Inside Story: Lebanon ~ Missionary Shares Faith on TV

Missionary Shares Faith on TV

By ChanMin Chung

Carlos Biaggi, an Argentine missionary in Lebanon, was flooded with messages and prayers from around the world after a powerful explosion rocked Beirut, killing about 200 people, in August 2020.

Image © Pacific Press

One of the messages that Carlos received came from an Argentine pastor with whom he previously had served as a missionary in Paraguay.

“I have contacts with the media in Buenos Aires,” the friend wrote. “If someone wants to interview you, would you be willing?”

Minutes after Carlos said he was willing, the friend wrote that a journalist from C5N television, a 24-hour national news channel, wished to conduct an on-air interview the next day. “When you see an appropriate time during the interview, give your personal testimony,” he said. “Because it’s a major television channel, I believe that the interview will be short, most probably five minutes at the most. It will be a miracle if it lasts ten minutes.”

The interview, broadcast live across Argentina and other parts of the Spanish-speaking world, lasted an astounding nine minutes and fifty seconds. During that time, Carlos, dean of the business administration faculty at the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Middle East University, described the wave of hot air that struck his face moments after a warehouse exploded in Beirut’s port. He spoke about efforts by the Adventist Church and the Adventist Development and Relief Agency to respond to the tragedy. At the request of the television host, he also shared his personal testimony about how God called him to work in Lebanon.

Carlos said he had followed God’s leading to Beirut after receiving a doctorate in business from the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies in the Philippines.

“They invited me to work here and said, ‘The truth is that it wouldn’t be easy,’” “But I said, ‘If God wants me to go to Lebanon, I will go. If He doesn’t want me to go, I won’t go.’ No matter what family or friends said, God had to show me that this was the place where He wanted me to be.”

“That day I prayed and opened my Bible to Isaiah 6,” he concluded. “What I read confirmed God’s plan for me because Isaiah replied, ‘Here I am, send me.’ I knew that this was a sign, and I thanked God.”