When the People of God community first began in Lebanon, its members did not know they were about to be plunged into a civil war that would decimate their country and threaten their lives. The encouragement they received from other Christian communities made it possible for the members of this community to stay in Lebanon and survive the 15-year war, helping to maintain hope and vision for the future. Now the community is playing an important role in revitalization of the local Catholic and Orthodox churches.
Year: 2016
Listening to God’s Voice
There was a story in New Covenant magazine in 1981 that I read as a young Christian and which has stayed with me. It describes a time at the end of a conference on a hot day in Rome in 1975 when God spoke through a prophecy: “Because I love you, I want to show you what I am doing in the world today. I want to prepare you for what is to come. Days of darkness are coming on the world, days of tribulation….”
Families for Christ Community – in Vancouver
In the early 1990s, a few couples who had moved to Canada from the Philippines came together to form an informal prayer group. Sensing the need for a more formal direction, in September 1993, the group went on a pilgrimage to a Catholic pilgrimage site in Portland, Oregon, for a whole day of prayer and spiritual discernment. Having been soaked in the Spirit, a prophecy surfaced, “Before you bring the good news of salvation to others, start with your own families. You are my family in Vancouver. You are families for Christ.” It was then that they decided to adopt the name “Families for Christ Community.”