Mary Yoder made her first trip to Israel/Palestine in 2002 with a Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) delegation. She then took an intense four-week training course on Christian non-violence through CPT. She returned to the West Bank as a volunteer member of CPT's violence reduction team where she served there since, on three different occasions for three month terms. In 2003 she sustained a neck injury, requiring surgery the following year. She worked in the city of Hebron and an agricultural village, At-Tuwani.