Horizons International to Open Prayer for All Nations Center in Lebanon

BEIRUT – Horizons International recently introduced its plans for establishing the Middle East Center for World Missions in Beirut. The entire project is expected to take 10 years to complete. The objective is “To build a hub and network that facilitate the mobilization, training, and sending of missionaries from the Middle East and North Africa to the world. Our goal is to equip Christians from the Middle East and North Africa to go.”

Pierre Houssney, the MENA Regional Director for Horizons International observed that “One of the battlegrounds that I think the Church in Lebanon has not really taken up is actually the battleground for the unreached peoples of the world.”

He added, “Often, the ministry has been focused internally on Lebanon. The churches and organizations have been focused on Lebanon as a mission field and we’re now trying to make the shift so that the nationals will now look at themselves as a missions-sending base to the Middle East and North Africa, and around the world.”

This biblical approach to missiology has been promoted by men like George Verwer of Operation Mobilization, Gospel for Asia (GFA) founder, K.P Yohannan, and John Haggai, founder of the Haggai Institute, and others for nearly half-a-century. It has virtually changed missions from the unintended consequence of being a cross-cultural effort to focusing on teaching and making disciples as the Lord instructed us to do. (Matthew 28:19-20)

Any time we attempt to spread the Gospel, we engage in the unseen but intense realm of spiritual warfare. Houssney commented that prayer, therefore, is a major factor in becoming a missions-sending base. His framed Horizon’s vision saying, “I believe that once we establish this place, it’s going to be a place where God calls Lebanese missionaries to serve around the world through praying for these unreached people groups, and that’s our vision and that’s our hope in faith.”

That vision for the Middle East Center for World Missions includes developing global missions’ strategies, training in evangelism, discipleship, and missions, unifying believers through prayer.

The vision for the Prayer for All Nations Center is three-fold:

To teach believers how to pray intentionally, passionately, and in intercession.
To provide a space for believers from multiple churches to gather for prayer.
To pray for the multitudes of people who are still unreached and to learn who they are, what they believe, and what they need.

Pierre’s father, Georges, is the founder and president of Horizons International. He was raised in Lebanon and came to trust Christ as his Savior and Lord as a teenager. He moved to the U.S. in 1982 expressly to minister to international students. Horizons International grew out of that move. George Verwer once observed that “The transformation of Georges Houssney, from a teenage hater of Muslims to a rest-of-his-life lover of Muslims, is a story of God’s overcoming grace.”

During 2017, Horizons discipled more than 540 people who had converted from Islam and recorded more than 250 proclamations of people coming to Christ.

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