Kingdom Fiesta 2011

March was a huge month for us in Beirut, Lebanon. Not only did we host our 4th consecutive Kingdom Fiesta for the Middle East but we also celebrated our first year of ministry in the new Middle East Life Center! The week was packed with different events as we hosted a Pastor & Leaders Conference for the Middle East were church leaders not only from Lebanon, but from surrounding nations such as Egypt & Syria were in attendance. This year we also were able to host a special Women’s Conference for the first time. It was great to see this women encouraged and valued in a culture were many times they are not.

Joining us for the week of ministry were Pastors Mark & Brenda Thomas as well as Pastor Robert Spina from California, and Pastors Robert Blum and Peter Hasler from Switzerland. The week came to a conclusion with our 3 night Kingdom Fiesta Celebration and our live Sunday morning broadcast to the entire Arab World. The broadcast received such a great reception that they aired it two consecutive times afterwards!

Below are a few photos from the week of ministry. All in all, we are so excited about what God is doing in the Middle East and so grateful for the team that we get to work with there!

Golf 4 Beirut 2011

March 28th 2011 marked our second annual Golf 4 Beirut Charity Tournament.

We had a great day at Porter Valley Country Club where over 70 golfers came out to support the cause. All proceeds from the day went to fund the LIFE Center in Beirut, Lebanon.

Annual Missions & Pastors Conference

We just completed our annual Missions & Pastors Conference entitled: “CHARISMA, Giving and Receiving, God’s Love, Favor, & Ability!” This is really a defining assignment God gives all of us who are in Christ – an opportunity to impart to people everywhere CHARISMA. This focuses people on the finished work of Jesus, where they can find their full favor with the Father and experience His love intimately, and His ability fully!

The 3 day event was blessed with our evening meetings open to the public and days reserved for Pastors. Keith & Heidi shared vision for the upcoming year and updated people on our most recent project in the Middle East. Check out some of the photos from the event.

Journey to West Africa

We have just returned from a very fruitful trip to Ghana, West Africa. Our main mission was to visit the Restoration Center in the Volta Region that rescues women and girls from Trokosi Slavery. Right now we have 10 girls who live on the campus, and are taught academics and a trade. In addition to helping these women, we have also built a school house on the campus where about 50 children from the surrounding neighborhood come and learn how to read and write, but most importantly they are taught that Jesus loves them!

Once this place was completely desolate, but now it is really a Life Center for the whole community. Just a few years ago we were able to get electricity on the campus and now people from all of the neighborhood will come to charge their cell phones and also hear the Word of God. Before our ladies would have to walk a couple miles each way to collect water from the local river, but now we were able to install a new water collecting system. This not only provides cleaner water, but frees up more time! These precious ones are being truly blessed.

Our Team leaders from Nigeria & the Ivory Coast also joined us in Ghana and we were able to discuss vision for the region. Each team was also equipped with a new laptop and & digital camera so we can stay better updated on what is happening around the world. We wrapped up the week teaching the Word in some special services. Sunday morning, Heidi Hershey brought a great message on the love of God and many were blessed.

Group Missions Trip to Beirut

Last month we hosted our first USA ministry group of 17 people to Beirut, Lebanon!

The week was jammed packed with ministry. We reached out to the surrounding neighborhood with door to door ministry and hosted free medical clinic at the LIFE Center. Many of the people we met with were open to having us pray for them and their needs, regardless of the religious background or identification. The team also spent a large amount of time working with the kids at Spring of Life. Later in the week we were able to get out of the city and minister to different Catholic communities in surrounding mountains, sharing the message of grace and Jesus’ finished work. So many people’s lives were changed and blessed.

Ghana Update

After many years of trying to get a proper water system at our LIFE Home in Ghana, we finally found a solution this past month.

Ghana is geographically closer to the “center” of the world than any other country even though the notional centre, (0°, 0°) is located in the Atlantic Ocean 382 miles away from Accra, Ghana. As a result, the climate is very tropical and the country has a very wet and dry season throughout the year.

Where our Life Home is located in the Volta Region, there is really no main source of water. So our team had the idea to install a system that collects the rain water throughout the year and stores it in large containers. During the dry season, a truck will come out to the home and replenish the containers so there will still be running water even when there is no rain.

As you can see from the pictures below, we know have water tanks and running water piped throughout the whole property. This has become such a huge blessing to the women at our center who now won’t need to walk for hours to bring water back to the center.

Many women are brought to this center after being trapped in the ritual custom of Trokosi slavery, where they are sold to priests & chiefs for the sins of the ancestors. Once the Mutual Faith Center receives these suffering, battered women and children, they live on our site for several weeks or months. During this time their physical and emotional needs are cared for and the Gospel is shared with them in order that they may learn to receive and place their trust and faith in Jesus Christ. Before these women leave the Mission Center they are trained in an occupation and given a grant of seed money to help them begin to live a productive life.

This month, we will have 20 women graduate from the program, with 10 more ready to start classes this November.

Cote-d’Ivoire: Grads & New Students

Cote-d’Ivoire, West Africa.

We just recieved news of our 3rd graduation for the Life Leadership Institute this year.

Eighty people finished their course of education through the Life Leadership Institute. Many of them will go on to work in the local church or plant new churches in Cote-d’Ivoire. The graduation weekend included a 3 day leadership conference entitled, “The Leader and The Church”. After the graduation ceremonies on Sunday, many more people signed for the institute. With such interest in the institute and so many people signing up the previous year that, there might even be a fourth graduation come this December.

Cote-d’Ivoire, commonly known as The Ivory Coast in the western world, gained independence from French control in 1960, but still identifies strongly with the French culture and language. There are more than 19,000,000 residents in the country with an annual population growth of 3.8% and over 60 different cultural groups. About 25% of the population identify with the Christian Faith, but most people would identify with Muslim and Indigenous Religions.

Since gaining independence, there has been much much political instability and unrest between different political and religious groups. But what many people might see as a mess, we see as a great opportunity to reach, teach, and train people with the transforming love of Christ.

Fundraising Dinner- Beirut, Lebanon

This month our Mutual Faith team in Beirut hosted a fund raising dinner at the new Life Center.

That evening over 100 different people of influence from the city and surrounding neighborhood came out to hear the vision of the Spring of Life Children Center and how they are reaching the at-risk kids of Beirut.

To open up the evening, a group of 13 students from SOL sang a song dressed up in costume (check out some of the pictures below). After welcoming their guests, Director Gaby Latouf and his team shared about last year’s programs and their plans for the coming year. In the first year at the new Life Center, Spring of Life had 60 kids attending school or tutoring programs. Their hope this fall is to almost double that number and reach out to 100 kids a day. In addition to reaching more children, they hope to provide new books, uniforms and a computer lab. Many of these kids would be left to roam the streets if they didn’t have this ministry available to them.

Prominent Christian singer Nizar Fares joined the team for the evening, led the attendants in worship, and encouraged them to get involved and make a change in the community by supporting the center.

At the end of the night, all of the runners who are participating in the 10K this November came on the stage and shared why they were running the marathon.

Needless to say, the evening was a great success. Several thousand dollars were raised in addition to gaining new monthly sponsors for the students! We’ll keep you updated when school starts in October and see the new changes at Spring of Life!

Jordan- Summer Camps!

This has been a full summer for the team in Jordan. Our team leader, Nader Nino reports that over eighty teens attended different summer camps and many received Christ. Below are a few pictures from the week.

Nader and the team have been working with youth in the city of Amman for many years now providing after school programs and connecting with the families of this kids. We now have the opportunity to expand the ministry and develop a community center in the city to further help these families and spread the Good News. Please pray with us as we explore different opportunities and ideas that will bring this dream into reality!

Beirut 10K for 10K

This November 7th, our team in Beirut will be participating in their own marathon event to raise money for the new Middle East Life Center!

Our team will be running a 10K (roughly about 6 miles) throughout downtown Beirut in hopes of raising at least 10K ($10,000US) for the Spring of Life Children Center which serves 100 kids a day starting this fall. That’s 40 more children than that 60 kids a day that were attending the school last year. The money raised will not only help fund the school for the year, but hopefully, we can purchase some computers and other much needed materials for Spring of Life.

The Springs of Life Center was founded in the Nabba, one of the poorest areas in Beirut. We shelter, educate, feed, and minister to needy, abandoned, or abused children. We believe that working with the Nabba children is extremely important since most of them are unable to attend school and are at risk of becoming delinquents and social outcasts. We provide programs of basic education and also help develop the children’s moral, spiritual and social skills so they can become healthy, responsible, and successful citizens. We also provide clothing and medical assistance whenever possible.

If you would like to get make a difference and sponsor a runner, please go to our donations page and select “Run4Beirut” under ministry designation.