Your gifts and love are making a difference. 

                                                                              Image credit: © IBF All Rights Reserved.

A quilt is a simple thing– cotton on two sides and some batting between the cotton layers.  However, it takes time to decide on a pattern, plan and buy the material and thread, prewash the fabric,  lay out and  pin the material, cut it out, stitch it, finish the edges, and iron as you go.   Organizing people to create quilts is fairly simple, too.  Finding  a way to ship the quilts can be a little more difficult– from a person carrying extra suitcases stuffed with quilts through customs into the Land– to packing them into a shipping carton traveling across the ocean on a freighter.  Then there are helpers who give out the quilts to Holocaust survivors, widows, orphans, single parents– Israelis who have a need.

  A quilt is a simple thing, but it represents time.  I once heard that the way one spells love  is simply  T-I-M-E.   Making or delivering a quilt reflects the time that one gives to another, sending  warmth and hope and love  in southern Israel  from the Messiah.   IBF is working every day in big and small ways to be a blessing in Israel to all in need there because of G-d’s love expressed through Messiah.   

Today is the day to be a blessing.  Today is the day to make a difference.  Thank you for all you have done and are doing to stand up for Israel and her people.  

May the L-rd, under Whose wings you have come to shelter, give you a full reward as you seek to be a blessing to Israelis who may or may not yet know Messiah Yeshua– but for whom a quilt sends a very tangible message of value and love from someone they might never meet in this life.  May their and our  eyes look continually at the King of the Universe Who transforms hearts and makes everything beautiful in His time. 

Passover seder plate

Passover is already at hand in Israel and is about to start throughout much of the world.  Just as it was thousands of years ago, G-d is still concerned about His Jewish people and what is happening with them.  He sees those who need encouragement or food or help to buy prescriptions.  He sees those who survived the trauma of the concentration camps, those who have recently lost a spouse, and those who have become orphans.  He sees all of us in our need and confusion at times.  He spoke through Isaiah long ago saying,

Isaiah Chapter 61 יְשַׁעְיָהוּ

G-d’s heart of love remains the same– to comfort those who mourn in Zion.

Then as now, He is saying, ” Let my people go, so that they may worship me.”

G-d bless you as you pray and give whatever G-d lays on your heart to bless the Jewish people in Israel.

Some sisters recently returned from Israel where they distributed quilts made by women and girls at Congregation Beth Messiah. They brought 200 lbs of quilts in 4 boxes, approx 50 quilts/blankets. Most were twin size and there were also  a couple of baby blankets. They  gave 11 to a Messianic believer who lives in the Galil for distribution, 30-35 to a Messianic family who distributes food and clothing to Israelis who need them near Jerusalem, 5 to a needy Israeli family with lots of kids in Haifa, one  to a holocaust survivor the owner of their  hotel knows, and one to the owner of the Jerusalem  hotel who lost most of her family in the Holocaust.

Because of your prayers and help, IBF  also  was able to send  two shipments of food 40 foot containers across the ocean  in March and one in April through your gifts.  They were full of soup mix and two hundred quilts… made by the women at Gleaners in California and by the Sisterhood at Congregation Beth Messiah.

We are thankful for those who create the quilts, who pack the food, who load it into the 40 foot containers, who arrange for the shipping across the ocean, and for favor with Israeli authorities.  We are thankful for those in Israel who are actively distributing to the widows, the orphans, the poor, and the Holocaust survivors.  We are thankful about the good work that people throughout the world want to do with no strings attached simply to be a practical blessing to Israelis in need.

We are thankful for the “Mighty Defenders” — those whose hearts have been moved by G-d to care for the Jewish people in contrast to those who ignore them or worse.  It is because of Messiah that our hearts look on the Jewish people and are concerned about them.   It is our blessing to stand up for Israel in times like these.

We are thankful to G-d for what He is doing through IBF to tell people that He loves them and knows them by name.  May all of Israel recognize the difference that Messiah Yeshua makes in a person’s life so that we love who and what G-d loves and cooperate with Him.  His heart remains that Israel– and all the nations– would look up to heaven and hear, “Let My people go [from every kind of obstacle or bondage, spiritual or otherwise], so that they may worship Me.”  May Messiah Yeshua be revealed to all Israel this Passover in a way that is greater than ever before.  May quiet  deeds of love which don’t trumpet themselves yet do show practical concern direct Israeli eyes and hearts to Messiah  Yeshua whose love endures forever, the one Moses and all the prophets said to pay attention to.

Enroute to Israel

Good news!  Israel had a historic snowfall!  That snow is melting  and will help fill the Kinneret (The Sea of Galilee) more full.  Rain and snow which water the earth will produce abundantly with gorgeous wildflowers and cultivated plants.  The rain and snow will help the desert bloom.

More good news!  Two shipping containers are enroute to Israel filled with food to help Israelis who don’t have enough food for their families.

Even more good news!  Two more shipping containers filled with soup mix will also be sent in February or March, along with some quilts made with love.

Once we catch a glimpse of G-d’s heart that is full of compassion and zeal toward the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the needy, we sense the honor G-d is giving us to cooperate with Him in His desire to encourage and help those in need.   He tells us  in Leviticus 19 not to be zealous to make all that we can  from our vineyards and fields for ourselves, but to make some purposely  available to the poor and needy.  He said we should do that to show respect for Him.

9 “‘When you harvest the ripe crops produced in your land, don’t harvest all the way to corners of your field, and don’t gather the ears of grain left by the harvesters. 10 Likewise, don’t gather the grapes left on the vine or fallen on the ground after harvest; leave them for the poor and the foreigner; I am Adonai your God.”

32 “‘Stand up in the presence of a person with gray hair, show respect for the old; you are to fear your God; I am Adonai.

33 “‘If a foreigner stays with you in your land, do not do him wrong. 34 Rather, treat the foreigner staying with you like the native-born among you — you are to love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt; I am Adonai your God.

Also, in Isaiah 58, He tells us

“Here is the sort of fast I want —
releasing those unjustly bound,
untying the thongs of the yoke,
letting the oppressed go free,
breaking every yoke,
7 sharing your food with the hungry,
taking the homeless poor into your house,
clothing the naked when you see them,
fulfilling your duty to your kinsmen!”

Thank you for your generous gifts that are rebuilding the ancient ruins and raising foundations.  Thank you for showing respect and care for the elderly in Israel.  Thank you for responding to the cry of the poor in the Land.  May the Holy One of Israel bless you and all your house with the things that money cannot buy.   May you be blessed by God Most High, Creator of Heaven and Earth.

Thank you for the mercy you have already shown.  In this new civil year, let’s continue to show mercy for His Name’s sake.

Brachot u Shalom .. Blessings & Peace!    IBF

Congregation Beth Messiah women worked together to make quilts to share with widows, orphans, and Holocaust survivors in Israel.  The quilts were recently delivered.  Here are some of the happy faces of those who received  quilts made with love.    

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;  naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’

Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?  And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?  When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

Thank you for your loving gifts to IBF to bless the people of Israel with practical and kind support.

May the King’s heart be filled with joy as His heart grows in us.

IBF