Lebanese Church Saved by ‘Holy Spirit Hunch’ Now Changing Lives After Beirut Blast

JERUSALEM, Israel- A Lebanese pastor who believes God miraculously spared his life during the catastrophic Beirut explosion in August says the Lord is still working miracles in the broken city.

CBN News spoke with Pastor Said Deeb of Life Center Church in Beirut days after the blast. Pastor Deeb said he survived because of a “Holy Spirit hunch.”

Before the explosion ripped through the Beirut port, an eerie feeling came over him and Pastor Deeb ordered his entire church staff to go home.

“I told everyone, 'Go home, go home, just close the Center'," Pastor Deeb explained. "It was as if the Holy Spirit is saying, Go! Go! Go! Go! So, I was saying everybody go home, turn off the computers, forcing them to leave, I was forcing them.”

"They were thinking I lost my mind but they didn't know and I didn't know it was the Holy Spirit's prompting."

That decision likely saved countless lives. Not long after Pastor Deeb shuttered the church’s doors, a massive explosion shook Beirut, killing 200 and wounding more than 6,500. Life Center Church, which is only about a mile from the explosion epicenter, sustained significant damage from the blast. No one was injured except for a security guard.

“Everything I built in 12 years; I saw it destroyed on the floor. All the ceilings on the floor, all the lamps, all the paintings, everything. All the doors – doors without frames,” he told CBN news.

Youth from the church and neighbors came to help clean up the wreckage and protect the building from looters. Today, after much work, much of the church looks brand new. The broken glass is gone, new doors stand on their hinges, and the ceilings are back in place.

Pastor Deeb says God protected him and is now using his ministry to work miracles in the lives of those suffering in Beirut.

“Now we are trying to reach those families around us who lost their jobs, lost their homes, lost their hope. It’s impossible to survive without hope,” he told Mission Field Media.

The Beirut blast left some 300,000 people homeless in a country already crippled by an economic crisis, political dysfunction, and the coronavirus pandemic. 

Life Center Church is feeding the hungry, repairing homes, and paying the rent of those in need.

“We are giving a little hope and I believe this hope will enlighten their faith and one day this faith will give them the miracle they need,” said Pastor Deeb.

“Thank you so much for praying for Lebanon – praying for the church here. Thank you for the body of Christ all over the world,” he added. “Keep praying for Lebanon. I believe the miracle will come and the breakthrough will come. I have this faith. This is why I am staying in Lebanon."