One of the most frequently asked questions The Fellowship receives is whether we have Christian beneficiaries. The answer is a resounding yes. In fact, one of our recent projects focused on bringing food boxes to Christians in need in and around Israel. This includes funding the distribution of aid to three Christian villages in southern Lebanon whose residents have remained in place during the IDF’s ongoing counterterror operations.
The IDF has been engaged in operations against the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Communities in the region have been turned upside down, with many people leaving their homes and daily life coming to a near halt. Residents of the Christian-majority villages refused to abandon their way of life and made the decision to stay. These already isolated villages face significant needs, and the fighting makes securing food and medical care even more difficult. In response, The Fellowship is sending food boxes to families in these villages. Fellowship staff prepared the shipment at a nearby IDF base to be taken to Lebanon.
Fellowship staff distributing food boxes for Rosh Hashanah also visited the home of Ludmila, an 81-year-old Christian widow living on the top floor of an old building in Kiryat Malachi. She made aliyah in 1993 with her Jewish husband from Russia.
Growing up in the Soviet Union, much of Ludmila’s childhood was marked by poverty and hunger. She remembers going to live with her grandmother while her mother worked in the mines of Siberia. There was already widespread poverty in the small village where they lived, but conditions worsened when the mine stopped employing women. With no flour to make bread, the family picked grass and made what they could from it for nourishment. Even the family cat helped, catching fish and bringing them back to the house.
Ludmila grew up and studied geology, eventually moving to Leningrad, where she met her husband, Misha. For a while, she had no idea he was Jewish until she stumbled across his birth certificate and discovered his Jewish surname. It was common for Jews to change their last names to avoid discrimination and give their children better opportunities, including access to education. Misha’s father had served in the Red Army and was passed over for promotions because he was Jewish.
Ludmila says, “I’m a Christian. I know what happened in World War II. I know about the millions of Jews who were murdered. When I met my husband, I didn’t think at all about his religion. I cared about the person he is, and that’s what I think everyone should do.”
In 1992, the Tajikistan civil war broke out after the country gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Rioters stormed towns and targeted people of Russian origin, as well as Jews and Christians. This made both Ludmila and Misha targets. They were fortunate to be in the fields near their home when rioters arrived, allowing them to escape. The next year, they made aliyah with their two adopted children. Thirteen years later, Misha passed away, and their children eventually went on to have families of their own.
Ludmila sends her thanks for the assistance from The Fellowship: “It moves me very much that good people from the US support me. I understand that these are Christian people who are doing us a great favor, and I appreciate it very much as a Christian and as a person.”
“One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24).