Lebanese Church

On May 23, 2000, about 6,000 Lebanese crossed the border into Israel, leaving behind their land, their homes, and their properties. They came to Israel with empty hands. Those people had been friends with the Jewish people for 25 years by defending the northern Israeli border from different terror activities. They suffered a lot to defend Israel from her wicked enemies.

Right now, most of those Lebanese are living in Israel as refugees below the poverty line, neglected by men but accepted by God who is embracing many of them by revealing his son Yeshua as their personal Lord and Savior.

Upon their arrival, the Lord laid an immediate burden on my heart and my wife's heart to reach out to those precious Lebanese with the good news. With the help of some friends, we loaded up two vans full with Arabic Bibles, baby food and diapers, and drove up to the Kibbutz in northern Israel where a big number of them were staying. At our arrival, we noticed that they were scared, confused and troubled. They told us later that they had only four hours' notice to leave everything behind and withdraw into Israel. As the withdrawal took place at nighttime, most of the children crossed the border in their pajamas.

My wife set up her keyboard and started worshipping the Lord. Many of them joined in around her. It was amazing to see those tough ex-soldiers holding songbooks and praising the Savior. For 25 years they had held machine guns and other weapons; now they were holding the only and true weapon, the Bible. We brought them a powerful message from Isaiah 29:17-19, which has a wonderful promise for a revival in Lebanon. Many of them were encouraged, and at the altar call they dedicated their lives to Yeshua.

For seven months we were faithful to visit those new converts at the Kibbutz, to disciple and encourage and build them up in the faith, and to care for their basic needs. After that, and as the Israeli government offered them rented apartments, a big number of them decided to reside at the northern coastal city called Nahariya. We immediately started a home group at one of their apartments. In a few weeks we outgrew the living room as more and more Lebanese were coming to know Yeshua as their Lord and Savior. We had to move to their garden outside, and for three months we had our meetings outdoors. As winter was approaching, we pleaded with God for a larger place to carry on this important ministry. The Lord was faithful to provide for us a wonderful rented place at the main road of the town, just 100 meters from the beach promenade. This place turned into our Lebanese congregation in Nahariya.

What God had spoken to my wife and to me several times is that those precious Lebanese are not in Israel by mistake or out of a coincidence. Our God is a God of order. He had brought them for a reason: to reveal Yeshua to them as their personal Savior; to fill them with his Holy Spirit and strengthen them in the faith; and in due time, to send them back to Lebanon to spark a big fire of revival in that troubled country. They have a destiny in Israel. He also spoke to us from the Song of Solomon 4:8-9. The scripture says, "Come with me from Lebanon my bride, come with me from Lebanon". Those people are his special bride, called by him from Lebanon. He loves them so much. They are very dear to him.

For the past year we have witnessed a new thing happening in our congregation. Local Jews from Nahariya who were invited to our meeting by their Lebanese neighbors are meeting with Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel. Praise be to our God, he is using those born again Lebanese to provoke the Jews to jealousy and to introduce them to their Messiah. The word of God is true. (See Romans 11:11-12). It stirs my heart as a pastor to see those precious Jews worshipping Yeshua side by side with their Arab brethren at our Lebanese congregation.

Another wonderful experience is to see Hassan, an ex-fanatic Muslim from Lebanon who received Yeshua recently at our congregation, holding the hand of Yakov, who is a Jew, and praising the Savior together. It is a vivid picture of the new man in the Messiah from Ephesians 2:14.

Our Lord is watching over his word to perform it. The God of Israel had not forgotten his promise to Abraham, the father of the Jews. He had promised him in Genesis 12:3, "I will bless all those who bless thee." Those precious Lebanese had blessed Israel for 25 years by laying down their lives to defend the Jewish people. The time has come for those 6,000 Lebanese to be rewarded by our faithful God for blessing Israel. I believe the body of the Messiah who understands this biblical principle should take the initiative and become the first to bless those Lebanese who love Israel and pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

What a wonderful God we serve! He had brought those Lebanese to Israel, provided for them a city of refuge, and revealed to them his son Yeshua as their Savior. What a great reward for their firm decision to remain a friend of Israel.

It is very important for this ministry with the Lebanese to continue, since it is on God's heart. I firmly believe that our faithful God will definitely bless spiritually and physically any church or ministry that decides to help support this work to the glory of our Savior.

- Pastor Joseph Haddad

Hope for Israel supports the Lebanese congregation by paying for the yearly rent of their meeting place, supporting individual families who are in need, and supporting Pastor Joseph Haddad and his family.

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