Looking back over the last 20 years of his faith formation ministry, Charbel Raish is full of gratitude for the “awe-inspiring” works God has done through him.
The Parousia Media co-founder’s digital and traditional platforms reach tens of thousands of people each day and touch countless spiritual lives.
The Sydney-based father of nine says he discerned each step along the way with prayer and has witnessed God’s hand at work in all his successes.
He says it certainly wasn’t by his own design that he evangelises thousands through the distribution of Catholic content – that God has worked to help others through his need for formation.
In 2001, shortly after his ‘reversion’ to the Catholic faith of his childhood, Charbel was given a Scott Hahn cassette pack by a good friend, titled ‘Calling Catholics to become Bible Christians and Vice Versa’.
The series became a staple part of Charbel’s spiritual nourishment diet but once the technology transitioned from cassettes to CDs, the distributors stopped operations.
“I wanted to get more CDs for myself by Dr Scott Hahn and had to order them by phone from St Joseph Communications in the USA,” he explains.
“I was shocked to learn that shipping was double the cost of the CDs themselves.
“I asked the person on the phone if there were any other ways of getting them locally and he invited me to consider being a distributor myself.
“I contacted my friend Anthony who helped me come up with the name ‘Parousia’, which refers to the Second Coming of Christ and is Greek for Presence, and we registered Parousia Media in May 2005.”
Charbel quickly felt called to share these CDs with as many people as possible and help evangelise through making these powerful testimonies and teachings on the faith readily available and affordable to Australians.
From distributing CDs to hosting international speakers, Charbel’s feels his 20-year journey was guided by God’s subtle direction through his placement of the right people at the right time.
After his first tour with international speaker Tim Staples reached 6000 people in six days, Charbel witnessed a change in so many lives and wanted to do more events.
From 2009 to 2013, Parousia Media had organised 18 events with international speakers, reaching more than 150,000 people.
A pivotal moment came when Charbel and his wife were expecting their fifth baby and it was clear they could not financially sustain the ministry any longer.
“After so many people encouraging me to not stop but keep going, I prayed to God this simple prayer, ‘Lord, if Scott Hahn agrees to come to Australia, then I will take that as a sign you want me to continue’, recalled Charbel.
“The very next day, I got a phone call from Kevin Bailey, who said to me that Scott Hahn asked him to call.
“God has a sense of humour and made it clear that He wanted me to keep going with Parousia Media.”
2014 was a new beginning for Parousia with the ministry growing ten-fold over the following ten years.
New hires helped the media company reach Catholics beyond Australia and, just in the last nine months, Parosuia’s online engagement grew from 3 million to over 70 million.
Since organising his very first tour with Tim Staples in 2009 and leaving his teaching career to commit to Parousia Media fulltime, Charbel has experienced countless life-long lessons and highlights.
Accompanying Deacon Harold Burke-Siver across multiple countries, organising a global Rosary Pilgrimage during COVID and touring the USA as a speaker alongside Kevin Bailey, Deacon Harold and Dr Robert Haddad were just a few milestones that marked his two-decade ministry.
Working together with others is an important part of Charbel’s method of evangelisation as collaboration is key to Parousia’s growth.
It allowed him the wisdom to think beyond an event and see it as a journey, building long lasting relationships to really help people grow in their spiritual life.
One of the thousands of Australians who have been impacted in this way is Revesby local Charlie Tahan who credits the media company for showing him the love of Christ and helping his marriage.
Early on in his marriage, Charlie was challenged by his wife, who was protestant at the time, to question his own Catholic beliefs.
She began to ask a number of questions about the Catholic faith to which Charlie had no answer.
“I was struck and convinced that she was correct,” said the now father of two.
“The conversation continued for a number of weeks and I found myself believing that the Catholics had everything wrong.
“Being a cradle catholic, I had no deep understanding of my faith as to why we pray to saints, why we have icons and why we pray to Mother Mary.”
But on one night, Charlie was prompted to pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary as he went for a walk to his local parish.
Typing ‘Catholic Radio station’ into google on his phone, he came across EWTN and Catholic Answer.
As Charlie listened to them daily, he was overwhelmed by the Catholic responses he found to all his wife’s questions.
He wanted to consume more content from publishers like Catholic Answers but was disappointed that many books and resources were only available in the US.
After praying that there would be a Catholic Answers in Australia, Charlie came across Parousia Media in Sydney’s Hills District.
“I was overwhelmed to see all these books, DVDs and USB talks from all the apologists and authors I had come to know through the Catholic Radio station,” said Charlie upon his first visit.
“Walking back into the house with boxes of books which I had purchased on the table, my wife began to pick out books to read.
“We would stay up all night watching talks about our faith, and to our surprise, most of the apologists who were dedicated to defend the Catholic faith had been former protestants, such as Tim Staples and Scott Hahn, which my wife found relatable and became an aid to her conversion.
“Deepening my understanding of the truth and beauty of the Catholic faith, my wife and I are both so appreciative of Charbel Raish and Parousia Media for all their work as they celebrate their 20th year anniversary of their apostolate.
“They have given us the privilege of meeting Tim Staples, Deacon Harold Burke-Silvers, Matt Fradd and other influential speakers when they come and visit Australia.
“Through Parousia Media we have found the fullness of truth, a deeper love for Christ and his one, holy Catholic and apostolic church.”
Communicating this truth to the Tahans and the thousands of Catholics who rely on Parousia Media for their formation has required Charbel to follow current trends and platforms.
Moving from cassettes and CDs to new media, Parousia Media has not changed their messaging but has adjusted to the changing digital landscape in order to increase its reach.
Social media has been a major way that people get their news, information and even education and it was important for Charbel to establish a presence in that space, especially with many alternative sources providing a misleading view of what the church teaches.
Parousia’s newer content has changed from entertainment to educational, opting for long format conversations and utilising the powerful engagement of short clips and reels to reach a broader demographic.
“We are excited to release much more free content on YouTube, leaning into the digital space in a much bigger way than ever,” said Charbel.
“The team has been busy filming not just talks and podcasts but also documentary style videos, videos series on saints, miracles, top questions people have, prayers, teachings, courses and much more.
“I am excited about the high-quality content we are going to be producing and so much of it is locally grown here in Australia.
“We are also ramping up the live events through parish missions, Bible study series, conferences and retreats.
“And book publishing is not slowing down with so many more books and programs being produced and lots of international missions starting to happen too.
“There is so much to look forward to.”
As Charbel invests more into young Catholic talent to take Parousia forward into the future, he encourages all those who feel call to evangelise through the media to be brave and trust in God’s plan.
“First identify your God given desire and then identify what your God given talents and skills are,” said Charbel.
“See what need there is, imagine yourself in that particular role or ministry, surrender to God and take the first step.
“Approach people who are already doing something similar and see if you can collaborate and go from there.
“Don’t wait till everything is perfect, just give it a go and keep striving, learning and praying on what God wants you to do.”
To find out more about Parousia Media visit parousiamedia.com and follow them on Youtube, Facebook and Instagram.
