are filled to overflowing with people who have fled from other regions. Even homes that have been left empty by people who have left the country are being taken over and occupied by other people who have been displaced.
Starvation is a real possibilty for some. Abla said she was at a nearby supermarket and there is nothing on any shelf.
Jocelyne's husband, Bernard, has been told that he will be conscripted by the Lebanese National Army for military service. They feel desperate to leave before he is taken for this.
So now John's family is driving through Syria to Jordan. We received word that they arrived in Syria only to have found that the driver they arranged failed to show up. They did eventually arrive in Jordan but have since had difficulties in getting on the plane to come to Canada. In explaining this Sandra gave some interesting background to her husband John's background. It made me so thankful that we live here in Canada and my kids are growing up with the sounds of birds and laughter - not missiles and bombs.
John was in Cyprus in 1990-91. He had previously been in an officer training program in Lebanon for the Lebanese National Army, during the civil war. Nine months into the training, Syria shelled the school compound for hours. Everything was destroyed. At one point John and others were on the first floor of a building unable to get to the shelter. The third floor was struck. There were casualties and so much destruction that the training was postponed.
John couldn't go home because a Christian militia (if you can put those two words together), which opposed the National Army, controlled his neigbourhood in Beirut, a few km away. All the ports were closed but he was able to take a speed boat, under cover of night, to Cyprus. His brother George and other friends and neighbours also got to Cyprus around that time.
That's the continuing story. At least they are out of danger. You hear on the news things like "Israel has struck the southern suburbs of Beirut." Keep in mind that the whole city is only about twice the size of Cape Island. When you hear about strikes "deep in the south of Lebanon" - that is a maximum of 50km from Beirut.
John checks a website that lists the minute-by-minute exact location of every bomb. Yesterday there was a strike about 300 meters from his high school where a truck with a drill used in construction was targeted. This is in a totally Christian neighbourhood which has no more to do with Hezbollah than you or I do.
And our final email this morning -
Thirty hours in and John's family is at a hotel in Jordan. There have been mix-ups and miscommunications. They thought they were only supposed to be a full day in Cyprus, but it is two days and one night. They couldn't get their visitor visas for Cyprus because they are flying on Royal Jordanian Airlines and this airline couldn't see in their reservation system that they have continuing flights with Olympic Airways as proof that they aren't planning to just stay in Cyprus. Andreas thought he could get visas for them from the Cyprus side but he couldn't.
John and I were so annoyed this morning that this perfect plan we had worked out for them to get a rest in Cyprus had fallen apart. Andreas and Maria had been so wonderful in helping out and it was for nothing.
Then John called Abla's neighbours, the ones with her cell phone. We know them from when we were there two summers ago. John told the man that everyone had made it safely to Jordan. He said, "They were lucky. The road they had used to get out of Lebanon was bombed later in the day." Once again our little annoyance didn't seem to matter any more.
My sister Carol has been telling her 7-year-old son David some of what is happening. He told her this morning, "I don't know why they just didn't take a submarine. It would have been easier. Or they could just dig a tunnel to Canada." Carol told him that would be a lot of work and he said, "I could help."
So here is your lesson in perspective today. We are in a country, a town that is not being blown apart by bombs, there is no lack of water or food and the odds of us surviving until tomorrow are pretty good.
Pray for the situation in the Middle East. Pray for peace
....and be thankful.
posted by Cyndi | 9:10 AM
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