Prayer for Israel is reaching out to our Messianic brothers and sisters in the Land of Israel with love, prayers and donations. It is our brothers and sisters in Israel who are walking side by side with their neighbours sharing the love of Yeshua and providing much-needed resources, prayer and love. “Comfort comfort my people” says your God. Isaiah 40:2
Voice of Many Water (VMW) is one such group that PFI Australia has connected with. In September 2023, VMW Tours organised and accompanied our PFI team for two weeks around Israel. We support and love this group of young Israeli believers as they are the next generation who God is raising up to be the Voice of Many Waters in the land and in the nations. This small group is much more than a tour company.
Voice of Many Waters Israel, (VMW), an international ministry originating in Brazil, is founded on the vision to establish an environment where the voice of the Lord is heard louder than any other voice, and where a generation can be trained and equipped to walk in their gifting and callings for the glory of God, the building of His kingdom, and to prepare the way of the Lord. A crucial part of this is teaching the significance and importance of Israel and the nations.
In Israel, our ministry base has a house of prayer in the desert in the South and an apartment in Jerusalem. Both have the purpose of prayer, worship and teaching the word of God from out of Zion. In Israel, especially in Jerusalem, there usually is one of two responses to the name of Jesus or Christianity; Either cool indifference or out-and-out disdain, not to mention it is illegal to evangelise a Jewish person or do missionary work of any kind.
When VMW Israel first opened its doors in Jerusalem in 2013, the homeless and needy on the streets called our attention. The Lord gave us direction: speak less, live more. We began taking dinner out to the streets a few times a week and built relationships with the men and women living rough. This led to a search for a location to run a soup kitchen, however, God had a bigger plan and led us to open a cafe. For seven years, our local staff ran Etz Cafe in the heart of Jerusalem, which became one of the most popular cafes for both local and international customers, and at the same time holding on to the purpose of being a place where the homeless and needy of the city could come and be served, free of charge, with honour and dignity and to encounter the hope and love of Jesus.
During this time, we also opened a tour agency, VMW Tours, with the vision to enable groups to experience Israel beyond the average tour package; to impart the heart and purpose of the land and the Jewish people and the role of the nation’s here.
Etz Cafe was forced to close during the COVID season, and all tourism was put on hold for a couple of years. In 2021, God called us to move our ministry base down to the desert, to dig deep in prayer, and to prepare a place to receive the nations – when the pandemic would be over and once again they were free to travel – to pray, worship, seek God, and to learn about the land. The house in the desert can serve over 80-100 people at a time, and in the two years since restrictions were lifted we have had the honour to receive many groups, families, and individuals to fellowship and break bread together.
06:30 am October 7, 2023. Sirens went off throughout the south of Israel. Our prayer and ministry base is located right outside of Beer Sheva, 39 minutes from the border with Gaza. We woke up and ran to the bomb shelter and for the next 5 hours sirens went off every 15 minutes. No one knew what was happening at first, then the reports started coming in. We were in a state of disbelief. Israel is accustomed to terrorism and war but this level of infiltration of our borders was unlike anything we ever imagined could happen.
The months leading up to the war, Israel was on the brink of civil war, the country was divided over the government and political agendas. Within the first week of war, 350,000 reservists reported to duty on top of the regulars serving their army duty. There came a shift to unity over the nation, communities began banding together to prepare food for the soldiers, and provide them with all their basic necessities. Our team got in touch with family and friends who were serving on the front lines and began raising donations for their unit’s needs such as leather man multi-tools, tactical vests and helmets, warm clothing, portable chargers, protein bars and water, even a mini drone for a front-line intelligence unit. VMW has always focussed on local outreach and humanitarian aid, in times of crisis our principle is to take a step back and take in the broader picture, what will be the lasting effect after the moment of crisis?
For the first months, workplaces were closed and our staff were out of work. We knew that if we were in this state, the needier parts of the city must have it worse. We went to neighbourhoods in Beersheva and began knocking on doors asking what the needs were. We were met with fear, worry, and stress. Some residents were even too afraid to open the door to a stranger or too ashamed to ask for help.
As we visited the dilapidated apartments, we realised that not only did the apartments not have their own bomb shelters, but the communal shelters in the area were in a state of complete disrepair; crumbling walls and faulty electricity – most had not been used for decades. The residents (most of them elderly, handicapped or single-mother homes) were too afraid to enter the bomb shelters when the sirens went off and would instead huddle in the flimsy stairwells.
We began a project to renovate, clean and paint as many bomb shelters as were in need, in hopes of creating a safe and more welcoming place of shelter. As the residents saw us week after week, their hearts began to open, and they began sharing with us their needs. We were able to raise donations to provide 50 families with a food bag of necessities.
The war has changed something in the hearts of Israelis. With each new project and with each family we help, we say that Christians from around the world love and are praying for Israel and want to support the nation and bless those in need. Instead of the usual indifference, without fail their eyes well up in the realisation that there is someone who is not Israeli, not Jewish, but is standing with Israel. The very fact that the Church from around the world believes in Israel and wants to support the nation is touching the hearts of so many. The same goes for the soldiers; when we tell them that there are Christians around the world praying and supporting them, they are so grateful! We’ve heard so many reply that they believe those prayers because they feel and see that they are protected. Time and time again we hear the stories of soldiers who miraculously lived through situations on the battlefield with no human explanation of how they survived.
It is difficult to know when this war will end, however, we know God’s covenants and promises to Israel. From the very first time the Israelites entered the promised land, they have had to fight for it. War has been used to punish Israel’s sin against God, bring them back to him, and show the might of the God of Israel to the nations.
The harvest is ripe and hearts are softened. This is the time for the light of our Messiah to shine forth from the Church to Israel and then out of Zion to every nation, tribe and tongue.
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