We Can’t Let This Be True

Dear Friend,

I am here in Jerusalem as your voice to a nation at war.  Just today dozens of Jewish families had their homes destroyed along with everything they owned. I just got back from a funeral for six members of one family who were killed in an Iranian missile attack.

The Western liberal media is downplaying the suffering here in Israel, but I can tell you firsthand that it is very real. Iran is firing barrages of 30 or more missiles at a time trying to overwhelm Israel’s defenses.  

I’ve been begged by dozens of people to go into a bomb shelter when the sirens sound, but God didn’t call me to go to a bomb shelter…He called me to go into the fire. He called me to pastor the nation of Israel, and with all my heart, I believe He is the one who touched your heart to stand with me in this great work on behalf of His Chosen People.

We are being besieged with requests for help, and the needs are growing by the day. 

When I looked at those needs, I realized we need a miracle. Well, the miracle came. A dear friend and partner has stepped forward with a $350,000 matching gift challenge.  That means your gift today will be doubled to touch the lives of twice as many suffering Jewish people.

And though the war has created urgent needs, there are also things going on behind the scenes that speak to a silent crisis. Let me share one of those with you today.

Even after I read the report three times, I couldn’t believe it was true.

This may be the most heart-breaking reality I’ve come across in decades of ministry. As you read this today, there are tens of thousands of elderly Jewish people — many of them precious Holocaust survivors — who are not receiving the medical care and attention they need.

It’s hard to believe in this day and age that there are people who can’t afford to pay for a visit to a doctor…or buy the medicine they need…or even find someone to help treat them at all. But sadly, it’s true.

Israel has one of the highest poverty rates in the developed world. More than one in five Israeli people live below the poverty line, and most of them are either very young or very old. The national budget has been stretched to the breaking point by more than two years of war, the collapse of tourism, the continued threats that must be defended against, and the impact of the demonic BDS movement aimed at crippling Israel’s economy.

Most of our friends and partners like you will never meet a Jewish refugee who moved to Israel from Russia or Ukraine. More than 1.5 million of them arrived…many with just a single suitcase holding everything they owned.

They could not speak the Hebrew language, and a huge number of them ended up living near the Gaza border — it was the only place they could afford — where they only had 30 seconds warning when 20 or 30 missiles a day were fired at their homes. Thanks to the help of friends like you, Friends of Zion has been reaching out to help them for years.

And that’s not all. Friends of Zion is delivering food to more than 3,000 poor Holocaust survivors every week. We host a community center for Holocaust survivors in Jerusalem in a massive World War II-era bomb shelter that we operate. We bring elderly Holocaust survivors to the Holy City to celebrate the bar and bat mitzvahs they missed as teenagers because of the war.

The list goes on and on…and I am so grateful for the help that we have received from you and our other friends and partners that has made this wonderful outreach a bright and shining light of Christian love to the whole House of Israel.

But we MUST do more.

We would never let our parents or grandparents do without food or medicine. If we learned they needed to see a doctor, we would do whatever it took to get them there.

I remember caring for my father in the final years of his life. Even though he horribly abused me when I was a child, I still paid for him to have a safe place to live and food to eat and the medical care he needed. Even though it took half of my salary, I paid his car and house payments for 5 ½ years.             

Jesus said that what we do for “the least of these” is done for Him. He was talking about His Jewish brothers and sisters…and they are your brothers and sisters as well. And today I’m asking you to reach out to them in love, as together we do something truly great for God.

Today you have the great honor and opportunity of being the hands of Jesus. And remember that whatever you are able to give will be doubled through the $350,000 matching gift challenge.

Many Jewish people think that Christians hate them. That’s what my mother thought. I was four when she told me, “Christians hate Jews. Christians kill Jews.” Her beloved grandfather, the man for whom I was named, Rabbi Mikhail Katz-Nelson, was burned to death inside his synagogue along with 2,000 other Jews while the crowd outside celebrated and shouted “Christ killers!”

Today you and I have a golden opportunity to change that. We can reach out to precious Holocaust survivors and elderly Jews and show them that true Christians love and care for God’s Chosen People…and help meet their most urgent needs.

Many people have asked me, “Mike, why are you in Israel risking your life?” I’m here because a man is no fool to give what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. I ask myself daily if I am living in light of eternity and if the things I’m living for are worth Christ dying for. Please stop and ask those questions with me right now.

I’m asking you to send a special Holy Spirit-directed gift today so that we can respond to the urgent medical crisis facing the poor and elderly of Israel without stopping or cutting back any of our other vital humanitarian work. We have already started working with our team on the ground in Israel to find the best ways to help.

But what we will be able to do is determined by the help of friends like you.

Would you stop right now and ask God what He wants you to do to help meet this need? And then would you send your gift quickly so that we can reach out in Christian love and help these precious people?

The sad reality is that time is running out. 

Just a couple of years ago, there were more than 200,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel. Today there are less than 75,000. The youngest of them are now in their 80s, and most are in their 90s. They are ill, alone, and under great stress.

As I am writing to you, I am hearing the song Love Lifted Me. “I was sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shore, very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more; but the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry, from the waters lifted me now safe am I.” 

Your gift of love today will lift despairing hearts.

If they are ever going to see that they are not alone…that Christian friends are standing with them…they must see it now.

Please let me hear from you right away so that we can act before time runs out. 

Thank you in advance for your generous response. God bless you for blessing His Chosen People in this vital way.

P.S. The Spirit of God is saying “Comfort ye My people,” and I can’t think of a better or more important way we can obey that command than by reaching out to elderly Jewish people lacking medicine and medical care. Please do your very best as you send your gift today, remembering that your gift will have double the impact through our special matching gift challenge. Time is short, and the need is urgent.