Joshua Fund Ministry Day - Wed., 4/9/08

The first blessing of this day was that our bus didn't leave until 12:15. Although members of the other three buses were envious that we got to have some down time, Jimmy and I were very thankful to have a few moments to relax and catch up on some stuff.

In a nutshell, The Joshua Fund is a not-for-profit organization setup by Joel and Lynn Rosenberg to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus according to Gen. 12:1-3. Today we had the opportunity to assist Bridges for Peace, one of the organizations they have teamed up with in order to accomplish this goal. We spent some time at one of their Jerusalem offices learning about the organization and filling sacks with a new set of pots and pans and utensils to go distribute to Ethiopian Jews.




The Ethiopian Jewish community began to make aliya (Hebrew for immigration, but most commonly used of the Jews around the world who are leaving their home countries and settling in Israel.) in the mid-1980's. Although the government makes special concessions for Jews making aliya, due to language and cultural barriers, the Ethiopians have had a hard time assimilating into Jerusalem life. The people left a life of grass huts and no modern conveniences to move to a first world country where they didn't know the language. What amazing obstacles to overcome!

Once our sacks were loaded we boarded the bus and drove to the Ethiopian community. Once some logistical details were taken care of, the community director began calling out the names, one by one, of each of the families that had been approved to receive the gifts. As a member of the family would step forward to receive their gift, one of our team members would step forward to give them their gifts and try to communicate the love of Jesus across language barriers through hand shakes, hugs and kisses.




We only had fifty gifts to give away but 75 people showed up. Although all were in need, a lottery had been done to determine which of the families would receive the gifts. All of this was being done in the Ethiopian's language and we weren't really sure what was going on. We were all fully aware though that 25 families left dejectedly as there weren't going to be enough gifts for them to have one. Once we had all pieced together what was going on we decided that would just never do. When we got back on the bus we took up a collection to raise the $1,500 necessary to provide gifts for the remaining 25 people. $1,592 was raised so supplies will be purchased and Bridges for Peace will be bringing gifts back to those 25 families in a couple of weeks. To me, these gifts were given as a symbol to show our love as believers in Jesus as the Christ. God forbid it should come across to anyone as His love not being adequate to be available for all people.