MISSIONARY HOT SPOTS

A kidnapping in Jordan, refuge in a bomb shelter in Lebanon, and overthrown governments in Libya and Ethiopia.

It sounds like today's headlines from the Middle East and Africa, but for Dr. Jon and Eppy Green it was just business as usual while they were missionaries for the Adventist Church in that part of the world from the late 1960s through 1990.

The couple were missionaries -- him in education and her in nursing, education, administration and homemaking -- in Libya, Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon, Cyprus and Kenya.

"People are the same the world around other than those few who are terrorists," said Dr. Green, 68, who later served as a professor at Southern Adventist University. "I felt more secure there than in (some United States cities) after dark."

The Nebraska native doesn't deny the world has a problem with terrorists, but he said missionaries, tourists and others who visit countries in the region don't have to worry about the general population.

He and his wife raised their daughter and son during their time in the Middle East and Africa and took their grandchildren through part of the area last year.

Mrs. Green, 68, originally from Iraq and now a Realtor in Collegedale, said she and her husband were "young and naive" but "really trusted the people there. It all happened one day at a time."

"I was one of them," she said. "I guess I didn't realize it could be so bad. Now I wonder why did I do some of the things I did."

Dr. Green was kidnapped by the Palestinian Liberation Organization at the Lebanon-Syria border while en route to Jordan in the 1980s, he said. He was held 12 to 15 hours before he was able to escape in Amman.

"That was the only time I felt like I was in a problem," he said.

Mrs. Green said she and her husband routinely turned to Psalm 91, which deals with the safety found in abiding in the presence of God, when in need of strength.

"We've always known that as a psalm of protection," she said. "But we always wanted to be there (in the region). It was just going with the flow."

MISSIONARY DIARY

Dr. Jon Green and his wife, Eppy, were missionaries in six countries for the Adventist Church between the late 1960s and 1990:

* Libya -- The Greens' first posting with the Adventist Church was cut short in 1969 when Muammar al-Gaddafi and a group of military officers staged a bloodless coup against King Idris I while he was out of the country for medical treatment. Prior to the coup, Dr. Green had served as a tutor to the royal family.

* Ethiopia -- Dr. Green was president in charge of Adventist missions in the western part of the country while he and his family were there in the early 1970s. He said his main modes of transportation were a small Cessna plane he piloted and a motorcycle. His son, who was often a passenger on the plane, went on to be a missionary pilot. The Greens left the country when Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown in 1974.

* Jordan -- Dr. Green was kidnapped and held 12 to 15 hours before escaping while he was a missionary in the country.

* Cyprus -- The Greens spent nine months in the island country after having to leave Jordan because of violence.

* Lebanon -- During his stay in the country in the mid- to late-1970s, the Greens had to spend 10 days in a bomb shelter beneath their house because of the closeness of violence.

* Kenya -- Dr. Green organized, taught in and was dean of the School of Education in, and helped develop technology for, the Adventist Church's new University of Eastern Africa while the family was there between 1980 and 1990. He also assisted villages in installing hydrams (hydraulic ram pumps).

HOT SPOTS STILL HOT

Dr. Jon Green, who served as a missionary in six countries in Africa and the Middle East, talks about current problems in the region he served:

* On the U.S. insistence of enhanced screening in countries such as Libya and Lebanon: "We still have friends there and family in Iraq. We have much interest in what happens in the Middle East. Lebanon's been relatively quiet for a number of years. I can understand they don't want to put in security measures. They don't want to go through extra trouble to do it. It's no skin off their teeth. I don't know how cooperative we would be (if it would) make more problems for our own citizens."

* On safety during his most recent trip, which included a visit to Turkey with his grandchildren: "After we lived overseas, in that part of the world, most of these troubles, probably 95 percent of them, are not really troubles if Americas go over there. We had no problems whatever."

* On Ethiopia's border clash with Eritrea, which was not a separate country when the Greens lived there: "There was a clash (when they were there). We had to be evacuated to Addis Ababa. We never got back to Eritrea. The military took over our house."

* On unrest in Jordan, which is alleged to be the home of the suicide bomber who recently killed eight people at a CIA base in Afghanistan: "Jordan has been one of the most stable countries in the Middle East once King Hussein was able to get the Palestinians under control."

* On trouble in Lebanon, which has had border clashes but has been relatively calm since its 2006 war with Israel: "They would still have problems if the Christians (approximately 35 percent of the population among the Muslim majority) were not there. Their problems go millenniums back. They have a very independent spirit. They have concluded kind of every man for himself out in the desert. That develops a rugged individualism. It's difficult to get into democracy with that societal mode."

* On the location of Kenya, which shares a border with troubled Somalia and war-torn Sudan: "The troubles have been more recent, with al-Quaida moving into Somalia and Yemen. There was one attempt coup (while they were there), but it did not succeed."