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  Dear coworkers, Yesterday over lunch with our US board member Gerry, I referred to the “huge amount” which we’ve committed to pay at year-end, in support of Israeli hospitals for the heart surgeries in 2022 for 80+ children from Iraq, Syria and the Gaza Strip. After a second’s thought I felt convicted to add:… Read more »

  Click above to listen to the full message.

Friends, That’s the sound (click above) when our tiny Jaffa and Jerusalem communities–nine souls all together!–joined tonight for the last time in 2021. To remember all the LORD has done for us throughout this year. Less than half our previous size, yet more forgotten children than ever before made it through the doors of our partner… Read more »

Dear praying friends, As with each of these prayer update letters, it seems an incredible amount of things has taken place over the span of the week. Not only that physical tasks have gone ahead (echos, surgeries, shopping…) but to pay attention to, and reflect on, the range of emotions which are experienced by the… Read more »

Dear coworkers, Within the hour Israel will enter into the new year, hurtling ever more quickly toward the promised coming with the clouds of the Messiah, whose birth still divides the human calendar. In the Shevet community we mark the year-end also as the time to meet our commitments to the Israeli hospitals who so lovingly… Read more »

I never paid much attention to the multiplying books and articles which claimed (or denied) links between the Essene community of the Dead Sea scrolls and the Jesus movement. I had an impression, gleaned largely via the media, that the Essenes were a strange, fanatical, isolated movement which could have little real impact on the… Read more »

Dear friends, As I sat to write to you tonight, doctors on the other side of town at the Hadassah Medical Center were anxiously awaiting the arrival of three-week-old Sham from Gaza. She was born with a blocked pulmonary valve which keeps blood from reaching her lungs, and was barely clinging to life in a… Read more »

Dear coworkers, After sending last night’s Sunday letter from Jerusalem, I awoke this morning with the disappointing feeling that I hadn’t delivered the whole message.  The good news is that the Holy Spirit convicts us not to condemn us, but to teach us and to set things right. In that light please allow me to… Read more »

Dear coworkers, The hammer of coronavirus restrictions fell heavy on our community today. The government in Gaza closed the crossing into Israel in an effort to protect the population there; our partner hospitals Sheba and Hadassah banned our community members from entering cardiac wards to limit potential infection; and as of tomorrow neighboring Jordan has… Read more »

Friends,  I was reminded today of the words of Jesus in John 14:27. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.  The world is doing its best to rob us of peace…. Read more »

Dear friends, I wrote you last Sunday of Jana’s prayer: Lord I don’t know if we can bear to lose any more children. The next night Colin, Georgia and I were by the side of Mareta’s parents as their three-year-old daughter took her last breath, as they collapsed in grief and sobbing in the hospital… Read more »

Dear friends, I wrote you last week just as the first three Kurdish children of 2020 were winging their way to Israel with the escort of our senior nurse Colin and a portable oxygen collector. As often seems to happen, the Father’s grace kept the bluest child Shifaa alive just long enough to reach advanced… Read more »

Dear friends, It’s been a long slow exhale for us since the end of 2019. Coming to terms with the size of the bill for all the kids we brought to Israel. Watching to see what funds will come in, waiting to hear what the Lord is saying to us. Tonight it feels like we’re… Read more »

Dear friends, It’s been a good week for the Good News in the Middle East. The leaders of Iran who claim to represent God on this earth–and who burn with hatred toward the restoration of Israel–were exposed before the astonished eyes of their people as morally and spiritually bankrupt. When they proclaimed day after day… Read more »

Dear friends, Do you remember that spring morning in 2003 when American forces first entered Baghdad, after months of dire warnings of the hatred and guerilla warfare awaiting them? The soldiers pulled down a huge statue of Saddam Hussein and an angry crowd of Iraqis indeed gathered–to vent their rage on the statue, hitting it… Read more »

Dear coworkers, The last minutes of this decade are ticking away here in Jerusalem, and we’re launching into a decisive new decade, one that will bring drastic change and prepare the ground, I believe, for the return of our Messiah. So we talked in our community this morning about what we should do: retreat in… Read more »

This evening as we were going to see the Hanukkah lights in Jerusalem, celebrating the triumph of light over darkness, Colin received word that Mustafa was still in the operating room at the hospital. The whole Shevet community joined hands in the street in the Old City of Jerusalem, and lifted up his situation to… Read more »

Dear friends, Are you heading home for the holidays? Frank and I too will board a plane back to Israel in a few hours, God willing, after nine days in Kurdistan, northern Iraq. It’s been a rich time of rejoicing with many who rejoice, like Noora’s family who sent us off this morning after lavishing… Read more »

Dear friends, Only a range of snow-capped mountains separate me from Iran as I write you tonight. As Frank and I drove up to the base of those mountains at sunset in northern Iraq, I remarked that we were approaching Mordor.  It’s not the lovely people of Iran who are evil–at least not any more… Read more »

Dear coworkers, Beloved two-year-old Israa from Kurdistan became this week the 77th child from Iraq, Gaza and Syria entrusted to us by the Father in 2019 for heart surgery in Israel. Jana shares that Israa’s already back home with us tonight in Jaffa: When I found out that I was going to go to the… Read more »

Dear friends, As the calendar turns to December, I’ve been looking out the corner of my eye at our year-end numbers. We haven’t known where we’re going this year. We haven’t had a plan. We’ve tried to respond faithfully and prayerfully to every child the Father has brought us. And it appears this has given… Read more »

Friends, A simple picture received tonight speaks volumes:   Just a couple of hours ago this young father in the Gaza Strip received his firstborn son Ezzedin back into his hands. Those of us who are parents can well remember our stunned reaction when our first baby was entrusted to us. We’d have done anything… Read more »

Dear friends, “Count it all joy” was the message this morning as our Jaffa community began reading together the letter from James/Yakov, the brother of Jesus. Count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds. This week we have many reasons to be joyful. Chief among our testings is the passing of precious… Read more »

Dear friends, Michelle and I are gathered on the shores of the Mediterranean with some 300 other ministry leaders and spouses for the Joshua Fund’s annual “Shepherd the Flock” conference, which kicked off tonight with a message from Acts 15-16 by Rich Chaffin:   All you need to know about Rich’s heart can be gleaned… Read more »

Dear friends, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins,” we read this morning in Jaffa community. This scandalous word spoke to us from many directions: the confidence we have through the blood of Jesus to approach our Father without condemnation; the necessity of walking in the fear of the Lord and… Read more »

Dear friends, Our community is growing in faith and trust that–simply put–the Father is working. There is joy and rest in this knowledge, as we can join in with the works he is already doing, rather than fretting as if it is up to us to initiate the works of his kingdom. For example, I’m… Read more »

Dear friends, Hospitals emptied out as Israel entered the eight-day long Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles) tonight at sunset. Julio and Luzma’s daughter Paula took special joy as our Jaffa sukkah went up: And between visiting guests and families waiting for surgeries, the Jerusalem sukkah that Ben engineered is already filling to capacity, thank God: The… Read more »

Dear coworkers, Today started bleakly. After a 13-day tour of northern Iraq, I landed at the Amman airport at 06:00 am and drove across town to the Jordanian interior ministry. On the way out to Kurdistan I’d filed a request there for the little Syrian refugee Rahaf to return to Israel for a second heart… Read more »

Dear friends, Our Jaffa and Jerusalem communities are at rest tonight, as Israel entered at sunset the high holiday season of Rosh HaShana, Yom Kippur and Tabernacles. While this first two-day holiday of Rosh HaShana is considered the New Year in rabbinic tradition, in tonight’s blog “Calling the Saints into Battle” our coworker Deborah takes… Read more »

Surely this is our God;we have waited for Him, and He has saved us.This is the LORD for whom we have waited.Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation. Dear friends, Isaiah’s beautiful words of hope fulfilled opened the meeting of our newly-restored Jerusalem community this morning.  Yes–how long have we been talking about… Read more »

Dear coworkers, Last week’s great battle for the life of Shakar for Kurdistan ended with the Father’s glorious verdict: Shakar will be raised up on the last day. And this week we were right back into the fight. This time for beautiful baby Reem from the Gaza Strip: Reem arrived in Israel the night of… Read more »

Dear coworkers, It was Monday morning that doctors in Israel discovered that Shakar, a not yet one year old boy from Kurdistan with Down syndrome, appeared to be dying from multiple organ failure. He hadn’t even had the heart surgery yet that he came for. It was amazing to see how the body of Messiah… Read more »

Dear friends, Yesterday at our morning meeting, Jonathan shared that what we wanted to extract from scripture is not a theological or intellectual understanding, but one of practical understanding and application. After thinking about this statement for a few hours, the Holy Spirit  sifted through my mind and brought me to this conclusion:  What good… Read more »

Dear coworkers, We got news early this morning that Shakar from Kurdistan was due to be taken into an emergency surgery in Israel today. The hospital staff had seen blood coming from nose, mouth and also in his nappy, and so he was taken into surgery to look at the bowel.  The surgeons came to… Read more »

Dear coworkers, We’re just back from a 48-hour team-building retreat near Bethlehem for the long-term members of the community. Our goal as we head into this new year of service: to love each other with humble hearts, and to share about our strengths and weaknesses without judgment, so we can be built up together into… Read more »

Dear coworkers, Again and again and again we are being tested. The calls come in from Gaza: a newborn baby is between life and death. Only emergency surgery in Israel can save them. No one else is willing to take financial responsibility. Will you? It’s hammering into us obedience to the command of Jesus which… Read more »

Dear coworkers, I’ve kept you up to date in recent weeks as the Lord appears to be unlocking the vast potental of Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem to become a blessing to all the families of the Middle East. Now the story has broken into the Arabic and Hebrew media in Israel. Our Gaza coordinator… Read more »

Dear friends, More evidence this week that the Lord may be calling Hadassah into the circle of hospitals that are blessing Israel’s neighbors. Newborn Hassan was between life and death in Gaza this week, but Sunday, Monday and Tuesday rolled by without any space opening up in the ICUs of our partners at the Wolfson… Read more »

Dear coworkers, Two weeks ago I wrote you about the Syrian refugee baby Mohammed. His acceptance broke open again the doors to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, where management agreed to evaluate Mohammed, although skeptical that he could still be helped after being neglected for so long. Well this week doctors performed the fateful catheterization to… Read more »

Dear coworkers, When we think of intercession–moving God through prayer on behalf of others–the name Rees Howells may come to mind. His widely-read biography was titled simply “Intercessor.” His son Samuel, left behind by his parents as an infant so they could serve in Africa, later followed in his father’s footsteps and served as director… Read more »

Dear coworkers, Just a few hours after I post this letter,  the long-neglected Syrian refugee baby Mohammed will start moving toward the border of Israel: Mohammed was diagnosed already at age three months with severe pulmonary hyptertension caused by two holes in his little heart. For over a year he’s lain forgotten by all but… Read more »

Dear coworkers, When this picture was taken just before the start of the Sabbath, I didn’t realize we may be looking at the next Shevet Achim base in Jerusalem: What caught my eye at first was the Russian Church of the Ascension, at top left, the highest point on the Mount of Olives, with a… Read more »

Dear coworkers, Do you remember that last Sunday Sophie earnestly called us to pray for Lana from Kurdistan, the only child of a single mom, as she headed into a relatively high-risk heart surgery? Sophie told us that she grew up in a similar household, so she could understood how much Lana means to her… Read more »

Dear coworkers, For two months doctors in Israel have fought non-stop for the precious life of Wareen, a soon to be one-year-old from Kurdistan with Down syndrome: They’ve taken her through two open-heart surgeries and a lengthy hospitalization to fight off a virus. It appears by God’s grace they are winning the battle.  But until… Read more »

Dear coworkers, It’s been a whirlwind week since last Sunday’s letter, when we prayed that the Father would raise up a local leader to help baby Reem get from a mattress on the floor of her Gaza home into an ICU bed in Israel: The next day we heard from Lucy in Suffolk, England: My… Read more »

Dear friends, I’m sitting tonight looking out from the top floor of the home we’ve been blessed to rent for families and volunteers by the Jaffa seafront. It’s such a beautiful and relaxing area–even the name of the street (Margoa) translates as “pacifying.” Yet the spirit reminds me that 45 minutes down the coast some… Read more »

The Shavuot/Pentecost holy day has ended here in Israel with the setting of the sun: I snapped this picture just as we finished our annual community gathering for worship and study about Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit; the three Kurdish families in the foreground are returning from the beach to join us for a… Read more »

Dear coworkers, Several months ago our Australian coworker Rodney encouraged us to create a “Shevet Updates” group on WhatsApp, to which community members can post photos of meaningful events throughout the day, and others can comment and give glory to God. Some days it’s just amazing to watch the works of our Father rolling by… Read more »

Dear coworkers, Two-year-old Zhya arrived in Israel from Kurdistan this evening, recognizable right away in the airport by one of the chief characteristics of a Down syndrome child: joy! Zhya has a diagnosis of AV canal, as well as Down syndrome. We have a lovely little cohort of children with these diagnoses here at the… Read more »

For you will go out with joy And be led forth with peace; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you  Dear coworkers, An extraordinary exodus of children left our community this week, all healed and joyfully returning to their families.  Ahmed was the first to roll out on… Read more »

A week ago I shared with you how newborn Roman from Kurdistan had just arrived in Israel through many perils: the long wait through the Passover holiday for his visa, his deterioration during transit at the Amman airport, the loss of contact as he and his mother (who speaks no Arabic) were taken off for… Read more »

Dear coworkers, As news was breaking this morning of the barrage of hundreds of missiles hitting Israel, one of the first pictures I saw was of a white van hit by an anti-tank missile at the Erez crossing point: It looked so much like one of our white Hyundai vans that are almost daily bringing… Read more »

Bret Stephens’ recent essay sums up a lot of what’s wrong in Gaza (click on the headline below to read): Yes, the whole world is often in an uproar on behalf of our beloved neighbors in Gaza, and that’s good.  But the hard truth is that–unless Israel is indeed to blame–a child can be left… Read more »

Should the “Shevet Achim” principle from Psalm 133 (brothers living together in unity) be extended beyond medical care? Our work started in 1994 when we first came face to face with the reality that many of our neighbors’ children couldn’t get into the hospitals in Israel for essential, lifesaving treatment. Did you know that a… Read more »

The most popular page on the orthodox Jewish aish.com website today is a video of the “Son of Hamas” speaking in Germany, followed closely by an article titled “Why Jews Don’t Believe in Jesus.” It is undeniably riveting to hear Mosab Hassan, son of a founder of the Hamas movement, proclaim that he loves Israel…. Read more »

It’s a revelation for every poor, marginalized, outcast or forgotten family that crosses the borders of Israel with us seeking heart surgery for their child. “They treated our child just like an Israeli child–no difference!” These families have never before been valued simply for being human, made in the image of God. It’s always been… Read more »

The use of battlefield weapons against a trapped civilian population. That was the charge made against Israel during the fighting in the Gaza Strip three years ago, and it deeply hurt and humiliated and angered Muslims everywhere. Now to their horror they’re seeing it happen before their eyes in the Syrian city of Homs, and… Read more »

Several years ago the Muslim Scholars Association in Iraq learned that children from their country were coming to Israel for life-saving heart surgeries. Outraged, the religious leaders went to the Iraqi parliament and demanded an end to this travesty. In the following flurry of publicity, some of our partners were indeed frightened away from helping… Read more »

A year ago a lieutenant colonel in the IDF was praised in the media, after he and his men in the Jordan Valley brigade helped a Palestinian mother give birth, resuscitated the baby boy, and then evacuated both mother and child by helicopter to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. It was a beautiful demonstration of the… Read more »

This week Michelle, our son Zak and I went for our first visit to Italy, to mark our upcoming thirtieth marriage anniversary. The impetus for the visit came from Michelle, whose family roots are all in Italy. But I was surprised by the impact that seeing Rome had on me as well. We saw countless… Read more »

The once-unimaginable happened today, as the Egyptian election commission announced that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi will be the next president (with as yet undefined powers). Serious enemies of the Jewish state–linked to the murder of Anwar Sadat for making peace with Israel–are now closer to taking control of one-fourth of the population of the… Read more »

Death is the great equalizer, and I certainly saw a cross-section of the people of Jordan as I sat waiting in the Amman morgue for a few hours on Shabbat morning. A Palestinian-Jordanian sheikh with a silver beard and a white robe, when he learned we were helping children go to Israel for heart surgeries,… Read more »

We had an unexpected visit to the emergency room of Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus Thursday night, after our Palestinian coworker Yousef was startled by unfamiliar chest pain. As we entered the security door a slapping, pushing, shouting brawl broke out when a young Arab man wanting to see his sick friend tried to push… Read more »

While some in the West are emphasizing Israel’s right to defend itself from rocket fire from Gaza, our neighbors here in the Middle East seem united this week in condemning Israel’s response, using words such as massacre and criminal. How can people see the same events so differently? Three times this week I’ve seen the… Read more »

Our community will not accept as members any who champion Jews over and against Muslims, or Muslims over and against Jews. Holding such an attitude calls into question whether we have yet understood the grace of God, which bought as at such a dear price that we no longer have the right to withhold grace from our… Read more »

Our community sat in amazement last month during a morning meeting at Prophets Street, as coworker Larry Krieg read from correspondence he and his mother received when he was a nine-year-old boy from C.S. Lewis, who was then at the height of his fame. Though crippled with arthritis, Lewis wrote page after page of thoughtful,… Read more »

Today the families journeyed down the road to visit the Garden Tomb. For some families it was a new experience, while for others it was the second time they went to the beautiful garden. After everyone was shuttled from Shevet Achim to the tomb, we joined together to listen to a description of the thousands… Read more »

So much of what we do at here Shevet Achim could not be done without the support of our amazing brothers and sisters around the world. Therefore, we consider it a great privilege when we have the opportunity to meet those of you who partner with us and share with you a bit of our… Read more »

This past weekend, Shevet Achim staff were presented with a beautiful gift…the gift of restoration. On Thursday afternoon, we packed up and headed north to the shores of Galilee for a community-wide retreat, hosted by a lovely Welsh couple named Erik and Mary Fok. Their ministry Breakfast on the Beach seeks to provide an environment… Read more »

Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center. I’m spending it in the Middle East. And as the day approaches I am mentally and emotionally bombarded with living examples of love and hatred. The church service we may decide to attend regularly meets on Saturday morning–the Shabbat. There are many… Read more »

This big man I saw at the Wolfson Hospital today is Ayman Al Kurdi. He is a Kurdish gentleman from Iraq living in Gaza for five generations now. He has seven children, the youngest is in second grade and the oldest two are married. His first grandchild is a little boy who looks just like… Read more »

This is a photo essay of a weekend that five Shevet volunteers spent together this December in the desert – Micha, Caroline, Kristina, Stephanie, and myself, Ryan. We were in Makhtesh Ramon in the arid south of the country, and had three brilliant days. We’ll let the pictures do the talking. P.S. Your aesthetic experience… Read more »

Last Sunday, six Shevet volunteers joined four of our Kurdish families on an expedition to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo! None of the children or their mothers had ever enjoyed such an experience before. So, it was a delight to view God’s creatures in the company of their fresh curiosity and wonder. The afternoon sun had… Read more »

The month of June brought with it warm summer days, and a special addition to our community from the shores of Stolkholm, Sweden. Tara Azizi (second from right below) became the very first Kurdish volunteer to serve with us in Jerusalem. Having heard of Shevet in Sweden last year, Tara later shared that she felt… Read more »

 A view of Bethlehem and Shepherd’s Field in Beit Sahour With Christmas quickly approaching, my child-like sense of wonder returns like a dear old friend. I love this season and everything in it that points toward the mystery of Emmanuel, God with us. I remember playing the part of an angel in my church’s Christmas… Read more »

I met Donna Petrel ten years ago while on a trip to the US to speak about helping Gaza children with heart surgeries. When I flew back to Israel a week later, I was detained at the airport by the Interior Ministry, a victim of the policy to limit visiting non-Jews to a maximum stay… Read more »

Since Shevet Achim first began in 1994, we have had the privilege of working alongside some amazing health professionals from Wolfson Medical Center. Many of these physicians and nurses have been serving faithfully for years, devoting countless hours to provide hope for children with broken hearts from around the world. But it’s not just time… Read more »

The effort to save the lives of children through Shevet Achim is truly international. It begins with an Arab partner physician in either Gaza Strip or Iraq, who gives a diagnosis of the child’s heart defect. The next phase is transport to an Israeli hospital, overseen by Shevet Achim’s international staff. At the hospital it… Read more »

It’s not just adults pulling for the kids at Shevet Achim to make it through open heart surgery – other kids are pulling too. Third and fourth grade students at Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Mountain View, California pray on a regular basis for the children at Shevet – some of whom are also in… Read more »

On Friday, the sixteenth of August, thirteen members of our Shevet community set out to traverse the desert oasis of En Gedi. Jerusalem’s bustling city streets faded in the distance, while a vast lunar landscape stretched out before us. The highway wound southward like a black ribbon, skirting the Dead Sea’s iridescent shores, then inland… Read more »

THE SUMMIT IS REACHED!!! Despite the steady rain and the swirling mist that accompanied them all the way to the top, a very delighted and relieved team of seven celebrated accomplishing their mission of reaching the top of Ben Nevis… …and then immediately tucking into a very welcome snack lunch of soggy sandwiches, fruit and… Read more »

  Three Shevet community members set out from Jerusalem to run in the Tel Aviv Night Run: Marisa, Sonia, and I. Along to cheer us on were Ruth, Sophie, Sarah, Kristina and Rahel. The goal: for each of us to sponsor the outstanding surgical expenses for one child. We let family and friends know of… Read more »

“In Him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Just the other day, I was sharing with a couple of visitors about the various aspects of life and service at Shevet Achim. It’s true that we seek ways to love our neighbours and anyone who passes through our door. This outward demonstration of… Read more »

This week our Shevet community was enriched by the visit of Giovanni and Simone, father and son from Italy. Giovanni came for a medical consultation at a private clinic in Tel Aviv. For most of us our communication was limited due to language barriers. However, it didn’t take much time to feel that we had… Read more »

“So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it… And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds…” (Genesis 1:21). Last Thursday we saw all types of God’s creatures in Jerusalem’s zoo: big and small, colorful… Read more »

Waking up Thursday morning was a thrill, as snowfall had already begun its descent upon Jerusalem. What started as a gentle snowfall steadily picked up momentum and turned into a full-on snowstorm, transforming Prophets Street into a frozen parking lot: Local newspapers called it the “worst snow storm in Jerusalem in decades,” with most estimates… Read more »

When a new child comes through our door for the first time, I often wonder what kind of an impact our community will have on his or her life. More times than not, however, it is the children themselves who make the greatest impact on our lives. Through them, I have learned what it looks… Read more »