Listen to our latest ‘Inside The Epicenter’ podcast for The Joshua Fund
Refugees at the Elysee Theater in Hamra, Beirut, Lebanon on October 27, 2024. Photo by Marc Fayad/ABACAPRESS.COM
Henri Aoun today is one of the most respected and influential Evangelical leaders in the Arab world.
For the last several decades, he was the director of Life Agape’s ministry of evangelism, discipleship, and pastor training and encouragement, overseeing some 1,200 national staff workers in two dozen Middle East and North African countries raging from Morocco in the West to Afghanistan in the East.
Life Agape is the Mideast division on the global ministry more widely known as Campus Crusade for Christ International, or simply as Cru.
Currently, Aoun focuses exclusively on training, equipping, and coaching ministry leaders in the Arab/Muslim world.
Born and raised as a Roman Catholic in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, Aoun eventually found a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. He became “born again,” following the teachings of Jesus Christ in The Gospel of John, chapter three.
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:5-6)
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life,” Jesus continued. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
(John 3:16-17)
My wife and I have known the Aoun family for more than thirty years.
That’s why we were so grateful that he was willing to let me interview him about what’s really happening in Lebanon right now — and how Christians can and should be praying — for our podcast, “Inside The Epicenter.”
The podcast is produced and distributed by The Joshua Fund, the non-profit Evangelical ministry that Lynn and founded in 2006 to “educate and mobilize Christians to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus, according to Genesis 12:1-3.”
During our conversation, I asked him to share about the massive influx of Shia Muslim refugees fleeing southern Lebanon and heading to Beirut to steer clear of the intense fighting between the Hezbollah terrorist organization and the State of Israel.
I asked him:
• How many refugees are there?
• How are Evangelical Christians in Lebanon trying to help the refugees?
• How should Evangelicals around the world be praying for the Lebanese people — and the Church in Lebanon — in these dark and painful times?
I also asked him why there is growing talk about Lebanese leaders and citizens about disarming Hezbollah and pushing the malign and destructive influence of the Iranian regime out of Lebanon.
Aoun spoke with great love and compassion about the country of his birth, where he still has family, friends and ministry partners with whom he is in daily contact.
He said he is grieving the death toll and destruction resulting from the war and is praying it will end soon.
But he is also hopeful for Lebanon’s future, noting that it is the only Arab country whose government is not structured as a Muslim-only regime, and where Christians can and do serve in parliament and the upper echelons of the government.
Lebanon is also the only Arab country, Aoun said, where he can safely and freely print Bibles in Arabic and hold conferences to train Christians to share the Gospel and makes disciples.
Joel C. Rosenberg Joel C. Rosenberg is the editor-in-chief of All Arab News. He is a New York Times best-selling author, Middle East analyst, and Evangelical who lives in Jerusalem.
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