{"id":4372,"date":"2023-02-04T20:09:01","date_gmt":"2023-02-04T20:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/gaza-pastor-connected-together-through-pain\/"},"modified":"2023-02-04T20:09:01","modified_gmt":"2023-02-04T20:09:01","slug":"gaza-pastor-connected-together-through-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/gaza-pastor-connected-together-through-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"GAZA PASTOR: Connected Together Through Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today Hanna Massad, former pastor of Gaza Baptist Church, assists persecuted Christians and refugees across the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>He knows what they are facing. He\u2019s had his own first-hand experiences of Christian persecution, living and pastoring a church in a Muslim context. His wife led the Gaza Bible Society during a time when it was bombed twice. Their coworker and friend, Rami Ayyad, was kidnapped and murdered.<\/p>\n<p>In these difficult moments, Hanna and his family had to completely rely on God\u2019s Word. When Gaza police told him they couldn\u2019t protect his family, Hanna thought of Psalm 46:1, \u201cThe Lord is my refuge.\u201d He and his family knew God could protect them, even if local authorities could not or would not.<\/p>\n<p>In the face of threats of further attacks, they decided to leave Gaza, at least temporarily. They planned to be away for a few weeks, long enough that the situation could settle down again. Instead, their departure became long-term.<\/p>\n<p>While the doors have never re-opened for the Massad family to return permanently to Gaza, that doesn\u2019t mean their ministry in Gaza ceased. Massad, author of the book <a href= \"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Pastor-Gaza-Hanna-Massad-ebook\/dp\/B07JCJZQQ9?crid=HOWZ2WZIF1ZB&#038;keywords=Pastor+From+Gaza&#038;qid=1674747554&#038;sprefix=pastor+from+gaza,aps,99&#038;sr=8-1&#038;linkCode=sl1&#038;tag=vb0eb-20&#038;linkId=3e3ff0dd70bc8c172adb4f22df9edd50&#038;language=en_US&#038;ref_=as_li_ss_tl\"> Pastor From Gaza<\/a> (affiliate link), continues ministering to Christians in Gaza through the church, online connections, the Bible Society library and regular visits back to his homeland.<\/p>\n<p>Listen as he shares an update on the current ministry of Pauline Ayyad, Rami\u2019s widow and a recent guest on <a href= \"https:\/\/link.chtbl.com\/vomradio-episode-me-forgiveness?sid=Part%202%20Hanna%20Massad\"> VOM Radio<\/a>. He\u2019ll also share what it means to be a true disciple and he\u2019ll challenge every listener to keep our eyes on Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>Hanna is the founder and president of <a href= \"https:\/\/cm2g.org\/main\/\">Christian Ministry to Gaza<\/a>, blessing and serving widows, orphans, and refugees in multiple nations of the Middle East, helping provide for spiritual and physical needs.<\/p>\n<p>Never miss an episode of VOM Radio!\u00a0<a href= \"https:\/\/www.vomradio.net\/subscribe\">Subscribe to the podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vomradio.net\/episodes\/detail\/gaza-pastor-connected-together-through-pain\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Listen to this episode on VOMRadio.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today Hanna Massad, former pastor of Gaza Baptist Church, assists persecuted Christians and refugees across the Middle East. He knows what they are facing. He\u2019s had his own first-hand experiences of Christian persecution, living and pastoring a church in a Muslim context. His wife led the Gaza Bible Society during a time when it was bombed twice. Their coworker and friend, Rami Ayyad, was kidnapped and murdered. In these difficult moments, Hanna and his family had to completely rely on God\u2019s Word. When Gaza police told him they couldn\u2019t protect his family, Hanna thought of Psalm 46:1, \u201cThe Lord is my refuge.\u201d He and his family knew God could protect them, even if local authorities could not or would not. In the face of threats of further attacks, they decided to leave Gaza, at least temporarily. They planned to be away for a few weeks, long enough that the situation could settle down again. Instead, their departure became long-term. While the doors have never re-opened for the Massad family to return permanently to Gaza, that doesn\u2019t mean their ministry in Gaza ceased. Massad, author of the book  Pastor From Gaza (affiliate link), continues ministering to Christians in Gaza through the church, online connections, the Bible Society library and regular visits back to his homeland. Listen as he shares an update on the current ministry of Pauline Ayyad, Rami\u2019s widow and a recent guest on  VOM Radio. He\u2019ll also share what it means to be a true disciple and he\u2019ll challenge every listener to keep our eyes on Jesus. Hanna is the founder and president of Christian Ministry to Gaza, blessing and serving widows, orphans, and refugees in multiple nations of the Middle East, helping provide for spiritual and physical needs. Never miss an episode of VOM Radio!\u00a0Subscribe to the podcast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vom-radio","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>GAZA PASTOR: Connected Together Through Pain - Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/gaza-pastor-connected-together-through-pain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GAZA PASTOR: Connected Together Through Pain - Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today Hanna Massad, former pastor of Gaza Baptist Church, assists persecuted Christians and refugees across the Middle East. He knows what they are facing. He\u2019s had his own first-hand experiences of Christian persecution, living and pastoring a church in a Muslim context. His wife led the Gaza Bible Society during a time when it was bombed twice. Their coworker and friend, Rami Ayyad, was kidnapped and murdered. In these difficult moments, Hanna and his family had to completely rely on God\u2019s Word. When Gaza police told him they couldn\u2019t protect his family, Hanna thought of Psalm 46:1, \u201cThe Lord is my refuge.\u201d He and his family knew God could protect them, even if local authorities could not or would not. In the face of threats of further attacks, they decided to leave Gaza, at least temporarily. They planned to be away for a few weeks, long enough that the situation could settle down again. Instead, their departure became long-term. While the doors have never re-opened for the Massad family to return permanently to Gaza, that doesn\u2019t mean their ministry in Gaza ceased. Massad, author of the book Pastor From Gaza (affiliate link), continues ministering to Christians in Gaza through the church, online connections, the Bible Society library and regular visits back to his homeland. Listen as he shares an update on the current ministry of Pauline Ayyad, Rami\u2019s widow and a recent guest on VOM Radio. He\u2019ll also share what it means to be a true disciple and he\u2019ll challenge every listener to keep our eyes on Jesus. Hanna is the founder and president of Christian Ministry to Gaza, blessing and serving widows, orphans, and refugees in multiple nations of the Middle East, helping provide for spiritual and physical needs. Never miss an episode of VOM Radio!\u00a0Subscribe to the podcast.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/gaza-pastor-connected-together-through-pain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-04T20:09:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"vomtechsupport\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"vomtechsupport\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/gaza-pastor-connected-together-through-pain\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/gaza-pastor-connected-together-through-pain\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"vomtechsupport\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/5ff286fd5505fccd2d5ebfd9d4203216\"},\"headline\":\"GAZA PASTOR: Connected Together Through Pain\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-04T20:09:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/gaza-pastor-connected-together-through-pain\/\"},\"wordCount\":320,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/gaza-pastor-connected-together-through-pain\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/VOM-Stories-VOMRadio-Placeholder.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"VOM Radio\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/gaza-pastor-connected-together-through-pain\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/gaza-pastor-connected-together-through-pain\/\",\"name\":\"GAZA PASTOR: Connected Together Through Pain - 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