For over a hundred years now the world has been eyewitness to a remarkable phenomenon: from a history of almost nineteen centuries of being scattered across the globe, an ancient people is returning to their covenanted homeland. It began with just a trickle, then a growing stream, now tens of thousands each year. Ebenezer Operation Exodus has had a front row seat in beholding this modern-day miracle and participating in its outworking.
During the first Gulf War the ministry’s founder, Gustav Scheller, was taking part in the International Prayer Conference in Jerusalem in 1991. He already believed that God wanted the Jewish people to return to their homeland in fulfilment of the ancient biblical prophecies. Now, when they were under attack and the conference delegates were praying in a bomb shelter, Gustav sensed that God was urging him to start doing something practical to help bring them home. Within the same year the fledgling ministry was able to sponsor flights from Budapest bringing 720 olim to Israel. A momentous occasion. The next year, Gustav and his team chartered a ship for three sailings from Odessa in Ukraine to Haifa. It was the first time a direct shipping route had been established between Ukraine and Israel and was followed by many more sailings over the ensuing decade.
Having started with just three people, Ebenezer now has a team numbering over 300, many of them volunteers, working in the field and represented in over 50 nations. Having been born out of a prayer conference, prayer has remained at the heart of the ministry. The ministry has helped well over 200,000 Jewish people make aliyah (return to Israel) from across many nations: Russia, Ukraine, Eastern and Western Europe, Central Asia, North and South America, India and Australia. Humanitarian aid distribution to needy Jewish families is a vital part of our programme. Our projects include medicines for survivors of the Shoah, and school supplies and winter shoes for children.
Pete Stucken, who comes from a business background, serves as Chairman of the Asia Pacific Board. His wife Fiona serves as Prayer Coordinator for the Asia Pacific Region. They are based on the Central Coast, NSW, and have four adult children and three grandchilden. Since 2008, Pete has been speaking to Christian churches and groups across nations of Asia Pacific, raising awareness in the Christian community of our responsibility to stand in friendship and support of the nation of Israel and our own Jewish communities, and to be ready to help whenever the need arises.
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