I knew Fida about twenty years ago and it was a real pleasure to meet her again. Fida has an unusual story about an experience she had during the terrible civil war that tore the Lebanon apart, when shellfire set the hills around the Middle East University alight. In summer, when everything is brown and dry, such fires rage with quite frightening intensity and even today a dropped cigarette can send flames leaping high into the air and burn out dozens of houses.
Fida's conclusion raises all sorts of questions in a land where so many died and there was so much suffering, but she is quite serene in her conviction that the university and its students received special care.
The "More info" option links to an old book that I am surprised to find still available but which tells stories of God's intervention in human affairs. One of the people whose story is told bore the name of "Calkins" and a few years ago I met a man with that surname. Just at a venture I asked him if he had heard of the book. He hadn't. I then told him the story and asked if he had ever heard of it. His face lit up. "That was my grandmother!" he exclaimed and was most interested to see my very old and tattered copy of the book.
Fida