Together We Can Say “Yes!”

Dear Friend,

It’s been more than 60 years now, but I’ll never forget the kind elderly man who gave me a stick at the town dump. I was so hungry that I would go and dig through the trash looking for anything I could eat. But I was terrified of the rats. With that stick he gave me, I could hit the piles of trash and make them run away before I started looking for food.

My favorite thing to find was “white” chocolate — not really white but regular chocolate that had been thrown out because it had gone bad. When I went for my Army physical at 17, I only weighed 112 pounds. I hid weights under my clothes when I went back to the recruiter so I would reach the 132-pound minimum weight requirement to get in.

No one should be enduring hunger like that. Yet at a time when most of us are watching what we eat to keep from gaining too much weight, all across Israel there are people going to bed hungry.

The sad reality is that as you read these words, there are elderly Holocaust survivors and Jewish orphans and entire families who will go to bed hungry tonight. The situation is grim. Before the war started almost three years ago, Israel had the highest poverty rate in the developed world.

And things are much worse now. The costs of fighting the war for survival that Israel has been forced into are staggering. At the same time, the collapse of tourism because of the war has blown a hole in the nation’s budget. And on top of that, the demonic BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement has done everything possible to further cripple Israel’s economy.

There simply isn’t enough money to go around.

Your Friends of Zion Center has become a brightly shining light of Christian love that is visible all over the nation of Israel. That is why desperate people are reaching out to us and begging for help.

We’re already doing a lot to meet these needs. We still deliver food to 3,000 poor Holocaust survivors every week…though their number is dwindling fast. So many of these precious people have no living relatives to help care for them in their old age. We’re stepping up and answering the call.

We’re working with Jewish orphans. Tragically, there are more orphans in Israel right now than at any time since the miracle rebirth of the Jewish state in 1948. So many of these little ones are suffering hunger along with the unspeakable grief they’re enduring every day. We’re stepping up and answering the call.

We’re working with families who lost their homes. There were tens of thousands who either had to leave their homes because of the war or who had their homes damaged or destroyed. They’re still trying to put their lives back together. We’re stepping up and answering the call.

I am asking you to answer the call with us so that we can respond to the pleas for help and say “Yes.” But we can’t say “Yes” to them unless you first say “Yes.”          

As I write to you today, the Spirit of the Lord is reminding me of the words of Jesus: “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’” (Matthew 25:37-40).

A gift of $30 can provide one meal every day for a week for one of these precious needy people. A gift of $90 can provide three meals a day for a full week.

We can’t meet every need and answer every prayer for help. But if you stand with us, we can touch so many more lives.

Please, please send your most generous and sacrificial gift for the vital work of Friends of Zion today. The needs of suffering Jewish people are enormous. We cannot close our hearts, our eyes, and our hands to the cries of these precious souls.

Your ambassador to Jerusalem,

Dr. Mike Evans

P.S. The reason they are asking us for help is because of the amazing impact you have already made in the nation of Israel. They have seen your Christian love in action, and I am asking you today to help us show them that love once again. What we are able to do in response to these urgent pleas for help is determined by what friends like you do, so please rush your generous gift today.