Ministry Updates from Israel – October 18
Here are some ministry updates directly from Staff on the Ground. Not all the staff have time to send in their updates, so please pray for the amazing unspoken ministry as well. Please keep the staff in prayer as they are serving with all their abilities and strength. Please pray for their safety and wholeness.
Photos and Videos:
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0cGdFryYG7Eb0r
Jason
“There is an URGENT Need. Urgent!” That was the phone call that Jason received from a logistics officer on the Northern border. We have a friend there, who often helps operate our espresso machine for events at our Ramat Gan Ministry Center. We wanted to know what he and his unit needed. They need warm clothing. They are sleeping outside on the mountain top. We asked other believers in the reserves and they told us the same thing. “LONG UNDERWEAR, GLOVES, etc. We are cold.”
Our hands have not been idle. Jason, together with our ministry team ordered warm weather clothing for 200 people. We contacted our Ramat Gan Ministry Center community and they responded! A team of eight of us repackaged all of the supplies by size for each person. We would have had more people come to help us repackage everything, but the country’s supply lines are chaotic and we didn’t get much notice when the order was ready. Praise God, these supplies are already being delivered by our Tel Aviv and Jerusalem staff to the bases with believers on them, so they can share where and why the packages came from!
If there are no changes, soon we will also distribute food to Holocaust Survivors in a suburb of Tel Aviv and our Mercaz community will come out to help with that as well. This week David and Jason went shopping for supplies to help displaced evacuees at a site where 2,500 people are temporarily relocated. David drove down there with a member of Chosen People Ministries Japan. They served in the logistic center for two days, stocked shelves and drove to a distant city to buy even more supplies.
Maxim
Yesterday, we delivered food packages to older people from Sderot who are being evacuated. We also went to the city of Ofakim, whose residents experienced tough days; terrorists entered the town, many people died, and residents are under constant rocket fire. Six people from the Holocaust survivors’ club with whom we work were killed on the first day of the attack!
While distributing food packages, we cried with them, listened to stories of their experiences of how civilians were shot before their eyes. We also delivered food items individually to people who could not come, afraid to leave their homes after what they had experienced and the constant rocket attacks. The city is empty; people are scared to open the doors! Upon our return, we received many calls and messages of gratitude!
Last Shabbat we provided special food for the soldiers on the Lebanon border. They received challah, wine, grape juice, some sweets, burkas, and more. Also, we provided them with insect repellent. Today we delivered gifts to the soldiers from special forces on the Gaza Board and to the Air Force. The gift includes thermal clothes, power banks, flashlights….
David
Today is the 12th day of the war.
Today, we spent the day serving soldiers and special police units in Judea and Samaria. This is our first visit to this area of Israel during this war. One of the requests was for watches for soldiers in Judea and Samaria.
That’s what we did. In addition to socks, underwear, and other essentials, we purchased 50 Casio G-Shock watches. Soldiers and policemen were genuinely delighted to see us. We had a great time discussing prophecy, talked about Jesus, and mentioned to them that many believers in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, love and support the Israeli people.
In one of the units we visited, there was a believer named Y*** who was very pleased to see us and promised to continue our conversations about the issues we discussed during our visit.
These are challenging days for the people of Israel, but there’s a strong sense of unity, openness, and a desire to understand one another. Please pray that many of the soldiers we met today will eventually come to CPM’s ministry center in Ramat Gan. Please pray that the seeds that were sown will bear fruit for salvation.