Until recently, protests in Lebanon caused a pause in mission work. While protests were mainly peaceful, local mission organizations saw many teams cancel their trips.
Pierre Houssney from Horizons International says several visiting mission teams were in Beirut when protests broke out last October. “A lot of them just got locked down in their hotels, or in their guest houses,” Houssney says.
“As soon as they got out of Lebanon, other teams started canceling.”
The outbreak of protests in mid-October painted an uneasy picture and set mission teams on-edge. The U.S. State Department raised Lebanon to Level 3 of 4 and issued an advisory urging citizens to reconsider travel due to increased risk.
“It’s difficult when people come from abroad and there’s that uncertainty… or they’ve got the family concerned back home. [If] they’re afraid, they’re just going to cancel,” Houssney observes.
“Usually the ones that are asking us [questions], they’re actually kind of… willing to step out.”
Trip cancellations in 2019 set Horizons’ guesthouse program back financially at the start of 2020. “We actually lost a lot of revenue, which has been difficult because that money is also needed to be supporting refugees, to be supporting the ministries,” Houssney explains.
SOURCE: Mission Network News, Katey Hearth
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