Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. - Jeremiah 16:14-16
As many of you know, the borders of Israel have been closed since March.
Our full schedule of mission teams through September have been cancelled.
With our recent major uptick of Covid cases, it seems remote that our October and November teams will be able to come. We are praying we are wrong!
We have been hosting mission teams exactly five years. Prior to the Lord creating House of Compassion, we both held various positions in the Jerusalem area for our first twenty years in the Land…since we made Aliyah. Aliyah is the process of applying for Israeli citizenship, and moving here, which we did in 1996 with four of our six children.
Besides evangelism, and almost twenty years before we began hosting mission teams, our desire and passion was to assist “new olim”, new immigrants, entering into Israel. We had pretty much encountered every challenge imaginable, and felt pretty confident we could be of real service for those individuals and families, who were taking a giant leap of faith, as we had, many years ago.
Last week, we met and partnered with Operation Exodus, a Christian ministry founded in 1991, that gained notoriety and respect with the Jewish Agency when through their Ebenezer Boat Project, brought tens of thousands of Russian immigrants to Israel. The Jewish Agency is the governmental body that decides who is approved to come, and who is not. Coincidentally (NOT), our former neighbor and good friend heads up the Jerusalem office of Operation Exodus.
The Jewish Agency utilizes and depends on Operation Exodus to provide additional housing for incoming new olim, when the governments “Absorption Centers” are either full or is not an option, or not a match for a particular family unit.
We now will be included in their list of families willing to house, feed, and love on, the new wave of new immigrants.
You may or may not be aware, but there has been a tremendous increase in anti Semitism world wide, but especially in the U.S., where roughly seven to eight million Jews reside. If you couple that with an economy, shaky, at best, you have the perfect storm. There are many verses in the Tenach (Old Testament) referencing that God will bring back all the Jewish people to Israel. What seemed like quite a task, now doesn’t seem far fetched at all! We know that the Jewish Agency has been inundated with applications for Aliyah, flamed, we understand ,because of Covid??
The above scripture verse in Jeremiah talks about such a time when God will bring back his people “from all the lands where he had driven them”. Jeremiah talks about a season of “fishers”, and like when we were “lured” to Israel almost twenty five years ago, it also talks about a time of “hunters”, which we believe with all our hearts is in the beginning stages, as we speak.
All that to say, we felt our time would be better spent in America over the next several months. We leave on Saturday August 1st. We have a two-fold purpose.
First, something Bess and I have talked about for many years, but never quite found the time to do. We will be visiting synagogues, hopefully meet many rabbi’s, lay leaders in the Jewish community, not just in the Denver area ,but wherever we travel, talking about Aliyah as an entrée to conversation.
Secondly, we will be sharing that vision with Churches and key individuals, who hopefully will want to partner with us. We will be attending an Aliyah conference in Ohio, hosted by a Christian ministry.
If you, or someone you know might be interested in having us speak at a home group or church, please let us know.
Best way to contact us is by email: LarryAndBess@Gmail.com
We have a few special prayer requests:
1. Safe travels, as we will driving all over the country
2. Divine appointments with the Jewish community
3. Lead us to churches and individuals who would want to partner with us.
One more thing, we want to make it clear that we will still be hosting Mission Teams, once the doors are open to travel to Israel. We are adding the additional ministry opportunity the Lord has opened of hosting new immigrants.
To quote an old pastor from Colorado, well he’s not that old.
“THE BEST IS YET TO COME”
Blessings From Jerusalem
Larry & Bess
House Of Compassion International
House Of Compassion is a registered 501(C) (3) Non-Profit, Organization #84-4256898
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