Dear Friend,

When I was in Israel recently on my fifth trip since the war started, Yisrael Katz, the Foreign Minister of Israel requested a meeting with me. 

When I arrived at his office, he was just finishing a meeting with family members of some of the hostages still being held in Gaza. 

As they walked past, I could see the terrible pain in their eyes.

I held them and comforted them. I told them that God has more power than Hamas. And I told them you loved them, and that we would not forget them and their loved ones. I told them we would join them in praying and believing for a miracle.

 Their suffering is beyond my ability to describe. 

As you know, we have been helping many of these families since the war started in October. 

I have wept with them and prayed with them, and thanks to the help of friends like you, we have been able to provide urgently needed assistance.

I’m talking about families like the one at the funeral I went to of an 18-year-old boy whose body had been so badly burned that it has taken months to identify him. His 17-year-old sister had just been released from captivity in Gaza, and she was there to grieve over her beloved brother.

I’m talking about another 18 year old I met who had just been released after 54 days in captivity. I have been close to his grandfather more than a decade and was invited to the family home to celebrate his release.

While he was miraculously released, so many others are still being held by those who hate them. 

I listened to a phone recording of a terrorist trained in Iran who was promised $10,000 if he killed Jews and a new house if he brought Jewish hostages back to Gaza. He called his parents saying, “I just killed a Jewish family.” His father and mother were crying with joy and celebrating his success.

Israel is suffering and grieving…the whole nation. They need help. 

They need to know they are not alone. 

That’s the message that I gave to every single one of these precious people I met with.

God has laid it on my heart to start what we’re calling Operation Comfort Ye My People. 

The families of the hostages are suffering. The families of those killed in the Al Aqsa Flood massacre raid are suffering. The hostage families lost beloved friends and many family members in the massacre. Some of them lost homes, cars, and clothing. 

So on top of the trauma of the death or capture of a loved one, they are homeless and have nothing.

There are no words that can adequately describe the level of pain. 

Imagine not knowing if your son, daughter, wife, husband, grandparents or grandchildren were alive or not…and knowing that they are being held by bloodthirsty, demon-possessed terrorists who want your entire race destroyed.

Imagine being a young widow trying to figure out how to survive and keep your family together without the love of your life.

Operation Comfort Ye My People is intended to touch the lives of these precious people even more than we already have. But we can’t do it without you.

You gave a generous gift that has provided food, medicine, clothing, housing, counseling, and so much more. Today I’m asking you to prayerfully consider sending another gift as God leads.

God’s Chosen People are under attack…and God is calling you and me to do something about it. 

God sees and God cares…and God is looking for people to be His hands and feet of love stretched out to the suffering souls of Israel today.

I shared this with those families of hostages who were feeling hopeless: David was mourning and hopeless when he walked barefoot up the Mount of Olives with a prayer shawl on his head, fleeing from his son Absalom who was trying to kill him. He mourned and said:

“LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.” But you, LORD, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the LORD, and he answers me from his holy mountain. I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side. Arise, LORD! Deliver me, my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked. From the LORD comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people” (Psalm 3:1-8).

God does deliver…but He uses His people to bring about that deliverance. 

That is why what we are doing in Israel is so important, and that is why I’m asking for your help today. 

Mother Teresa prayed with me for the Jewish people in Rome and said this. “Love is not something you say, it’s something you do.” She also said, “You can’t love Jesus, who was Jewish, without loving His people.”

When I met with the Foreign Minister, we were both wearing a little yellow lapel pin. It is a sign of support for the hostages and their families. I want you to have one of these pins, and we will send you one when we receive your best gift for the suffering people of Israel.

I want you to have this pin to wear because it’s a great prayer reminder. It’s also a great way to share your support of God’s Chosen People.

Please respond today to be a founding member of Operation Comfort Ye My People.

P.S. As I write this letter, I hear the Spirit of God giving this promise to all who become Operation Comfort Ye My People founders to help meet this urgent need. “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified” (Isaiah 61:3). 

And I heard the Lord saying also, “That person shall be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers” (Psalm 1:3). Will you comfort the grieving and suffering people of Israel today? Will you join hands with us in Operation Comfort Ye My People? I pray that your answer will be yes.

I am going to take the names of everyone who responds to Mount Calvary as a point of contact and bury those names where the blood of the Lamb flowed and heaven and earth met, believing your greatest need will also be met. With all my heart, I believe when we become His hands of compassion, it turns His head and moves His hand in our direction. “I will bless them who bless thee” (Genesis 12:3).