January 6, 2009

For years I have been hearing Israeli residents’ miraculous stories of survival and safety during time of war. Now I have one that hits close to home – a story told to me by my father, Rabbi Eckstein, which shows clearly the never ending mercy that God bestows on His children.

Just last week my father was visiting cities in southern Israel and providing relief to the many desperate citizens through The Fellowship’s Fund for Victims of War and Terror. He saw a flash in the distance and quickly knew exactly what he was witnessing. “It felt so unreal,” he told me, “seeing two rockets fired from Gaza, just miles away, aimed towards me and the other innocent civilians I was standing with.” Closing his eyes, holding back tears and raising his hands to the heavens above he told me that “we had fifteen seconds to get to shelter, yet there was no safe room in sight. All I could do was pray while standing in the open field like a sitting duck. In midst of my prayers the rocket struck less than 100 yards from me. The sound from the explosion is still ringing my ears.” The lesson he wanted me to receive from this traumatic story was simple. “Sweet daughter,” he said, “never forget that prayer is our greatest weapon. Use it every chance possible, and don’t doubt that God is forever listening when you call out, just like a father listens to his children’s cries. ”

When I heard my father relate this story, I couldn’t help but think about how many prayers have been answered by God through The Fellowship’s help. Many of our project recipients’ faces ran through my mind. I envisioned them praying to God to fill their desperate need, and then having The Fellowship deliver it the very next day. Miracles happen and are performed by God, and He gracefully chooses holy messengers to deliver these miracles to so many people in Israel. You, through the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, are those messengers.

Nearly three years ago, after the Second Lebanon War in northern Israel, I went to visit the bomb shelters that people had told us were uninhabitable. I will never forget the disbelief I felt as I saw firsthand the sewage that ran across the shelter floors, the dead bugs and rodents that laid scattered all around, and the “bathrooms” that were little more than concrete holes in the ground. There was no working electricity or running water, yet the residents were instructed by the government to live in their bomb shelters for nearly thirty days. I tried to envision rockets falling all around the building, and having to choose between staying in my unprotected apartment and living in the decrepit shelter. It truly felt like a nightmare with no hope or safe option. This scenario was the reality for the northern residents during the war, and when I met an eighty-six year old man who told me he hid under his bed for nearly two weeks as he heard rockets flying overhead, I truly believed him.

Thank God, The Fellowship not only sympathized with Israel’s border residents – we took action. We immediately implemented a national project to renovate over 1,200 bomb shelters on Israel’s northern and southern borders. Once war breaks out it is too late to give people a safe room to hide. Unfortunately Israelis always know that the next war is just around the corner. This is our reality, and it is a reality for which The Fellowship is always prepared.

Many of Israel’s southern communities that are being bombarded with daily rocket fire now have livable conditions in their bomb shelters. They are using them for life saving protection as we speak, thanks to your donations to The Fellowship’s campaign to renovate and repair bomb shelters across Israel. Yet towns like Ashdod and Beersheva have only begun to feel the pain and torture of living under terrorist attack, due to Hamas’ use of new long-range missiles. Shelters there are not yet renovated, so people are left to sit in their homes, with prayer as their only protection.

Understanding this background, I’m sure you can see the irony of my father being caught in a rocket attack with nowhere to take shelter. The message that it sent to us both is that the Fellowship-funded project to renovate Israel’s bomb shelters is only partially completed. As the range of terrorist missiles expands, so must our help. If my father was caught unprotected during a Hamas rocket attack, it means there are many other people – young children, elderly, and families – who are caught in the same situation on a daily basis.

Thanks to your donations, The Fellowship has been with Israel’s people to help with all of their urgent requests during this time of war, and we will continue to be there with them until the last rocket falls. Hopefully, peace will come soon, and our help will no longer be needed. But as of now we are still depending on you to provide for the needs of Israel’s people. Thank you for coming through as a true guardian of Israel.

With immeasurable appreciation for your friendship and blessings from Israel,
Yael