We are staying in the historic city of Jaffa. Brightly lit and full of life, it offers the beauty of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as wonderful weather and a fun atmosphere.
In between the tour that just ended and the tour that begins on November 1 is the long-awaited service extension. I say “long-awaited” because I have been wanting to do this since 2025 when 3 other women accompanied me to Israel simply to serve. A year ago, one of my first projects as ONE FOR ISRAEL’s Tour Coordinator was to plan and schedule a service extension that fit between two tours, providing an opportunity for guests from either tour to join the adventure. There are 10 of us here to serve and we just completed our first day of service projects.
Our first project was in Rishon Lezion, home of Tehilat Yah congregation. This wonderful Hebrew-speaking congregation loves Jesus and is expanding to additional rooms in their building. Most congregations in Israel are small by US standards, but they far outreach the vast majority of churchs in America. Tehilat Yah, meaning “Praise of Yahweh,” has an open prayer room in which people come to pray (they hope to have 24/7 prayer coverage in the near future), an apartment used to host young people coming for a spiritual retreat (or workers coming to serve), a supply room filled with diapers and other needs for women in need who choose to have their babies rather than abort them. Sadly, in Israel, 1 in 9 pregnancies end in abortion, so the need is very great. But they also just acquired additional space to be used to invite young people to a safe place to learn about Jesus, enjoy making music, have great fellowship, and hopefully come to meet their Messiah.
That new space is where our first project took place. Others had done some work prior to our group coming, but the sizeable room needed plaster to fill some holes and paint throughout 80% of it. After a tour of their facilities, we rolled up our sleeves and jumped right in! Some with putty knives, some with sandpaper, some with paint brushes or rollers. In about 2 hours, we had holes patched and over half of the place painted!
Special thanks to Pastor Michael and Marianne Yaron for allowing us to be the hands and feet of Jesus as they prepare to minister to more people. God is moving among Israeli believers and I believe He is preparing for a harvest of Jews and Arabs who will see Jesus as Messiah, and will yield their lives to Him! Tehilat Yah is on the front edge of that effort!
(Prayer Room)
(Hopefully other volunteers will come to paint the other side.)
Our second service opportunity of the day was in Ashdod where we partnered with Beit Hallel (House of Praise) to pack food bags primarily for Russian immigrants who receive assistance from this congregation. But we received a very special blessing before we even began our work. The staff wanted to show us their facilities and tell us a bit about what they do. They have a beautiful space looking out toward the Mediterranean Sea that is used for prayer, for Bible teaching and discipleship, and for special events such as women’s conferences. Their outreach is extensive. They also have a significant humanitarian center filled with adult clothing, kids shoes, household goods, hygeine items and more for immigrants and those in need. All for free and run by volunteers.
The Lord delivered a very special, unexpected blessing to us while in the space used for prayer and events. In walked a couple of Russian speaking staff members. Haim is a pastor at one of the Beit Hallel congregations to Russian speakers, and his wife, Miriam, is the Outreach Followup Leader. Through their kind and gentle smiles (and a translator), they welcomed us and told us a bit about the space we were in. At one point, the question arose of how far they are from Gaza and whether or not there was activity in Ashdod on October 7.
There was a pause, but then Miriam spoke up (again, through translation) to tell us that their son, David, an IDF soldier stationed at Nahal Oz fell in battle on October 7. Nahal Oz was one of the hardest hit areas that day and David ran to the action once it was known Hamas had attacked. While saving the lives of others, he took a bullet to the neck. Yet, he had lives to save, so he continued doing what he could to rescue innocent civilians, before succumbing to his wounds.
The story was heartbreaking, yet Miriam, with obvious sadness in her eyes, boldly shared the details and how proud they are for the lives that have been impacted by their son’s faith. David is in heaven, and they have full assurance they will see him again. While other grieving families were helped by physicians and psychologists, Haim and Miriam had a church family to turn to. Their grief has turned to tremendous opportunities to share the love of Jesus with other soldiers who knew David, and with other families whose lives were torn apart that day. It was an amazing testimony of the goodness of God in the lives of those who belong to Him and trust in Him. (You can hear more of their story, as well as how staff members of Beit Hallel risked their own lives reacting to the needs of October 7. Click here for the video.)
It was our great honor to pray for and with Haim and Miriam. This is how it should be.
Then, it was time to work! We entered the worship center (which was now a work space) to prepare 75 food bags for the group of Russian immigrants who will soon come to Beit Hallel to be ministered to. So, we set up our assembly line, they turned on worship music, and we got to work. In the end, though we were supposed to prep food bags for only one group, we were so efficient we completed enough food bags for two groups! We estimate that, in about an hour’s time, 10 of us prepared approximately 200 food bags! And we had a great time doing it!
These are moments to cherish. The Bible teaches us that, as followers of Jesus the Jewish Messiah, we are to “provoke the Jews to jealousy.” (Romans 11:13-15) Many Russian and Ukrainian Jews have fled war-torn Russia and Ukraine and they need to know the love of Jesus. Behind the scenes, we worked with Beit Hallel to bring tangible evidence of love to them.
Tomorrow we have the opportunity to serve at City of Life MInistries in Sderot. In addition, while down south, we will visit the Nova site and other places Hamas attacked on October 7, 2023. There are a few surprises, so be sure to check back tomorrow.
