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Virginia Church helps Jews “return” to Israel

It was only five years aago that Pastor Lamarr Mooneyham learned about On Wings of Eagles, a program that brings Jewish people to Israel from oppressive countries around the globe.

George Mamo, left, COO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, thanks Pastor Lamarr Mooneyham and The Tabernacle for generously supporting On Wings of Eagles, a Fellowship program that brings Jews to Israel from countries of oppression worldwide. Speaking from the pulpit at The Tabernacle, Mamo explained Christian support for Israel by quoting Romans 15:27: "For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings."

Since that time, Pastor Mooneyham and his congregation at The Tabernacle in Danville, Virginia, have helped to bring 352 Jews home to Israel from the former Soviet Union in partnership with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

Through Wings, The Fellowship has helped some 200,000 Jews return to their biblical homeland, a feat made possible only through the support of U.S. Christians who love Israel and the Jewish people, said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, Fellowship founder and president.

Welcoming The Fellowship’s COO, George Mamo, to The Tabernacle’s pulpit on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2003, Pastor Mooneyham said, “We are strongly motivated by the promise in the Bible—that God said that he would bless Abraham and his subsequent generations.

“We feel we are helping people who have no way to help us back, and we consider this to be a true gift,” he continued. “For some of the Jewish people left behind in the Former Soviet Union, On Wings of Eagles is the only hope they have.”

Pastor Mooneyham recalled seeing a television appeal by Rabbi Eckstein on behalf of needy Jews around the world -- that are hungry, homeless, targeted by anti-Semitic acts and without the resources to move to Israel. “The rabbi’s descriptions of these poor, desperate people broke my heart,” he said, “and I was profoundly touched by his compassion and his desire to help.”

Since that time, the 2,000-member Tabernacle has supported Rabbi Eckstein and The Fellowship, expressing their “deep love for Israel and the Jewish people,” Pastor Mooneyham said.