“You have honored us.” That’s the approximate translation of the Arabic term sharraftouna, which is usually used to welcome visitors into your home. And that’s the name a new Seventh-day Adventist company in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, chose for their community-friendly faith congregation.
Entrance to Sharraftouna, the new Lebanese Brazilian Adventist Community, in a prime location in Beirut, Lebanon. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
On November 22, on the closing day of the annual council of the Middle East and North Africa Union Mission (MENAUM) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, church leaders, members, and visitors enjoyed a day that included a company organization service, an ordination service, inspiring messages, mission testimonies, and dedication of missionaries.
View from the entrance to the Sharraftouna community center, where the new Lebanese Brazilian Adventist Community church will work to reach out to neighbors and members’ relatives. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
A Long and Tortuous History
The new Adventist congregation is located on the grounds of a community center in a prime downtown location. Just a few meters from the world-famous National Museum of Beirut, the Adventist Church has been present on that property since 1958. During the following decades, the building was used intermittently, depending on the civil and political ups-and-downs in the country. Closed during Lebanon’s Civil War, the building rapidly deteriorated.
The property includes an internal patio with a baptismal pool. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
“It seemed like a lost cause,” a narrator shared through a presentation video at the beginning of the November 22 program. However, regional church leaders now hope that the venue, recently remodeled, might become a hub to engage the community in social and evangelistic activities. “Through it all, this building still stands . . . and the light of Christ still shines from here,” the narrator said.
The main sanctuary of the new Lebanese Brazilian Adventist Community in Beirut, Lebanon. It has been recently remodeled after years of neglect and disrepair because of the political climate in the country. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
An International Community Is Born
November 22 was a day of celebration for the Adventist faith community, as regional church leaders participated in the organization of the new Lebanese Brazilian Adventist Community. Founding members include local Lebanese members, Brazilian expatriates—there’s a large community of Brazilian nationals in the country—residents from other Arab nations, and a few immigrants from other regions. The local church pastor is Adriano Bueno, a Brazilian who studied at the nearby Middle East University.
Every aspect of the worship service at Sharraftouna seeks to engage people from different backgrounds. Congregational singing usually combines songs in Arabic, English, and Portuguese. Transliteration is included for those who have not mastered Arabic but still wish to sing in that language.
Members regularly offer and distribute Adventist literature among relatives, neighbors, and friends. In the photo, copies of Ellen G. White’s The Desire of Ages in Arabic. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
During the ceremony founding members signed the official documents of the new group organization, as members and their leaders vowed to keep working to reach out to their relatives and neighbors. “There’s a lot of potential to keep working with families, many of whom are multicultural,” leaders explained. “Programs for children and their families are very popular, but now that we have a comfortable church building, we want to double our efforts so that more native Lebanese can get to know the truth as it is in Jesus.”
The new Lebanese Brazilian Adventist Community offers Sabbath School classes in Arabic, English, and Portuguese. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
Moving Forward
In his Sabbath worship message MENAUM president Denis Sand called regional church leaders and local members to move forward in faith, beyond past and present challenges. Reminding his audience of the people of Israel before the Red Sea, Sand called Adventists across that challenging region to imitate Moses, who with calm and confidence was ready to answer God’s call to action. “We must go forward not only because it means obeying God,” he emphasized, quoting Exodus 14:15. “It’s safer to follow His lead, and prepares us to see greater things ahead.”
Congregational singing includes songs in Arabic, English, and Portuguese. Transliteration is included for those who haven’t mastered Arabic but still wish to sing in that language. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
Sand shared that in the context of MENAUM, going forward means focusing on mission expansion, studying “improved ways and means of reaching the people,” he said, quoting Adventist Church cofounder Ellen G. White.[i] It also means focusing on leadership development and discipleship of members, and nurturing the next generation, Sand emphasized.
Church leaders and regional pastors pray for the founding members of the new Lebanese Brazilian Adventist Community on November 22. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
After a fellowship meal the early-afternoon program included the historical ordination to the gospel ministry service. The ceremony marked the ordination of the first pastor indigenous to his country of origin.[ii] The pastoral family, which includes two children, will keep ministering to the few Adventist members in their country of origin. “God has called a local shepherd, from his own people, to be ordained to serve his nation in the name of Jesus,” regional church leaders said.
Denis Sand, president of the Middle East and North Africa Union Mission, preaches during the inauguration of the Lebanese Brazilian Adventist Community in Beirut November 22. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
Inspiring Testimonies and Dedication of Volunteers
At the end of the ordination service, a mission-focused program brought testimonies with stories of people who met Jesus thanks to the friendship and witnessing of other members (sometimes across borders), the influence of Adventist education, or life circumstances brought—they believe—by God’s providence.
Myron Iseminger, executive secretary, and his wife, Candace, education director at the Middle East and North Africa Union Mission, follow
Personal testimonies included a Lebanese woman who learned more about Bible truth thanks to her son, who was attending an Adventist school. Her daughter not only shared what she was learning from the Bible but also included the fact that her mother was a smoker. “I know that you will die for it, and then, who’s going to take care of me? I will be left alone in this world!” her daughter told her in tears.
Jean-Jack Kareh, Communication director at the Middle East and North Africa Union Mission, leads moments of congregational singing on November 22. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
A desire to overcome her harmful habit led her to a Break Free program, which helped her start a new healthier life and begin Bible studies. Today she is a happy and grateful member of the Adventist Church.
Amir Ghali, director for National Development and Stewardship at the Middle East and North Africa Union Mission, addresses attendees during the ordination ceremony on November 22. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
Some of those new members shared that they didn’t wait to be baptized to start making new disciples. As they learned more about the Bible and its teachers, they became missionaries in their own right, usually in countries in which religious freedom is not always enforced or not socially acceptable. Some have launched small groups of Bible study even across borders, they reported.
Church leaders and regional pastors, together with their wives, pray for the newly ordained pastor and his family, who will keep serving in a country with some restrictions to religious liberty. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
In the last part of the afternoon program, Middle East University (MEU) president Carlos E. Biaggi, General Conference secretary Rick McEdward, and others dedicated a group of volunteers who completed their training at MEU and are now ready to serve and be deployed wherever their service might be needed. The group includes Lebanese and at least one young person from a restricted country, as well as several Brazilians. Church leaders and members prayed for the new volunteers and others who committed to keep sharing God’s truth in a vast and challenging region.
A member of the local church shares her testimony of how through her daughter and the help she received to stop smoking, she got to know the Adventist Church and was eventually baptized. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
Hand in hand in a large circle, members of the congregation singing marked the closing of the regional annual council and a day of dedication and celebration. “Here He comes, the King of kings,” they sang. “He descends in glory, majesty, and power. What a joyful day that will be!”
Church leaders from across the Middle East and North Africa Union Mission, visitors, and members of the Sharraftouna congregation in Beirut commit to double their outreach and mission efforts across the region. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
[i] Ellen G. White, Christian Service (Washington, D.C..: Review and Herald Pub. Assn.,1925), p. 110.
