The Ecumenical Committee's consultant, Rev. Wilbert Van Saane: We were able to feel the love of Jesus through this tragedy and hardship

Rev. Wilbert Van Saane

Following the Beirut Blast, the Middle East Council of Churches called for an Ecumenical Committee to help the widest range of affected people, it formed a team of responsables in the Council and of representatives of the Member Churches in Beirut.

To shed the light on this field relief work, the Communication and Public Relations department met the Committee's consultant, Rev. Wilbert Van Saane, a member of the Dutch Church representing Kerk in Actie, and a professor at the Evangelical Theology School in Beirut.

With sincere feelings, Rev. Wilbert expressed his sorrow and regret due to the material and psychological damage that affected the Lebanese, especially the Beirut Citizens. He explained the nature of his role in this Committee, noting the humanitarian and relief work carried out by the Evangelical Church in Lebanon and the Netherlands.

You are a consultant in the Ecumenical committee of Beirut, what is precisely your role?

 I am a Dutch pastor so I see my role as more supporting, in the Ecumenical Committee I have been trying to help with the communication a little bit.

I think there are many protestant Churches, Evangelical Churches that are involved in the relief work on the ground, in the reconstruction on the ground, who are looking after the families of the churches that has been affected, and what I do is support in the back.

How you are supporting?

 After the blast, I felt it was my role as a protestant minister and as part of the Ecumenical movement here, to communicate with my Church back in Netherland and with Churches in other places like Belgium. And news outlets in these countries and what have happened. Therefore, I was a lot on the phone with Medias in these countries to inform them of what happened and to inform them about what the Churches here are doing. So that was mostly my role in the beginning.

What was the influence of your communication role?

I think it helped my people in Europe and in my country in particular (Holland), to be aware of what was happening here. In addition, it helped them see the huge impact of the explosion in the lives of people because you know they see pictures on their screens and they know it is terrible, but I think there are small stories that need to be told. And I took the opportunity to tell some of the stories of the families that we knew, some of the Christian families in the affected areas.

How was the nature of the support of the Dutch people?

I think the response was quick and very compassionate and personally, I was very moved. (…)

But I felt so happy and so humbled. Immediately they said we are going to open a special bank account so people can donate and they did not even ask the Churches here yet, but they said we know there is a need and we are going to try to collect the money and support as soon as we can. Not only the Churches in Holland but also the common Society, the cooperating aid and relief organization used the biggest instruments that they have for Beirut, only once in a few years they would use that. Sometimes when there is an earthquake or a tsunami they would use it. Last time they used it was with the disaster in Indonesia, now they said we want to use this for Beirut because we can see that this is a disaster that is beyond all proportions and so they collected I think more than 10 million Euros, I am not sure about the number; I have to check. It’s millions of Euros.

This doesn’t all come to the church of course, most of it goes to the General relief organization. My Church always said okay we participate in this, but we want to also support our partner Churches here in the Middle East in Beirut.

Was it through the MECC?

No, most of it not, but I am just illustrating that the response in Netherlands was heartwarming including in the churches.

As Kerk in Actie you are supporting through MECC, through this Ecumenical Committee?

They believe in working ecumenically so they always like to involve the Middle East council of Churches, also because they know that the MECC are here and they know the Churches better than they do, that is why they like to involve them in many of their work.

You had an experience in preparing a short documentary of the Beirut Blast, how can you describe your experience?

I think it was very moving to visit families in their homes, see what they have been through, and hear their testimonies. A deep impact on people of all ages, elderly middle age and also children. And it was wonderful to see that the Church stood by their side, that the priests and bishops came to the homes or called to check on their parishioners. And to hear from the people of the Churches, their Priest, their Parish, their Bishop didn’t let them down in this difficult time. And I think that is a wonderful testimony to the love of Jesus. At work and in the middle of this disaster, I think sometimes in crisis we see the love of God more clearly. and I think making this documentary helped me to see that again.

Currently you are working with the Evangelical Church. What is their roles were they affected?

The evangelical Church is doing something that the other churches are doing, which is to assist those who are in need of food, those who are in need of clothes, those who are in need of help with restoration. Of course, Evangelicals are a small community in Lebanon with limited means. So we are doing what we can, and with the help of partners. Some of the Evangelical Churches were affected themselves, like the Armenian Evangelical Churches in Achrafieh and their school, the national evangelical church in down town and other churches. There is some serious damage there, but like the other churches they said let’s help the people first then we get to our buildings. And now we are getting to a stage where we are restoring the building as much as we can.

And you supported the families affected?

Yes of course, and we still are because the challenge is not gone

I want to give credit to Rima my wife because she is coordinating among the Evangelical Churches and she does much more work than I am. I think she sees that there is a continuous need with the economic crisis. People can’t afford what they could afford in the past, and they simply don’t have enough to make it to the end of the month. And food prices are high, we don’t want this to happen, but food is a continuous need. A lot of food parcels came in, we said okay now we have enough food parcels but in a few months’ time, people will still feel that: “I cannot buy the food for my family that I want to buy”. So on the long run we need the economy to recover and we need people to have jobs that pay well and with good conditions.

 Maybe cash money can support them more; this way they can buy whatever they need?

Yes, I think Churches are becoming smart about this

There is a continuous need for support, on the long run I think the best think is for people to help themselves in having dignified jobs.

Do you think that the phase 2 of this aid can to provide them with furniture?

We see a real need in support for schools. The Evangelical schools in Beirut are in a difficult place, they are all private schools and the parents cannot afford the tuitions. We need to support the families to keep their kids in school. Because the prospect of having a generation that cannot go to school, or cannot get good schooling is a terrible prospect. Supporting the schools is a great thing, because it helps the schools pay their teachers, it helps the families to keep the kids in school. It helps the children to prepare for a better future for our country. And the parents can work at the same time.

Communication and Public Relations Department