Lebanon (MNN) – Spiritual warfare is often veiled in developed nations, but Horizons International’s Pierre Houssney says it’s a battle that’s raging in Lebanon and surrounding nations.
“One of the battlegrounds that I think the Church in Lebanon has not really taken up is actually the battleground for the unreached peoples of the world,” Houssney says.
(Photo courtesy of Horizons International via Facebook)
“Often, the ministry has been focused internally on Lebanon. The churches and organizations have been focused on Lebanon as a missions field and we’re now trying to make the shift so that the nationals will now look at themselves as a missions-sending base to the Middle East and North Africa, and around the world.”
A major factor to becoming a missions-sending base, Houssney says, is prayer.
He shares that there are several elements to effective prayer in missions and focusing on serving other nations.
The first element is teaching believers how to pray in ways that are intentional, passionate, and intercessory. The second is providing a space for corporate, multi-church prayer so groups can pray together in one room. And finally, the last element is focusing prayer on the unreached people groups worldwide by knowing who they are, what they believe, and what their needs are.
Considering the three elements of effective missions prayer, Horizons wanted to conglomerate all three. Now, they’re establishing a prayer center as part of their larger project, The Middle East Center for World Missions, that can enable others to pray informed and efficiently.
Prayer for All Nations Center
The prayer center will be called Prayer for All Nations Center, “which is a place that’s open to all the different churches from different denominations to join together in prayer that God might extend His hand of Salvation to the unreached people.”
(Photo courtesy of Horizons International via Facebook)
In the prayer center, Horizons will provide displays of photos and information about unreached people groups so believers know how to specifically pray for them.
“I believe that once we establish this place, it’s going to be a place where God calls Lebanese missionaries to serve around the world through praying for these unreached people groups, and that’s our vision and that’s our hope in faith,” Houssney says.
Horizons is about to launch the first version of their prayer center, which will be at their café and bookstore facility. Pastors and Church members are often at their café to use free Christian resources and to have Bible studies.
“So, we already have a traffic of different churches and in the basement of that facility, we are about to – in the next month or two – start setting up the prayer space with prayer displays that have this information from around the world and all kinds of prayer aids.”
Get Involved
In the near future, Horizons hopes to expand their prayer center to a larger space and will be launching a fundraising campaign early next year to help sponsor it and the many other elements of the Middle East Center.
“Until then, we just have to use whatever we have. I think he who is faithful with a little bit will be granted more,” Houssney says.
“We’re just trying to strive to be faithful with whatever we have and even if it’s just a small room, that’s Version 1.0. Version 2.0 could be bigger and we’re praying that it will be bigger and that the involvement of the churches will grow as we’re able to have more capacity.”
You can help expand missions work in Lebanon by kick-starting fundraising with Horizons for their prayer center here.
Also, pray that God will use their prayer center and move through their prayers to catalyze a missions movement. Pray God will spark His work, love, and guidance in Lebanese missionaries and Church leaders to make a difference in other nations.
Finally, you can be on the ground in Lebanon and work with Horizons as they minister to people and give encouragement. Find more information here.
