The days have been busy and I have been running around a lot between all the different offices and, on top of that, to my grandparents! Monday and Tuesday of this week I sat in to take the minutes for the Middle East Council of Churches'(MECC) partners meeting. The experience was very interesting and educational for me. I have the chance to witness a period of great change and renewal in the MECC, to watch and participate in small ways as an organization tries to change its stucture and rebuild relationships with its partners. Through the meetings and presentations I get to listen to the stories and opinions of those who are working on the ground in Syria and Egypt and southern Lebanon. And to watch as western partners ask questions about what the priorities should be, how the development work relates to Christian witness in the Middle East and...so many interesting things. To observe what is easy and what is hard for the eastern and western Christians to understand about each other, especially when one is donating money to the other.
Coming up in Lebanon, we have two big holidays, Easter, and then again, Easter!!! This coming Sunday will be Protestant Easter and on the following Sunday I will celebrate the Orthodox Easter with the Syrian Orthodox Church. I remember when I was a student in Lebanon, I felt that I was never going to school because there was always a holiday. It is because Lebanon has so many different religious factions and attempts to somehow accomodate them all. So at my university we had the days off for Christian and Muslim holidays as well as special Armenian holidays because it was an Armenian university. In addition, we had Christmas break for Dec 25 and again Christmas break for the Armenian Christmas which is celebrated on Jan 7. Now, lucky me, I have two 4-day weekends coming up!
