I was born in August 1967 and was raised in a traditional Christian family. When I was 16 years old, one Saturday night at Christmas time, ideas started to come to me about God such as, how to spend eternity after death and what I should do about this subject. I began thinking about the topic and decided to go to the church. When I returned back to home and tried to sleep, I could not sleep. In this time of restlessness the Lord showed me my sins like a film before my eyes and He convicted me of my sins.
After that, I heard two voices. The first voice said to me, “Come my son, I have chosen you and I love you and I want to save you from all sin, open your heart to me”. And then I heard the second voice saying to me, “don’t believe or listen to these voices, the people will say you are crazy, insane, a lunatic. They will laugh about you, and say, what, now you are a born again believer? They will not stand along side you, you will be alone”.
As I listened to these two voices I began to struggle in grief, and cried until dawn. Late in the morning I opened my heart and committed myself to the Lord. I said, “Come my Lord Jesus come to be my Savior and Lord and fill me by your Spirit”.
That morning as I awoke I was so happy; I wanted to jump for joy. Since I did not know anything about being a Born Again believer, I went to the Orthodox Church. I told them what I experienced. They said in jest to me, “what, you are a Born Again believer now”? I started to discuss with them about this but they would not give me any information about it. So at this point I decided to search for people that could explain to me what my experience was.
Then I was invited to a Christmas party at the Baptist church, and at this party they invited me to the youth meeting. The man that was in charge of the youth meeting was my teacher at school. When I attended the meeting, he the leader asked for someone to share their experience. I was very encouraged and decided to share my experience. He said. “Oh, this is what it means to be a Born Again believer”. Since that time I started to read the Bible, pray and attend the church and grow and learn about the Lord. After a while I had to choose between the Orthodox or Baptist church. I prayed about it and the Lord spoke to me clearly, the church that would build your faith is the one that you should attend. I chose to go to the Baptist church.
From that time on I walked and served the Lord faithfully. After 8 months of being in the faith I was baptized in the Baptist village. I was very eager to learn about the Lord and took any courses that I could. In the mid to late 1990’s Pastor Andrew a Jordanian Pastor, teacher and Missionary was giving a two year diploma course on television. I took the full course. During this time and even from the before this, I felt the call to serve the Lord. Many leaders spoke encouraging words to me to go and take the opportunity to serve the Lord. My answer was that I should wait and do it in the Lords timing and to wait for Him to speak to me directly.
I met my wife Faten in a youth conference in 1994. That same year we got engaged, and in April 29, 1995 we got married. We now have four fantastic children, one girl and three boys. The boys are Neimeh, born 1996, Noor, born in 1998, Luka, born in 2006 and my daughter Lydia, born in 2004.
In 2000 the Lord spoke to me directly at a breakfast for the servants. One of the Pastors spoke about the calling, and how to take the calling into your life. He said as an example that if someone gives you a letter and they say, do you want it. You either take it or leave it. I felt that this word was specifically for me from the Lord. This is your time to decide on the direction of your life. I agreed and accepted it as a call from the Lord. I shared about it with my wife and we spent much time in prayer together. After sharing this word with other respected leaders they encouraged me because they knew that I had a calling on my life.
In 2000-2002 my whole family and I moved to Bethlehem to complete my studies upon which I received a bachelor's degree in Biblical and Theological Education at the Bethlehem Bible College. In November 30, 2002 I was ordained as a Pastor in Nazareth by the Association of Baptist Churches in Israel.
During the time of serving in an interim position for 3 months in the Evangelical Baptist Church in Akko I was asked to take a position as a full time Pastor. I prayed about it and felt that the Lord called me to Pastor the church. The very day after the ordination I started in the position as the Pastor at the Evangelical Baptist Church in Akko. In 2004 we moved to Akko as a family. From that time until the present I am the full time Pastor of the church.