If you look at the Facebook page of Mohammad Said Yamout, you’ll see that he is both very busy…and very fearless.
This NCS member has been doing life-changing yet dangerous mission work in the Middle East over the past nine years. Yamout travels to his Lighthouses of Love and Truth in Tyre, South Lebanon, Cairo, Egypt and Amman, Jordan every six months.
“Our mission is to establish Lighthouses of Love and Truth all over the Muslim world,” shares Yamout.
“I started this work in Lebanon, where I come from, because I had seen first-hand that there is a great need there for Muslims to know what Christ is about.”
Yamout’s lighthouses are outreach centers where the love of Christ is shown and Christ’s truth is shared. There is nothing else like it in the Middle East, and outreach in this region is very risky. For most groups, outreach is done in public places where the workers can disguise who they are for safety reasons. Yamout’s lighthouses are out in the open operating as stand-alone centers.
Lighthouses of Love and Truth goes into areas where there are already some Christians but many Muslims. Yamout sets up centers in predominantly Muslim neighborhoods. The move is bold, but thankfully there are enough Christians to provide protection for Yamout and his workers.
Yamout’s organization meets the physical needs of the people in the area while preaching the Gospel in the process. In the past, he has reached out to help refugees with food parcels, enroll children in schools and provide a shop for training women on sewing machines (to sew blankets for the winter and clothes for the summer for refugees). He has also set up a music school to teach refugee teenagers how to play guitars and trumpets - providing a positive atmosphere that keeps them out of trouble and avoids the potential to be drawn into terrorism activities.
With 2 million refugees in Lebanon alone, there is much work to be done.
The connection to New Canaan Society came through Kalim Andraos. And Lighthouses is supported by our local chapter but also many chapters around the country. NCS has had a big impact on Yamout’s work because its chapters believed in what Lighthouses was doing and supported the ministry both financially and spiritually. Andraos and others have bought two vans for Yamout, built churches, bought sewing machines and donated money for enrolling children in school.
Yamout loves the passion he sees from NCS volunteers - and their desire to see God glorified in the Muslim world.
“My vision is to plant 1,000 lighthouses all over the Muslim world, and I would love to see NCS sponsor as many as possible. I would love to activate more NCS members to be involved, come volunteer with us,” says Yamout.
“We would love to have everybody come: those who have a passion and those who do not because for both I believe a life changing experience will take place. “