Legend says that in 1519, an explorer, Hernando Cortes, led eleven ships with around six hundred men and was headed for Mexico to take the world’s richest treasures known during that time. But there was one problem – a strong army had been guarding the treasure, and no one had ever defeated them, though many others tried.
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.
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….”
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.”
– By Andre Codouni, a member of the People of God, one of our communities in Beirut Early February 2016. The man and his wife, both leaders in the community Emmanuel, had left Aleppo for a couple of weeks to be with their daughter as she gave birth far from the insecurity of the city. Now […]
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about “home” – the place for which we long, and believe that if we reach, we’ll finally be satisfied – our heart’s destination.
“Hear, O Daughter . . . Listen to Me” was the theme of the Bethany Association Conference held in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, in August of this year to seek the Lord together and worship him.
A small student group grows into a community for Christ
