Lebanon’s Tripoli

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Apathy lines its rubbish-littered streets in the form of the dark silhouettes of the “shabbab” or boys seeking employment. Whatever little grass remains is decorated by waste paper, tin cans, and half-eaten “managuish” (pizza-like sandwiches). On the side of one street lies a broken car seat, inhabited by shabbab by day and rats by night. The traffic leaves one breathless in this city of half a million. Local drivers use a push-shove system. Drivers usually experience constant blaring horns and unheeded signal lights. In under a minute, five taxis will pass, begging for one’s attention, along with mopeds careering around corners and trucks full of army soldiers. It is not abnormal to witness a young, helmetless boy on his moped crash into a car, lie stunned for a moment on the road, and then shake himself off and continue on.

Bullet Holes in Tripoli in Lebanon

Where once stood tall, confident buildings are now the relics of the civil war whose sides are plastered in bullet holes. Broken windows scream out the silence of the rooms within. Yet sometimes, if one dares to look closer, one will note that this silence is only a disguise for the “squatters” or the homeless bodies that sit in despondency inside.

By the harbour, as the Mediterranean Sea licks the shore with foamy tongues, fishermen are seen picking rubbish out of their nets - the result of fishing for a day in the polluted waters. This is one of the few career options available; another is easy to see, staring at you from the faces of hundreds of “dukkaans” or tiny general stores, huddling along the streets. Other job options are to become a taxi driver (chauffeur), teacher, managuish seller or carrot-juice maker, but in general the voice of employment has been silenced and the grumble of poverty awakened.

Dangers in Tripoli in Lebanon

Five times a day the Muslim call to prayer is given, feeding the ego of “Religion”. Yet some Christians lift sweet praises here and there in the city. Despite their faithfulness, however, committed believers are rare, and the workers are few. Yet, to each many talents have been given, and their fruit are sweet flowers that bloom at night. These flowers are the faces of hungry “shabbab” (young men) who walk the path of Nicodemus and plead for a meeting with Jesus. If seen by family or neighbours, these seekers would be killed - hence they continue their lonely yet holy search by moonlight.

Pray for the Muslims in Lebanon:

* Pray for Tripoli, pleading against religion and for true life and truth to come to the city (Jeremiah 6:14).

* Pray that many more come by night in Nicodemus’ footsteps (John 3:1-16).

* Pray that the university’s seeking students will join the few who dare to speak the name of Jesus and live out His love (Proverbs 29:25).

* Finally, as God clears Tripoli’s air with cleansing rain revealing the distant mountains in their jagged, snow-peaked beauty, may He who sits in the heavens clean Tripoli’s streets of apathy and usher in joy (Isaiah 60:1-2).