I was born in 1966 in Beirut Lebanon -
Palestinian father and Lebanese mother my father was born in Gaza and after
Israel occupied the land he enrolled in the resistance against Israel and
started carrying operations from Jordan and so he got in trouble with the
Jordanian government and he had to leave Jordan and go to Lebanon and there he
met my mother and they got married and then he left before I was born my mom
had to work day and night so in practically speaking I was a street kid
I was always on the streets and I would just come home to sleep. In the
neighborhood where I was there was an evangelical church and the teachers of
Sunday School in that church used to go around the streets and call children to
come in and attend Sunday School. So I was one of the guys they invited and for a street kid he's always looking for attention so I accepted the invitation
and came in and Sunday School turned out to be a nice place for me because there
they tell you stories you can color they give you toys you can eat cake and have
juice and it's a good place for a street kid to have a good time and so
since I was six I remember attending Sunday school regularly every Sunday it
was it's like going to church for any churchgoer and to me Sunday
morning was sacred.. I need to go to Sunday school there I have a good time
and this was going on until I was 14 years old at the age of 14, I was ready
to meet my Savior now two years before that questions were starting to arise
about where is God who's God why I'm a Muslim
where is my father you have to understand the background that I was
living in I was living next to the American University of Beirut at a time
when there are there were revolutions going everywhere communism rising the
Cold War was at its peak already there was an Israeli Arab conflict in 1973 a
peace was looming in the and on the horizon people were talking students
were talking it was really a time where easily you can mature on the streets
being on the street and mingling with the University student made me really
mature quickly and yet the age of 12 vs I was asking critical questions at that
age I turned to Islam being a Muslim and especially my family on my mother's side
they are all scholars Islamic scholars so I started reading the Quran I started
taking Quranic lessons in order to find certain answers to questions I had but
to no avail nothing was there for me I didn't find
hope I was more confused more there were a lot of contradictions that I could not
accept and also remember I was free to think I was not under any influence of a
father or a mother to tell me don't think like this
or this is not right what you're talking about
I was a free thinker I could ask questions I could doubt and I had no
problem and so it was at that time also I was going to church and attending
Sunday School and at the age of 14 after hearing the gospel for six years and
more just things clicked I found the truth as if the Lord opened my eyes to
see my state exactly and to give me answers to why I am I like this
why I was like this why did my father leave me why there are wars around why
is the world the way it is and I realized it is my sinfulness my parents
sinfulness the world around us that brings misery and suffering to people
and it was Christ who is the answer. It's that message of love that God has
unfolded through the pages of history to us and so I remember on a Sunday in 1979
the Sunday school teacher asking us in Sunday school class who wants to accept
Jesus as his personal Savior and I felt like raising my hand but there were too
many friends of mine who were Muslim and I didn't want to you know risk it and I
said no I'm not gonna do it now but deep down I was there this is it I could not
resist any more and I went home and I could not sleep at night and I would
fidget in my bed and my bed was a bag of cloth plastic bag of cloth and every
time I move I make all kinds of sounds and my ayah was afraid to wake up my mom
we all slept in one room and around three o'clock I remember in the morning
I just said Lord Jesus please help me I am just
I am helpless I am hopeless I cannot take it anymore
I need you and with tears at that time and then within half an hour I slept and
I woke up in the morning excited and I took one of the many New Testaments I
had I mean after eight years of attending Sunday school you gather
collect a lot of New Testaments I took one and put it in my school bag and went
to school and started telling people about my experience and I could not be
quiet it was Jesus all the way I mean on the street in school at work in the
house Jesus Jesus and people were saying did
this guy flip or something happened to him did he fall from his bed at night or
and everybody was wondering why this was happening I was on fire at that time and
I couldn't be quiet I had to talk I had to tell people what happened with me the
change I think and I can understand people children who raised in Christian
homes and churches and wherever I go and speak today I tell them please do not
miss out on meeting the real Jesus not that the one that your Papa and Mama
told you about have the experience I had you know it just just life-changing it
was a time where beyond comprehension what was happening in my life there was
joy overflowing I felt at rest I felt at peace all the answer is came to the
questions that made my life a dilemma and were traumatizing me because being
raised without a father is traumatizing to you and if you don't find the answer
why this happened in God you cannot understand and I understood why because
God wanted to save me because God had a plan everything worked for good
eternal good not earthly good and while I was lost in my livelihood that it's
not good and I had no father God was really interested in my eternal good and
the joy that I experienced in meeting Jesus was much greater than having a
father at that time and so from there on it was Jesus all the time and that got
me in trouble definitely speaking on on got me in
trouble with my parents they had to kick me out and say it's either the church or
the house it's either Christ or us and I was so in
love with Jesus I didn't have difficulty making choice and it was Jesus all the
time and I had to leave the house and go live in a warehouse where I used to work
the owner of the warehouse you about what happened and he said Mohammed you
can empty a room pack it in another room and take one
room and fix it and sleep in it as long as you want
and later I got in trouble with fundamentalist because I was always
speaking about Jesus and who's this Muhammad that is preaching about Jesus
that's evangelizing about Jesus and they were after my tale they tried to kill me
one time they had no success my pastor had to take me to his village he was
from a village in a Biblos area and it's called Munsif and he will put me in a
boarding school there for six months to hide me and then after that I came back
and still I went back to talking and I couldn't be quiet and he tell me be
quiet and I cannot be quiet everywhere I go
the opportunity is there I tell people our Jesus I invite people to church I
start ministering to children and until 1985 towards the end of 1985 I was in
the evangelical school in Beirut and there was a teacher there he was a
member of our Church and together we used to go out
Street evangelism and they killed him and the pastor said you're next I'm not
gonna allow this so he made connections with friends of
his in the States and Bob Jones University in Greenville South Carolina
and he said I have a guy his life is in danger
I need to ship him out arrange for him something and they arranged for me come
and attend Bible School and so 1986 I flew to the US I remember I came through
Heathrow Airport I flew to London first and then from London I flew to
Philadelphia and Philadelphia down to Greenville Spartanburg that was the trip
the first time in the United States of America was in 1986 to pursue a biblical
career you know to study Bible and maybe to be carry on pastoral studies or
biblical theology but when I started my first semester I got all A's and I
thought that was too easy for me and that's because early on I was
devouring the Bible I mean I was reading my word God's Word on a daily basis
listening to messages I was heavily involved in studying the Word of God I'm
reading books a lot of books and so I switched into business and I pursued the
accounting degree and in 1989 I took a BS in accounting
and before my last semester I was offered the job
by Arthur Andersen to work in New York and then another job by Price Waterhouse
to go to Cairo since I knew Arabic but somehow the Lord did not let me take
these office and did not let me stay in the US I felt I need to go back I don't
know why I felt I need to go back at times God leads in an awesome way though
everything here was ready for me to stay I mean there was a girl I was in love
with I could have gotten married to her and stayed I could have taken these job
offers but somehow I went back and when I went back in 1989 it was war in
Lebanon everything was going berserk and the airport was closed I had to fly to
Cyprus and from Cyprus take the ship to uni and from juni
drive to SP route and I came and I found the church four or five people who were
meeting and mainly ladies and there was nothing going on no church meetings
barely anything happening so Muhammad went back to his old days preaching
evangelizing visiting ministering to people and within a year the church
regrouped and people are starting to come and things were moving up in the
world and the church grew by 1991 100 people who are attending and including
my mother-in-law and my wife they came to the church to attend and I remember
meeting my wife on the basketball court and in 1985 and we played hoop together
I used to go down to the American University of Beirut choose to live on
the campus of the American University we would her father was power plant manager
and as we were playing together I would always talk to her about Jesus
and she said you're crazy with your Jesus I don't want to talk to you leave
me alone and I was always evangelizing for her
and then in 1991 she comes to church and with her mom her mom invites her she
came before her a few meetings and she's come here this guy his name is Mohammed
and he's preaching about Christ and he's leading the church and she came and
she's I know this guy he was always bothering me with Jesus when I was
playing basketball and a relationship developed there and she got saved I
think four months after started attending church and then we dated for a
year and then we got married the pastor came back at that time and I handed the
church over to him and I went into business being raised as a street kid
and poor there was always a desire in me to achieve to prove myself
there was ambition and I wanted to pursue that dream and I was trying to
convince God of that dream God since the day he saved me he called me into the
ministry I knew that he gave me the talent he gave me the burden he gave me
the vision to reaching out to people but I refused to answer God's call I wanted
to do it my way I said I'll be a businessman and I would support the
church and I will give to the poor and I will help missionaries and in fact in my
early years in business at the age of 25 I had close to a half a million dollar
between assets and cash and everything and I had my own factory and store and I
own my own house in a good place in East Beirut and things were rolling for me
and I was giving to people I was helping people I mean there were times $1,000 a
month I would give out to people between church and helping people and I was
trying to convince God that this is the way and God was always telling me I
don't need your money I don't need your intelligence I don't
need anything that you have I need you to obey give me your heart and that was
difficult for because there was a struggle and I was
in love with business and I was in love with Jesus and there was a conflict
there and there was a struggle all the time in my life and God was patient with
me until 1995 he got the big stick out he says I love you too much and I have
plans for you I'm not ready to leave you alone so he got the big stick out and I
took a beating big beating and within years few years I lost everything I was
strip naked I was in debt I went to prison because I went bankrupt I was
facing many lawsuits I had all kinds of problems going on and after I went to
prison for six months I came out and instead of answering God's call and
repenting and saying Lord that's what I want to do is what you want me to do I
went back to business I was hard-headed as an ox and again God gave me the
talent in a few years I made money again and I was paying some of my debts and at
the same time building a business and it was growing and we were doing fine until
2008 one day I was taking my children to school I dropped him at school and I
used to go down jogging at the beach in Beirut and as I was jogging it just
clicked again the same feelings the same situation I was in in 1979 when I got
saved I was back again in in 2008 I felt how stupid I am how foolish
I am to relinquish serving the Lord for the world and for the profit that I can
get from the world in the gains of this world and I said this is it finish no
more business I went up to my wife and I said honey close shop liquidate
everything at the gain at a loss that's it it's over she said what did you flip
are you crazy we have five children were you mean
close shop how we're going to raise our children how we're going to live we have
no income I said the Lord will provide just close it she said no I'm not gonna
close it I said then you'll take care of it I am NOT going to be in the shops I'm
not gonna work one hour in the shops I will be on the streets telling people
about Jesus this is what God wants me to do that's what I'm gonna do and I went
out and she started liquidating a little bit
she liquidated on until we had only one shop and that was the bookstore and she
stayed in it and I was ministering on the streets and doing Street evangelism
in Tripoli and Beirut and Junie in byblos and God led us down to Tyre one
day and went down to Tyre to evangelize and I fell in love with the place Jesus was here a thousand years ago he
came to Tyre. Paul the Apostle was here and this is the land of the gospel in Upper
Galilee this is where Jesus was going on around and telling people about
and there is no lighthouse it's dead 95% Muslims no light total darkness I
found the Lord telling me go reclaim the land. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE THIS BEAUTIFUL VIDEO WITH YOUR FRIENDS. THANK YOU. GOD BLESS YOU the devil through Islam has controlled
the whole area and we're their shine for Jesus and to release people from this
bondage that they are in and so yes we are in The Devil's Den preaching Christ
when you are a 95% Muslim area where is the light and that's what God has called
us for and I think in the last 50 to 60 years meager efforts have been taken to
reach the Muslim world to Christ and I can understand why because people are
Islamophobic Islam is violent it promotes violence on different levels it
depends on the circumstance and what's around it and people are afraid but I do
think that we have a weapon that is much greater than violence and can overcome
violence and that is love most of the times we either want to love and not in
in sincerity or want to say the truth and not love I do believe that in
evangelism love and truth go together if you love people without any reservation
unconditionally sacrificially you will be able to stand and say the truth to
them they will accept it from you because they know that you love them if
you don't love them and you want to say the truth they're not going to accept it
for you because they think you're a hypocrite you're saying something and
you're acting differently what we do Tyre today is we love on people we
sacrifice they see that we go not one mile but three months they know
that we love them and so we can stand and say to them we do not agree with you
we don't believe what you believe in is right and that is why and there is a
risk of us getting hurt yes but who said that preaching the
gospel is without a cost jesus said in the world ye shall have tribulation but
be of good cheer I have overcome the world so this was a prophetic statement
by Jesus he before we even went out he told us we're gonna have problems but he
also told us that we're gonna be victorious we're serving in Tyre and we
know we're gonna have the victory it has been given unto you not only to believe
but also to suffer. If any man would come after me let him take up his cross deny
himself take up his cross and follow me so it's clear in the Bible that when you
evangelize when you tell people about Jesus you're gonna suffer now if God's
grace does not permit that for a reason or another that's good my wife and I
went down to Tyre and we counted the cost. She knew that we could die and I
knew that we could die and we both knew that our children could be in jeopardy.
But we also knew that the God who called us and the God who sent us he will take
care of us he will protect us and if the time comes and we have to be offered up
for him to be glorified then we had no problem. That's was the mindset
that we went down to Tyre. There were times they put me in prison
because I clearly declared that Islam and Christianity are not the same and
they don't lead to the same God and if you understand anything about Lebanon
this is a no-no because you're rocking the boat. Everybody wants to live happy
with each other in Lebanon and I stood on public TV in front of 6 million
people and I said Islam is as far from Christianity as hell is far from heaven
and that was enough to put me in prison they made a scheme about my past and
they told me and but I knew that that was a cost I would pay before that they
attacked our van they hit my wife they broke the glass of our van as my wife
was taking back children from Sunday School so the cost is there. Few days
ago they broke our signs in tyre because one Muslim guy was converted and he
openly and publicly declared that am a Christian. So to me persecution is part of
the game and any Christian who thinks he can avoid persecution I think that is
not possible as you've said before we are in The
Devil's Den you're attacking the fortress of the devil. The devil is not
going to kiss you if you attack him. He's gonna attack back he's not stupid he's
smart he knows that he cannot be sitting and looking at you
and any time you try to avoid persecution you have to do it on the
expense of the gospel. You will compromise your stand in order to avoid
persecution and I don't want to compromise my stand I don't want to
compromise the gospel to avoid persecution. Many people under the
pretext of wisdom say you know you have to be wise.
I don't know how wise you can be I don't think we can be more wise than Jesus
Christ. He came and he had to be persecuted and
he has to die there was no other way and for the gospel to spread out and for
people to know the truth we have to die. For the Muslim people to know Christ we
have to die there has to be a line of martyrs I think in the future before
these people understand that there is a God that loves them. If we're not ready
to pay that cost I don't think anything's gonna happen. Sometime we have to pay that cost and I think for 100 years the past will postponing the
payment . But Christianity was spread in the first century Church by the blood of
the martyrs. People died that's how Christianity was spread that's how we
conquered. Today in order to conquer we have to be ready to die. People ask me in
churches what makes a good missionary? And my answer is always Are you ready to die?. If you're not ready to die pack it and go home. Don't be a
missionary stay where you are. You have to be ready to die to be a missionary and I think this was the life theme of every missionary and successful missionary. They were ready to die for Jesus . So my desire is to see the church wake up and stop being complacent and realize that today it's open doors in the Middle East
opposite of what CNN tells you and Fox News. They are focusing on few Americans being killed as if this is the end of the world
to them and we categorize sin and we say oh wow that's bad what's happening with
Isis in the Middle East but I want to ask a simple question every single day
in abortion clinics you take babies and throw them in a dumpster. These are not
humans they are not dying what's the difference between a lady that takes a
baby and throws him in the dumpster and an Isis man who behead a man. In fact
what did this infant have have a choice He had no choice you killed him
the guys who died in Syria or beheaded they had a choice not to go they chose
to take that adventure and that was the price for their adventure and so we
categorized sin in order to excuse ourselves. It's bad in the Middle East we
can't go there because they kill people They kill people in America. These people
they need us. They need us to love them. And love is intentional it's not natural
it's not an our nature to love we're selfish.We have to intend to love we
have to seek a way to penetrate into their societies and love them. Just like
what we're doing in Tyre. We take every opportunity to show love. Every
opportunity. Nobody knocks our door and gets out with nothing Always they'll have something because
this is love even sometimes at the expense of us getting a loan to help
people. I remember three months ago I had a young man come to me. He's a Muslim and he said Mr. Mohamed my wife is in the hospital and I need $200 to get
would you help me I said no problem I went to the hospital paid the bill he
got his wife out. Two days later he comes to me says mr. Mohammed do you have a
big cross . Hassan , why do you need a big cross he says I want to hang it on
my neck and I want to tell my people that the god of the Christians help me
and your God did not help me This gives God glory . See this is why we
are there to glorify God to honor him and lift him up. That's why we're there
that's why we are in the word to go the extra mile I think people are tired of
us telling them Jesus loves you. They want to see how Jesus loves. Show me how Jesus loves me you know I want to see how and I think we are very good at
speaking the truth but not applying it and we don't want to apply it we think
that it's enough to tell people the gospel that's not true because this is
not what Jesus did and I remember the disciples after Jesus finishing his
intercourse with the multitude they said okay chief let's pack it send them home.
and Jesus said send them we're home these people are hungry they want to eat
but you told them the message. You told them the gospel why should we feed them.
Let them go home. And we are like the disciples today . We like to send people
home. We don't want to get into the trouble of feeding them and taking care
of them and worrying about them we have We are busy we are so entangled with the affairs of this world that we have no time to love anymore we need to make
time to love we need to start realizing why Jesus left us on this earth The reason we exist as Christians on
this earth is to shine you are the light of the world that your light so shine
before men that they might see your good works and glorify your father in heaven
we are a people of good works. That's why we're here for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. That's Paul this is from the Bible I'm not making up this the
reason we are here is to live for Christ regardless of what is our profession as
a doctor I am here to live for Christ as a pastor I'm here to live for Christ as
a businessman I'm here to live for Christ and my profession Christ has to
be glorified and declared . That's why I am here I'm not here to accumulate wealth
I'm not here to earn degrees I'm not here to do any of these things. Today in
the Middle East it's open doors. The Muslim world is in despair the brothers
are killing each other young people are helpless and hopeless they are looking
for an alternative the alternative is not there because we are afraid we need
to start bringing the alternative home to them we need to go we need to start
invading the Middle East with love not with cruise missiles
we need to erect lighthouses for Jesus Christ and that's what I am in we
started in Tyre. Now we're moving to Jordan and to every place we can we are
going to erect a lighthouse for Jesus Christ. A door for people to enter in and
know the love god. That's my vision for the Middle East
and that vision I wanted to share with churches in America today . I say to the
churches in America stop being complacent rise up to the challenge that
God has placed in front of you today. Today it's open doors... Revelation chapter
3 verse 8... Behold I have set before you an open door , which no man will shut. And
it's interesting that God set open doors in front of the Church of Philadelphia
the word Philadelphia means brotherly love it takes love to take advantage of
open doors no love no open doors . I call all brothers in America and churches to love the Muslims everywhere not to argue with them not to do apologetics or
go into Islamics or try to find there is nothing common between us and them
except that we're human and we have to get that message across to them the
thing that is common between us and any other person is that we are humans we do
not have the same faith and we do not lead to the same God our God is a living
God is a holy God is a righteous God who loves all people that's the message that
we can get across... Christianity has the is the religion that has a message that
no other religions have our message is love love unfolding from Genesis to
Revelation. It's the story of love how God loved men and worked throughout
history to redeem men and how he's going to glorify men in eternity it's a story
of love and that message no other religion in the world
has that message what we find in other religions is do's and don'ts . We do not
find love . And people cannot understand and comprehend love people cannot
understand that God in human design came to earth to love us they cannot
comprehend that and I can understand why but this is why we're here to tell them
that this is real and the best thing to tell people that
this is real is what God has done in your life
and to live that story and so my desire is that we see the urgency of the times
these people in the Middle East are calling us God uses the suffering of
people and pain he opens doors through suffering and pain so we can enter their
lives today the Syrian crisis has resulted in millions of refugees in
Lebanon we have two and a half million refugees and God is opening doors
through them and with them we have seen hundreds of them come to church and hear
the gospel and get saved what we need is laborers we need
laborers we need people to support the work we need people to stand by us in
prayer. Containing Islam is not in the backyard in Chicago , containing Islam is
at the front line in the Middle East that's how we contain the antagonism and
the violence and the hatred moves there we have to go there at the expense of
our lives sometimes but God is good I'm serving there and six years now and
before that I used to evangelize and God has protected I'm 49 years old I don't
know when the Lord will call me home but whenever he does he knows what he's
doing and I want to be obedient to that
but I know also that before God calls me home nothing is going to happen I know
that he has a hedge of protection around me and my family and at anytime
something happens it's for his glory . I know there is something for him to be
glorified in and for God to get the glory
I want to evangelize I do believe that God is glory more glorified when we most
evangelize I think we've missed out on that God is
most glorified when we most evangelize not when we build mega churches not when
we have beautiful concerts but when we evangelize we go out and tell people
about that great message of love that no other religion in the world has that
could change and transform your life and makes you a new person and brings life
into your life wakes you up from the dead and so I pray that this message
will be heard and people will wake up to what is there thank you SUBSCRIBE & SHARE THIS POWERFUL MESSAGE WITH ALL THAT SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS. THANK YOU I'm Hanan Hamud I'm Mohamed's wife and Mohammed is a church planter here in Tyre as you know from the name his originaly from Muslim is a Muslim convert to Christianity one of the things I do at church is
transport people back and forth to the church many people would like to come
but they can't unless we we help them out with it most of the people that we
get are Syrian refugees they are due from Syria . quite some time in
the war and then they have to run away at the beginning they had to go from
village to village in Syria but then they found they need to leave the
country and they came here Singing Arabic Christian Song in the Church we paid heavily for that sign that you
see in Tyre today ...Tyre center for the gospel Proclamation we could have put
there Tyre Center for English teaching that's so easy to do that and avoid all
the problems but we wanted to tell the people that we are here to preach the
gospel we are here to share Jesus Christ we are not going to teach them English
the focus of our ministry and of any ministry is to plant the
church a lighthouse for Jesus Christ today in Tyre many people who live in
Tyre know now that there is a local church in Tyre , that serves and helps
people and provides for the food and provides for rent and provides medicine
and provide medical help and that in itself is a testimony for Jesus Christ
the ultimate goal is within these three years that we are now as renting is
to buy either to buy the place we are in when you buy in you have in your own
premises Hezbollah or other one as well nobody can do anything to you they can
burn it they can try to destroy it they can do anything they want but they
cannot take us out a lot of times they pressure with the land lord by who are
in a place yeah if they pressure at this land lord so we had a problem with him we
have to leave now we're in this place three years I just renewed my lease to him even for three more years but before I renewed my lease he was threatened that
he does and I don't know what they were gonna do that we just finished our fifth summer camp
this year for the refugee children it wasn't just incredible today the turnout
was around 200 children we had a medical clinic in which the turnover was 70
people came and yet we're only 20 people trying to serve so many people so we need
people we need laborers we need people to answer the call of God to serve Him
in the Middle East and everywhere in Lebanon in the beqaa valley in Tyre the
need is great the harvest is plenty but the laborers are few........... SUBSCRIBE & SHARE THIS BEAUTIFUL VIDEO WITH YOUR FRIENDS IN SOCIAL MEDIA....THANK YOU
