For Chaim, one of our ministry leaders with a deep calling for evangelism, moments like these are never simply random encounters. They are reminders that God is always at work, preparing hearts in places most people would never expect.
Recently, one of the sisters from our congregation, Svetlana, approached Chaim with a heartfelt request. Would he and a few members of our team travel with her to another city to visit her brother in a nursing home? As she spoke, it became clear that this was about much more than a family visit. “There are so many people there who need Yeshua,” she said. “Maybe the Lord wants to do something.” So we went—not with a prepared program or specific agenda, but simply with open hearts, ready to pray, encourage, listen, and make ourselves available for whatever the Lord wanted to do. Before leaving, we also asked our prayer team to cover the visit in prayer.
As Chaim sat speaking with Svetlana’s brother, an elderly woman slowly approached him. Her name was Eugenia. She gently took his hand and began asking simple questions—his name, where he had come from, and when he had moved to Israel. As the conversation unfolded, Chaim shared honestly that moving to Israel had never originally been part of his plans. He told her how, during one of the darkest seasons of his life, he cried out to God in desperation, and how the Lord met him, lifted him out of deep depression, and completely transformed his life.
When he mentioned God, Eugenia looked surprised. “Do you really believe in God?” she asked quietly. Chaim answered simply, “Yes. He saved me. He gave me a new life.” When she heard him mention depression, something changed in her expression. “I also have depression,” she admitted softly.
At that moment, what had begun as a casual conversation became deeply personal.
Chaim shared how the Lord had met him personally when he surrendered his life in prayer, and then asked if she would like to pray too and invite the Lord into her own life. Though Eugenia struggled to hear clearly, she repeated the prayer out loud, word by word, with sincerity and hunger in her heart. Afterward, Chaim prayed over her, asking the Lord to break the heaviness, loneliness, and hopelessness surrounding her life. There, in the middle of an ordinary nursing home hallway, the grace of God met Eugenia in a powerful way.
“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”
Psalm 34:18
A short while later, another woman approached one of the sisters serving with us. Her name was Yana. Yana had immigrated to Israel from Moscow nearly thirty years ago and had spent much of her life working as a respected engineer. She had children and grandchildren, yet beneath the surface, there was a deep loneliness that could not be hidden. As the conversation turned toward faith, she admitted she knew very little about God. Growing up in the Soviet Union, faith had never been part of her world. God had always felt distant—more like an unfamiliar concept than a personal reality.
Our team shared simple testimonies of how the Lord had changed their own lives, bringing hope, healing, and purpose. Then they encouraged Yana to simply speak to God in her own words. Standing there with tears in her eyes, she opened her heart to the Lord in prayer. Afterward, she did not want us to leave.
As we remained there, more residents began approaching us—people hungry to talk, hungry to be noticed, hungry for hope. Eventually, we had to leave, but we walked away deeply moved, reminded once again that the harvest truly is plentiful.
What impacted Chaim most that day was the realization of how many people quietly carry enormous pain behind polite smiles and ordinary conversations. Loneliness, depression, fear, and emptiness often remain hidden beneath the surface, yet so many are simply waiting for someone to stop long enough to listen, to pray, and to remind them that God has not forgotten them.
Yeshua is still seeking the lost.
He is still healing broken hearts. He is still walking through nursing homes, hospital rooms, shelters, and lonely places, reaching people through willing hearts who simply say yes. Sometimes one simple act of obedience becomes the doorway through which eternity touches someone’s life.
