Instead, he still works full time, and wakes at 2 a.m. for prayer and meditation.
From an orphanage in Lebanon to leadership at World Vision, God’s faithfulness saved Bouchebel multiple times from death during the worst days of civil war. Through his service, thousands of refugees have received the food, clothes, and shelter they needed to stay alive.
But his morning discipline is not monastic piety. The daily hour-long prayer at his home in Texas precedes meetings with pastors and partner organizations 10 time zones ahead in Lebanon.
With his son Patrick, in 2012 Bouchebel founded Witness as Ministry after working 27 years with World Vision International, first in Lebanon and then at its headquarters in California. During the height of the war in Syria, when more than 2 million refugees flooded across the border into Lebanon, he could not contemplate the leisure of retirement.