If you follow the ministry of our radio show, you know of my recent trip to Lebanon as part of a disaster response medical team. This arose from the acute needs of the Lebanese people following the war between Israel and the Hezbollah terror organization in Southern Lebanon. I have been asked many questions regarding answering this call to go. These include “why go to Lebanon?”, “aren’t you afraid?”, “will it be dangerous?”, “why is it necessary for American physicians to go?”. These were all valid questions and certainly were in the forefront of my mind as I prepared to go. However, I did not have full answers to these questions and knew God expected me to step out in faith.
Certainly, I was dealing with many varied and in fact mixed emotions which all began with the mobilization call. I had already been following the events in the Middle East leading up to the summer war between Israel and Lebanon and was quite interested in what was happening in the region. So when I received the call from the disaster response office of the Mississippi Baptist Convention I was immediately excited about the opportunity to go. I knew from our previous disaster response trips that there would be unique opportunities to serve God and share our faith in Christ by providing high quality medical care to those who were desperate for such care. I would not be disappointed.
Despite the hatred that was palpable due to the casualties and destruction of war, the Lebanese people responded to the love of God in a profound way. The gratitude and hospitality of those whose world had been turned upside down were great encouragement to all of us who had traveled far and felt at risk being in Southern Lebanon. The experience of Lebanon was very instructive in treating people who had lost everything but their lives. Many had lost loved ones as well and many were injured themselves either by the bombing or from living in this war torn environment. The injuries, needs, and diseases were very similar to the other disaster zones we had worked such as the tsunami or hurricane Katrina. The new lessons, which were of great value to the medical teams working in this type environment, had to do with the psychological trauma of living with and through a man made disaster. It is horrible enough to experience the losses described by the tsunami and hurricane survivors, but the added burden of knowing that this very disaster in Lebanon was avoidable. Not only was it avoidable but it was in fact intentional. It is one thing to lose your home or your family to a natural disaster. It is an added burden to know you lost your home or your family due to man’s inhumanity to man.
The medical response teams expect to diagnose and manage post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in most every disaster event, but the PTSD issue was multiplied over and over due to the man made dimension in Lebanon. Disaster events such as the war in Lebanon or the 9/11 terrorist attacks haunt the survivors with the fact that people wanted this to happen and went to great effort and cost to make sure it happened. These facts make the nightmares more vivid, the fear run deeper, the recovery phase prolonged and it makes the work of providing caring medical support that much more difficult. Despite these increased challenges and certainly even because of them, the power and the love of God was even more evident and effectual in changing these effected lives. This was the purest and most powerful source of healing for the survivors. It provided a stark contrast for those enduring the suffering from those who attacked them. It then also provided an even more dramatic contrast with those who ministered to them and in the process brought healing through the love of Christ Jesus. In the final analysis, the best answer to the many questions I was confronted with was being obedient to the call of God. By doing so, God’s love and healing spirit were allowed to work through his servants on the medical response teams. Indeed, how much more danger would we have been in had we refused to go.
God’s blessing upon you all and may the peace and comfort of our Lord Jesus Christ bless the wonderful people of Lebanon.
Dr. Dan Edney
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