Week of April 22, 2025
In This Week’s Issue
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Representatives of Several Israeli Sectors Call for Release of Hostages
A large group of university professors, military leaders, elite soldiers, veterans, reservists, authors, engineers, cultural leaders, doctors, and families of those being held hostage have become vocal. They are urging the government through petitions and letters, calling for the immediate release of the hostages Hamas has been holding for eighteen months. The people are demanding the government prioritize the return of the hostages in exchange for an end to the war and the return of all hostages. Many believe that the war is serving the government’s political interests, endangering soldiers’ and hostages’ lives, and does not serve the declared war goals. Meanwhile, the Israeli government’s declared goals are to eliminate Hamas and fighting will not stop until this is achieved.
Please pray for the safe return of all the hostages and the ending of the hostilities.
Hamas Reports Fewer Inflated Numbers in Recent Death Tolls
Hamas’s numbers of war deaths have been inflated since the war began. Currently, they are changing their numbers, quietly reducing the number of women and children they claim were killed by the IDF. Previously, they said that 70 percent of those who were killed were women and children, but now their lists say that 72 percent of fatalities are men aged thirteen to fifty-five, which is the demographic of Hamas fighters. Two reports by Honest Reporting and the Henry Jackson Society both claimed Hamas has been inflating their numbers, making Israel’s military look like vicious killers. Reporter Andrew Fox said Hamas would “have gone through the list, trying to make it as convincing as possible. They’ve been accepting names onto that list with no evidence whatsoever” . . . The UN also just takes Hamas’s figures and publishes them with a note stating the figures are unconfirmed.” Israel has been fighting a propaganda war with Hamas, who has been trying to sway the public with unconfirmed and exaggerated numbers.
Please pray for honest representation of Israel in the media and for all the lies of the enemy to be exposed.
Ancient Purple Dye Production Site Found Near Haifa
Tel Shikmona archeological site was recently found near Haifa showing a vast production site for the making of purple dye. The rare and expensive color is associated with royalty, nobility, and temple worship throughout the ancient Middle East. The production site was operational during the years of 1100 and 600 BCE, which overlapped with the First Temple in Jerusalem. Fragments from dozens of large ceramic basins stained with the purple color were found along with grinding stones and other instruments involved in the process to obtain the pigment. Each basin could contain up to ninety-two gallons of dye, which showed the importance and scale of this industry at this time in history. Professor Ayelet Gilboa said, “For the first time, we have identified a complete production system in which significant quantities of purple dye were produced using specialized tools designed to streamline the process. The scale of the operation confirms that Shikmona was an extraordinary production center for its time.”
Praise God for important archeological discoveries from the Land of Israel!
Fruit from the Frontlines: Israeli Staff Bring Songs in the Night to Bless Hospitalized Israeli Soldiers
Over 17,000 Israeli soldiers have been wounded in this war, many of them young men and women not even twenty years old yet. Hospitals are full, and serious injuries take weeks or months to heal, while other injuries require amputation or other permanent intervention to save a life. Our staff has been praying for the wounded and decided to do something about it. Therefore, the week before Passover started, one of our Israeli ministry staff who is a musician got permission to go with another musical believer to one of these hospitals to walk among the soldiers and quietly sing to and pray for them. Here is the amazing story God divinely unfolded:
“I had my guitar, and my friend brought his Greek bouzouki. Israelis love bouzouki with its Middle Eastern twang. My wife took a video on her phone, and we sent it to a couple of our Israeli friends including some military friends we met through delivering protective gear to soldiers.
An IDF (Israel Defense Forces) officer friend who is well-known and sponsors many barbecue events on army bases, saw our video and called us right away. He had been planning a big event for 250 reservists on a base near the Gaza Strip. His Greek band had just bailed on him! He asked, ‘Maybe you could help me solve a problem?’ We offered a way for ‘the show to go on.’
The Lord provided our equipment and a small team to join us. A couple days later we made our way along Highway 232 in Southern Israel, passing place after place after place where so many young people and residents had been murdered or kidnapped on October 7, 2023, and where so many rockets from Gaza have fallen for years. Finally, we were waved onto the base and parked our little sedan between giant Humvees.
A group of officers and some of our ministry’s War Relief funds had purchased high-quality meat for the celebration, as it was a special award ceremony for the reservists. While the meat sizzled on long barbecue pits, we talked with the reservists. Many were young-to-middle-aged dads with wives and children left at home. Some had been serving for hundreds of days since the beginning of the war. Some of the reservists who came for the ceremony were female soldiers, and they shared some of their struggles with families or friends back home, and their important work on the frontlines as women.
After lots of talking and eating, we played and sang for the soldiers. As we said, Israelis love Greek music, so our audience was sophisticated enough to ask for certain Greek songs. We also sprinkled in classic Israeli folk music, two Psalms I have put to music, and we even snuck in a Messianic praise song from the Psalms.
The officer who ‘sponsored’ or invited us made sure the other soldiers present knew the funds for this had come mostly from Christian believers in the United States. This means very much to Israelis who feel isolated. Since so much of the world is against Israel, it is wonderful to be able to say, ‘People who love you and are praying for you have given this money to help you celebrate and to help you serve. They are Christian.’ (Often in private conversations we say much more! Our officer friend also mentions his Christian friends who visit the country every year and who prayed for him when he was wounded.)
That night, under the open sky near the war front in Gaza, we were blessed to meet many soldiers and pray for them, to sing Psalms, to sing hope and protection over them! The wide smiles on people’s faces showed we made a big difference. Our sponsor told us, ‘You have no idea how much good you’ve done here tonight,’ and said he wants to ask us back for other events.”
Please pray for the Holy Spirit to move and continue the Lord’s work in these soldiers’ hearts, and pray for more opportunities for us to minster through music to weary, war-torn heroes who are simple, every-day young people and parents. Pray for their families. And pray for the release of our hostages and the end of Hamas in Gaza.
Scripture for meditation:
My voice rises to God, and I will cry aloud;
My voice rises to God, and He will hear me.
In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord;
In the night my hand was stretched out . . .
I will remember my song in the night;
I will meditate with my heart,
And my spirit ponders.
(Psalm 77:1–2a, 6)
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