Before traveling with Covenant Journey, Maranatha felt that “ISIS was my number one fear, I was terrified of them.”  

In Israel, however, God worked in her heart.  

“It really hit me that my identity cannot be found in my mission work or what I’ve accomplished, but only in the One who sat before Pontius Pilate and bore my sin for me. So often we find our identity in our jobs or money, but how incredible it is to have my identity in the One who walked on water!”  

When God had finished changing this foundational belief, it had a powerful impact on her life. “Suddenly, it didn’t matter whether I live or die. As long as I am following Christ, that is what I want to do with my life.”  

Six months after her journey in Israel, Maranatha was in the Middle East serving with Samaritan’s Purse, performing triage and giving medicine to Iraqis and even members of ISIS. 

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and might be the hardest thing I ever will do,” Maranatha says. 

Young children would come in with mortar and shrapnel wounds, even missing limbs. Beyond physical pain, there was a deep sense of oppression and evil caused by ISIS.  

Maranatha says she experienced “a huge emotional twist to see the havoc ISIS was wrecking and then being asked to help and care for them.”  

This led to the next lesson God had for Maranatha’s heart. She said, “I felt like God was talking to me, that He was asking me to choose mercy.” Then there was just a “feeling of compassion for the people I was serving, even when they were ISIS.” 

In many of the ISIS fighters, there was hardness and anger. Maranatha affirmed John 1:5, “It is true that God’s ‘Light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.’” But for others, the medical ministry changed them for eternity.  

One man, an ISIS member, came to them mortally wounded. If nothing can be done, the policy of Samaritan’s Purse is for the staff to pray or sing, or sometimes just sit with the patient through the dying process. 

As the hours passed and his life faded, and Maranatha still cared for him, the dying ISIS member’s last words were “Your God is the Living God.” 

YOUR support of Christians in Defense of Israel and our Covenant Journey program laid the foundation in Marantha's heart and mind that helped make this deathbed conversion possible.  

Help us raise up a new generation of spiritually vibrant Christian student leaders, and win more souls for our Lord and Savior by funding a student’s trip to Israel today!

Mat Staver
Chairman
Christians in Defense of Israel

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