Lebanon (MNN) — Nearly half a million Syrian refugees have returned home from places like Lebanon, Egypt, and Türkiye after the overthrow of dictator Bashar al-Assad in December.
However, Assad’s fall did not cause the massive return movement many in Lebanon hoped for.
“We continue to host more than 2.1 million Syrian refugees,” Heart for Lebanon’s Camille Melki says, in addition to “more than half a million Palestinian refugees [and] 100,000 or so Iraqi and Kurdish refugees.
“Today, the United Nations considers Lebanon the largest per capita host of refugees worldwide; around 40- to 45 percent of our population is a refugee from a nearby nation.”
Lebanon’s large refugee population exacerbates the country’s infrastructure and economic issues. “We lost 97% of our purchasing power due to the political bickering, government corruption, and also due to this large influx of refugees living in our country,” Melki says.
“No nation can expect almost to double its population overnight and have its infrastructure – roads, electrical grids, sewage, water – be able to receive this large of an increase [without failing.]
Yet hope remains. The challenging refugee situation also presents a Gospel opportunity.
(Photo courtesy of Heart for Lebanon)
“Heart for Lebanon has been serving refugees and locals, every vulnerable and suffering population and ethnic group in our nation since 2009. Our goal is to show the love of Jesus Christ in meaningful and tangible ways,” Melki says.
“We have reached out and served hundreds of thousands of refugees. Every given month, Heart for Lebanon cares for more than 4,500 families. If you do the math and expect the average family of six, this is more than 26,000 individuals.”
Most refugees come to Lebanon from a country where Christianity is little more than a label. Pray that refugees can meet the Jesus of the Bible.
“Every time there is a conflict, it is rooted in religion, so the greatest challenge is for us to help the refugee population we serve move away from religion into faith.”
“We need to have the invitation to talk about what drives us, what motivates us, what gives us this inner peace that a refugee family finds in a Heart for Lebanon team, what gives us the hope that we can only find in Christ. So, we don’t want to enter into religious quarrels, but we want to have God-sized opportunities in sharing our hope in Christ.”
Support Heart for Lebanon’s efforts here.
Header and story images courtesy of Heart for Lebanon.
