The Missiology Behind the Story

MARTIN ACCAD has a DPhil from the University of Oxford, UK. He is Chief Academic Officer at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary, Mansourieh, Lebanon, and Director of its Institute of Middle East Studies. He is also Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at ABTS and Affiliate Associate Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California, USA.

MELANIE BAGGO was born in Southern California and now lives in Beirut. She is a Global Servant with American Baptist Churches International Ministries and is a Masters of Religion (MREL) student at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS).

DONNIE BENTLEY is the director of the Alliance English Program in Beirut, Lebanon. He has lived in the Middle East since 2005.

RUPEN DAS has been involved in missions and Christian international development for over forty years, partnering with the Navigators, World Vision, the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary, and local NGOs, among others. He currently serves as President of the Canadian Bible Society and is a research professor at Tyndale University, Toronto, Canada. He writes on topics of global Christianity, missions, poverty, and ministries of compassion.

IVAN FAWZI is originally from Iraq, a former communist and atheist, born into a mixed Christian and Muslim family. He has lived in the former Czechoslovakia and Egypt. He has British nationality. At present, he lives with his wife and three children in Beirut and serves as the discipleship director in Resurrection Church, Beirut. He is the co-founder of al-Massira, an Arabic video-based resource for outreach and discipleship.

Nabil Habiby is a youth pastor who also works as a Dean of Students at the Nazarene School in Beirut. He is a lecturer in the New Testament at the Arab Nazarene Bible College and an adjunct faculty member and lecturer in the New Testament at Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS). He is also a part-time doctoral student at the Nazarene Theological College in Manchester, UK, where he is researching the relationship between impurity and demonic spirits and doing a conceptual study on the relationship of the two in the Ancient Near East, the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism. He is also conducting a narrative-spatial reading of the mentions of “impure spirits” in Mark. He holds a master’s degree from Nazarene Theological College, Manchester.

ROBERT HAMD is Lebanese and ethnically Druze. He has a doctorate in Intercultural Studies (DIS) from Fuller Theological Seminary, USA. In addition, he is ordained.

BRENT HAMOUD lives with his family in Beirut, Lebanon, where he is a projects manager with Kids Alive International, a faith-based organization working with at-risk children. His work includes ministry to refugee, migrant, and stateless children and youth. He has a master’s in Middle Eastern and North African studies from the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary, Lebanon.

Chaden Hani was born and raised in a Druze community in the Lebanese mountain area. She received her BA in Computer Science from Beirut University College before travelling to Europe where she became a follower of Christ in the year 2000. She had a conviction that God wanted her and her family to serve him in the Druze community. Back in Lebanon she and her family joined a local church for ten years during which she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Theology from The Arabic Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS) and her Master’s degree in Religion from the Institute of Middle East Studies (IMES) which is based at ABTS. She currently works as a Peacebuilding Initiatives Coordinator at IMES and co-pastors a local church of believers from a Druze background together with her husband.

RABIH HASBANY is Lebanese. Rabih was born and raised in Lebanon. He serves as the Lead Tutor for ABTS Online and General Editor for the Institute of Middle East Studies (IMES). He is studying in the IMES M-Rel program and writing his final paper on Cross-cultural Model of Discipleship: A Way to Equip Syrian Followers of Christ to Lead Faith Communities in their Local Context.

SAMAR KHOURY is Lebanese. She committed her life to Christ aged twenty. She did a course in Christian Apologetics that made quite an impact on her faith; she views her calling and passion as sharing the love of Christ with others. She has master’s degrees in Theology and Psychology. She worked as a Bible teacher and a counsellor at a Christian school and was involved in discipleship, counselling and worship at her church. She moved to Germany in 2017 following her marriage to Tobias.

SUZIE LAHOUD is a second-year master’s candidate at Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Duke University graduating magna cum laude with a double major in Middle Eastern Studies and Russian. She additionally holds a Master of Religion in Middle Eastern and North African Studies from IMES. Suzie lived in Lebanon for seven years, the last four of which were spent working as a programme officer at MERATH, the relief and community development branch of the Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development (LSESD). At this time, she managed projects responding to the urgent needs of refugees, internally displaced people and at-risk populations in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. Boston-born, Suzie grew up in Central Asia, and speaks fluent Russian and Arabic. She currently resides in Massachusetts with her husband of six years, Marvin Lahoud. She wrote the case studies in chapter 6.

SALIM J. MUNAYER is executive director and founder of Musalaha Ministry of Reconciliation, which has been bringing Israelis and Palestinians together since 1990 and creating a forum for reconciliation. Salim is a Palestinian-Israeli born in Lod, and received his BA from Tel Aviv University in History and Geography, his MA from Fuller Theological Seminary, and his PhD from the Oxford Center of Mission Studies, UK. He also did graduate studies in New Testament at Pepperdine University. He has published books on reconciliation, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Christians in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. His most recent work is Through My Enemy’s Eyes: Envisioning Reconciliation in Israel-Palestine (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2014) co-authored with Lisa Loden. Salim served as academic dean and professor at Bethlehem Bible College from 1989 to 2008. He is adjunct professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

CHRIS TODD is from Alabama, USA. He moved to Lebanon in January 2012 and worked among Syrian refugees with the National Evangelical Council. During 2017 and 2018 they opened two schools for Syrian refugee children inside refugee camps near Tyre. Chris, together with his wife and four children, have seen the good news that Jesus is building his kingdom in the region.

JESSE WHEELER is American and lives in Lebanon where he is chief project officer for the Institute of Middle East Studies (IMES) and lectures on their Masters of Religion (MRel) programme.

WALID ZAILAA is a faculty member of ABTS, teaching in the area of Old Testament, biblical languages and biblical theology, and also serves as the Leader of Academic Programs and Head Librarian. In 2007, he started his MDiv at ABTS, followed by an MTh at IBTS, and recently completed his DMin at Acadia.