Executive Leadership
Kobi Ferguson
CEO and President
Shani Ferguson
Chief Creative Officer
Israel Office Staff
Alisa
Receptionist and Secretary
If you visit the Maoz offices in Tel Aviv, she is your first impression—and a good one! She is a terrific organizer and manages the operations of the office. She makes it look easy! She helps anyone and everyone here in the office—and is always smiling.
Kati
Executive Secretary and Personal Assistant
Kati communicates with pastors and leaders in Israel and around the world. She also coordinates requests for aid from IstandwithIsrael.com. With her skills in four languages, she easily translates a myriad of resources for us. She is the face of Maoz for many!
Irina
Bookkeeper
Irina is our bookkeeper in charge of all the daily office financial routines: banking, invoices, payments to suppliers, and keeping the lights on!
She supervises sales of Maoz books and CDs and manages employees’ work hours and vacation time. When you ask her to do something, you know it’s done!
Veronica
Financial Manager
As an independent contractor who works for us two days a week, it is Veronica’s job to work with our bookkeeper, accountant, bank, and lawyer to administer, coordinate and monitor the organization’s financial activity – and to fill out mountains of government stuff. She’s important! And we are thrilled to have her expertise.
Liraz
Hebrew Publishing
Liraz is responsible for the entire publishing process, from obtaining publishing rights all the way through to distribution. Thanks to her, our Hebrew-language faith-based books are available to anyone in the world on www.maozstore.co.il, on Amazon, and also on the biggest eBook company in Israel www.mendele.co.il.
Tanya & Roman
Program Director & Media Guru
Tanya has led our Music Making for Kids program from the very beginning! And now she has built that program to serve 60 Messianic children from across the country. She and husband Roman are responsible for composing, recording and editing children’s Hebrew-language CDs and music videos.
Roman plays professionally many musical instruments. He also distributes Maoz books to congregations and bookstores around the country. He is our “everything” guy!
Tanya and Roman are actively involved with several children’s choirs, ministering in camps, conferences and holiday events, and both are on the worship team at Tiferet Yeshua Congregation in Tel Aviv.
Omer
Graphics Artist
Omer, our graphic design artist, has worked side-by-side with Shira at least ten years, preparing the monthly Maoz Israel Report, along with many other projects. Our readers have responded over and over to his magnificent gift of design.
Omer also serves as our representative for Maoz Israel in Latin American countries, where we have several volunteers introducing Maoz Israel and its ministry into Spanish-speaking regions.
International Offices
Christy Wilkerson
US Office
Christy has been involved in Maoz Israel Ministries since 1989. With a rich, Godly heritage, Christy’s grandmother was a one-on-one evangelist. She traveled door-to-door in Denver, Colorado, sharing in the Jewish community for 30 years about the love of Yeshua—Jesus, their Messiah. She gave Moshe Rosen, founder of Jews for Jesus, his first Bible.
Brian Greenaway
UK Director
Brian is of Jewish heritage but was raised in a secular home. At age 21 he became a believer in Yeshua. Brian is a credentialed minister and has been involved in ministry since the age of 24, going full time into congregational leadership 20 years ago. Brian has led congregations and has traveled extensively across the UK preaching and teaching. He is currently serving in a leadership role in his local congregation. Brian is married to Elizabeth and they have two grown up children.
Miriam Beattie
Ireland Director
Miriam who worked in the past as a teacher and in the tourism industry used her skills and connections to develop a national prayer network and a Bible course for new believers. Since 2005 she joined the Maoz team and established Maoz Israel Ireland as the very first Messianic non-profit ministry in Ireland. She is passionate about spreading the message of Israel’s importance in God’s plan in a land where many churches have mistakenly embraced Replacement Theology.
Matheus Carvalho
Brazil Director
Matheus Carvalho is a Brazilian pastor married to Bianca. He is passionate about global missions, unity in the Body of Yeshua, and raising awareness about Israel. He is a graduate of Christ For The Nations Institute – Dallas, TX with degrees in Pastoral Ministry and Church Leadership. Matheus has ministered extensively throughout Brazil and Asia, driven to cause unity among pastors through leadership conferences and trainings. He loves the Kingdom of God, and serves as the National Director of MAOZ ISRAEL in Brazil.
Helio de Lima Jr.
Canada Director
Since coming to the Lord at age 11, Helio has been involved with evangelism, worship and missions. He served as youth leader in his home church in Brazil for three years, before moving to Berlin, Germany in 2009 to help plant a Youth with a Mission (YWAM) base.
Kobi Ferguson
CEO and President
Kobi is the CEO and President of Maoz Israel. He oversees all the operations of Maoz in Israel as well as our six Maoz Israel branches around the world.
Shani Ferguson
Chief Creative Officer
Shani Ferguson, daughter of Ari and Shira Sorko-Ram and the granddaughter of Gordon and Freda Lindsay was born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel. Having grown up immersed in Israeli culture but also connected to her American heritage, Shani has a unique ability to unite the authenticity of Middle Eastern culture with the American palate.
Shani spent two years in Bible school during the outpouring in Pensacola, Fl. and began a ministry in 1999 with her husband, Kobi. They spent some time studying music at Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas. Shani went on to lead worship and record several albums in Hebrew and English.
Shani has a deep passion to see her people, modern day Israelis, come to know the God of their ancestors. This passion is very apparent in the lyrics of her songs and her choice of music style that connects with Israelis. She also has a strong desire to see the Church, especially the younger generation, understand the importance of, and relate to the Israel of today.
Shani and her husband Kobi are transitioning into the leadership role of Maoz Israel Ministries founded in 1976 as one of the first Messianic Ministries in Israel. They have a recording studio in Jerusalem and are working to restore the role of modern day Psalmists in Israel and the Body worldwide. They currently reside in Jerusalem with their five children who are a second generation of native born Israeli believers.
Ari Sorko-Ram
Co-founder
A man of varied backgrounds, Ari was a professional rugby player in France and played for the French National Rugby team and then signed as a professional football player in the NFL for the St. Louis Cardinals. He went to undergraduate and graduate school at the University of Southern California, studying psychology.
He worked as a Deputy Sheriff in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department until he became a film actor. He has appeared in over 100 films and TV shows in Israel and the United States, such as Hawaii 5-0, Entebbe, The Finest Hour, and was a lead actor in TV series such as Chips and Sweating Bullets. He left Hollywood to return to Israel, the land of his forefathers, and became an Israeli citizen in 1976.
Ari Sorko-Ram is an Israeli citizen, married Shira in 1977 and they have been ministering in Israel since then. As Messianic Jews, Ari and Shira direct Maoz Israel Ministries.
He and Shira were a significant part in the pioneering of Messianic Jewish congregations in the modern State of Israel, including founding the first Hebrew speaking only Spirit Filled Messianic Jewish Congregation in Modern Israel.
Ari and Shira founded a Messianic Jewish congregation, Tiferet Yeshua (The Glory of Yeshua) in downtown Tel Aviv and they continue to sponsor many national conferences for Israeli leaders and believers.
Ari has written “To the Jew First”—a book sharing the significance of God’s order for Jews and Gentiles in today’s world. Ari is an authentic communicator—speaking from his life and experience living and ministering in Israel over the last 37 years.
Shira Sorko-Ram
Co-founder
Born in the U.S., Shira has lived in Israel since 1967 and been a citizen of Israel since 1970. Shira has been a director of documentary films and has written about Israel’s Biblical rights to the land of Israel—and God’s future plans for the Israeli people—in many periodicals.
Shira is co-founder with her husband Ari of Maoz Israel Ministries, founded in 1976, an umbrella organization based in Tel Aviv, Israel, which encompasses a Hebrew publishing company, media outreach through Internet videos and social networking, founding and supporting a Messianic Jewish congregation in Tel Aviv, humanitarian aid for Messianic Jewish and Arab believers, and contributes to many national conferences and programs.
Shira has written for many publications concerning the Messianic Jewish Movement and the Christians’ part in Israel’s spiritual resurrection. She writes a monthly newsletter, the Maoz Israel Report, giving the prophetic, political, and spiritual perspective of current events in Israel—read and trusted by leaders all over the world who want to keep a pulse on the Middle East and what is happening there today.
Shira is a gifted educator and will share facts—not fiction—regarding the situation in the Middle East. She is a tremendous researcher and communicates with integrity and passion.
Christy Wilkerson
International Administrator
Christy has been involved in Maoz Israel Ministries since 1989. With a rich, Godly heritage, Christy’s grandmother was a one-on-one evangelist. She traveled door-to-door in Denver, Colorado, sharing in the Jewish community for 30 years about the love of Yeshua—Jesus, their Messiah. She gave Moshe Rosen, founder of Jews for Jesus, his first Bible.
When Christy was a young woman, she was listening to a powerful Bible teacher on the radio, and just whispered to the Lord, “God, I would like to be like that teacher, affecting lives for the Kingdom.” God answered her, “I want you to be like your grandmother.”
Several years later, that word from the Lord became reality, as God partnered her with Ari and Shira Sorko-Ram, who lived and served in Tel Aviv. Little did she know that serving Maoz Israel Ministries would give her the opportunity to bless Israel in many ways, and would, in fact, become the overriding passion of her life—to see ALL OF ISRAEL SAVED … as promised in the scriptures. Christy is the International Administrator for Maoz Israel Ministries, overseeing offices in the U.S., Israel, Canada, England, Brazil, and Germany.
Helio de Lima Jr.
Canada Director
Since coming to the Lord at age 11, Helio has been involved with evangelism, worship and missions. He served as youth leader in his home church in Brazil for three years, before moving to Berlin, Germany in 2009 to help plant a Youth with a Mission (YWAM) base.
After getting married to Stephanie in 2011, he left YWAM to minister in the “red light district” of Berlin alongside his wife, reaching ladies involved in prostitution and victims of human trafficking. He also served as director of BURN 24/7 Berlin, hosting prayer and worship gatherings around Germany. Passionate about the nations, he has gone in several mission trips to Mozambique, South Africa, several European countries and various places in the USA and Brazil, serving alongside local leaders, reaching the lost, blessing those in need and teaching the gospel.
Helio and Stephanie are graduates from Christ For The Nations Institute, Dallas, TX.
“I want to be God’s sign in my lifetime. I want to lead people to the Lord, inspire many to walk in their God-given destiny and co-labour with Him so that on earth it will be as it is in heaven.“
