Wissam Nasrallah with the Society for Education and Social Development (LSESD) says, “While we’ve had vacancies in the presidency before, this is the first time the government is not empowered to take decisions, as it is a caretaker government. Most likely, we’re going to face a prolonged power vacuum.”

“This country is going through hyperinflation, massive devaluation of the currency, and an exodus of people.”

Lebanese have mixed feelings about Aoun, a Maronite Christian. Some saw him as a defender of the Christian community. Others criticized him for participating in the 1975-1990 civil war in Lebanon.

Nasrallah says, “His presidency was marked by a lot of turmoil and changes in the country. Lebanon is going through an unprecedented crisis. He’s not the only one to blame for that.”

Lebanon’s future

Nasrallah expects even more people to leave Lebanon in the coming months. Nasrallah says, “If you want to be optimistic, we might say some of some people could return when things get better. But many of those leaving are fleeing despair and leaving the country with a lot of hurts. I’m not too optimistic about a lot of them coming back.”

The more that leave, the harder it will be to rebuild Lebanon’s economy in the future.

LSESD provides education for kids who otherwise wouldn’t have access to it. Nasrallah says, “Especially within the relief and development arm, MERATH, we have about eight informal education centers throughout the country that cater mainly to Syrian refugee children. These programs are operated through the local church.”

In a situation that seems hopeless, pray the care of Lebanese Christians will point to Jesus.

To support LSESD’s work, visit mebo.org.

The header photo shows kids at Beirut Baptist School, run by LSESD. (Photo courtesy of LSESD on Facebook)

Firefighters responded to the blaze but used water on incorrectly labeled hydrogen peroxide. This caused further explosions that killed some firefighters and even people in the surrounding streets. A few residents were killed after approaching the fire to film it on their phones.

Chittagong sits on the Bay of Bengal and is Bangladesh’s second-most populous city.

Bruce Allen with FMI compares the tragedy to the Beirut explosion of August of 2020. “Reports that I received say the debris from the explosion was found a third of a mile away from the blast site. And the impact area was at least one and a half miles around the site, shattered windows and all that sort of thing.”

FMI has a thriving church plant in Chittagong. FMI partners from other areas are on their way to the city to help with the recovery process. Pray their love would point many to Jesus.

Industrial disasters

The fire broke out at a shipping container depot outside the city.

This isn’t the first time Bangladesh has suffered an industrial accident through carelessness. Just last year, fires at a food processing plant and a factory both killed around 50 people. Another 39 people died when a fire broke out on a ferry that was traveling at 170 percent passenger capacity.

Over 70 people died in 2019 when a fire from a warehouse spread into a neighborhood. And in 2013, the collapse of a building killed 1,136 people.

Allen says, “Pray for Bangladeshi society in general, as a nation, that they would recognize the significant need to reform their construction codes, their business practices, and their safety procedures.”

The header photo shows the port of Chittagong in the morning. (Photo courtesy of A junaid alam khan, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

The “failed state” label would categorize Lebanon with countries like Nigeria or Afghanistan. A big part of that has to do with last year’s Beirut explosion, one of the biggest man-made, non-nuclear explosions in history.

The ruling class

Pierre Houssney with Horizons International says the inaction and greed of the ruling class created this crisis in the first place. “For example, if a road project gets funding approved by the government for $2 million, they will spend $100,000 or less, filling potholes instead of doing the job. And then the rest of the money will disappear.”

Houssney explains how this ruling class first came to power after the Lebanese Civil War from 1975-1990. “Even going back to the early 1900s, there was a tramway in Beirut. There was great infrastructure. But in the war, there was a new ruling class that took power: these militia leaders. They took over everything, and they’re still the same guys who are running things today.”

The future

The worst-case scenario for Lebanon? Houssney says if the armed Shia group Hezbollah takes power, the country could become a little Iran. “So far, we have not lost our religious freedom. Lebanon enjoys more religious freedom, I would say, than even the U.S. But if things do slide into a mini Iran scenario, there will are going to be more and more limitations on the free press, free thought, and free religious expression.”

As Horizons International visits homes across Lebanon, most have someone who is open to hearing about Jesus. Pray many would find hope in Him as their government fails them.

Wissam Nasrallah of LSESD says, “When you drive by the port or walk by the explosion area, you can still see in a very visible way how the buildings and the streets in the city were impacted by the blast.”

Political corruption

Improperly stored chemicals caused the explosion, a result of corruption and inefficiency in the government.

But Nasrallah says people are no closer to getting justice. “Most of the folks that lost their businesses and homes did not recover anything from any insurance or state. They had to fix things by themselves, relying on family, friends, NGOs and so on. Add to that the emotional and psychological toll of knowing that even 11 months after such a horrendous explosion, the legal investigation is still going on.”

Lebanon’s political class still has formed no government since the explosion, and the country faces a severe financial crisis; the Lebanese pound has lost most of its value amid rampant poverty.

But the Church remains ever-present, helping those in need and providing hope.

Header photo courtesy of Horizons International.

Forty-eight students graduated from countries all around the Arab world. ABTS livestreamed the graduation celebration, featuring speakers, music, and a heartfelt prayer for God to empower the ministry of these new graduates. Watch the livestream here.

Director of Partnerships Loulwa El Maalouf says, “We heard a few testimonies from students who are spread out in the Arab world. You also get to see the variety of students, the diversity of students that we are celebrating, coming from all different countries.”

Obstacles this past year

It was a wild ride for these two ABTS classes. They saw Lebanon fall into financial ruin, a terrible explosion that decimated Beirut last summer, and a global pandemic that forced ABTS to shed its residential program.

Students had to work from home, and some struggled to find good internet. El Maalouf says, “Especially in places like Sudan and South Sudan. One of the students used to walk and take public transportation for over an hour every day, one way, to find a cafe with internet to be able to complete his studies. He was from South Sudan. He completed his studies and graduated.”

Header photo courtesy of ABTS. 

One Lebanese paramedic compared the daily caseload to the August 4th Beirut explosion. The country is registering thousands of new cases every single day.

The August 4th 2020 at explosion shattered windows all over Beirut. (Photo courtesy of TM Lebanon on Facebook)

Holiday celebrations

Nuna of Triumphant Mercy Lebanon currently has COVID-19, as do many others on the staff. She says holiday celebrations around the country caused the spike. “They opened the market for Christmas, they opened a gathering of families for Christmas. And then even for New Year, everything was open. And even until the sixth of January, actually, because that was the Armenian and the Orthodox Christmas. So then we waited all this time, and people were just mingling together. And of course, they tried to take some precautions, but it was never enough.”

Nuna describes the situation in hospitals right now. “People are standing at the door of hospitals, literally waiting to see if they will be allowed in. The father of one of our friends had to go to a different town because couldn’t find any hospital nearby. And he didn’t make it because it was too late.”

Continuing ministry

All Triumphant Mercy can do during the lockdown is send encouraging Gospel truths over WhatsApp, and make a few food deliveries. Nuna says, “I heard of a persecuted Christian who had converted to Christianity and is fleeing her family because they want to kill her and her daughters. So I went to get her food. Of course, I didn’t get into her home, I didn’t visit with her. I just took the food pack and deposited it at her door.”

Pray many Lebanese will see the care and love of Jesus through the ministry of Triumphant Mercy Lebanon. And pray this pandemic will end soon, not just in Lebanon but all over the world.

The head photo shows Triumphant Mercy Lebanon distributing food shortly before Christmas. (Photo courtesy of TM Lebanon on Facebook)

Along with many other buildings in Beirut, BBS lost several windows when the shockwave of the explosion shattered glass around the city. “We had to decide what buildings we can use, and what buildings we cannot. Some of the buildings, in which only the glass was affected, we were able to fix immediately. Which means that we were able to function with 30% of capacity.”

LSESD has also helped repair several other Beirut schools that were damaged in the explosion. You can read more about that here.

Damage to BBS after the explosion in August. (Photo courtesy of BBS on Facebook)

COVID-19 protocols

Now that kids are back in school, they have to follow strict protocols to combat COVID-19. In addition to a new cleaning routine, BBS can only host 50% of all students on campus. They also modified their desks using Plexiglass. “We put a Plexi safety shield on every desk. So students will come to school wearing their masks, and they sit all day long at this desk. We added two nurses on daily basis taking temperatures. We take their temperature on arrival, and we take their temperature every hour for every single child on campus.”

BBS not only educates students but often supports their families as well, especially as so many are suffering during the financial crisis. Many also lost their homes in the Beirut explosion. Wazir says, “We don’t believe that financial reasons should be a reason to leave the school, especially in times of crisis. So part of the school’s mission is to provide support for families .” Right now, BBS supports around 250 families.

Pray BBS will be able to continue supporting families of students in this way. You can support this effort by donating here. Most of all, pray that many in Lebanon will see Christ’s love shining through the school this year.

Beirut Baptist School after the Beirut explosion. (Photo courtesy of Beirut Baptist School on Facebook)

The explosion decimated Beirut’s port and damaged buildings throughout the city, as 2,750 tones of Ammonium Nitrate ignited during a warehouse fire. Port officials stored the chemicals in the port for years without proper safety measures.

Horizons International staff delivering food. (Photo courtesy of Horizons International on Facebook)

Pierre Houssney of Horizons International says, “Hassan Diab, the Prime Minister, he’s really somebody that came in pretty recently. And it’s kind of silly to give him the responsibility for really what the power brokers have done over the past seven years: having all these explosives in the port. So it’s really not his fault at all. And basically, it looks like they’re trying to put up the weakest scapegoat that they can to themselves escape scrutiny.”

Continuing corruption

Investigations about the explosion have dragged on for months with no real progress until now. The people of Lebanon have voiced their discontent over the process.

The explosion accelerated the economic troubles in Lebanon. Over half of Lebanese now live below the poverty line.  Houssney says the political elite has been stealing the country’s money for themselves.  “Even the biggest humanitarian aid organizations, including the UN, don’t have the capacity to sustain [the people of Lebanon]. To me, all these headlines and politics are not the really significant thing. To me, the significance is the human suffering that’s going on right now because of all this corruption and the stealing of all these billions of dollars. That money really should, I think, in God’s eyes, be used to let these people live and prosper.”

Jesus knows the depth of human suffering, and he has experienced the hopelessness many in Lebanon feel right now. As Horizons International works to provide help and hope, pray many would see Jesus’ love through their work.

The header photo shows the port of Beirut after the August 4th blast. (Photo courtesy of Horizons International)

“2020 has really affected Lebanon in a unique way,” Pierre Houssney, Executive Director at Horizons International, says. “Not only did we have the political crisis that caused the economic collapse that was also further made worse by the pandemic and now the explosion. So what we’re trying to do is be the voice of Christ, be the hands and feet of Christ for anybody that we can, giving personal care for them, sharing the Gospel, and then also trying to administer as much humanitarian aid in the name of Jesus as we can.”

Photo courtesy of Horizons International

Horizons International has staff and volunteers providing food, helping with rebuilding and repair, and equipping churches with resources to minister online. In addition to this, Horizons has launched a sustainability plan.

“We’re trying to move beyond short-term solutions or the band-aids of giving out humanitarian relief. We’re finding that short-term relief is ultimately not enough to get them on their feet,” Houssney says. “So what we’re trying to do is create this asset in land so that we can secure a sustainable, local food source that can be feeding people for years to come, rather than just the traditional relief part of just giving out aid.”

Horizons International’s goal is to not only provide aid to those affected by the explosion in Beirut and the Coronavirus but also to evangelize and bring the hope of salvation to them.

“What we’re after is eternal life for these people,” he says. “Just as relief is a very temporal solution, and development is a more long-term solution, still salvation is the longest term, the most sustainable solution for life.”

He continues by saying, “So what we’re trying to do is leverage every resource that we have to not only give short-term relief, or the little bit less short term development work, but also to usher people into the kingdom. That is an eternal source of life for them.”

Photo courtesy of Horizons International

Pray for those affected by the explosion in Beirut and the economic turmoil as a result of it and the Coronavirus. Pray also for the relief efforts of Horizon. “And I really think beyond praying that we need to act and we need to be supporting our Christian brothers and sisters in Lebanon in their time of need so that we can help them to build a Godly society in the future of the Middle East,” Houssney says. “The opportunities of the Gospel are so ripe right now. People are so ready to accept this message of salvation through Christ.”

Horizons International has a Lebanon Crisis Relief Fund that you can donate to. More information can be found on their website.

Feature photo courtesy of Horizons International

And what a chaotic 60^th year it has been. Elie Haddad, President of the school, says, “We had the economic meltdown in Lebanon with the hyperinflation, the social and political uprising, the pandemic, and then the big Beirut explosion in August. We’ve been through a series of crises.”

All this, especially COVID-19, has caused ABTS to rethink its residency program and adjust programs accordingly. Find out more here.

Civil war

These aren’t the first trying times ABTS has been through, Haddad says. The Lebanese Civil War that raged from 1975 to 1990 also caused havoc for the school. “Towards the end of the Civil War, in the late 80s, the leaders then, the American missionaries, were forced to move the operation to Cyprus for a couple of years. Then it moved back. At that time, there was a transition from missionary ownership to local Lebanese that took ownership.”

Join a Facebook live stream on November 12 to learn more about the curriculum at ABTS. (Photo courtesy of ABTS on Facebook)

Elie first arrived at ABTS in 2005, and by that time the school had been fully revived after the war.

The founding of ABTS

American missionaries first founded the school as an aid to church planting. Haddad says, “They started the school to train the pastors that were assigned to these new church plants. So, they came in, created the need, and met the need. It was an amazing thing for something like that to happen in 1960.”

The seminary originally trained leaders for churches in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt.

To the future

Looking to the future, Haddad says ABTS needs to be aware of the challenges in the region, such as poverty, unemployment, and the fallout from COVID-19. ABTS always seeks to train church leaders for the real situations they will face.

Haddad says, “It is not logical,” that a small school like ABTS should survive for 60 years. Praise God for His faithfulness, and pray He will continue guiding ABTS into the future.

Curious about how the ABTS curriculum works? On November 12, ABTS faculty members will hold live streams in English to explain how the school prepares the Arab Church for engagement in their context. Join the streams on the ABTS Facebook page.

Header photo courtesy of ABTS on Facebook.