Recently, I was sitting with a young man named Timofey at our Humanitarian Aid Center. He is a Jewish Israeli serving in the army, and his family has been coming to us for practical help during this difficult season. As we talked, I found myself thinking about the picture in front of me. Here I am, an Arab Christian pastor, sitting beside a young Jewish soldier. We know his family, we care about them, and when they need food or other practical assistance, we want them to know that our doors are open.
In Israel, perhaps this should not be unusual, but sometimes it still is.
So I asked Timofey what he thought about it. “Arabs helping Jews, Jews coming to Arabs—it can seem a little strange,” I said. “But it gives hope, doesn’t it?” He agreed, and then gave me such a simple answer: “What does it matter who? What matters is that people are helping people. That is very good.”
I loved his answer because it describes what he sees when he comes here. But for me, as a follower of Jesus, there is something deeper behind it. Jesus taught us to love our neighbor—not only the neighbor who looks like us, speaks our language, or comes from our community.
His love calls us to cross the boundaries that so often keep people apart.
We live in a land where Jews and Arabs have known generations of conflict, fear, and pain. It can be easy to allow that history to determine how we see one another. But Jesus teaches me to look at the person in front of me differently. When I look at Timofey, I do not see “the other side.” I see a young man whom God loves. I see a son and a brother, a young man serving his country, and a family carrying many of the same pressures that families throughout Israel are carrying today.
And if God has placed something in our hands that can make their burden a little lighter, we want to bless them with it.
For us, humanitarian work is not simply about distributing things. It is one practical expression of the love of Jesus. Sometimes that love looks like a bag of groceries, clothing, soap, toiletries, or another basic necessity that a family is struggling to afford. These may seem like ordinary things, but when they are given with genuine compassion, they can communicate something much bigger: We see you. You matter to us. We want to stand with you.
At Home of Jesus the King, God has placed a deep desire in our hearts to bless the Jewish people and to be a bridge of reconciliation in Israel. Through our Humanitarian Aid Centers, we serve Jewish and Arab families, new immigrants, elderly people, and others facing hardship.
Our humanitarian assistance is always given freely according to need, regardless of a person’s background or beliefs, and there are no spiritual conditions attached to receiving help. But we also do not want to hide what motivates us. We serve because Jesus first loved us, and His love teaches us to love our neighbor.
Over time, I have seen what can happen through these simple acts of love.
Jewish families come through our doors and begin to know us not simply as Arabs, but as people who genuinely care about them. We begin to know them too. We hear about their children and their struggles. We sit together, laugh together, and relationships begin to grow where perhaps there was once only distance.
Timofey and his family are a beautiful example. Both he and his older brother have been serving in the army, and I told him that we pray God will watch over them and their family. I also wanted him to know something very simple: whenever they come to us, they are welcome. Toward the end of our conversation, I told him, “We are here together. We are one family. We help one another.”
This is the Israel I pray our children will inherit.
Not an Israel where we pretend our differences or painful history do not exist, but one where those things do not prevent us from loving our neighbor—where Arab Christians can bless Jewish families, where suspicion can slowly give way to friendship, and where reconciliation can begin through genuine relationships.
We cannot heal every division in our country ourselves. But we can love the person God places in front of us. We can open our doors, we can bless our neighbors, and we can allow the love of Jesus to be seen not only in what we say, but in the way we live. One person, one family, and one relationship at a time, this is how we believe reconciliation can grow.