You told them they are valuable

Through your support, Zehra Kids ministered to a total of 1,884 children during three Medical Outreaches in Masvingo, Mudanda and Mberengwa, all in Zimbabwe. Each child’s precious value was affirmed because there was a program in place that was specifically for them. They felt loved as volunteers led them in fun activities such as playing games, coloring and singing songs.

Smiles

Some children entered the Zehra Kids tent with eager anticipation, faces beaming with wonder at what they might experience. Others entered uncertainly, and we saw their faces transform with smiles and laughter as they played and learned.

The Gospel

The Zehra Kids program was so well received in the community that local schools brought groups of children each day. In Mudanda, approximately 75 children attended Zehra Kids each day. Many of them accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as Messiah and were immersed afterward.

Prayer

During the program, adults met with children in small groups for prayer. One local worker commented, “The program makes kids want to pray.” In fact, Outreach partners noticed a significant difference in children who had been to Zehra Kids before visiting the Clinic’s Prayer Tent. These children were calmer and more open to receiving prayer than those who had not been through the program.

Also, after attending Zehra Kids, many children brought their parents to the Prayer Tent for prayer. The Zehra Kids program blessed far more people than the children alone. As one Outreach partner noted, “This kids program will affect the entire community.”

Communities impacted

Other Outreach partners had this to say about the Zehra Kids Program that you helped make possible:

 “It was incredible watching the children included in the Outreach. Their response to the program and their response to God was faith-lifting and encouraging.”

 “The children received a great mix of God-centered teaching with games and activities. They were excited to be there.”

 “Zehra was so important because it built up the children, who are vital in influencing their communities, the nation and the world around them.”

Lives touched

Zehra Kids touched the lives of nearly 2,000 Zimbabwean children in 2017 and gave them one of the most exciting, fun and inspirational experiences of their young lives. Many of them came to place their faith in Yeshua as Messiah because you helped make this child-focused, God-centered program possible.

Thank you.

Marcel’s mother wore a raincoat the same color as the grain among which they hid; she spread it over them as best she could, and they waited. An hour or so later, they heard it, the aktion: Shouting, dogs barking, people screaming. “You know,” Marcel said, “people dying.”

For three to four hours, they heard what Marcel and his sister call “the concert of death.” Then, it began to rain, and the horrible sounds quieted. The three waited another hour before they got up and made their way to the home of their nanny, whom they’d been visiting. As they neared the house, they saw a German soldier with his dog. “He looked at us,” Marcel recounted to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

“He saw my mother, my sister and me. He just stopped for a moment, turned around and walked away. This was a miracle.”

Had the guard been with another soldier, neither could have turned away. Each would fear the other would turn him in.

Marcel said his story of surviving the Holocaust includes several close calls and miracles. He and his family endured and later escaped from the Drohobycz Ghetto. Afterward, they hid in secret bunkers, fled to a small village, hid in a barn, and survived winter in a hole in the ground to avoid capture. Two years after Marcel and his sister heard the “concert of death,” the family was liberated by the Soviet army.

Marcel had grown so weak from hunger and deprivation that he could no longer stand. At 10 years old, his legs wouldn’t hold him, and he had to learn to walk again. Marcel regained his health, finished high school and went on to study engineering in college. In 1961, he immigrated to the United States, where he serves today as a volunteer at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The Holocaust

The Holocaust began with boycotts and book burnings. Soon Jewish people lost their rights to work, vote and own property. They were stripped of their homes, their freedom and their dignity. Organized propaganda greased the gears of the Nazi persecution machine. It persuaded the masses toward prejudice and passivity, then hatred and aggression.

Jewish people who didn’t evade capture were rounded up like animals and deported to either death camps, where they were summarily murdered, or to work camps. At the work camps, they were subjected to slave labor, brutal living conditions, freezing temperatures, hideous experiments and cruelties beyond comprehension.

Millions of stories

Six million Jewish people died in the Holocaust. Millions of non-Jews died as well. Each person killed is a unique story. Each survivor is another. The Holocaust is a dark collection of tens of millions of personal stories of suffering, trauma and tragedy. During the Holocaust, the worst of the human race had free expression. Evil was unleashed, and the depth to which man’s depravity can sink was revealed in horrifying detail. The possibility that mankind is capable of such ideology and actions is sobering and frightening.

Never forget

That’s why we can never forget the Holocaust. We must never turn our heads from remembering the victims and honoring the survivors. January 27th is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is the anniversary of the 1944 liberation of Auschwitz, the infamous death camp where 1.1 million people were killed, 90% of them Jewish. We remember, and with our deepest respect, we honor those who died and those who survived the Holocaust.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas lashed out at President Donald Trump Sunday night and asserted that the role of the U.S. as mediator in the Mideast conflict is over.

In Abbas’ lengthy speech to the Palestinian Central Council, a decision-making body, he sharply escalated his rhetoric, saying “Shame on you” to President Trump for his treatment of Palestinians, in a speech that ABC News described as “rambling and invective-filled.” He pronounced the peace process dead, and accused Israel of killing it.

Reaching back to Israel’s founding, Abbas accused European leaders of attempting to gain a foothold in Palestinian regions through the movement of Jewish people to the area, in what he called “a colonial project that has nothing to do with Judaism.” He claimed Jewish immigrants were brought to Israel from countries they did not want to leave – including those occupied by Nazi German.

“The Jews did not want to emigrate … even during the Holocaust,” he claimed, according to The Times of Israel, which charged Abbas with “rewriting history” during Sunday’s speech.

A new report outlines the Palestinian Authority (PA) intentions, with the ultimate goal of redefining not only the future relations of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) with Israel and the United States, but also changing the status of the organization from a “transitional authority” to a “state under occupation.”

They will push to withdraw formal recognition of Israel and end the United States’ long-standing role as a mediator in the Mideast peace process. PLO leaders instead hope to pursue an “international formula” for achieving statehood, reports The Jerusalem Post.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on a trip to India, reacted to Abbas’ remarks in a statement on Facebook. “The root of the conflict between us and the Palestinians is their continuous refusal to recognize the Jewish State,” he wrote.

Netanyahu went on to say he has worked for years to convey the truth that others have attempted to hide.

“The world has pampered the Palestinians, and not told them the truth,” he said. “For the first time, someone (President Trump) is telling them the truth.”

The PA was formed as an interim governing body under the 1993 Oslo Accords – signed by leaders at the time, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chief Yasser Arafat. The agreement was intended to be dissolved after no more than five years.

But 25 years later, the PLO is now threatening to do just that. In its view, this action would release the Palestinian people from political obligations outlined in its agreements with Israel.

What does it all really mean?

ABC News, in its analysis of Abbas’ speech, focused on his failures and frustrations: After 13 years as PA leader, he has made little progress toward his principal goal, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Abbas is unpopular with his own people, the news agency reported.

Additionally, many of the PA’s Arab allies have quietly moved closer to Israel or turned their attention to the growing threat of Iran. Abbas is perhaps most of all angered by President Trump’s recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

This may just be the Palestinians’ attempt to better their negotiating position. But most observers don’t see any path to peace in the Middle East that does not include the United States.

Still, we who support Israel should take note of this new overtone of rage and desperation. We at Jewish Voice, as always, will monitor the situation and continue to bring you updates.

Meanwhile, I hope you’ll pray for the Jewish State during these times of turmoil – and certainly as we approach Israel’s 70th anniversary in May. It will be a happy celebration, even as we keep in mind the many challenges and threats facing the Jewish people.

We appreciate your love for Israel and for Jewish people throughout the world. Your gifts to this ministry help provide them humanitarian aid, and more importantly, the Good News with its message of eternal life and hope, found only in Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah.

For more details about the April Medical Outreach in Zimbabwe, click the button below.

A shepherd takes care of his flock.
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God is our Good Shepherd. His love and provision are always available to us, and by faith we receive them.

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