From Brokenness to Bridge Building

Welcome. We are Two Camps One Heart, a ministry that started with one man’s story of redemption and has grown into a team united by a calling to serve the broken and forgotten in the land of Israel.

How It Started

It began with Elias Maron. Born into two worlds. His father was Arab, his mother Jewish. He didn’t know her last name was Cohen until much later in life. By then, he had already been placed in an orphanage at the age of two, and by seven, he was moved to another one in Ramallah, where he grew up surrounded by confusion, hardship, and pain.

The orphanage was run by Christians, but the school he attended was Muslim. There, he was taught to hate Jews, even while he was being raised without knowing that half of him belonged to them. He learned to throw stones at soldiers, to resent the Israeli presence, and to live with a deep identity wound that had no name.

Years later, everything changed. He was summoned to join the Israeli army, a shock for a young man who had spent his life resisting the very flag he was now asked to serve. That’s when he found out the truth: because his mother was Jewish, he is Jewish too.

What followed was a long and painful journey through addiction, war, and spiritual darkness. But Elias now stands as a man who has not only survived, but been redeemed.

And that redemption became contagious.

What started as one man feeding the homeless and sitting with addicts in Tel Aviv has grown into something bigger. Others saw what God was doing and wanted to be part of it. A team formed. Resources increased. The work expanded. Today, we are a growing community of believers committed to the same mission Elias began: loving the unloved and reaching the unreachable.

Our Mission in Tel Aviv

Today, our primary focus is the streets of Tel Aviv, where thousands of drug addicts, alcoholics, and homeless men and women live in desperate circumstances. We serve those society has given up on. The ones sleeping in doorways near the Old Central Bus Station. The ones injecting synthetic drugs in plain sight. The ones who’ve lost everything to addiction.

We operate through two teams:

Team 1: The Soup Kitchen
Every week, we cook hot meals at Aviv Ministries’ soup kitchen. Chicken wings and vegetables go into a big pot of soup. Bread, cold meat, cheese, and spreads are laid out. Coffee and tea are ready. Tables are set. Before 11:00, the first hungry person arrives. People gather, sit down, and eat a hot meal. It’s not just food. It’s a place where they’re seen, where they belong, where they matter.

Team 2: Street Outreach
We walk the streets with 70 sandwiches stuffed with cold meat and cheese, juice boxes, and something sweet. These go to people who won’t or can’t come inside. People stuck in broken wheelchairs. People too ashamed to be seen. People living in lean-tos who ask for meals for everyone sheltering with them. We find them where they are.

The heart of our work:

We feed them. Not just sandwiches and soup, but dignity. No lectures, no conditions. Just food, presence, and the message that they’re worth showing up for.

We listen to them. We walk slowly. We stop. We sit in dark corners and abandoned buildings. We hear stories of pain that would break most people. Marina, who cried over a sandwich because she can’t chew her food anymore and dreams of having teeth again. Achsan, whose broken wheelchair leaves her unable to escape when she’s attacked. Alex, who wants to come off methadone but needs encouragement. Pravin, who refused food and said he just wanted love. We stay long enough to hear them. To see them. To remind them they’re human.

We share the Gospel. The hope that found Elias in his own darkness. We pray with Sveta when she asks. We speak truth to Christiana, who’s drowning in hopelessness. We point to Jesus, the only one who can truly set them free.

We help practically. We’re raising funds for wheelchairs so women can escape danger and reach the soup kitchen. We support people through withdrawal so they can enter Christian rehab. We provide what’s needed, whether it’s a hot meal or help taking the next step toward freedom.

This is not charity from a distance. This is ministry born from shared experience. Elias knows what it means to be trapped. He knows the shame, the hopelessness, the longing for someone to see you as human. And now, we all go together, carrying that same heart for the broken.

The reality we face:
We need more volunteers. With only three people, there’s no time to sit and talk properly. No time to reach people who can’t come to us. The ones stuck, immobile, or too broken to move get left out. Without enough hands, we can only do so much. That’s why we’re asking God to send more workers into this harvest field.

Beyond Tel Aviv

While our heart beats strongest for the addicted and homeless, we also serve:

Poor Jewish and Arab families who need food, clothes, appliances, and essential items
Widows and new immigrants struggling to survive
Soldiers on the front lines who need boots, supplies, and prayer
Anyone caught between two identities, torn apart by conflict, searching for peace

We bring refrigerators to families who haven’t had one in months. We deliver boots to soldiers in the field. We pray with people whose lives are hanging by a thread.

Whether it’s a hot meal in South Tel Aviv or a prayer with a soldier, our desire is the same:

To love as we’ve been loved.
To serve as we’ve been rescued.
To be a bridge where there has been a wall.

Why This Ministry Exists

This ministry is not about Elias. It’s about what God can do with the broken, the unwanted, the mistaken.

We exist because:

There are 400,000 Israelis struggling with addiction, and Tel Aviv is ground zero
39% of the city’s homeless population are addicts with nowhere to turn
The crisis is accelerating, fueled by war trauma and growing desperation
Someone needs to show up. To stay. To refuse to give up on people everyone else has written off.

We believe the Gospel is for the streets. For the addicts. For the soldiers and the outcasts. For Arabs and Jews. For anyone who will listen.

Walk With Us

This blog shares:

Testimonies of what God is doing in the land
Stories from the streets, the soup kitchen, and the frontlines
Updates on our outreach efforts in Tel Aviv
Prayer requests for the people we serve

If you’re reading this, maybe you’re torn between two identities. Maybe you want to help. Maybe you just want to understand. Either way, we invite you to walk this road with us.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for caring about the forgotten.