Messenger March 2016
Informing you about the Christians for Israel ministry world wide.
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© Christians for Israel International, info@c4israel.org
In this edition:
In our days it appears that a large migration is taking place towards Western Europe. Millions of people from countries in the Middle East are fleeing for the violence that has swept across Syria for five years already. More than 450,000 people have been killed since by the vicious civil war.
What receives little or no coverage is the large flow of Jews who are heading in the opposite direction. To Israel, in reality the only secure country for them in the world, right there in the Middle East. Hunted by the resurgence of anti-Semitism, which presents itself in many forms, Jews abandon the seemingly peaceful Western European countries. It is estimated that of the 600,000 French Jews this year 15,000 will leave for Israel. The flow of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine is still rising. Furthermore it is expected that in the coming years, many Jews will leave Russia and go to Israel. Even among the 200,000 Jews living in Germany, there are many that have their suitcases packed to move permanently to the promised land. They are going home.
Christians for Israel has been actively supporting Aliyah for 20 years. In this C4I ministry update you will find reports on Aliyah from China, Yemen and Ukraine.
Pim van der Hoff, Board member Christians for Israel International
Sign up now for the Isreality Tour 2016
From 3-15 July 2016 we offer a very special trip “EXPERIENCE ISRAEL” to young adults (18-35) around the globe! This is the first ISREALITY International trip organized by Christians for Israel International! The EXPERIENCE ISRAEL trip has 3 parts: 1) Bible study 2) meeting young Israeli, fun and action 3) voluntary work
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Christians for Israel Prayer Calendar | April-May 2016
'I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul'
- Jeremiah 32:41.
Download the new bi-monthly Christians for Israel Prayer Calendar and pray for Israel!
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Christians for Israel leaders meet in Jerusalem
Seventeen Christians for Israel leaders met in Jerusalem from 26-29 February 2016. This was the third annual meeting of the “Global Executive Council”, which was established in 2014.These annual meetings are an opportunity to report on developments in the Christians for Israel ministry around the world, to encourage each other, and prayerfully to consider plans for the future.
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Glaring contrasts
I am back in the Netherlands after a trip to Ukraine with Chief Rabbi Jacobs. How do you feel when you are back from the misery in Ukraine, where every minute of the day leaves an impression, that you cannot express in words.
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International Chairman Harald Eckert hands on the baton to Leon Meijer
Harald Eckert, Chairman of Christians for Israel Germany, has been Chairman of the Christians for Israel International Board since 2012. Under Harald’s inspired leadership during this period, the ministry has experienced consolidation and significant growth.
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The Historic End of Yemeni Aliyah: Final Group of Yemenite Jewish Immigrants Arrives in Israel
The final group of Yemenite Jewish immigrants landed in Israel on Sunday March 20, 2016, following a complex covert operation coordinated by The Jewish Agency for Israel, thus bringing the historic Yemeni Aliyah to a close. Some two hundred Jews have been secretly rescued from Yemen by The Jewish Agency in recent years, including several dozen in recent months, as attacks against the Jewish community have increased and the country has descended into civil war.
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"Born to suffer" - Editorial Israel & Christians Today By Andrew Tucker
As I write this editorial it is the week before Good Friday and Easter, also known as Holy Week. I am reflecting on the holiness of Jesus, and His suffering in the days leading up to His death and crucifixion. In Luke 19 we read that when Jesus approached Jerusalem for the last time, He wept bitterly over the city. Although greeted by an exuberant crowd, He knew that just days later He would be rejected even by His friends, and die on the cross. I try to enter into His spirit of pain and loneliness. What was He thinking? What did He feel? What prayers did He offer up?
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Five Chinese Jewish women make Aliyah
Recently five young Chinese Jewish women received permission to return to Israel from the Israeli government. Christians for Israel supported their return to their ancient homeland through Shavei Israel. The women finally arrived at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv on the 29th of February.
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Iby Knill - The Woman Without a Number
By Marie-Louise Weissenböck (Chair C4I Austria).. When my husband and I visited Iby Knill, a nearly 92-year-old woman, on 12 September 2015 in her home in Leeds, England, a long-cherished wish of mine was fulfilled. Her moving memories were disclosed for the first time in 2010, when she published the book : “The woman without a number”. It took her 60 years before Iby Knill could speak about her time in concentration camp Auschwitz, Buchenwald (Lippstadt) and the death march to Bergen-Belsen. When she was 75 years she decided to study theology at the University of Leeds, and when the subject of the Holocaust came up Iby Knill she expressed herself for the first time as a survivor. With the help of her professor and good friends, she found the courage to unfold her experiences and to write a book about it. In this article we have summarized a few incidents from her dramatic life story.
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United in the Homeland: update from families that recently made aliyah
Three months passed since the remarkable day when the families Tsarenko and Pleshkov made their aliyah, i.e. ‘went up to Israel’. Leaving behind old lives, relatives and friends, they headed to the very South of Israel, the hot and dry Arava desert.
Maybe you remember their stories. They were published on this website in two parts in February 2016, namely:
"From Soviet apartment to kibbutz" and "Following Aliyah-making Jewish families." (See the links in the article)
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Difficult but not impossible: report from aliyah fieldworker Koen Carlier
During January and February 2016, we were accompanied by a number of aliyah field workers as we visited Eastern Ukraine on three different occasions in order to attend a variety of events and discussions. The results were very favourable! As always, it was not easy to drive the many thousands of kilometres on snow covered, icy roads. It is always risky! An appeal on radio and television even urged people to stay at home and not to set out.
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C4I delegation comforts the family of Israeli soldier
On Sunday 28th February, a Christians for Israel delegation had the privilege of visiting the family of Eliav Gelman, a reserve officer in the IDF who was killed on 24th February.
Gelman, a 30-year old father of two whose wife is expecting their third child, was killed by errant IDF gunfire after he was attacked by a Palestinian man while standing at a bus stop at Etzion Junction.
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