Prime Minister Wickremesinghe says he can turn Sri Lanka’s economy around, promising a tough 2023 but improvements in 2024.

As the prices for food, fuel, and medicine increase, many Sri Lankans try to escape by boat to India or Australia. Several refugees have landed in India so far, and are being kept in a refugee camp.

Adrian De Visser with Asian Access says people have lined up for days in order to get fuel. “Yesterday, there was a report about a man who had lined up for gas [who] was living in the car for five days. He had died, and nobody knew that he died inside his own car.”

Corruption

How did things get this bad in Sri Lanka? De Visser says, “It’s because of political mismanagement and corruption. I would say very boldly that this country has been mismanaged by the recent rulers for the last 10 to 15 years. They have started borrowing money from China and other places. And we find out now that at least 10-30 percent of the money borrowed never reached its purpose.”

Furious with the ruling officials, protestors have planned a nationwide demonstration for July 9.

Meanwhile, local Christians continue to meet in small groups and pray. De Visser says, “And people are praying not only for an economic revival, but they’re asking for a spiritual revival. Because our people have lost faith in the government.”

“They have lost faith in their traditional religions.”

Sri Lankan Christians also work to show Jesus’ love to their neighbors. De Visser says, “I’ll give you an example. Our church is encouraging everybody to turn their gardens into vegetable plots. We are providing them with vegetable plants and fertilizer. We are raising fish because we want our people to have enough protein.”

The header photo shows Sri Lankan protestors in April 2022. (Photo courtesy of AntanO, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

But Nuna from Triumphant Mercy Lebanon says this decision is doing nothing to quench the anger felt in Lebanon over government corruption.  “Even somebody that the speaker of Parliament appointed as a judge is one of his relatives. So, this is also corruption. Why would you put somebody that’s your relative, not somebody who’s really competent to the job?”

Cleaning up Beirut. (Photo courtesy of Triumphant Mercy Lebanon)

The people are building the country

Nuna says people in Lebanon just want the political elite to go away so they can rebuild the country themselves. “And it’s true. The government is not doing anything. municipalities are not doing anything. Public offices are not doing anything. Even the big Beirut municipality is not on the streets to clean. People are.”

This anger has especially affected young people who don’t have anything else to do except try to create change in the country. Nuna says, “They’re coming from the North. They’re coming from the mountains. Yesterday, I met people who came four hours to just . . . help rebuild Beirut. So, it shows the drive inside people to just topple this government and replace it.”

Sharing the Gospel

Triumphant Mercy has worked with a lot of these young people as they clean up the streets of Beirut, and this has given them the opportunity to share the hope of Jesus Christ. Nuna says, “I think the Gospel is loving each other, loving others. It’s just caring for others, crying with those who cry and mourn with those who mourn. This is our biggest message now.”

Lebanon’s people have completely lost hope in their government. Pray that many will come to Christ, the King who will never fail them.

The header image shows the epicenter of last week’s explosion in Beirut (Photo courtesy of Arab Baptist Theological Seminary on Facebook)

The port before the blast. (Photo courtesy of Horizons International)

Pierre Houssney of Horizons International says the country was already struggling with an economic crisis and political instability. “This is the triple crisis. Lebanon was just hanging by a thread, and now it just gets rocked by the biggest explosion that’s ever happened in the country, even during the Civil War.”

But Houssney says all of these crises share a connection: corrupt leaders who ignore the welfare of the people for their own gain. “I think we’ve seen the depravity in Lebanon, the human depravity, go to such extents that it’s like how can we blame God for this? We’ve seen that the corrupt leaders have reduced Lebanon to a bone. And now they’ve broken it and they’re sucking out the marrow.  They have milked the infrastructure just drained all the resources that that could have brought prosperity to the people.”

The cause of the explosion

The port after the explosion. (Photo courtesy of Horizons International)

As the investigation into the source of the explosion continues, it has been discovered that huge amounts of volatile chemicals sat in a warehouse on the docks for 6 years after being confiscated from a ship. They were not properly stored, and the authorities did nothing to deal with the potential danger.

Houssney says, “I feel like in the West, people may be saying, ‘Where is God?’ But in the Middle East they’re saying, ‘When will human hearts soften, and repent and come back to God?’”

Houssney says Lebanon desperately needs aid right now, even in terms of repairing all of the shattered windows in Beirut. “The cleanup job has been just ridiculous with how much broken glass is all over the city and how much blood has been spilled.” You can help Horizons International provide financial help for the situation here.

Continue to pray that the people of Lebanon will not only get the humanitarian aid they need but also find freedom from the corrupt leaders that have ignored their needs for so long. Houssney says, “Now that the port is gone now the electricity company’s headquarters has been destroyed, we just don’t know what further could happen.”

The header image shows smoke from the explosion. (Photo courtesy of Horizons International)

Then, just as the political chaos seemed to be dying down, COVID-19 reached Lebanon, and locals moved into 100 days of lockdown. 100 days of political upheaval followed by 100 days of quarantine left Lebanon’s economy utterly devastated. Poverty runs rampant among Lebanese families, especially middle class households. It’s gotten so bad that the local social media trend involves taking pictures of empty home refrigerators.

Even during Lebanon’s civil war, things never got this bad, says Pierre Houssney of Horizons International. He calls it “a withering of our economy.”

Most families already rely on multiple sources of income thanks to the continuously growing cost of income. Houssney reports that although Lebanon’s cost of living matches that of most developed countries, salaries are as low as $800 per month.

“When your rent is $600 per month, it’s very difficult to get by on even two salaries because of the cost of food,” Houssney says.

Photo courtesy of Luke Bradley via WallpaperFlare

And when Lebanese locals receive their utility bills, they see the direct effects of their current leadership.

“The infrastructure of Lebanon’s roads, information technology, water system, electricity,and all of that has just been on a shoestring budget. Most of the money, the lion’s share of the tax money, has been stolen by the politicians. What’s left over is a very depleted infrastructure.”

There’s no such thing as stimulus packages in Lebanon. There’s no such thing as international loans; no international organization trusts Lebanon’s credibility. There’s no such thing as government aid. And so millions of locals, refugees, and residents are left to fend for themselves.

So why is Horizons International still there? Because in the middle of crisis, “we still have the ability to speak the Gospel in the area that we are,” Houssney says.

“In a way it’s brought more meaning to the little that we’re able to do, because even smaller acts of kindness, smaller acts of giving out aid, even a bag of bread or a small food portion, are meaning so much more to people.”

People are desperate, and Houssney says he doesn’t want to celebrate in their sorrow. “At the same time, we must be encouraged to do whatever we can, knowing that the Lord is using whatever we’re able to do.”

Consider taking action to support Horizons International as they provide aid and the hope of Christ in the midst of their challenging surroundings.

“This is really a strategic time for the body of Christ to stand up and show that it’s not about giving from our economic surplus – it’s about giving from hearts of love to our fellow fellow humans.”

Header photo courtesy of Luke Bradley via WallpaperFlare