Pam Rhodes spends many days on the narrow, winding streets of downtown Nazareth where she and other Baptists are trying to get a new church started. Near this spot, Jesus taught in a synogogue. A few blocks away is probably the place where the Pharisees tried to kill him.
IMB photo by Mike Creswell

After all, she's helping start a new Baptist church in Nazareth -- the hometown of Jesus.

When the N.C. native heads downtown to shop, she passes the place thought to be where the angel announced His coming. Most days she passes a synagogue where He likely taught.

Driving her Subaru down the small, sharply curving roads from her suburban home to downtown, she passes near the high place where the Pharisees probably tried to kill Jesus. A five-minute drive down the road is Cana, the place He performed the first miracle of turning water into wine.

The old city market in Nazareth, though renovated, still has narrow streets and tiny shops with first-century ambiance. Here Rhodes, who was born in Charlotte and earned a bachelor's degree from East Carolina University, sometimes buys frankincense and myrrh -- tree resins burned as incense -- for American friends.

Souvenir stands sell tourists everything from 3-D plastic pictures of Jesus to copies of the crown of thorns He was given during the crucifixion. One way or another, you bump into the New Testament at every turn here. But these days there's more religion than Christian faith in Nazareth.

The city of some 70,000 people is now about 60 percent Muslim and 40 percent Christian. An increasing number of Jews now occupy the newer, more recent settlements in "Nazareth Elite," referring to the hilltop area they occupy.

Watermelon is offered by Mrs. Amal Siman as refreshment before a prayer meeting in their home in Nazareth. IMB photo by Mike Creswell

"Christian" here means mostly Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic and Greek Orthodox. Robed priests preside over ancient cathedrals but few members of the traditional churches have a personal relationship with Christ, according to Christian workers here. And the numbers of even such traditional Christians have declined in recent years.

Baptists and other evangelicals -- called "believers" to distinguish them from the traditional members -- number in the hundreds, though Baptists have a school, two churches and a preaching point in the city.

But the aim of a third church, New Life Church, is to reestablish an evangelical Christian witness in the heart of Nazareth, near the "suuq" -- or market area -- that consists of narrow pedestrian-only streets that are as tangled as spaghetti. It is here that Rhodes and New Life's three dozen or so members make regular house-to-house visits to share the gospel and teach the Bible.

The church so far has about 40 people attending and has been co-pastored by Arab pastor Suhail Sa'ad and North Carolinian and Southern Baptist representative Jack Hodges.

But Rhodes has put much of her heart into the group as well. "I spend hours each week visiting the homes of members and prospects," she said.

People in her mixed Muslim and Christian neighborhood call her "the blondini," because of her light hair, blue eyes and height that set her apart from most local women.

Foreign she may be, but even her wristwatch carries a map of Israel. Those who talk to her for five minutes know her call and her heart's concern are among those people.

Rhodes is quick to reject any notion that she considers herself a preacher or leader. Because she is a single woman in a mostly Muslim culture, she knows she must conduct herself carefully to avoid talk that might discredit her faith. Most of her work is directed towards women.

"I spend much of my time doing one-on-one teaching and giving encouragement. I think one of my spiritual gifts is being able to encourage." she said.

The two biggest foes Satan uses in the area are biblical ignorance and the occult, she said. People here still put charms on their babies to protect them against the "evil eye" and have someone "read" coffee grounds to tell the future.

The Bible is just some dusty book of religion for many people here. They are superstitious about the Bible to the point that they will kiss the book if dropped. But few have read it. When Rhodes can get a prospect just to read the Bible, the experience can be shocking for them.

"Sometimes when people open the Bible and actually read it for the first time, they weep," she said. She spends much of her time in one-on-one session with women. "I spend much of the time chipping away at mountains of ignorance and misunderstandings," she said.

The church has been meeting in homes of members but now is searching for a suitable place to rent in downtown Nazareth. "We could have gotten that place," she said, peering through a dusty window, "but they wouldn't let us have all the downstairs and we wouldn't have had room for Sunday School."

Aside from her work with New Life, Rhodes works with Arab Baptist women across a large area of the Galilee -- in villages around Nazareth and all the way to Rama, an hour's drive to the north, and to Tel Aviv, a two-hour drive away.

Recently she has met with women members of a Spanish-language Baptist congregation in Tel Aviv, joining fellow Southern Baptist worker Marsha Smith in helping the women learn how to become the missions spark plugs of the church. Rhodes' main Arab co-workers are Madlaine Daoud and Lamis Kanboura, members of Haifa Church, who coordinate women's ministries for the Association of Baptist Churches.

During a lunch meeting, the three women discussed the problems of reaching Arab women for Christ.

"If we talk to a Muslim woman about the Christian faith, she almost certainly will keep it secret from her husband. It depends to some extent on where she lives, though. Things in Haifa are more open and Muslims are less devoted; they don't attend the mosque as much," Kanboura said.

"Another problem is that Muslims tend to live all together in extended families within a compound. It's easier to reach Muslims who do not live in a compound," said Daoud.

"And women don't drive here much," Rhodes said. "It's expensive to get a driver's license and most don't have access to cars anyway. This is changing these days, though, because increasing numbers of Arab women are driving, especially younger women."

The three women agreed that planning meetings for women to pray or study the Bible, missions or other church topics is difficult. Transportation is often a problem and many women with non-believing husbands are simply not allowed to come. Women here tend to put their children first; extra money is likely to be used on them instead of for the mother to make a trip.

"When they do get to go out to a meeting, the women here tend to wear their heels and finest dresses -- even if the event is a picnic," Rhodes says.

In her neighborhood, Rhodes is known as a friend to all the children. This summer she joined a fellow Christian worker in holding a camp for a dozen or so of them. An animal lover, Rhodes tries to teach the children to have a higher respect for life, especially their pets. A discussion about what happens to a dead parakeet often leads to a discussion about life and God.

For Rhodes, it's hard not to think about God. She lives and works in Jesus' hometown.

(EDITOR'S NOTE -- Creswell is a correspondent for the International Mission Board.)