CityGate began with an encounter with Jesus and an open home.
Before we knew Jesus, our lives looked very different. I was an atheist, and my wife had grown up in the Maronite Catholic tradition and faithfully practiced her religion. Seven years into our marriage, missionaries came to our hometown and prayed for us. Through their ministry, we encountered Jesus in a way that changed our lives.
My wife was healed from depression that had burdened her for many years. I experienced the fire of God’s presence and was delivered from spiritual oppression that had filled my nights with fear, sleeplessness, and nightmares. We had experienced His love and power personally, and we wanted to know Him.
For the next month, we welcomed the missionaries into our home. They taught us about Jesus, the Bible, the new birth, and the Holy Spirit. As we learned, we began inviting friends over for dinner so they could hear what God had done in our lives, meet the missionaries, and receive prayer.
When the missionaries left, the gatherings stopped. But God was still at work.
An Open Home
When COVID brought fear and uncertainty, people began reaching out again.
“Is your house still open for prayer? We need some hope.”
So we opened our doors.
Every Thursday, people gathered in our living room for fellowship and prayer. We shared our testimony and prayed for people in Jesus’ name. There were no sermons, no music, and no structured Bible studies. We did not know how to lead those things yet. We did not even understand that what was taking shape in our home was a church.
People spoke words over our lives about becoming shepherds, but we could hardly understand what they meant.
As people kept coming, they brought questions: Who is Jesus? What is eternal life? What about judgment? Could God forgive them?
I did not have all the answers. Each week, I would take a question, study the Bible, and prepare something to share the following Thursday. An answer would lead to more questions, and another week of searching the Scriptures.
That is how our house church began, almost by accident, it seemed to us, though we can now see God’s hand guiding it.
Those Thursdays were filled with grace and the love of God. We prayed for everyone who came. People experienced freedom, and some confessed Jesus as their Lord and Savior. As we watched God work in their lives, we were growing too.
Learning to Shepherd
In time, God connected us with a church and a pastor who saw what was happening and helped us take the next step.
Through discipleship, pastoral support, and generous financial help, we were able to rent a place and begin gathering beyond our living room. Our little community grew, and we began meeting twice a week.
We were learning what it meant to shepherd people: to teach the Word, pray with them, care for them, and walk alongside them as they followed Jesus.
Pioneering this work was not easy. Our faith was often misunderstood, and we faced opposition from different parts of our community, including other Christians. There were times when local authorities shut down our gatherings.
These were painful seasons. Yet we wanted to keep walking in love, remain faithful to Jesus, and stay focused on the people He had entrusted to us. We had come to know Him without understanding denominational divisions, and we did not want those divisions to become the centre of our story.
A Place to Call Home
Through a series of remarkable connections, unexpected provision, and answers to prayer, God opened the way for us to obtain land and build a church.
Today, that building stands as a testimony to His faithfulness.
What began around a dinner table, and grew through Thursday gatherings in our living room, now has a home where more people can come to hear the Gospel and encounter the love of Jesus.
Our prayer is that CityGate will be a beacon of hope in our city: a place where the Gospel is proclaimed, the sick receive prayer for healing, people find freedom in Jesus, leaders and church planters are trained, and the Father is worshiped in spirit and truth.
We are still learning, still growing, and still opening our doors.
Jesus changed our lives. Our desire is to help others come to know Him too.