Linga- Jaffa of Nazareth
Under the auspices of the evangelical convention in Israel, Back to Jerusalem ministry hosted the ministers and leaders in their monthly breakfast gathering on Saturday 2/3/2013, in the Baptist church of Jaffa of Nazareth.
Following breakfast, Pastor Botrus Ghrayeb opened the meeting with a word of prayer and welcomed the attendance on behalf of the Back to Jerusalem ministry. A time of praise and worship followed, led by Rani Saba.
Afterwards, Bishara Deeb, Pastor of Jaffa of Nazareth Baptist church, shared a short devotion from 1 Corinthians 1: 26-2:5. He spoke about God choosing the weak so that they can testify about Him through the Holy Spirit for the whole world.
Pastor Rajai Samawi, director of Back to Jerusalem ministry shared about the goal of the ministry, which is to encourage and motivate believers as they get equipped for evangelism and church planting.
Rajai Samawi shared a brief history about the ministry that started in 2008 and explained that its name “Back to Jerusalem”, because it's vision is to bring the Gospel message back to our land in the same powerful manner that it started with two thousand years ago. In 2010, Back to Jerusalem became an independent ministry led by a number of local evangelical Pastors.
Rajai shared about the Prayer Room on Linga’s site, that many prayer requests reach to the site from the local people. He suggested to the ministers about a possibility of visiting the homes of those who ask for prayer upon their agreement, as he recommended that every church should take care of the people in its local area. He emphasized that visiting homes can be a reason for the salvation of the individuals and their families.
Pastor Rajai continued to talk about the values of Back to Jerusalem ministry which are: prayer, partnership with churches, training believers, distributing out Christian material and planting the Word of The Lord.
In conclusion, he announced that the ministry is planning for a retreat for the local evangelical pastors in Jordan for four days during the next month. It will include a day of prayer, fellowship and visiting the biblical places in Jordan. He also announced about the upcoming Back to Jerusalem conference which will be held in Jerusalem from July 1st -3rd, the outreach from July 5th-10th and the celebration on the Mount of Olives on July 10th.
There was a time for announcements afterwards; Samer Botrus, Director of Life Agape ministry announced that a couple from the states will offer a day of training entitled “Home Builders”. It is aimed for couples who are interested in serving with other couples. The training course will be for three hours, 4- 7pm.
Yosef A. Linga’s site Director announced the addition of new PowerPoint songs without any photos for the purposes of serving evangelical churches, that prefer to use PowerPoint songs without any photos included. He added that many churches around the world download their songs from Linga’s site.
Yosef also shared that Saudi Arabia banned certain sections from Linga's site such as hymns, videos, sermons as he asked the ministers to pray regarding this issue.
Salim Hanna announced the opening of a new media department for the Al Tariq Radio (The Way Radio) in Haifa and asked everyone to take part in it.
Majd Shofani announced about the new project he is about to start , which is recording video lessons that teach how to play musical instruments. These will be available online for free, for all church members who want to learn to play musical instruments. He asked the support of the evangelical ministries for this project as it requires a lot of efforts and instruments.
Salim Hanna welcomed Pastor John Cook from America, who serves in many countries such as India as he himself in his turn shard about ministry there. He also said that the vision of the organization is to reach out to the local people in every country they go to, through reaching out to the local ministers who know all about the traditions and the language of the people. He informed everyone that throughout the past years, they were able to reach out to 9 different countries and they will soon start evangelizing the tenth country.
In conclusion, Salim Hanna announced the upcoming Mother’s day program that Christian Holy Land Foundation Ministry will host on March 16th, and also the Global Day of Prayer which will be held on the day of Pentecost on the 19th of May.
