Lebanon (MNN) — Minutes after an explosion ripped through Beirut on August 4, the first reports came in: the grain supply was on fire.
Pictures of the decimated port show the silos heavily damaged with grain seeping from their crumbling walls. With every speck of grain now covered in ash and dust, Lebanon’s future looks bleaker. Lebanon was already in a financial crisis, and the damaged silos told a story of an even harder future.
Pierre Houssney of Horizons International says, “Lebanon itself has sunk into a level of destitution that it has never seen before, even in the days of the Civil War, from 1975 to 1990. We have never seen anything like this. Lebanon has become really such a destitute country.”
Fighting the food shortage
(Photo courtesy of SAT-7 USA on Facebook)
In the name of Jesus, Horizons International is helping Lebanese get food in this desperate time. But they also have a longer-term plan. Houssney says, “We’re acquiring a piece of land so that we can start producing food locally and . . . provide people with gainful employment. Most of the people that work the land right now in that area are really being taken advantage of by the agricultural industry.”
Houssney compares the current situation of those who work the land in Lebanon to serfdom. The people who own the land have all the leverage and can pay very bad wages for good agricultural work.
You can help Horizons International buy their piece of land, and the more help they get, the larger piece of land they can buy. Learn more here.
This farm will become the new home of Horizons’ ministry center. In addition to providing and growing food, Houssney says the workers will be treated like valuable human beings. “[They will be] in a spiritual community that is Christ-centered, while also having these agricultural operations going on.”
During this economic crisis in Lebanon, pray many would turn away from serving money and power to chase the imperishable hope and love of Jesus Christ. Pray the Church in Lebanon would be strengthened to proclaim the Gospel.
The header image shows the Beqaa Valley, where Horizons International plans to buy their land for the farm. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
