Sending Relief to Beirut, Lebanon After Deadly Explosion

A few minutes after 6:00 P.M. on August 4, an explosion rocked the city of Beirut, Lebanon. The blast caused an estimated 170 deaths, and left over 300,000 families homeless. Samaritan’s Purse mobilized emergency relief supplies and a disaster assistance response team (DART) to assess the needs and provide critical care to the hurting Lebanese people.

This episode of On the Ground with Samaritan’s Purse opens with Kristy Graham introducing one of our longtime church partners on the ground in Beirut. The pastor explains the compounding crisis Lebanon is facing: economic hardship, political turmoil, COVID-19, and the recent explosion. Despite grave hardships, it is evident that the church is still rooted in their faith and looking to provide help to those who are hurting.

“Physical needs are important, but so are meeting the spiritual needs,” Kristy says. “Samaritan’s Purse strives to do that. It’s always encouraging for me to hear from our leadership; I’m reminded that they don’t take this lightly and they are heavily relying on God.”

To lay the groundwork of our response, you’ll hear from Bev Kauffeldt, who served as the team lead in Lebanon. Returning from Beirut only days before, she sits down with Kristy to talk about her experience.

“Even before the explosion,” Bev Kauffeldt explains, “Lebanon had been going through a bad economic situation. The power was always on and off and the explosion made it worse.”

Entire buildings collapsed, windows and doors were blown off, and families were devastated.

The first week on the ground, DART members witnessed men, women and children in utter shock. Samaritan’s Purse worked through its existing church partnership to distribute critical resources to the most vulnerable families. Even through this unthinkable hardship, God is giving them strength and resilience.

Bev tells Kristy that the team is trusting God, praying for wisdom, and watching God work.

Up next, Kristy introduces a Lebanese family—a mother and daughter—to share about how God was faithful to them even after they were injured in the blast. They lost everything, but they continue to praise God.

Please partner with us in prayer for the people of Lebanon as they recover from the tragic explosion.