Pierre Houssney with Horizons International says many Lebanese ages 34 to 50 are reliving the country’s civil war (which lasted from 1975 to 1990). Young adults and kids are grappling with this trauma for the first time. Sometimes it’s catching.

People on the streets of Lebanon. (Photo courtesy of Horizons International via Facebook)

“I grew up outside of Lebanon during the civil war, so I don’t tremble when I hear the airstrikes. My kids are not afraid of the airstrikes, because they see how I’m comfortable, I’m relaxed, I know what’s going on, I know where the strikes are happening,” Houssney says. 

“But other people of my generation, they actually start to physically tremble, and that gets passed on to their kids as well.”

The UN says 1.2 million people have been internally displaced in Lebanon in the past three weeks, 400,000 of them children. Their education has obviously been put on hold, which is one more reason officials are concerned for the future of Lebanon. The nation has endured so many crises already in recent decades.

“We have over 1.2 million internally displaced people, and this is a country [where] the “nationals” — the indigenous people, Lebanese — are maybe 4, 4.5 million total. Plus we have over half a million Palestinian refugees who have been temporarily here since 1948. We also have upwards of 2 million Syrian refugees,” Houssney says.

“The whole country is in chaos right now. There’s a lot of fear, and we’re really now in a wartime mode. It’s been quite intense.”

Ministering in “wartime mode”

Horizons’ School of Hope is not open. Instead, the classrooms as well as the building where a Kurdish church once met are shelters now for hundreds of internally displaced people. Their staff have dropped their original job descriptions to cook for, pray with and minister to the displaced.

The Horizons’ medical team distributed vital supplies and provided care to individuals sheltering at the School of Hope. (Photo courtesy of Horizons International via Facebook)

The situation Horizons staff are seeing on the ground is urgent. Houssney asks that we focus our prayers with them on the spiritual battle.

“These crises that happen in the worldly realms, they always represent open doors for the spiritual impact of people,” he explains.

“We get to know them, and we see that they’re open. We do not spare any opportunity to share the gospel in a way that shows genuine love so that they can understand we [are] helping them in the humanitarian [means]  because we truly love them with the love of Christ.”

Learn more about Horizons International and support their response to the crisis in Lebanon here.

Header image courtesy of Horizons International.

Healthy snacks at Horizons International’s School of Hope help take the edge off child hunger. With 140 needy children enrolled, Horizons wants to reach even more in 2023.

“We’re bursting at the seams in our Beirut building, and there are so many more kids that we would love to educate,” Executive Director Pierre Houssney says.

(Photo courtesy of Horizons International)

Horizons began School of Hope to provide Syrian refugee children with an education. In previous years, these kids could not attend regular school in Lebanon. However, due to Lebanon’s financial crisis, much of “the public school system is privatized,” Houssney says.

“Anyone who has a privately-owned building could have a school in it. They can get a public school license and receive funds from the government to run a public school, but it’s still a private business.”

Today, “we have opportunities to take over schools that are going bankrupt,” Houssney says.

“A lot of these public schools are going out of business because the money coming from the government is in local currency, which has crashed.”

Some facilities already have a Gospel-centric program in place. For example, “there is a missionary-run school in the north of Lebanon that is going to shut down this coming summer if we don’t intervene,” Houssney describes.

Others will become Christ-centered Schools of Hope if the Lord wills.

“At this point, we have the human resources side lined up; we have local believers willing and qualified to teach. It’s just securing the location and setting things up,” Houssney says.

Pray about it, and ask the Lord if He wants you to get involved. Dozens of students need sponsors. Find your place in the story here.

In the header image, Syrian refugee students pose for a photo during snack time. (Photo courtesy of Horizons International)

See our full Lebanon coverage here.

“Everybody’s saying, ‘Oh, we’re in a deep crisis,’ but nobody is offering any solution,” Nuna from Triumphant Mercy Lebanon says of caretaker politicians.

Protestors in October 2019.
(Photo credit: Walid Houweyek)

Two primary forces are driving Lebanese to the streets, she continues. “One is we have been without the government for almost two years. Even the caretaker government now says that they want to bail out and leave a vacuum,” Nuna explains.

“On the other side, the economic crisis. People can’t afford even basic needs anymore.”

While most of Lebanon’s protestors gather for these two reasons, others join demonstrations with a political agenda. “Some people are there just because the leaders told them to go and make problems,” Nuna says.

“Some are terrorists; some are from Hezbollah; some are from the Shiite party.”

In mid-February, Lebanese authorities charged dozens of protestors in Tripoli with terrorism-related offenses. If convicted, these protesters could face the death penalty.

Lebanon desperately needs your intercessory prayers.

“This is how we pray so you can join us. We’re praying [for] God’s intervention because we don’t know how things would change,” Nuna says.

“There is no other solution than God.”

Pray for believers as they meet physical and spiritual needs in Lebanon. You can help TM Lebanon purchase supplies here.

“The NGOs have been working day and night for the people, but the government is not doing anything. We need prayer,” Nuna states.

“God needs to intervene and shift everything from a desert to a fertile field.”

Header image depicts Beirut protestors in late 2019. (Photo courtesy of Shahen books/Wikimedia Commons)