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>> Well, the news from the Middle East it always alerts everybody. I hope I alert you
and you don’t feel sleepy anymore. I come from Lebanon, from Middle East region. And
we come from a region which is getting to be more religious or more fanatic even in
certain cases. And in our region, there’s no separation between church and state. And
listening now to Stefan, my friend, he said that in his country, Sweden, people are 7%
only who are interested in religion. If you do the statistics of the Middle East, you
will get 99.99 people who are interested in religion. We live in a region 350 – surrounded
by 350 million Arabs. Christians are less than 5% among only those 350 million Arabs.
However I come to you this afternoon to share with you a message of hope that God is at
work in that region, too. And that God is for all nations and there is no minorities
or majorities in God’s language. So we’re happy and privileged and blessed to live in
that region of the world. [APPLAUSE] Evangelicals, they have a major role in peace
making in the Middle East. Specifically in my country where I come from where it still
has a Christian faith country. We don’t have anymore the luxury to escape or to say
we are the minorities; we need to be the minorities with his help, with the effect of the majorities.
It’s our responsibility to be proactive. And although we are minorities, but in many
cases we get to be the solution for the people who are fighting amongst each other. We
ask ourselves today, dogma or diversity. I will share with you what’s happening in
Lebanon very briefly. In our seminary, we do have the Middle East conference and the
Middle East conference it’s a platform where we get Muslim scholars and Christian scholars
to sit together and discuss issues that’s happening between them. And we have seen that
the best way usually we hate what we ignore. And the more we learn about other religions,
the better we are. And more we talk to them, the better we are. And this is what’s happening
in our conferences. Dogma or diversity, we cannot look to all Middle East to all the
people to the 350 million to be terrorists. We cannot look to the 350 million people to
be the reason of any trouble in the whole world. Many of those people, they are very
sincere people, and they are – they have a sincere need to know more about our religion,
about Jesus Christ, and about Christianity. We cannot take all of them, we cannot look
at all of them the same way at all times. I’m sure you have heard about the Common
World document that has been done in Jordan and evangelicals had a minor part to do with
it, we have seen that we have no choice; we want to coexist all together in the Middle
East. We have no other choice. And I have some good news for you this afternoon, it
depends how you look to other people. To Muslims or to other religions. Whatever we look to
them. If we look to them we have two choices only. If we look to them as enemies, our Bible
teaches us to love them. And if we look to them as brothers and sisters, we have to love
them. So basically, we have no other choice. [APPLAUSE] Those are some pictures that
will show you how we talk to each other, how we open this platform, and now it’s not,
we don’t have plenty of time, but in many certain cases we see diversification, diversity
is the solution. We talk, go and visit, we give them the chance and you will be surprised
how many people are hungry to hear the word of God. Beirut Baptist School is one of
the platforms. We have 1300 students. 1200 of them are from non-Christian background.
From Muslim background and they gladly listen to the Bible every week and they attend chapel,
attend Bible classes. The motto of this school is that’ the truth will set you free.’
And the truth we provide it very clearly and we do not compromise. We provide it with dignity
and honor and respecting all other religions and I tell you, God is using this platform
for his glory. I tell you that education is a platform that we should put all our efforts
into it. This is the platform which is the comfort zone of evangelicals and we can earn
the trust of people. They come to our school because we provide excellence in education
and our responsibility as Christians to provide the first-class quality in everything we do
to earn the respect of the others. During the war – since three years, I’m sure
you heard about the war in the Middle East, one of the wars you always hear about it,
and we had opportunity for a social ministry. We found it difficult to witness to people
who are hungry and scared and bummed. We opened our institutions, evangelical institutions
in Lebanon, and one-third of Lebanon was displaced. And we opened for all those people who can
break your heart, we opened our institutions to feed them and to help them and to shelter
them. And it was a very good opportunity to show them – to witness for them without
opening our mouth. Evangelicals were working day and night. I will finish my brief word
to tell you do not forget the Middle East and be sure that God has a lot to do more
and more in the Middle East and keep us in your prayers. Thank you.