What Is It Like To Be A Pastor In Israel?

What is it like to be a pastor in Israel? What are some unique challenges that come with serving Christ in the Holy Land?  

Our Israel partners, Shmuel Aweda and his wife Bjorn, sat down with Amir Tsarfati to discuss these questions and talk about the many ways that God is faithful in the midst of difficulty. Shmuel and Bjorn lead Beit Eliyahu, a messianic congregation in Haifa, Israel that The Global Mission has been partnered with for well over a decade.  Click the video below to watch their interview.

Don’t have time to watch teh whole interview? Here are a few our favorite highlights: 

• Shmuel and Bjorn’s love story. Bjorn was born and raised in Norway and met Shmuel while on a long-term mission trip to Israel.  

• Shmuel grew up going to Beit Eliyahu. After marrying Bjorg and studying theology in Norway, he moved his family back to Israel and started leading Beit Eliyahu.  

• Beit Eliyahu is a very diverse congregation with about 32 mother tongues. This creates some beautiful opportunity for God to work through tensions and cultural differences and bring about His peace.  

• Shmuel talks about the difficulty of living life normally – riding busses, going to work, going to school – but deep down inside knowing that at any second a horrible act of violence could end or destory your life.  

• During COVID, God used Beit Eliyahu to draw many young people back to a relationship with Christ. 

This is such a great interview and well worth a listen. If you would like to support Beit Eliyahu, you can do by visiting their page on The Global Mission website.