My name is Tarek. I was born in 1975 in a small village in mount Lebanon called "Souk El Gharb". I was raised as Greek Orthodox, but my family attended Church only on special occasions. It was my dream as a child to become a priest, and I had spiritual Hunger since early childhood. Many times, as a child, I took large clothes and wore them and immitated the priests and what they do in the mass. you can say that I had a "religious oriented" personality but also, as a child, I had very hard circumstances, with the Lebanese war all around me.

 

The Lebanese war had a great impact on my life leading to many hurts and wounds that lasted for years and needed God's healing power to restore and deliver me.

I was emotionally hurt as a child by several incidents. The killing of my grandfather and my uncle by militants, leaving our village with everything we had to go and live in a new area has caused instability in my life, having no long-term friends, because every time I started building real friendships my family had to leave to another place and another and another.

 

When I was 8, I went to a Christian school and there I heard of God's love. There I realized my need for the salvation of the Lord. I was seeking a real encounter with a supernatural power. and I found what I need in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
After hearing the gospel for several years, I received Jesus as my personal Lord and Saviour, at age 11. There was no spectacular change in my life. But starting that day, the LORD did great things in my life.

 

 

The same year I was born again, the Lord spoke to my heart about serving him (though at that time I did not understand all the meaning of this calling). It was one Sunday afternoon, I was standing with a little boy at a big pile of dust close to my school Church. As we were talking, he asked me, "what do you like to do when you get old? Would you like to be a preacher?". At that moment, something hit me. I realized that I can serve God all my life. This incident was not just a small chat, It was God's voice to my heart. Since then, everytime I imagined my future, it was preaching on some pulpit. I went away and did a lot of other things, but I know that I know that I know... I am called to ministry.

 

At the age of 15 I was baptized with water. I started serving the Lord and giving all I had to Him. I was ministering with the youth, in our church magazine, in Sunday school as a teacher and, then, as the head of the Sunday School, and went to several children camps as leader. Also, I served as a vice chairman of the CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) Committee in Lebanon for around two consecutive years. At that point in time, my life started taking a new dimension. I had spiritual hunger in my heart for more. There was a sense that something is wrong with my spiritual life. As a result, I started longing to see my life and my ministry more like the ministry of the early church. I had some power, but not the apostolic power, I had faith but not the Faith for the supernatural. I started having my Bible readings from the book of Acts & I discovered what was missing, namely,  the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

 

The Bible became clear to me, I needed the power of the Holy Spirit and His Presence. I realized that whenever it is mentioned that people were filled with the Spirit there was evidence (namely, Speaking in other tongues).

After about ten days of waiting, I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of tongues and the things started changing. The blessing started spreading in a super natural way within our non-charismatic church, tens of people were blessed with this. We started a group that soon had to stop due to pressure from Church leaders (That is when I started what was called "The Son of Man" ministry). Things started taking a new dimension. I soon was put under pressure from the leadership of the Church and I had to leave the Church and go to a Pentecostal Church.

During this Period, I Finished my BBA (Bachelor in Business Administration) with an Honor's Degree. Then I enrolled in an MBA Program in the Lebanese American University. Before finishing my MBA, the Lord spoke to my heart to move to Europe and study at a Word of Faith School. That's Exactly what I did. I left my promising banking career, quit my MBA studies  three coarses before graduation and went to Europe.

 

After finishing my one-year program of Bible Studies, I came back to Lebanon. Challenges started concerning my ministry. What am I going to do? Where? by what means? I had nothing in my hands, nothing in my wallet. I only had a little bit of faith.
God has already spoken that I must start a Church in Antelias among other things. But is it the time? Anyway we started ministry in Antelias by faith, and against the will of my previous Church leader. I was working two days a week to pay for the rent of the small office in which we were meeting. God did good things, He healed some, saved some, touched some, but mostly he was discipling me along with the other friends who joined the ministry.

 

After going for a while with the ministry in Antelias, the number of our members was not increasing. I was under a heavy attack from the devil: "You are not walking in God's will. You are just a pretending person who is messing things up. You must quit." After a very heavy fight with these thoughts and similar ones, the decision was made: "We will continue the fight no matter what, but since we can't afford the rent of our office, we have to move to my house."
Readjustments were made concerning my life. I was back to full time Job in June 2002, working as a Medical Underwriter trainee in an insurance company. I was back to College to finish my unfinished MBA. The ministry on the other hand is still moving but this time with a different style.

 

After a while, God shock the ministry. The Son of Man ministry became "Life of Faith" ministry. The meeting at home stopped and what is a  one meeting became discipleship meetings whereever the opportunity arises. I wrote (and still writing) the Life of Faith Discipleship program which is a series of study guides to disciple new believers with the Word of God. What started in June 2003 as one student being discipled in the Word soon and within few months became seven weekly meetings. The begining of 2004 witnessed what became group discipleship meetings, which was bearing fruit and increasing. by February 14, 2005, the Spirit Channel started braodcasting our Life of Faith Television program all over the Arab World, North Africa and Europe. In April 2005, the First Life of Faith Church started meeting in the Ancient city of Byblos (Jbeil) and then in May 2006 an Antelias congregation started meeting in the Building of the Christian Life Church.