Our testimony

We are Stacey and Wilkin Rijo, pastors of Love in the Streets (LITS) Church, located in the heart of Lebanon City. Together we have been blessed with seven children and fourteen grandchildren.

“It is through the marvelous grace of God that I am a Christian.” My journey began at eight years old when my grandmother went home to heaven. That loss ushered in years of uncertainty and deep pain: abuse, neglect, and rejection. By fourteen, I was a runaway living on the streets of Lebanon and later placed in foster care. At seventeen, even after finding stability in a loving home, I ran back to what I thought was “normal,” the streets.

By eighteen, I was homeless again and pregnant with my first child. The years that followed were marked by hidden addiction, broken relationships, and a desperate search for the love I had lost. In my darkness, I turned to witchcraft and even Islam. After enduring rape and attempting suicide, I was a shell of a person, looking fine on the outside but dying inside.

But God! At thirty-eight, I met the Man who changed my life forever, Jesus Christ. I was radically saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit. The encounter was so undeniable and contagious that my boyfriend at the time gave his life to Christ too. We married shortly after and began our mission to reach as many people as we could for Him.

God has called us back to the same streets that once held me captive. Through His love, we have seen souls healed, set free, and delivered from every kind of bondage. Has it been easy? No. But with God all things are possible. He is my sustaining power and the breath in my lungs.

In June 2022, I answered His call to plant Love in the Streets: The Movement in Lebanon, the very place of my pain. God has turned my sorrow into joy. Today our church is thriving, bringing light to the darkest places. We evangelize to drug addicts, the homeless, prostitutes, drug dealers, and anyone the world calls “unlovable.” My deepest desire is that these same streets become a beacon, drawing everyone to the Man who can change everything.

“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” (Acts 20:24)