A Tragedy for the Entire Nation

Dear Friend,

On my trip to Israel, I met with some of the most beautiful people on earth. They are some of the poorest people I have ever met, but they are also some of the happiest.

They came to Israel in fulfillment of a life-long dream. For years, they ended Passover Seders saying, “Next year in Jerusalem.” They endured persecution and discrimination and threats and violence.

When they got to Israel, they thought all their prayers had been answered. They were wrong.

I’m talking about hundreds of thousands of Jewish people from the former Soviet Union, especially Russia and Ukraine, who made the move to Israel.

Four decades ago, I filled the Kremlin Palace in Moscow with pastors from the underground church and declared boldly on state television, “Stalin is dead. Lenin is dead, but Jesus Christ is alive!” Suddenly, the lights and the sound system went off.

I found out later that a Russian general made up his mind that he was going to kill me and bury me under the Kremlin Palace, but God intervened. 

Those pastors risked their lives to help get the Russian Jews out of the Soviet Union.

Forty years ago, our ministry launched the massive “Let My People Go” campaign to bring these precious people to Israel. Many of them came to the ancient land of their fathers with only a single suitcase holding everything they own.

They did not speak the language. They had great difficulty finding jobs. A number of them were elderly and infirm…often from disease and injury they endured during the Holocaust.

Because of their poverty, most of them were forced to live in the most dangerous and exposed part of the country. Many ended up living near the border with Gaza, exposing them to daily threat of attack. So many missiles have come at them that most of them have post-traumatic stress. I talked to the mayor of one town there who told me that 85% of the population has post-traumatic stress.

The entire nation of Israel has suffered greatly in the two and a half years since the deadly Hamas invasion on October 7, 2023. 

Millions are dealing with post-traumatic stress. Tens of thousands have been left homeless. Hundreds have been killed or injured in rocket and missile and mortar attacks, or by terrorists using knives and guns and rocks and cars.

It’s a tragedy for the whole nation. But it is a special problem for the elderly Russian and Ukrainian Jews. Most of them don’t have any living family members in Israel to help care for them. 

I’ve been in their tiny and cramped apartments. I’ve seen the empty shelves in their refrigerators. I’ve looked at the empty bottles they can’t afford to refill in the medicine cabinet.

And we’ve done so much to help them…and that’s thanks to the generosity and love of friends like you. The reality is that most of these people had never seen an act of love and kindness from a Believer.

Like my own mother, they grew up thinking that Christians hated them. The pogroms and the Holocaust are not history to them…those are the reality of the life that they and their families lived.

I know what it is like to be hungry. As a child, I would go to the dump looking for food. My favorite thing to find was “white” chocolate — black chocolate that the stores threw out when it turned white. I ate a lot of “white” chocolate.  I lived in America, but I went hungry.

Only one person who was a Christian ever came to help me. I’ll never forget her. I hid the marks from the beatings I received from my father, but she knew I was hurting, and she really cared. There is no doubt in my mind that she was sent by the Lord. She was my angel.

You can be an angel to suffering Jewish people today.

The truth is that the people of Israel have never needed us more than they do right now. And that’s especially true for elderly Jewish people who moved to Israel from Russia and Ukraine. 

We want to increase our work to help them. 

We want to deliver more food, medicine, clothing, and drinking water. 

We want to show them that they are loved and that they are not alone. 

We want them to know that true Christian friends love them and are standing with them in this crisis.

We want their final years to be filled with comfort and love, not hunger and pain.

But we can’t do what needs to be done without your help. I am asking you to send a special Holy Shavuot (Pentecost) Offering today so that we can do more to help these people living in desperate need.

In my office, I have a pinecone. It is one of my greatest treasures. It was given to me by Russian Jews I helped get out of the Soviet Union. They had been hiding in the woods, and they gave me that pine one…it was all they had to give.

More than 50 years ago, I began going to the Soviet Union. On every trip, I took “soap,” which is what I called the Bibles I was smuggling into the country. I remember going through customs. The soldiers wanted to search my suitcases. Smuggling Bibles into the country was not a small thing. It could get you arrested and sent to Siberia for life.

I’ll never forget the guard asking me, “What’s in your suitcase?” I said, “Soap, small bars.” “What’s in your other suitcase?” “Soap, big bars,” I replied. The Bibles were clearly visible, but he told me to close the suitcases and go ahead. As I left, he whispered in my ear in Russian, “Praise the Lord.” He was a believer. He was my angel.

I’m sure you’re asking what do these precious immigrants need? The answer is everything. They came to Israel with only a suitcase. And most of them were extremely poor. As I’m writing to you, I’m hearing the words of Jesus, “If you’ve done it to the least of these, you’ve done it unto Me.”

 A gift today of $100, $250, $1,000, or more may not change your life, but it will change theirs! And heaven will record your gift.

It will put a smile on the faces of these precious people and hope in their eyes, knowing you haven’t forgotten them. Mother Teresa prayed with me in Rome not too long before she died and said, “You can’t love Jesus without loving the Jewish people. Love is not something you say; it’s something you do.”

With your gift of $100 or more, we will send you a special Daily Blessing Box as our way of thanking you for your support. This box contains 100 Scriptures specially chosen to encourage your faith and add new depth to your prayers.

We will also send you a copy of our exclusive Friends of Zion Study Bible. This is such a great resource for linking Biblical and prophetic truth with current events.

Your gift today shows your love for God, your love for His Chosen People and shows them true Christian love in action. Please be as generous as you can so that we can help more of these precious people. God bless you for caring and making a difference.

P.S. When we show true Christian love in action to God’s Chosen People, we are fulfilling the ancient command, “Comfort ye My people” that Isaiah first heard so long ago. Your gift today will provide food, clothing, medicine, and so much more to suffering Jewish people.  I look forward to hearing from you very soon.