After ten years of war, many of the Syrian “enemy” are now living as refugees in the country they once occupied. Lebanon hosts more Syrian refugees than any other country, with at least 1.5 million Syrians inside its borders.
Georges Houssney with Horizons International says the crisis has been an opportunity for Lebanese to love their enemies as Jesus taught.
War and Family Tragedy
Lebanese know the pain of living as refugees and displaced persons. Between 1975-1990 when their country was in civil war, there were an estimated 900,000 displaced Lebanese. Many like Houssney’s family were forced to flee their homes due to Syrian fighters invading their homes and cities.
Houssney says that two years into the war, Syrian invaders reached his parent’s home:
“They knocked at the door and said you have 10 minutes to leave, because there’s an invasion of the area. But it turned out to be themselves invading the area. And my dad didn’t even wait 10 minutes, he just walked away with my stepmother, his wife, and walked into the field, running away from what they thought was going to be an invasion. It turned out the Syrians looted the whole house. They even dug out the marble from the floor, pulled the wires from the wall, just they took the house, the skeleton, and then they put a bomb in it.”
Houssney’s father remained displaced as a refugee for year after the bombing. Once he was able to get in touch with family and return, he rebuilt his home. Then it was bombed four more times during the fifteen-year war.
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SOURCE: Mission Network News, Anna Deckert
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