Mid-City Christian: A GLIMPSE OF HEAVEN IN LEBANON

Gilbert welcomed by children living in Syrian refugee camp in Beqaa Valley, Lebanon, May 2016

Gilbert's Trip to Lebanon
“I will not be separated from your love, Jesus. Even though sword and persecution come.” A few gentle strums on a guitar floated across a crowd of 700 at the Beit El Tabib concert hall in Beirut. Gilbert opened his mouth to sing the first two lines of Havadkes Chem Morana, the song that has come to represent the life and martyrdom of his father, Haik Hovsepian, but not a sound came out. Struck by the tears of many that were seated before him, Gilbert was moved to the point of silence by the connection that he shared with hundreds of people in the room – the shared struggle to forgive and love those who have hurt us in immeasurable ways. For Gilbert’s family, and indeed for many of the people that filled the hall that night, this can mean forgiving and loving an entire nation. Gilbert’s co-performer, Houry Apartian, hugged Gilbert on her way to center stage, taking the microphone in his place. As her smooth, jazzy voice filled the silence, Gilbert’s words still hung in the air “people say forgiveness is hard. But I disagree. Forgiveness is not hard, it’s impossible.” The theme of persecution and suffering resonates strongly with a nation like Lebanon, a nation of 4.5 million that is now home to over 1.2 million Syrian refugees, “and that’s why we need God” Gilbert continues, “to make the impossible, possible.”

Above: Gilbert and Houry perform at the Beit El Tabib Concert Hall in Beirut, May 2016.

These words fell particularly strong on the ears of Nschan, the Pastor of a church in Syria who, like many in his congregation, lost his wife and children when the church was bombed just a few weeks ago. Gilbert is honest in admitting that the majority of his time spent with Nschan consisted of tough questions that Gilbert could not always have an answer to. The Pastor expressed his struggle to simply write the weekly sermon “it takes me 50hrs to prepare…because every verse, every message I choose, I anticipate the questions that my congregation will ask me…always ‘why, why, why?’”. For Nschan, Gilbert’s own journey to forgiving those who killed his father and changing his ‘why’ to a ‘what can be done now? What can be learnt? How can I grow?’ is as comforting as it is challenging. Thankful for the hours spent talking with a man whom he knew could really empathize with his pain, there is one bold reassurance that Gilbert could not leave unsaid “it will feel like this for now, that you have lost everything. That you are on the losing side. But this is not your identity. This is what is happening to you. It is not who you are.”

The truth that our identity is never shaped by our circumstance reflects the promise of Romans 8:38-39, the verse that Gilbert chose to read as the closing passage, ‘nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.’ It is this truth that has changed the life of a father and son living in a Syrian refugee camp in the Beqaa Valley, just 15 miles from the Syrian border. Gilbert was able to visit the camp the day before his concert. A young man, in very broken English, described to Gilbert how he and his father had come to know the love of Christ through the bible study groups that are held weekly in the camp by John and his wife Sara. The married couple who established the camp that houses 450 Syrian refugees, the majority of whom are Muslim. Despite his limited English, the young man eagerly listened to what Gilbert had to share with him about his own faith, distracted only once when he stopped to pick up a small child who had been running around him in circles, begging him to play.

Above: Gilbert meets those living in the Beqaa Valley Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon, May 2016.

Despite the harsh realities of life circumstances, the friendship, warmth and positive spirit of this community is clear. In a dusty city of tents, gravel, and barefoot children, there is a shared sense of gratitude for having ‘found refuge’ in the community that John and Sara have built. The noticeable hope and kindness in the young man’s eyes was a clear answer to the question posed in Romans 8 ‘who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?’ On the contrary, it was in the midst of all of these things that a young man and his father had in fact found Christ. Although this sight, just like the hundreds of tear-filled eyes in the Beirut concert hall, or the broken heart of a Syrian Pastor who is faithfully holding on to hope, may be far from what we would imagine heaven to look like, there is no denying the powerful presence of Christ in all of this. Gilbert recounts his visit to Lebanon as a ‘sample of heaven’, that in spite of all hardship and persecution, an unbreakable spirit of unity and love prevails.

Above Left: Sunday school tent at Syrian Refugee Camp , Above Right: Gilbert speaks to John inside a tent home.

During the two concerts in Beirut, Gilbert was able to encourage hundreds with the sincerity of his music and lyrics, as well as the sharing of stories about his own journey towards forgiveness since his father’s martyrdom. Gilbert gave away hundreds of CDs, including 200 to a church in Lebanon to raise funds for the refugee camp in the Beqaa Valley. Before or after concerts and rehearsals, Gilbert made every opportunity to invest in the lives of those he met and offer encouragement, prayers and a listening ear. Gilbert is full of inspiring stories from his trip; an 18-year-old girl who had always doubted God’s existence and counted herself a ‘non-believer’ boldly declaring that she had committed her life to Christ during the Saturday night concert; a Syrian woman with cancer who had lost her family and home because of ISIS, rediscovering a desire to live, filled with forgiveness and belief that God could use her own pain in a similar way that He had used Gilbert’s; the openness of Muslim Syrian refugees to the bible study group in the Beqaa Valley camp; the standing ovation and applause that a Lebanese crowd gave to welcome 30 Syrians as they entered the Beirut concert hall as a symbol of solidarity. The eyes of these people have all seen such different things, but one experience remains the same – the restorative power of forgiveness that only Christ can give, a love that nothing can separate us from. After a few quiet moments, Gilbert was able to step back up to the microphone to sing the final verse of Havadkes chem morana: “until I take my last breath, lovely Jesus, I will not forget you” and indeed, we can be sure that He has not forgotten us.

The names of certain people and places in this article have been changed for privacy and security purposes.