Important Announcement!

Effective immediately, this website will be permanently shut down.

January 2026 

Dear Friends: 

Shalom and greetings in the name of Yeshua HaMaschiach (Jesus the Messiah). 

Thank you so much for your participation in our monthly Bible study, Tikvah BaMidbar (Hope in the Desert) and also our annual Messianic Passover Seder. As of 2025, it has been 30 years since Tikvah BaMidbar began in our living room and 30 years of presenting our Messianic Passover Seder. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the Lord and our community in this capacity. However, the Lord is now closing this door.  April was our final annual Messianic Passover Seder and December was our last Tikvah BaMidbar Bible study/fellowship. I pray that you were blessed as much as you blessed me and God’s Chosen People, Israel. 

I continue to serve as a missionary with CJF Ministries (Christian Jew Foundation) as this is but one aspect of my ministry. Should you have any questions, please feel free to call me at: (602) 494-1243 or email me at vib@cjfm.org. The connections we’ve made through the years have been invaluable, and we hope those friendships will continue.  

With gratitude and in Messiah’s love and mine, 

Violette Berger 

 

About Tikvah Ba Midbar

  • That the Bible, as given in the Old and New Testaments, is the inspired and infallible Word of God.
  • In the deity, virgin birth, bodily resurrection, and the imminent return of the Messiah Jesus.
  • In the total depravity of man, and that salvation is solely by God’s Grace, apart from works.
  • That God is sovereign over all things, and is the source and “sustainer” of all life. He, according to the council of His own will, decrees whatsoever comes to pass.
  • In the shed blood of Jesus the Messiah for the remission of sins.
  • In the eternal security of the believer.
  • That the local church is the visible expression of the Body of Messiah, established and ordained of God, organized to carry out His purposes.
  • That the Lord Messiah, Jesus established two ordinances: believer’s baptism, practiced by immersion; and the Lord’s supper, observed as a memorial of His death.
  • In the bodily resurrection of all men; the saved to eternal life in the presence of the Lord, the unsaved to eternal punishment in hell.
  • In the “pre-millennial” return of Messiah, the “pre-tribulational” rapture of all believers, and in the literal interpretation of the prophecies which foretell and assure Israel’s future regeneration and restoration as a nation.
  • We do not keep the kosher dietary laws.

TV-15466RTver2Violette Berger Biography

God called Barry and Violette into full-time Jewish ministry. They served together in Jewish missions for 38 years. In addition to her position as a staff writer for CJF Ministries, Violette continues coordinating the messianic fellowship, Tikvah BaMidbar (Hope in the Desert), she and Barry started in Phoenix, AZ. It serves as an outreach from the local church into the Jewish community, also enlightening Gentiles, by teaching and sharing the Jewish roots of Christianity, the feasts of Israel, and Israel in prophecy. Violette receives referrals to witness, counsel, speak and teach women’s Bible studies and discipleship classes.

Violette Berger was born on Chicago’s northside to Greek parents. (Her parents emigrated from Sparta, Greece.) Violette’s religious upbringing was kept in the Greek Orthodox tradition. In addition to a public elementary school, she also attended “Greek School,” taking language and religion classes.

Violette graduated from the University of Illinois with a B.A. in English. She has worked as an editor, copywriter, Human Resource Director, and teacher. Violette met her late husband, Barry Berger, a Jewish believer in Jesus the Messiah, who shared the Gospel message with her. He introduced her to his pastor’s wife, who invited Violette to attend her Bible study. The Word challenged her, and as a result, Violette prayed to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior of her life in March, 1977.

Violette’s ministry imparts to her Gentile brethren her love for “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” and her burden and vision for reaching them for the Messiah.

TV-15454RT

David Wimbley

David is a student of the Word and a gifted Bible teacher to whom God has given a burden to reach “the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” — the Jewish people — with the Gospel message. To both Jew and Gentile, he teaches the Jewish perspective of God’s Word and how God’s entire plan of redemption will be fulfilled through the Feasts of Israel, which point to Yeshua HaMaschiach, Jesus the Messiah.   David has been the primary teacher of Tikvah Ba Midbar Messianic Fellowship since the recent loss of its founder, Barry Berger, his messianic Jewish mentor and friend, but has served in a leadership role since 2006.

David prayed to receive Jesus as his Lord and Savior in 1997 at Caanan Missionary Baptist Church of Mesa, AZ. A co-worker had witnessed to him and planted the seed that came to fruition. David completed a three-year discipleship program through his church which focused on theology and evangelism, and also served as a deacon.

David met Barry in 1998, when Barry, who was a missionary for the Christian Jew Foundation (CJF Ministries) spoke at his church. Barry captured David’s attention when he asked the congregation whether they knew anyone who is Jewish. While the congregation pondered the question, Barry stated, “Jesus is Jewish!” David was led by the Lord to sign up for the program Barry created through CJFM. It was called JET (Jewish Evangelism Training). He found it to be a remarkable training program, consisting of the study of Jewish history, customs, beliefs, the Feasts of Israel, and how to share one’s faith one-on-one from a biblical Jewish perspective.

David’s call to Jewish ministry was sealed while reading the account of Yeshua’s death on the cross. The Lord revealed to him, “The Jews didn’t kill Me. I laid my life down. Go love them!”

Although maintaining a full-time job, David has also been a group leader and teacher in the churches he has attended through the years and a guest speaker at churches in northern Arizona and throughout the Valley. He and his wife, Ann, currently attend Desert Springs Community Church in Goodyear, AZ.

David and Ann have been married for 33 years and, having the same love and burden for Israel, serve together at Tikvah BaMidbar.

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