Encircled by Need Konso, Ethiopia

• 10,941 Patients Received Care
• 744 People Received Dental Care
• 2,007 Eyeglasses Distributed
• 210 Families Received LifeStraw® Water Filters
• 2,692 People Heard the Gospel
• 171 People Received Yeshua

Our last Medical Outreach of 2022 was in southern Ethiopia, in Konso, where the gentle, peaceful people exhibited a great hunger for the Gospel. Local officials thanked us for the medical care we brought and also for the prayer and counseling we encouraged their people with.

The patients we saw throughout the week desperately needed medical attention, with most suffering from waterborne illnesses. Severe drought has left very few water sources and those are contaminated by mud and animals.

An existing permanent clinic in Konso can’t keep up with the need. The property around it is huge, but it needed repairs. Not only did we provide medical care for thousands while we were there, but we also revived the clinic’s water system for them by fixing a broken storage tank. With this and other improvements made through your support of Jewish Voice, the facility is now eligible for significantly more government funding. This will be a long-lasting blessing to the community.

Mid-week, as Outreach doctors arrived for the day’s work, they marveled that the line of people waiting for their care encircled the entire property. The medical line alone held about 2,300 people, not including dental and eye care patients. The last person in line stood at the entrance gate right near the first person in line!

It took us all day to put wristbands on every person in line. These paper bands identified treatment areas needed and ensured those who couldn’t be seen that day would get in over the next day and a half.

Doctors stayed late, tirelessly seeing patients. That night, they asked if we could open the Clinic early the next day. Absolutely! Their dedication was incredible. We shifted the morning program by an hour so they could begin seeing patients early. By the end of the Clinic, every patient had been seen.

You played a big part in making this fruitful Medical Outreach happen – through your gifts to Jewish Voice. Thank you! Take a look at how many lives you touched in Konso, Ethiopia.

As we begin this new calendar year, we are asking the Lord to bless us and to bless you!

This is not a selfish prayer; it’s a biblical one. Our prayer is based on Psalm 67, which asks for blessing not just for the sake of the Lord’s own people but for the sake of those He wants to reach through them.

As you consider this short Psalm (included at the end), ask the Lord to touch your heart through His Word. Please pray for blessing for us and those He wants to reach through us — Jewish Voice Ministries and you, our Partners — together. Join us in these prayer prompts, which are loosely based on Psalm 67.

Lord, we are so humbled by all the ways You have blessed us in the past, including during 2022. May we pause to reflect with gratitude on some of your blessings this past year.

• Take a few moments to thank the Lord for what you have seen Him do in you and around you
• Praise Him for all those He has reached through Jewish Voice this past year, through Outreaches, Zehra children’s ministries, television, speaking engagements, podcasts, magazines, newsletters and social media

We boldly ask You to pour out Your grace and blessing upon us this year as well.

• Be specific in asking Him for blessings for yourself and your loved ones
• How is the Lord prompting you to pray for Jewish Voice Ministries in this new year? Boldly intercede for us as well.

We desire that Your ways be known throughout the Earth and that Your salvation be among all nations.

• Ask the Lord to deepen your burden for the peoples of the Earth to know Him and be saved
• Seek, like Paul, to have a heart desire for all Israel to be saved
• Pray for a few nations or regions that the Lord brings to mind
• Perhaps include Israel, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and your own country in your prayers
• Pray for locations with high populations of Jewish people, such as Los Angeles and New York City
• What city in your state or country has a high percentage of Jewish people? Pray for them

Lord, help me picture all the peoples of the Earth praising You and celebrating who You are with great joy.

• Ask the Lord for faith to pray in agreement with His word that this will someday become reality
• Remind yourself that “every nation, tribe, people and language” (Revelation 7:9) will include many from the “lost” scattered tribes of Israel!

Lord of the harvest, bless the physical land in the various places of the Earth but please also bring a mighty harvest of souls throughout the nations.

• Intercede that the Lord will send laborers into the harvest fields
• Name a particular country or location on your heart and ask Him to send laborers there
• Pray for the Lord to send laborers into the harvest fields through Jewish Voice

Lord, in humility inspired by Psalm 67:7, we ask again that You would bless us individually and Jewish Voice as a ministry.

• Petition the Lord that we would be good stewards of the blessings He gives us so that all the ends of the Earth will be blessed by knowing Him, being in awe of Him, and receiving salvation from Him

Amen! May we return often to this prayer for the Lord’s blessing this year. May we live it out so that many others in the nations of the Earth would be blessed. And together, may we accumulate many praises for how the Lord has answered these prayers!

Psalm 67

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine on us —
2 so that Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.

3 May the peoples praise You, God; may all the peoples praise You.
4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth.
5 May the peoples praise You, God; may all the peoples praise You.

6 The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.
7 May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear Him.

JANUARY 2023

THIS WEEK'S GLOBAL UPDATE

A Note From Jonathan Bernis:

Shalom, my friend!

My prayer in this new year is for you to have eyes that can see and a heart that’s open to God’s leading and calling for you. He has so many blessings for you — no matter who you are or how you’re entering 2023.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” 

 — Isaiah 43:18-19

That’s a tremendous hope to cling to as we start another year. May God give you a fresh revelation of His presence — and reveal the new things He has for you in the year ahead.

Thank you for standing with us. And for your love of God’s people. Please continue to pray for Jewish Voice and for the Jewish people in Israel and around the world. 

To the Jew first and also to the Nations,

Jonathan Bernis

President & CEO

Jewish Voice

Headline News

“The Best Option for Russian Jews is to Leave”

YnetNews reports that Pinchas Goldschmidt, the former chief rabbi of Moscow who fled the country earlier this year, told reporters that other Russian Jews should leave Russia before it’s too late.

Goldschmidt says that as the war in Ukraine continues, pro-Russian sentiments have veered into anti-Semitism, forcing more than 20,000 Jews to either flee in fear of religious persecution or publicly support Putin.

“When we look back over Russian history, whenever the political system was in danger, you saw the government trying to redirect the anger and discontent of the masses towards the Jewish community,” Goldschmidt said. “We saw this in tsarist times and at the end of the Stalinist regime.”

Born in Switzerland, Goldschmidt has been serving Russian Jewry since 1989 but left the country in June, nearly four months after Russia began its invasion. He said that he was being pressured to support the invasion and feared the impact his refusal might have on Moscow’s Jewish community.

Updates from the Middle East

U.S. Targets Supply of Iranian Drones to Russia in New Sanction

The U.S. recently issued new sanctions targeting suppliers of Iranian drones that Washington said have been used to target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine during the conflict with Russia. The U.S. Treasury Department, in a statement, said it imposed sanctions on six executives and board members of Qods Aviation Industries (QAI) – a key Iranian defense manufacturer responsible for the design and production of drones.

Military Post Near Northern West Bank Barrier Targeted in Drive-by Shooting 

Palestinian gunmen recently opened fire from a passing vehicle at a military post near the security barrier in the northern West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. According to the IDF, troops stationed near the post, close to the Palestinian village of Jalamah, returned fire at the gunmen, who fled and were identified hitting the vehicle. No Israeli soldiers were hurt, the military added.

Pray with us this week for:

• God to continue to protect innocent lives from the fighting in Ukraine and to bring a peaceful end to the invasion by Russia
• God to surround His people in Israel, who are constantly facing threats and violence from surrounding enemies
• Peace in the hearts and minds of the people of Israel and their enemies
• The Jewish people to recognize "Yeshua" as their Messiah

God is a God of place. He put His name in a place called Jerusalem. He walked in the Garden with Adam and Eve in a place called Eden. He judged Sodom and Gomorrah but had mercy on a place called Ninevah.

God meets with His people in places, like Jacob at Bethel, Daniel in the lion’s den and the Samaritan woman at the well. I imagine you can recall and name some of the most significant places where He has met you.

In this Prayer Points, we ask you to pray for some specific places where we’re asking God to use us to help Jewish people meet with Him. We don’t yet know the names of each location, but we are praying about the types of places.

Please pray with us that in 2023 the Lord will lead us to places:

• Where there is a concentration of Jewish people who need to meet Yeshua (Jesus), the Jewish Messiah and Savior
• With Jewish scattered or “Lost Tribes,” who are not lost to God
• Where we'll have divine connections and favor, ordained by the Lord
• We have ministered before and can build on our history and existing relationships with leaders, authorities and congregations already in the area
• New locations within nations we’ve been to before that we can reach out to for the first time and advance the Gospel to the Jewish people and their neighbors
• In at least one new nation where we have never held an Outreach before

We are so grateful for your prayers as the Lord leads us to locations like those listed above.

Let’s Pray

Lord, in every place where people are, You are worthy to be praised! But how can they praise You unless they know You and are saved? And how can they be saved unless someone tells them about You? Thank You for the opportunity to go to these kinds of places and tell Jewish people and their neighbors about Yeshua. Show us the way and open the doors to every place You will send us in 2023. Give us big faith, divine connections, effective strategies and plentiful resources to carry Your Good News and Your love. To whatever places You send us, we are ready to go. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

A thin sheet of plastic separates the barren interior landscape of Rita’s home from the frigid terrain of Ukraine’s winter.

A bowl and plate teeter inside a china cabinet behind its one door whose glass is still intact. An oversized piece of floral-patterned material protects supplies behind the glassless other door. 

Electrical wires dangle from a jagged hole near the ceiling. Hints of blue paint under the crackled surface of a drab beige wall panel reveal a glimpse of cheerier times long gone.

A crack in one plaster-covered wall runs so deep it appears like the next rumbling noise could send the front of Rita’s home tumbling outward into the bitter cold.

Inside her broken home, Rita is bundled in a sweater, long pants, boots and a long but thin parka. She has survived in her ravaged community like myriads of others in Ukraine today – with no electricity or source of heat to ward off Ukraine’s below-freezing winter temperatures.

Rita is a single Jewish woman living on her own in battle-scarred Ukraine. Outside the cold concrete walls of her home lay dangers that she never dreamed she’d have to live among. Bombs. Russian soldiers. Desperate people willing to steal from her to save themselves. Unleashed evil, seizing opportunities within the war zone she now lives in. Rita lives afraid.

But one day, compassion knocked on her door. Members of a Jewish Voice partner ministry had heard about her living conditions and visited her. Rita was so fearful and guarded that she wouldn’t let them in her home. They talked to her from the hallway outside her door and told her they wanted to give her a woodstove.

Jewish Voice is funding this woodstove project to get heat into the homes of Ukrainians without electricity. Just $130 provides this electricity-free heat source – something that can be genuinely life-saving and also offer a means to cook food.

The ministry team returned to install Rita’s woodstove and wondered how it was possible that she could live in such conditions. They assembled the stove, and Rita was elated. “Never has there been such heat in the house,” she said. She couldn’t stop thanking them. When they asked if they could take her picture, she became very timid again but wanted to oblige as a sign of her immense gratitude.

The woodstove has made all the difference in Rita’s life. Before, there was nothing but cold for Rita; now, she has lifesaving heat. Before, Rita was alone; now, she knows she is not forgotten. Before, Rita was terrified of everyone; now she knows the love of Jesus revealed through people who showed her His compassion.

What’s more, during their visit with Rita, partners shared the Gospel with her, and she accepted Jesus as her Messiah. Her home is warmed by the heat of a woodstove given in Jesus’ name, and His love for her now warms her heart. Now she knows the eternal hope and newness of life that the Messiah gives those who place their trust in Him. Yes, indeed – a woodstove made a huge difference in Rita’s life.

Would you like to know the joy of helping someone like Rita stay warm this winter and hear the Gospel? The need is urgent across Ukraine as winter temperatures run below freezing. And while woodstoves in the U.S. often cost thousands of dollars, just $130 provides one to a shivering family living right now without heat in war-torn Ukraine.

Your prayers also make a difference. Please pray with us for Jewish people, like Rita, and their neighbors in Ukraine and for our ministry partners who are sharing practical aid and the Good News with them.

Please pray for the following:

• Jewish Voice ministry partners assembling and delivering aid in the name of Yeshua
• The Lord to warm and protect His people this winter
• Jewish people of Ukraine, like Rita, to be so moved by the compassion they receive in Jesus’ name that they see He is the Messiah and receive Him
• Those who are financially poor to become rich in spirit because they know the Lord and receive the abundance of joy found in the Messiah

THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL UPDATE

A Note from Jonathan Bernis

Shalom, my friend!

In this last week of 2022, I hope you can spend a moment to reflect and recall the goodness of God in your life — through overcoming challenges, enduring difficulties, and seeing His love ministering to you.

There’s no scarcity to God’s presence — and no lack in His affections for you. 

As we prepare to start another year, I pray God would give you a fresh revelation of His love and goodness. That like the Psalmist, you could declare, “Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever” (Psalm 107:1).

Thank you for standing with us. And for your love of God’s people. Please continue to pray for Jewish Voice and for the Jewish people in Israel and around the world.  

To the Jew first and also to the Nations,

Jonathan Bernis

President & CEO

Jewish Voice Ministries International

Headline News

Israel’s Latest Syria Strike Targeted Iranian Base, Drone Depot

YnetNews reports that recent Israeli Air Force attacks in Syria targeted a drone manufacturing facility owned by the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group and an Iranian headquarters in Damascus.

The UK-based Observatory for Human Rights reported that three people were killed in the raid and that none were Syrian civilians. It also claimed that a weapons storage facility belonging to Hezbollah was destroyed.

The area hit is known for the presence of Hezbollah forces and other pro-Iranian militias. Syrian opposition groups said that the targets were linked to Iran.

Since the beginning of the year, Israel struck targets on Syrian soil no less than 30 times, including the November airstrike near the Syrian border with Iraq against a convoy of trucks.

Updates

President Biden says “Silence is Complicity” on Anti-Semitism

At a White House event celebrating Chanukah, President Biden calls on Americans to join the fight against antisemitism in the United States – a week after launching a new effort to develop a national strategy to counter the anti-Semitic violence and activity that have increased nationwide (and globally) since 2021.

Chanukah Miracle or Government of Darkness: Lawmakers React to Coalition Declaration

Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement that he had succeeded in forming a coalition was followed with dismay from his opposition claiming the government is Israel’s most hardline ever. The Likud party leader’s allies welcomed the development as Netanyahu informed President Isaac Herzog that he had reached agreements with his coalition partners to form Israel’s 37th government, minutes before the expiration of his mandate.

Pray with Us This Week for: 

• God to continue to protect innocent lives from the fighting in Ukraine and to bring a peaceful end to the invasion by Russia
• God to surround His people in Israel, who are constantly facing threats and violence from surrounding enemies
• Peace in the hearts and minds of the people of Israel and their enemies
• The Jewish people to recognize "Yeshua" as their Messiah