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Trevor Stewart-Sweet
#churchleadership #Faith #Israel #israeldesk #jesus #Messiah #mission #salvation #SignsOfTheTimes
https://lightforthelastdays.co.uk/articles/israel-and-the-middle-east/the-friends-of-israel-gospel-ministry-mission-update/
#churchleadership #Faith #Israel #israeldesk #jesus #Messiah #mission #salvation #SignsOfTheTimes
https://lightforthelastdays.co.uk/articles/israel-and-the-middle-east/the-friends-of-israel-gospel-ministry-mission-update/
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LearningTranscript
00:00Good morning everyone. It's wonderful to be back in fellowship again here at the
00:07bridge and to see you all. Sorry about the rain but the rain from heaven brings
00:15blessings doesn't it? Yeah actually our grass is just brown, well the moss on our
00:22grass is even brown. So yes, time to see some rain and refresh. Before we look at
00:32God's Word this morning I want to bring or spend a few minutes just giving you an
00:39update on our work with the ministry. Last year as Friends of Israel Gospel
00:46Ministry United Kingdom we gave some support grants to a number of non-profit
00:51organizations with offices here in the UK from our Israel Relief Fund and on the
00:57slide there we can see the organizations that we supported. Magan Davide Dom, United
01:04Hatsala, that's a another organization that provides medical and emergency
01:10relief. Bed Halachem which I know you've had here a couple of times just down the
01:15road here and I think you've had David here a few a couple of times we've
01:19supported them and continue to. Mea Panim in this country is called Manor UK it's
01:24an organization that feeds the hungry and they provide literally hundreds of
01:29thousands of meals each year. Ifrat which is an organization that helps to
01:34protect the unborn child by giving the mothers support to save them from
01:38abortions. There's about 35,000 abortions estimated every year in Israel. We gave a
01:45grant to the Jewish National Fund last year to help the refugees that have been evacuated
01:49from the northern border and we also gave funds to Operation Life Shield. It's not on
01:54the slide but I'll mention those a little later. In fact I'll mention that is the main
01:58part of what I'm going to speak about today. We also sponsored an event by the
02:02National Jewish Association I beg your pardon last year. But it was in late March this year
02:08that Maggie and I traveled to Israel and we were there for two weeks and during those two weeks
02:13we visited all these organizations except for Afrat and I'd like to talk about all of them but time
02:21prevents me so I'm just going to talk about those that we made to visit the two bomb shelters that
02:26we donated or at least the the organization the Ministry of Friends of Israel UK had donated through
02:32Operation Life Shield. The first one I want to mention I've mentioned this before was a grant
02:40that we gave of twenty four and a half thousand dollars for a shelter located in a school called
02:45Orsimcha. It's a residential school for boys from broken homes, boys who've suffered abuse, boys who are
02:51orphans and it's located in a an Orthodox community close to Ben Gurion Airport called Khachabad and that was
03:00installed early last year. In addition to that there was a grant that we made of twenty thousand
03:06dollars for a second shelter and that was for a kindergarten in Safad and Clayton if you can just
03:13play the video the reason that we agreed to put the shelter there is because of what you're
03:18like to see on screen.
03:19I'm a mother of Berri from Gana Gamin in the hospital. It's just a reminder that it's about 8
03:24in the morning and there are four children in the Gana around the situation. The kids don't want to
03:29be safe. The place here is absolutely not safe. We have the most powerful potential because of the
03:37it is just a moment to believe that it is only a plant where they're going through. The
03:41ัะตะฝัั is only a few days. Everything is easy to look around. So at school we have to
03:47visit our freeway store. In fact, they are on the harbor for a year. All
04:05and we will be able to get her a bit faster
04:08so that the children will be in a safe place
04:10Hi, hello, I'm calling you T'ohar
04:14There are two children in the gym in the gym
04:16and there is no limit
04:18We are in the gym
04:20Every few minutes there is a single one
04:22Every second can be able to get a gun on my gym
04:25and there is no limit
04:27You understand what this is, my mom?
04:28My mom is that in the case of something, we don't have a solution
04:31and no one will be able to take it out of it
04:32I want to, please, I'm going to get out of it
04:34ืื ืฉืืืื ืืขืืืจ ืื ื ืืืืื ืืื
04:37ืืืจ ืขืฉืื ื ืชืฉืชืืช, ืื ืฉืืืื ืืขืืืจ ืื ื ืืื
04:39ืื ื ืืืืข ืื ืืืื
04:41ืชืืื ืจืื
05:04Barbara
05:14Barbara
05:15!
05:49We were met by Clara, and Clara is the lady who'd organised the appeal on behalf of the kindergarten, and it was through her organisation, Sparks to Life, that the request came through Operation Life Shield and came down to us.
06:05So when we arrived, we met with Clara. You can see the shelter up in the top right now. It's painted. It's not a bare concrete cube like when it was delivered.
06:14And we were given a very warm welcome by the mayor of Safed. He's there on the left, Yossi Kekon, together with the kindergarten staff and the children.
06:24And we were quite unprepared for what happened next because the children gave us a little concert. They sang some songs for us.
06:30The very first one that they sang, and for the sake of time, I'm not going to actually play any of the video, but the very first song that they sang, the words in Hebrew were,
06:41Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, Psalm 133.
06:53I thought it was very apt, and Brian again prayed for unity. We've mentioned unity this morning here.
06:58So it was wonderful just to have the children sing those words for us, and they spent about 15 minutes singing songs for us.
07:06They were beautiful. And after they'd finished singing the songs, we were given a presentation.
07:14Each of us was given a picture of the children at the shelter, and we were given each a booklet of paintings done by the children.
07:22Now, these are given paintings by little tots. We're not quite sure exactly what they had in mind when they painted them, but it was a real blessing to us.
07:31A very emotional time. It was hard not to burst into tears at times when we saw those children and realised just the importance of the shelter and other shelters like them around the country.
07:44As you saw in the video, the shelter was delivered as a bare concrete cube, but it's now been painted to make it more attractive to the children, less threatening.
07:55And on the right, you can see a larger picture of the one that they presented us with.
08:00They took a picture of the children, put it on the canvas, and put it there for us.
08:04But those pictures are not really to Maggie and I.
08:07Those pictures are for every single one person who answered our appeal for funds to purchase that shelter and other shelter.
08:17And we're looking also now to hopefully purchase a third shelter.
08:22So the next thing we did was we dedicated the shelter.
08:25We put on the donation plaque.
08:27Every shelter from operation that's put in place that's donated by an organisation has a dedication plaque.
08:32That one says it was donated by the Friends of Israel, United Kingdom, and it was in April 2024 when that donation was made.
08:40We also put a mezuzah on the doorpost.
08:44What you can't see is that inside of the shelter there's 27 little children, three staff, Maggie and my staff, myself just about, and there's room there for the mayor as well.
08:56It's amazing how many people you can fit into quite a small space.
09:00But the story didn't end there.
09:02One of the major problems, if not the major problem, caused by continued rocket attacks and alarms is that many children, and it affects adults as well, suffer from PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder.
09:16And there's a great need to provide counselling.
09:19And to provide counselling needs a calm and a welcoming environment, particularly for the children.
09:26At the time of our visit, the interior of the shelter still had bare concrete walls, bare concrete floor, no means of cooling, and just a single light bulb, naked light bulb hanging from the ceiling.
09:40And Clara expressed to us how she wanted to upgrade the interior of that shelter to make it a safe counselling space, make it less foreboding, an environment that was suitable for use not just as a bomb shelter, but as a much-needed counselling room for the children.
09:56And before leaving the kindergarten, we made a commitment to Clara that the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry United Kingdom would fund the upgrade.
10:06And we're pleased to say that shortly after we returned home, we sent the funds over to Israel, and that transformation has now been completed.
10:16And you can see a little bit of the interior there.
10:19It's difficult to get the whole thing in one, but they've provided air conditioning, they've provided tables and chairs and places to sit.
10:26They've made a little bit of decoration there on the walls.
10:29So it's really a very warm place, and it's now a dual purpose.
10:32And, of course, just recently, with the amount of alarms that were going off with the issues with Iran, that shelter would have been in use not just once a day, but many times a day.
10:43The children have got just less than 30 seconds to get to that shelter.
10:47It's quite a thing for them to do that.
10:50So we were very blessed to be able to be there and to provide that help.
10:58That was the first week.
10:59In the second week, we were joined by our Chief Executive Officer, Jim Showers, and he'd come across to Israel with a group of our staff from the USA and Canada, as well as some donors from the USA and Canada.
11:13And it was during this week that we visited a number of other organizations that we support through the International Friends of Israel Gospel Ministries Israel Relief Fund.
11:23Again, not enough time to go through this.
11:27If you'd like to hear more, then let us know, and we'd be happy to join and come to a small group or wherever to give you a really comprehensive report on what we did while we were in Israel.
11:38And just on top of that, if you're not getting our emails and our updates, then we'd love for you to sign up to our mailing list, and with Tony's permission, Maggie will be at the back of church this morning after the service with a sign-up sheet.
11:51So we can keep you up to date with things like that.
11:54Our latest newsletter, in fact, has had some information on this in more detail than I've shared here.
12:00So really just a very quick update, just to let you see what we're doing.
12:04I think that was the last slide.
12:05Yes, thank you very much, Clayton, for that.
12:10And thank you as a fellowship here for the support that you give to the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry United Kingdom.
12:19It gives you an idea of what we do.
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