Lebanon (MNN) — Lebanon’s financial crisis worsens. The currency has lost 15 percent of its value since the start of the year. Protestors took to the streets in January, blocking roads and burning tires.
Pierre Houssney with Horizons International says, “Whereas it used to be 1,500 Lira per dollar, it has now skyrocketed to 33,000 Lira per dollar. People are having so much trouble putting food on the table,. Anybody who can get out of Lebanon is really trying to get out. There’s just a widespread loss of hope.”
“The old Lebanon that we knew is really gone to a large degree.”
Internet outages
The country now risks being cut off from the rest of the world amid internet outages. Lebanon once had the best internet in the region. But cuts first began last summer when the government lifted fuel subsidies. Ogero Telecom, the sole provider of internet in Lebanon, began having trouble powering their generators.
Houssney says it’s important not to lose sight of Lebanon, or what God is doing in the country. “We’re seeing people finally open to putting their hope in Christ. Because their hope needs a place to go.”
Open to the Good News
Houssney says many people in Lebanon want to hear about the risen Jesus. That includes many Muslims.
But it’s not easy leaving Islam for Christianity. That’s why Horizons International has a new curriculum, written in Arabic, to help new Christians navigate these changes. Houssney says, “Let’s say we have a Muslim convert, who is trying to figure out if she should marry the man that her family wants her to marry, who may be a Muslim?”
The curriculum is written to families and is based on the Horizons International Cubs to Lions training program. This five-day course helps new believers engage with Christianity, navigating the loss of their old communities in many cases. Learn more here.
The header photo shows Beirut, Lebanon at night. (Photo courtesy of paul saad, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
