Lebanon (MNN) — As soon as Andrew from Cry Out Ministries arrived in Lebanon, he felt the unrest gripping the country.
A friend met Andrew and his family at the airport, but Andrew’s friend had bad news: “[He said] ‘The van is here to pick you up is stuck, unfortunately, behind some roadblocks. Because there are riots going on.’ We ended up waiting in the airport for I think two hours.” Andrew says these riots have been sporadic. Some days protestors block roads with burning tires, while other days see calm streets.
It’s exhausting, especially for people who have endured years of government corruption and financial crisis. Andrew says, “It hasn’t just been a breakneck speed since COVID-19. It’s been since the Syrian civil war and the influx of refugees, coupled with corruption in the government. Then COVID-19 hit, and an explosion in Beirut. It all has created this massive need in the country for people to bring hope and to bring peace and to bring the light of Christ.”
Hope
Many Lebanese also have hope for the future based on the work of the Holy Spirit. Andrew says, “A lot of our friends here are talking about a new season starting, a new field being turned over and ready to be planted. And I feel like right we’re on the edge of that. I really feel like there’s something new that the Lord wants to start here in this nation. And there’s got to be a tilling up of that fallow ground.”
Pray for the establishment of a stable government in Lebanon that cares for its people. Andrew says, “Pray that the Lord would come and that he would fill the hearts of the Lebanese with perseverance to just remain.”
The header photo shows murals drawn in Lebanon during protests in 2019. (Photo courtesy of Freimut Bahlo, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
