Staff & Volunteers
Just as in the desert many streams gather and flow into the low places to form one mighty river, even so, Streams in the Desert gathers people from a diversity of places and experiences. We are so grateful for the dedicated group of people who embrace this challenging work with children, youth, and single mothers. This organization could not exist without them. Below you can get acquainted with the members or our staff and with some of the dedicated volunteers, who keep coming back time and time again to help out with this ministry.
Marianna Gol, Founder, Director
mariannagol@streamsinthedesert.com
Marianna Gol serves as administrator and director of Streams in the Desert. She oversees all aspects of its practical operation, fund raising, and management. Marianna also finds time to work one-on-one with most of the women, participates in many of the activities for the youth and children, and cooks fabulous gourmet meals for our staff gatherings.
Marianna grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia, where she became a believer in Yeshua in 1991. In 1992, the Lord called Marianna to full-time ministry, and she began to serve the Lord with different groups and organizations. In 1997, she made aliya and moved to Netanya, Israel.
Marianna has been involved with a variety of reconciliation, ecumenical and social initiatives. According to Marianna, “In 2004, while I was living in Netanya, the Lord shared with me His heart for the widows and orphans. For one year I held this burden in prayer. That year the Lord began to bring single mothers and widows into my life– into the home group or to the women’s ministry that I led. I was faced at times with their overwhelming needs and with their amazing victories, but more than anything else, with God’s burning passion for the widow and the orphan in The Land. In 2005, I started a Single Parent Family fund in the congregation in Netanya.“
Marianna’s years of working with women in Netanya was the preparation for her work with Streams in the Desert. After moving to the Beer Sheva area in 2007, the Lord opened doors for her to head up a nascent outreach to single mother families from the various Beer Sheva congregations. Since then, the number of families served by the ministry has increased and includes some referred by the social services of the city of Beer Sheva. The range of activities has expanded, and, to facilitate this, the staff has grown as well to include both part-time, paid staff members and a growing cohort of dedicated volunteers.
Marianna’s call to children’s ministry caught her feeling unequipped for the task, but obviously the Lord saw otherwise. She illustrates this with the story of David being sent to battle with Goliath with heavy military equipment that did not fit and with which he had no experience. He cast it aside and replaced it with his own simple and humble slingshot, along with five smooth stones. She says, “I was called to kids’ ministry precisely because it didn’t fit. I had no chance to succeed in this in the natural. The weapons that fit me are praise, obedience, prayer, patience, suffering in intercession, and joy. Our own weapons often look small and are deemed without value in the eyes of many, but they are very meaningful in the plan of God.
“We are engaged in a battle for these children, but I know they will stand, and that the Lord will build from them an exceedingly great army. I once had a vision of a tent in the desert filled with all kinds of weapons, and I saw the kids each coming inside to choose their weapons. The tent is the tabernacle in the wilderness, the abiding presence of the Lord. The work of Streams in the Desert is bringing these kids into encounters with the Lord and helping to prepare them to wield spiritual weapons and to do battle for their generation.”
Oxana T., Administrative Director
Oxana joined our part-time staff in 2019. She came to Streams in the Desert as a volunteer in 2013, and fulfilled many vital roles in the organization before joining the staff. She began her work with our single moms in groups and individually, providing counseling and mentoring, and teaching parenting skills. She also met with the children one-on-one. She served as a camp counselor for several years, and then as educational director for our camp.
As a staff member, in addition to continuing in all her former roles, she has developed and administrates our program for the younger underprivileged children (mostly from the single parent families) to provide English lessons, arts and crafts, and Bible training. She also brings us her excellent organizational and office administration skills. Oxana oversees all of our programs and coordinates our volunteers.
Anna Kisluk, Youth Director
My name is Anna Kisluk, and I am on staff part-time with Streams in the Desert. I grew up in Beer Sheva. I became very involved with Streams in the Desert when I was 12 years old, and since then I have participated in all of the activities, including the hikes, camps, clubs, and the KISI musical.
In 2013 during the annual Passover hike I made the decision to become a disciple of Yeshua and to walk with Him for my whole life, and I was born again. Later I became a camp counselor and also worked with the monthly club meetings.
In 2017, I was drafted into the IDF and was assigned to be a captain over observation points in Judea and Samaria. Serving in the army is physically rigorous and spiritually challenging for all, and my experience showed me how important it is to come alongside believing soldiers in this difficult period while they are defending the borders of Israel. I believe that this is my calling from God at this season on my life.
Through Streams in the Desert, and with God’s leading and timing, I am developing strategies for providing physical and spiritual support to our soldiers on active duty. I am also working with our youth. I have great expectations for the future!
Tanelia Beckermann, Youth Minister
I first became acquainted with Streams in the Desert in August of 2021. I didn’t come from a believing family, and I wasn’t a believer in Yeshua then. I was invited to come to the camp by my boyfriend at the time, Ilan, who is from a messianic family. He is now my husband! Before this, I was an atheist. My life never revolved around God, and I wasn’t interested. But I did not like the world outside with all the wickedness, betrayals, slander, and gossip, and I didn’t want to live in such a world. So I said to myself “I will go the the camp of the believers and see what it’s all about.”
I did not expect at all what I went through there. It was the first time I felt the presence of God. He put in my heart so much joy, peace, and endless love. At this moment I knew I could trust him with everything. I knew he would be loyal to his promises, no matter what. I burst into tears of happiness at the realization that God is real!!! Marianna was there and prayed for me. I felt like something had been missing all my life, and now I had become whole. Towards the end of the camp I accepted Yeshua as the Lord of my life for the first time, and it was the best decision of my life. After the camp I went to a discipleship course for two months, in order to get a deeper root and to know better what God wants for my life. When the training ended, I started to work and serve God with Streams in the Desert. Since my experience at camp until the present, I know that forever the Lord is my center, and I always look up to him and love him more than everything.
In my work with Streams in the Desert, I help lead youth gatherings every two weeks, and I also meet one on one with youth for counseling, discipleship, and encouragement. I regularly keep in touch with the kids by phone. I meet weekly with a girls only group. We go out on hikes and special outings, sometimes girls only, and sometimes with all the youth together.
Come join the amazing team of volunteers who come to work with Streams in the Desert from all over the Negev, all over Israel, and all over the world!
Counselors, group leaders, and club leaders We are grateful to the many young people who serve as our hike leaders and camp counselors. Many of these volunteers were our former campers and hikers. Their lives were significantly impacted by the ministry, and they want to pass along the blessings they’ve received to the younger kids. We could not do what we do without this dedicated group of young people!
Young Life Volunteers
Most summers during camp, we have been blessed to have a group of volunteers from Young Life in the U.S. They come to help out with the club meetings, sports, and special activities. They bring a lot of fun, laughs, and high energy to our camps. We love having them, and so do the kids, of course!
Worship teams for camps and clubs
We model a lifestyle of worship and prayer. Our camps and monthly programs, women’s gatherings, and other activities have always been graced with wonderful worship sessions led by skilled and anointed musicians. We so appreciate their contribution, which sets the tone for the Word of God to go out powerfully to change lives.
Intercessors
Each year during the week of camp, people fly in from all over the world to pray day and night on site with us for the campers, the staff, the facility, and for everything! We also have people that pray on site during the hikes, and in Zoom gatherings throughout the year. We firmly believe that our dedicated intercessors form the spiritual foundation of our work, and that the work we do with the single moms and their kids can only succeed and flourish as it does because the Lord is our source of blessing. We simply could not do what we do apart for the selfless giving of these people of faith and prayer!
Behind the scenes
Volunteers bring all sorts of skills and talents that help us help others. For example, people have come to help our families move, and to paint or do necessary home repairs that otherwise our moms would not be able to afford. Whatever it is that you can contribute can find expression on behalf of the kids and moms that we serve. Be in touch with Marianna if you’d like to volunteer.
Beautiful Fruit
Since we began to reach out to youth from single parent families in the Negev in 2009, we have been so blessed and grateful to see beautiful and lasting fruit grow out of our ministry. After encountering the Lord Yeshua personally during a hike or camp, many young people have accepted Him into their hearts, grown in their faith, and later come back to serve as volunteers or staff members for Streams in the Desert. Here are links to some of their inspiring stories of finding faith and then returning with joy and enthusiasm to pass along to others the blessings they have received. You can read their stories. From the Staff Tab: Anna Kisluk, Tanelia Beckermann. From the Volunteers Tab below: Ziv, Anna, Keisy, David Bronshtein.
Some of our volunteers:
For me, Streams in the Desert is an environment for spiritual growth. I came to faith one summer at Streams in the Desert camp. The camps and hikes were special times of spiritual strengthening and encouragement for me as a young believer. The Lord used the mature volunteers to speak into my life on many occasions. Streams in the Desert provides fellowship that is like a family, and it is a great place to serve with others in a mutually supportive environment.
When I first started to volunteer with Streams in the Desert, I felt like it would be a good fit for me, and over time, I’ve seen that I wasn’t mistaken. I have come to see who I am through seeing myself through the lives of the youth. For me, volunteering with Streams in the Desert is like working in a greenhouse. It is a fun,pleasant place to serve with others. And best of all, we have the opportunity to see spiritual fruit coming forth and maturing in the lives of the kids we work with.
I was saved during a Streams in the Desert youth Passover hike, and since then I have been following the Lord. Streams in the Desert is a wonderful place to serve; I get back so much in return. I like to be a part of this supportive team of people who share with other young people how to live their lives with God. We are there for them not just twice a year at camp and on the hike, but also on a weekly basis. We see God at work, and we see fruit in peoples’ lives.
I feel the Lord has called me to serve with Streams at the Desert in this phase of my life, and it is such a good place for me. I see wonderful things happening because I see the love of God in action in peoples’ lives. I had prayed for months for certain people to receive the Lord, and it was so fulfilling to me to see these people choosing to come to Yeshua, inviting Him into their hearts as their redeemer during an invitation at a Streams in the Desert meeting.
Streams in the Desert provides a safe place where youth can be encouraged, built up in their faith, and find joy. Thanks to my volunteer work with the youth, I have discovered my own strengths, and that I can be used by God to encourage and help others.
Roy and Carol Burch have been doing volunteer work for Streams in the Desert from the moment they immigrated to Israel in 2011. Roy, having been a professional fisherman and concrete contractor, acquired exceptional skills that he has used to hold workshops and create projects for the youth who came to summer camp each year. In addition, he made his Toyota truck available to transport supplies for the various hiking and camping trips sponsored by Streams in the Desert.
Over the years, Carol has contributed her teaching and counseling experience to the intercessory prayer team and has served on the Board of Directors, lately becoming its chairman. In addition, having been blessed with a house containing a large living room, a large kitchen, and several extra bedrooms, Roy and Carol opened their home to guests, for meetings, and for the preparation of large meals, and for any other needs of the ministry.
More than anything, however, Roy and Carol created enduring relationships with the staff and the youth and with the other volunteers of Streams in the Desert.
Hi, my name is Charlotte. I decided to volunteer at one of Streams in the Desert’s Youth Camps in 2023 because I wanted to be part of the transformative journey in the lives of these young ones. In the process my own life got transformed and I am forever grateful for this amazing initiative that enriches the communities of Israel!
. I love to serve with Streams in the Desert because of the freedom the Holy Spirit receives to do His work and because the ministry equips the younger generation in Israel to walk with God and makes them into fathers and mothers for the next generation. Hi, we’re John and Jane from South Korea. Since 2021, we’ve been actively volunteering with Streams in the Desert. Our journey began when we felt a calling from God to support orphans and widows. Upon discovering Streams in the Desert’s website and delving into its content, we knew instantly that we wanted to join this mission. As regular volunteers, we engage not only in hikes and summer camps but also in various projects for children, monthly youth gatherings, and lending a helping hand to moms in need. Our contributions range from interceding and leading worship to assisting teachers and pitching in with cleaning duties. Serving with Streams in the Desert has been nothing short of a divine blessing for us.
My name is Hanoch Lai. When I was three months old, my family moved to Israel from Hong Kong, and I have lived here since then. I have been participating in hikes and camps with Streams in the Desert since I was young. I then became part of the counselors’ staff for camp, and I have served in this role almost every year since then. I hope to continue coming to camps and hikes of Streams in the Desert and serving as a counselor.
I have been involved with Streams in the Desert since its earliest days of operation and it’s been a great joy to watch it expand in scope and influence. In the early years I was the arts and crafts director at camp. In addition to having the fun of working with the kids in their creative pursuits, I also have the privilege of serving as a member of the prayer and ministry team. My favorite part of camp is when we get to pray “The Father’s Blessing” over the kids. The counselors and staff make a big circle around the kids and invite them to come to receive one on one prayer from one of us. They receive with such open hearts, and in just a few moments we form new connections that then last over the years. I come away from each camp experience deeply touched and encouraged, and with extraordinarily sweet memories of the faces of kids having fun, and also worshipping God together with joy, and coming to know their Lord more intimately.
I have been volunteering with Streams in the Desert since the summer of 2017 when I first came to help at camp. Since then I’ve helping with the regular youth club meetings, and also participating in the youth hikes whenever I can.
I served in the IDF, and afterward, I went to New Zealand, where I helped in the Zula Lodge, a place which hosts Israelis for free during their travels there. There we are able to share with them about our faith in Yeshua.
I attended the school of worship at Calvary Chapel in California. I play acoustic and electric guitar, and I am part of the worship team at my congregation and have written a few worship songs in Hebrew.
I feel God really wants me to serve in worship in the future, and I want to grow in my God given gifts. Of course I still don’t know what that would look like, but I am continually praying for the Lord’s guidance in my life.
Volunteering with Streams in the Desert (Streams in the Desert) has been a great experience for me. I love the way the staff comes together to seek God’s direction, and I love it that there is a prayer team constantly lifting us up in prayer. The kids that are served by the ministry are really different than other youth in Israel. Many come from broken homes and have had really difficult life experiences.
I see in them something real and honest. They appear tough on the outside, but deep inside they know Yeshua is true, and when they come to camp they can feel Him and that He wants them to draw close to Him.
My name is Keisy Kviatkovsky. I was invited to summer camp by a friend in 2013, and I have been involved with the activities of Streams in the Desert since then. After five years of involvement as one of the campers, I began taking on leadership roles in the organization. I could see things from both sides of the picture! I was a counselor at camp over many summers, and I also help out with the clubs throughout the school year.
I hope to continue to be part of the work of Streams in the Desert. I have many dreams for the future, but the one that stands above all of them is to allow the Lord to lead me, and to trust Him that He will take me in the direction that is best for me.