Peter & Yarden Nasser

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Many people are surprised to find that an Arab  and a Jew can live together peacefully, and I, too, would have been  surprised at one time. But with Christ, all things are possible! I grew up in a small Arab village in Galilee. Both my parents were  practicing Christians. We didn’t immerse culturally with Jewish people,  so I wasn’t aware of the way they lived and perceived Arab people until I  moved to “the big city.” Facing discrimination because of my Arabic  ethnicity and mistreatment following the Jewish-Arab political conflict,  I left Israel with anger and despair. I tried to build my life abroad.  There, God disciplined me and healed my wounds. And as I was forgiven, I  was able to forgive others. To my surprise, I began to feel a love for  the Jewish people that I had not known before, and I sensed that God  wanted me to go back to Israel.

Returning to Israel, I spent my free time witnessing on the streets  to the people of Israel. On one of the evangelistic events, I met  Yarden, my wife to be. She was a Jewish follower of Jesus, and she was  witnessing to Arab people there. Yarden was born in Ukraine to a Ukrainian Jewish father and a  Ukrainian mother. She was raised with Jewish and Christian traditions.  When Yarden was 15, she moved to Israel and lived in a religious Jewish  boarding school for three years. Despite disbelief in Jesus, Yarden came  to faith in him through careful examination of the Jewish Scriptures.  In face of social criticism and rejection, Yarden succeeded to keep her  faith and even share it publicly.

We got married in 2006 and later moved to the center of Israel (Tel  Aviv area) where we have continued to witness to, disciple, and build  relationships with Jewish people for the past 11 years. Today, we  minister in Galilee to both Jews and Arabs. As an Arab-Jewish couple, we  share with both Jews and Arabs that peace is possible in the Middle  East, only if they let the true prince of peace, Jesus, come to reign in  their hearts.