Legacy 2022 Speakers

This three-day conference features talks, breakout meetings, and Q&A sessions hosted by some of the most respected and prominent leaders in the field of Muslim evangelism. Legacy is the perfect resource for anyone involved in reaching out to Muslims, but is also a comprehensive introduction for those who seek a deeper understanding of their calling.

Plenary Speakers

Josh McDowell

Josh McDowell has been at the forefront of cultural trends and groundbreaking ministry for more than 58 years. He shares the essentials of the Christian faith in everyday language so that people of all ages and stages can know Christ, understand what they believe and why it is true, and learn how to live, share, and defend their faith.

Well known as an articulate speaker, Josh has spoken to approximately 25.2 million people in 126 countries. Josh has written or co-authored 151 books with some translated into 128 languages. These include More Than a Carpenter with over 27 million copies distributed. He also authored Evidence That Demands a Verdict, named by World Magazine as one of the twentieth century’s top 40 books and one of the thirteen most influential books of Christian thought of the last 50 years. Evidence That Demands a Verdict also won the 2018 Evangelical Christian Publisher’s Association award in the Bible Reference Book category. Find out more at https://www.josh.org/

Abdu Murray

Abdu is an attorney, international Christian Apologist, and the author of several books including, Saving Truth – Finding Meaning and Clarity in a Post-Truth World, Grand Central Question — Answering the Critical Concerns of the Major Worldviews, and Apocalypse Later: Why the Gospel of Peace Must Trump the Politics of Prophecy in the Middle East.

For most of his life, Abdu was a proud Muslim until a nine-year historical, philosophical, theological, and scientific investigation pointed him to the Christian faith.

Abdu has spoken to diverse international audiences and has participated in debates and dialogues across the globe. Abdu holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor and earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School. Abdu lives in the Detroit, Michigan area with his wife and their three children.

Rev. Fred Farrokh

Rev. Fred Farrokh is an International Trainer with "Global Initiative: Reaching Muslim Peoples." He is an Iranian-American who was born and raised Muslim. He obtained a PhD in Intercultural Studies from Assemblies of God Theological Seminary.

Previously he served with SAT-7 in the Middle East and Jesus For Muslims Network in New York. He has traveled to and ministered in all regions of the Muslim World. He hosts a television program for Muslims called "Faith Matters." He and his wife Annette have five children.

He is also the author of "Prepare for Persecution: Lessons From Acts," and “Journey with Jesus: A Spiritual Pilgrimage through the Psalms of Ascent."

Işik Abla

IŞIK ABLA was born in Istanbul, Turkey, and raised in a Muslim home. Throughout her childhood and young adult life, she experienced verbal and physical abuse and found herself in an extremely violent abusive marriage to a Muslim man. Işık earned a bachelor’s degree in literature, followed by an advanced business degree. She worked in high-ranking executive positions for some of the largest corporations in Turkey and traveled throughout Europe.

In 1996, she fled to America from her violent Muslim husband after he tried to kill her.  After years of struggling to start her career all over again in a foreign country and failing in many areas of her personal life, Işık fell into a deep depression. She became suicidal. On the day she was planning to end her life, she had a personal encounter with God. That day, she surrendered her life to Jesus, and she received the supernatural healing and redemption of Jesus Christ. From that moment on, her life remarkably changed for the better.

After receiving the Lord’s call to full-time ministry, she attended the Ambassador’s Commission School of Ministry. Soon after her graduation, she became an ordained minister. She studied Biblical studies at a Divinity School. Following she attended Yale and Harvard Universities for leadership training.

Today, Işık’s programs are broadcast in over 200 countries on six continents in multiple languages available to all of the Middle East and North Africa. Ministry content is provided in English, Turkish, Arabic, Indonesian, Farsi, and Urdu. Her message of hope, love, and redemption, found only in a loving God, resonates with and continues to reach the Muslim world for Christ.  As a Muslim background believer, she is uniquely positioned, knowing the culture, language, and social norms, to share the good news of Jesus Christ authentically and relationally to Muslims.

Find out more on her website or on her YouTube channel, IsikAblaTV.

Georges Houssney

Teacher and author Georges Houssney is the founder and president of Horizons International, a 30 year-old global missions organization dedicated to proclaiming the gospel, discipling the nations, and equipping the church. Georges is passionate about sharing the love of Christ with the world, especially the Muslim world, and has devoted his life to that end. Since he founded Horizons International with his family in 1990, Georges has grown Horizons into a dynamic and multifaceted international ministry with over 80 staff members around the world. His Lebanese upbringing, his background in psychology, linguistics, and intercultural studies, and his travels to 98 countries in his 40+ years of experience in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting have all contributed to the success of his training programs, including the popular Engaging Islam for church members and missionaries, and Cubs to Lions for converts from Islam.

Georges is the author of the widely acclaimed book Engaging Islam. He has authored two other books in Arabic, an Arabic Bible study, and the widely circulated ReachOut magazine. He also teaches in the Engaging Islam and Battle for the Hearts DVDs.  Georges holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Haigazian College in Beirut, Lebanon with a Teaching Certificate Minor in Education.  Georges has also completed graduate work in Psychology & Counseling at The American University of Beirut, in Communications and Anthropology at Daystar Communications, in Communications at Wheaton College, and in Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Colorado.

Read more about Horizons’ Founder and President.

Middle East Center

Pierre Houssney

Pierre Rashad Houssney, Executive Director of Horizons International, is a Lebanese-American who grew up in the context of cross-cultural ministry among Muslims and international students. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Northern Colorado and is fluent in English and Arabic. He has been in full-time ministry with Horizons International since 2006 and has been an active member of Horizons’ teaching staff and curriculum development team since 2002.

He played a lead role in the development and teaching of the Engaging Islam and Cubs to Lions training curricula, and co-edited Engaging Islam (Georges Houssney, Treeline Publishing, Boulder, CO, 2010). Pierre has traveled to over 30 countries, and his field experience in the Middle East began when he spent summers doing outreach in Lebanon as a teenager and spent a gap year during university doing music ministry in Beirut.

Pierre lives in Beirut, Lebanon, with his wife, Gigi, and their three children - Rami, Talia, and Jana - where he leads a team of 98 nationals and missionaries who run 8 centers for evangelism and discipleship in Lebanon and surrounding countries, the School of Hope for refugee children, and the Middle East Center for World Missions (MEC) in Beirut, Lebanon, through which Horizons partners with a network of over 80 Lebanese churches and hundreds of foreign churches and organizations who minister to Muslims in the Middle East. As a key part of Horizons' teaching staff, he trains Arab and Western Christians for effective ministry to Muslims and is active in missiological advocacy among the global missions community. Pierre is a team player and loves to see new leaders thrive and work together to glorify God.

Louis Liss

Louis Liss served for several years as Director of Foreign Staff with Horizons in Lebanon. He and his wife have been serving in Muslim ministry for the past 15 years together working with Middle Easterners struggling with trauma.

Over the past nine years, Louis developed a discipleship ministry in Lebanon to help both Easterners and Westerners share Christ in cross-cultural contexts and offer Christian mental health services in indigenous communities. Since the explosion at the port of Beirut, he has launched a training program to equip Middle Eastern church leaders to care for the growing traumas facing both congregations and their communities. 

Ministering to Gulf Arabs

Simon Cox

Simon Cox, his wife Sarah and their 3 boys have lived in Dearborn, MI for the past 5 years where they seek to reach their Muslim-majority community for Christ. After serving with a missions organization for 4 years, Simon now works full-time in real estate as he continues to seek open doors for the Gospel.

Before arriving in Dearborn, Simon & Sarah worked with Horizons International in Boulder, CO directing their International Student Ministry for 18 months as well as having spent 18 months in Madaba, Jordan where they studied Arabic and worked among the Syrian refugee community.

International Student Ministry

Jim Rairick

Jim and his wife Marlaina are passionate about ministry training and reaching international students. After meeting in college, Jim and Marlaina married in 1999 and worked in church-based campus ministry for five years at Michigan State University. They joined Horizons International in 2002.

They have worked together to reach international students in CO, MN and now Louisville, KY. They also lived in Malaysia for six months. Jim continues to engage internationals and train pastors globally.

Reaching Muslims Around Us for Christ

Steve Kelly

Steve Kelly was born in Egypt and was first introduced to Christ through a Christian young people’s group. After openly declaring Christ and being baptized, he was kicked out of his home and expelled from college. At the 1979 Urbana, Kelly first felt the call of God to missions, especially to his own people. After graduating from Calvin College, Kelly served as the associate pastor of Dearborn Christian Reformed Church and founded the Arab American Friendship Center to reach the Muslim community in Dearborn.

Kelly is the author of From Cairo to Christ and obtained his doctorate from Providence College and Seminary. His goal is to bring Muslim Arabs to Christ and to disciple believers from Muslim backgrounds.

Wissam Youssif

A convert from Islam, Wissam is a native of Baghdad, Iraq, and his ministry, The Arab ‎Christian ‎‎Ministry, is both local and global. Locally, he serves as an associate minister at the Sunset ‎Church of ‎‎Christ in Taylor, MI, and globally as the Adjunct Assistant Dean of Arabic Studies with ‎his ‎alma ‎mater, Sunset International Bible Institute.

He is passionate about telling Muslims about Christ and telling ‎Christians ‎about Islam.‎ He has two published books: Islam in Christ's Eyes (that tells Christians about the ‎history, theology of Islam, and how to preach to Muslims), and the autobiographical I am an Arab, and I am a Christian, published by SIBI. His third evangelism tool, The Road to Your Happiness‎ ‎is soon to be published in both English and Arabic. Wissam is currently seeking a ‎building for the ACM in the middle of the Arab community in ‎Dearborn, MI, and dreams of it becoming an ‎Arab-speaking congregation in the near future.

Sal Nassar

Salah, or “Sal” to his friends, was born in Jordan to a Catholic family in 1980 and became a Christian in 1998. He joined the ministry at the West Michigan Friendship Center in 2018, motivated by the practical help and hope provided to the refugees in Grand Rapids, MI. Sal’s robust experience in humanitarian work dates back to 2011 when Jordan welcomed over a hundred thousand refugees, and continues his involvement in relief work and sharing the gospel among refugees to this day.

Sal served the Lord as a pastor and worship leader in Zarka, Jordan, with his wife Rawan. He graduated with a Master's degree in Biblical Studies from Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary in 2007 and was Program Coordinator at the Program of the Theological Education by Extinction (PTEE), elected as a teacher for the Biblical Theological Seminary in 2015. Sal has a deep joy in sharing the gospel with Muslims and training others to do the same, often using his Black belt in karate as a tool to simplify the Christian life and to train others on how to share the gospel.

Dr. Ezies E

Dr. Ezies’ has a great love and passion for sharing the gospel, ministering, discipling, teaching, and training. She has satellite radio and TV programs and continues to work on future programs that will help many Arabic-speaking people all over the world.  

Dr. Ezies actively writes and records for a number of media, including Christian Radio broadcast in Arabic, called "Bashayer" (بشاير) through the Arabic Broadcast News app. She obtained a B.A. in Psychology and Cross-Cultural Studies and an M.A. degree in Biblical Mental Health, and obtained her doctorate in Emotional, Mental, and Sexual Trauma.

Dr. Ezies’s passion is to be a voice for the voiceless and bring hope to the hopeless through her writing and media. Her understanding and experience have helped her build bridges between both Arabic and American cultures.

Dr. Ahmed Joktan, MD

Dr. Ahmed Joktan, MD is a medical doctor who turned evangelist. A team member of Mecca to Christ Ministries International and part of the Juma Leadership team of The Navigators, his father is a mufti in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Once set to bring jihad to the world, he came to know Jesus Christ as Savior and wants to bring true peace in Jesus to Muslims and lost people everywhere. Five times he faced death, but God spared him so that he could tell Muslims and lost people worldwide about how Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the author of two books, “Mecca to Christ” and “Mecca in My Wake”, both of which can be found on his Amazon page. You can find out more on his ministry website, www.Meccatochrist.org

Phil Williams

Phil Williams, a campus ministry consultant and Director of Salam Resource Network, works with local campus ministries, helping them engage in appropriate ongoing outreach to Muslim students on college campuses nationwide.

Jack Kelly

Jack is the Director of Saudi Advocacy Network. He first went to the Arabian Peninsula (AP) in 1985. Since that time he's lived 17 years in various parts of the AP. He hasn't done much, but he has watched God answer prayer, bring faithful laborers, transform lives, use media, and begin a local indigenous church.