Abu Muhammed and his family made their second visit to Nazareth this past week, to celebrate an early Christmas with us. Bishara brought seven members of the family in the van with him, while one of the older sons brought the remaining children in a second car. When we arrived at Bishara’s house, we piled [...]

For the last few weeks, Bishara has been leading a group from our church to visit less-privileged families in the neighborhood and deliver both a carton of food and the message of the Gospel. On the second night of visits, the first family on our list was a traditional Christian family. This means that they [...]

For the last week, a group from our church has been visiting less-privileged families in the neighborhood and delivering both a carton of food and the message of the Gospel. It is amazing how bringing gifts opens a space for Pastor Bishara to speak very clearly and at length about sin, redemption, and salvation. Often, [...]

The crowd of children at Abu Muhammed’s house grew slowly but surely, until at least 12 children were arranged around the room. We noticed a few new faces, so Bishara asked them their names. As it turns out, four of the boys were named Muhammed. Lubna joked “When someone calls for Muhammed, which one of [...]

During a recent visit to Abu Muhammed’s house, several new children from the neighborhood joined us. Bishara tried to continue with the story of creation, but the kids were having difficulty paying attention. Bishara cut the story short, and we sang some songs again. This time I looked around and saw that the mother and [...]

We got stuck in a traffic jam on our way to Abu Muhammed’s house this past week, so we showed up a bit late. Upon entering the house we noticed an unusually large number of children. Their numbers continued to swell until the whole room was nearly filled to capacity. Some were neighbors, some were [...]

A group of volunteers from a partner ministry organization came to help us distribute brochures during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Since the holiday celebrates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, we chose to hand out brochures which were specially printed to explain to Muslims the true meaning of sacrifice. In the Muslim tradition, [...]

Abu Muhammed called us while we were on the road to his house, as he was worried we had forgotten about our scheduled visit. Later, he explained to Bishara that a few weeks ago, when we had not been able to visit them, he had felt that something was missing from his life. As we [...]

We arranged with Abu Muhammed’s family that we would bring some foreign friends and paint their living room and ceiling for them. Many of the walls in the house were peeling and stained, and we wanted to bless the family with a fresh coat of paint. We invited three young men from a short term [...]

We decided to try something new this year with a short term team. Instead of doing a prayer walk through the village in the morning, as is our custom, we chose to go instead in the evening, close to the time of the breaking of the Ramadan fast. We weren’t completely sure how it would [...]