In times of war and mourning in Israel, we’re delighted to work together with God to bring life in this land that He loves, defying the darkness.
Life in the Face of Death
Yarden, a Jewish single mother of five children, called our pro-life hotline from one of Israel’s Muslim-majority cities. She had grown up in a secular household and as she grew older she began to date Arab Muslim men. Her home life was dysfunctional: one sister committed suicide by jumping in front of a train; another is committed to a mental asylum; her eldest daughter became Ultra-Orthodox and has cut off all contact. Yarden herself suffers greatly from fear and anxiety.
On top of all this, the mother of a partner Yarden had been with succeeded in convincing her to convert to Islam.
When Yarden called our line, she stated, “I’m five weeks pregnant and I can’t have this child.”
Our counselor Rene encouraged Yarden that she would not be alone and that we could help her. She prayed for her and invited other believers to join her in prayer. Praise God – Yarden chose life. But that courageous choice Yarden made would not mean this pregnancy would be a walk in the park.
Throughout her pregnancy, Yarden was hospitalized several times. She nearly lost her baby more than once after instances of severe bleeding. Another time she was in a car accident at 20 weeks and began having contractions soon after!
But despite all these hardships, including a premature birth, Yarden and her baby persevered. She gave birth and named her baby boy “Omri.”
Our counselors Rachel and Rene drove to visit Yarden in her Muslim-majority city as soon as Yarden had begun working again.
After a horrifying incident where Omri’s caretaker in his daycare drugged him in order to put him to sleep, Yarden’s mother now comes every week to help her daughter and grandson.
Omri was agitated and restless during their visit until Rachel held him in her arms, causing him to fall into a deep sleep.
During their visit, Yarden and her older daughter washed themselves and even donned burqas to pray the Islamic prayers. But when Rene shared her testimony of coming to faith in Yeshua, Jesus, Yarden and her daughter listened intently. Still, they maintained that Islam was the right path.
At the end of the visit, Rachel asked if she could pray for Yarden and prayed for her in Jesus’ name. Yarden agreed and was clearly touched by Rachel’s prayer.
Please pray that the seed that was sown will grow and that Yarden and her children will be set free from the bondage of Islam and realize that only in Jesus is there true freedom, light, and healing – only He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life!
The Right Decision
Anat had just recently begun a relationship and found herself pregnant once again.
“I need to get an abortion,” Anat notified our counselor Rachel over the phone.
As the conversation continued, Rachel discovered that Anat had already had two abortions in the past.
“You might not be able to have any more children due to your age and past abortions, and even keeping your pregnancy to term might be difficult,” Rachel cautioned.
Anat shared that her boyfriend was pushing her to abort her baby. But Anat took the time to process the conversation she had with Rachel. And by God’s grace she made the right decision! She named her beautiful baby girl “Yuval.” And today Anat is overjoyed that she chose to keep the baby, whom she calls “her life.”
Rachel drove to Anat to share about another “Child… born unto us” (Isaiah 9:6a). Rachel met up with a sister in the faith, Victoria, and the women visited Anat’s apartment in a village in the center of Israel. They blessed Anat with a gift and were elated to see how smiley baby Yuval was and how joyful Anat was, as well.
Rachel and Victoria had prayed for an open door to share, and when Anat asked if they are religious, Rachel explained that they are believers in Yeshua. Unfortunately, Anat had heard about Yeshua from a friend of a friend and claimed that it wasn’t for her.
But once Rachel shared in more depth how Yeshua didn’t establish a new, separate religion and how He came to fulfill the Law and not to destroy it, Anat’s curiosity piqued. Seeing that Anat was more open, Rachel continued to speak about the atonement that we all desperately need because of the separation between us and God which can only be restored by the Son and what He did for us.
Before they left, Rachel asked to pray for Anat. Anat not only agreed but she surprisingly also requested prayer specifically for Doron, the father of baby Yuval. Apparently Doron hasn’t been reliable in their relationship and Anat has been feeling depressed from the recent move to their village. Rachel assured Anat that everything is possible with God.
Please pray that God would move in Anat’s and Doron’s lives, that He would reveal Himself to them, and that they would experience true love and unity as a family.
Please Pray with Us:
- For continued open doors to share the Gospel without hindrance – You might remember how we wrote about the government persecution as we were sharing the Gospel on the streets, that God used to bring salvation. We had also asked for your prayers for justice as we appealed the fine they gave us, so that a positive legal precedent would be set on behalf of believers. It took a while, but we just were informed by the government that they accepted our appeal and canceled the fine! Praise God and thank you for your prayers!
- For wisdom for our discipleship video series – we’ll be making some crucial decisions over the next few weeks and we really want this series and these discipleship groups to be as effective and fruitful as possible for God’s glory.
- For our Pro-Life and Gospel Campaign:
– Thank you to all of you joining in the fasting and prayer this week for a breakthrough with the ads in this campaign. We’re going to be rewriting and resubmitting a huge portion of the campaign now, so we’d appreciate your prayers that God will not only give favor for it to not be censored, but that it will be even more effective than it was before!
– For Koral – Our Rachel and a fellow believer, Alice, recently visited Koral at her house near Gaza. Koral is still suffering greatly from panic attacks. The memories of that deadly Saturday on October 7th still haunt her as she drives her bus through the same city where she witnessed many atrocities. At their visit, Koral confessed some serious issues and Rachel and Alice prayed for her in Yeshua’s name about deep emotional and spiritual struggles she’s going through. Please pray that God will heal Koral and her children’s trauma and restore her in a way only He can. - For our street outreaches – we’ve had many smaller, somewhat spontaneous outreaches, and God is continuing to touch people’s hearts with the Gospel. We’d appreciate prayers for clarity of what God is calling us to do regularly, how to make it most effective, and how to follow up well and see multiplication.
- For all the new believers (see more stories here), including:
– Daniel and a few others who were growing and meeting with us, but recently haven’t answered for a while. - For all the follow-up with seekers online and on the streets, including:
– Sadik, a Druze, homeless drug addict we've been reaching out to for a long time. He prayed to receive Yeshua and wants to start a new life. But every time we've brought him to a rehab center run by our congregation, because of his many health problems he's experienced intense pain in withdrawal and dropped out. He agreed to try again this week, so please pray he’d indeed come and that God would work a miracle of healing in his body, give him perseverance to finish the withdrawal, and grant a truly new heart and path to this precious man.
