We spent today learning about the amazing ministries carried out by the Baptists in Lebanon. They have done much to aid refugees from the war in Syria. The woman pictured on the right, Nawal (photo #2, above), is from a very small village in southern Lebanon. Her church is helping to feed 12 refugee families who have come to the village.  During the 2006 war, she herself was displaced and took refuge, with hundreds of others, in the same seminary building where we were meeting. This conversation with leaders of the Lebanese Baptist Women's Union was a high point for many in our group. We have yet to leave the campus of the seminary. Lots of sitting. Tomorrow we get to go into downtown Beirut.

On Tuesday, bright and early after our arrival in Tbilisi, we got in a van and drove across the whole western half of Georgia (about a six hour drive excluding stops) to the city of Betumi on the Black Sea. That is the region of Georgia which is primarily Muslim. We prayed together in a Mosque there (photo #7, above). We also spent the night in the homes of Muslim families. We attended some official conversations between Georgian Baptist and Muslim leaders, and even a meeting with the local government leaders. Baptists, a tiny minority in Georgia, are reaching out to and speaking up for the Muslims, another minority, as they struggle for fair treatment at the hands of the Orthodox Georgian government.  The headline in the local paper after our visit was: "Baptists Demand Land to Build a Mosque". Not quite, but close enough!