The end of this war came right on time for all the children in Israel to come out of bomb shelters and go back to school. It has been two very long, difficult months and we are thankful to be finally enjoying some peace and quiet.
We spent these two months praying, helping people through many different humanitarian relief projects, and visiting people in their homes and bomb shelters to bring encouragement and relief. It was two months of waking up to the sounds of sirens and explosions and going to bed to the same sound. We evangelized under sirens and rocket fire; we even gave birth with the sound of explosion in the back ground.
My administrative assistant Ludmila was giving birth one night when sirens began wailing and all the medical staff had to find shelter, she stayed with one midwife that was delivering her baby when rockets were falling nearby. She gave birth to a healthy beautiful baby girl, whom they named – Shiran (“Song of Joy”).
Another beautiful war-time testimony comes from an elderly lady, Nina. She served as the director of WWII veterans organization and she coordinated the humanitarian aid and work we did with the organization. She was a very fiery lady who in her youth actually served as a fighter pilot during World War 2 and helped fight off Nazis.
For five years we worked very closely with her, she knew that we were believers in Yeshua and she’s heard the gospel many times. At first she was very standoffish to the point of aggressive when the issue of our faith arose. After a while she really warmed up to us and we began building a very warm friendship.
Now, during these two months of war something happened in her heart and one day when we visited her, she actually received the Lord Yeshua into her heart and was finally reconciled to God!
These two testimonies are a few of the beautiful stories that happened in the shadow of war during this summer. There were also many uplifting and encouraging moments where God really showed his power and love in a great way.
We are so grateful for all your prayers and concern during these two months. Your help and love has been so precious to us and carried us through this very challenging time.
Upcoming projects for prayer
- First week of October we are organizing a new big outreach event where we will be taking several hundreds non-believers for a special day of visiting biblical sites in Jerusalem and finishing with a big gospel celebration at the end.
- End of October we are launching our second Alpha course, and this time we feel led to reach out to a younger population. Our first Alpha was a big blessing with over 50 people attending each week, and despite the war some have started attending our services regularly. Previous Alpha also had a large number of older people, and for many it was last chance at salvation: they came, received the Lord and we got reports that some of the older people passed away during the war. They peacefully went to be with their Lord. God never stops reaching out to His people, until their last day.
