Putting my hand to the plowshare

Another man from the Majority, who lost almost his entire family during the Israeli war in 2006, has come to blessed faith in Christ!  He shared with great gratitude to God how the family of God here has embraced him, and become his new family. 

On Sunday, I taught at Christ Evangelical Baptist Church here in Beirut.  By the grace of God, the reception was extremely positive.  I'm beginning to sense an opening to the need for in depth expository teaching in the churches.

The past few days have been spent meeting with ministry leaders and members of various Lebanese churches.  Two days ago I met with Michel Bassous, the head of the Bible Society in Lebanon.  Later I met with the pastor of a church in the Bekaa valley, in a town called Zahle.  

Yesterday I met with the official governmental head of the Evangelical churches for the countries of Syria and Lebanon.  He is a Spirit-filled man by the name of Salim Sahyune who served for many years as a pastor of a Presbyterian church.  Unfortunately, because of the confessional political system in Lebanon, political responsibilities are essentially 'enforced' upon leaders of ministries, and Rev. Sahyune helped me to understand how this impacts ministry here.  I then met with the head of the Baptist convention in Lebanon, Samuel Kharrat.  Both of these men provided insights into the dynamics of ministry in Lebanon, as well as for preparing visas and other details of long-term ministry.

Building relationships with these leaders and others has proven to be an extremely delicate process.  Christianity began in the Middle East but unfortunately some workers have come here from the States with a rather high-minded attitude toward ministry, leaving a perception of Westerners that must be overcome.  Please pray that the Lord will continue to open doors and give me the right words to say, in the right way (Col 4:6).  

Blessings - Bent