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 finding great pleasure in simply sitting back and watching his unseen hand orchestrating the incredibly complex series of events in our daily work. If we would but stop and pay attention to what he is doing we would be amazed at how this jigsaw puzzle fits together every day.
Other times new patterns seem to emerge for which we can see no clear explanation. This week we’ve been flooded with media attention. Much of it purportedly relates to the Turkish invasion of Syria; but why journalists should connect that with us I’m not sure. I’m suspecting it is the Lord for his purposes giving us new openings to give glory to his name.
Wednesday BBC radio released a report revealing how doctors at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem intervened in August to save the life of the Syrian refugee baby Mohammed. (Click here and skip ahead to 17:23 to listen).
The next day the Jerusalem Post broke the news of “Kurdish Children Being Treated at Israeli Hospital.” Readers of this letter know there’s nothing new about that at all. But a deluge of inquiries followed.
Today another Israeli news source followed up on the story. Then a reporter from the French news agency AFP visited our new Jerusalem base. The NBC and CBN television networks have called. An Israeli documentary producer is back in touch. And Tuesday we’re scheduled to meet with the Russian Sputnik news agency!
Likewise there is movement on the administrative front. Tomorrow at noon the senior advisor to Israel’s interior minister is due to visit the Jerusalem base; we need their help to expedite visas for children who come emergently. And at 2 pm we’ll meet with the chief surgeon at Hadassah Hospital; if God gives favor we may be close to an agreement to bring them 40 children in the coming year.
Tonight I can’t say how these things will turn out. And as always, I can’t say how the Father will provide the resources for it all. But I do feel peace. Will you join us in praying that God will reign in our work, and praising him come what may?
That’s exactly how Georgia ends baby Abdulsalam’s final blog tonight, after the Father called him home on the Shabbat:
At 5:50 the morning of Shabbat, I was woken up by a phone call from one of the nurses in the ICU. I knew exactly what she was going to say; our phone call lasted less than a minute.
As Colin and I drove to the hospital the roads were of course empty at that hour of the morning, on the day of rest across the land.
Colin brought the words of 1 Corinthians 13.12 to our journey: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
And it was a comfort to remember always that God’s plan is above everything, as the news was sinking in that baby Abdulsalam had passed away. He was just two days old when he came to the hospital here in Israel with his beautiful grandma, who has been with him this whole time. She is the only member of his family who has known him, as he came here so soon after being born.
You may click here to read the rest of this poignant account, and please remember before the Lord our community members, and the hospital staff, as they come to terms with the Father’s call for Abdulsalam.
And thank God, joy comes in the morning. Nvin and Ali returned home to Kurdistan this weekend with new hearts:
And Joela shares that also the Yazidi teenager Dleza emerged victorious this week from her long battle and returned home to her family:
Delza won so much in the last three months. She won the battle of her sickness and earned a healthy heart. She won all of our hearts with the joy and love she gave to us and she won the last game of Uno we played together.
Now that she is finally leaving after her long and hard time with us, she takes our hearts with her. Delza and her brother were a real blessing for our community. They weren’t only brother and sister for each other, they were siblings to the other kids and also to us.
It is so amazing to see how much they learned here. They learned to be patient, to help one another and also learned some English! Because of this we were able to talk to them and had a lot of fun together. I was really happy as I saw them going through passport control. I know how much Delza misses her mother. Now she is finally able to be with her family again. We extol God for that and for all the work He has done in her life. May she and her family experience the love of God whom they got to know here more and more. My prayer is that they can invite him to be the Lord of their lives.
And just tonight we welcomed back to Israel 16-year-old Mustafa, who had his first surgery in Israel at age 4, along with adorable little Neena:
Friends, in all these things, the Father is working. Let’s take joy and be glad in Him.
Jonathan for Shevet Achim
“Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity” (Psalm 133).