Egyptian megachurch assistant pastor makes his home in Winnipeg

A former megachurch assistant pastor in Egypt is happy to make his home in Winnipeg and believes revival is coming. 

Moheb Nasr is the pastor of Lighthouse Evangelical Arabic Church. He moved to Canada from Egypt in June 2020. 

"It's a miracle," says Nasr. "First of all, there were no flights. Second of all, we only have a work permit visa. At the Canadian border, they didn't allow anyone to come without citizenship or PR."

Flights coming into and leaving Canada at that time during the pandemic were almost non-existent. 

"We were praying, 'God you told us that I would be in Winnipeg in June.' My wife Sara, was looking for any solutions. We knew we needed to talk with the Canadian Embassy in Egypt. We were praying and suddenly I connected with a person in the embassy and he said let's try."

Through a series of events, Nasr found a flight through a friend in Toronto. 

"The director in the Middle East was calling me and he's taking care of everything. The Embassy sends the papers and every document and gave us approval. God opened the airport and gave us a flight and we came here at His perfect time."

Leaving a Megachurch in Egypt to Come to Canada

"God started preparing me and my wife in 2015. I received a call from a church in Gulf, asking 'Can you come and be a pastor in our church?' I said no. Two weeks after that, I felt in my heart that God was asking me why I gave an answer without asking Him."

Nasr didn't want to leave Egypt. 

"God told me I was going to leave Egypt. It took five years of preparation to go out of my comfort zone, the megachurch I was ministering at. It was a great time there but I started to prepare myself to move."

While Nasr knew he was supposed to leave his home country, he turned down five invitations to pastor in other countries before deciding on Canada. 

"When I received a call from my church here in Winnipeg, I said, 'Where is Winnipeg?'"

Before he and his family moved, Nasr ministered in 42 different countries but had never heard about Winnipeg. Through prayer, Nasr knew that Manitoba, Canada would be his new home. 

"The first time I came here was in July of 2019. Within the first minute of guest speaking, I felt in my heart that God was telling me, this is it. I can stand firm here through all the struggles, that God spoke to us, this is our home, this is our place now."

Since coming to Winnipeg, Nasr says that he's noticed God is shaking things up. 

"That's good and bad. We have to stand firm and go back to the first love and now the church has to be His bride again, loving Him because nothing is firm. Everything is shakable. I think God is restoring the identity of the church again. I believe there is a revival coming soon to Canada."