In this special podcast, Gary Hargrave interviews Bruce Larson, who describes his recent trip to Israel. There he visited each of the eight organizations that Hargrave Ministries partners with and donates to monthly. This interview reveals what a tremendous impact our simple donations are making to improve the lives of the people of Israel and all the nations blessed by Israel.
 

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Show Notes:

Bruce’s first visit was with the AMI-Jerusalem Center for Biblical Study and Research. The AMI Center has enabled thousands of Christians around the world to bless and receive from the Jewish people and experience the land of the Bible. Then it was on to Shiloh to experience the Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund, which has had tremendous success healing the trauma of children who were in terrorist attacks.

The next stop was the Lavi Forest in Galilee, which is being planted by the Jewish National Fund. This organization has planted over 240 million trees in Israel. The Jewish National Fund also sponsors the Gospel Trail Project, enabling visitors to follow in the footsteps of Yeshua, Jesus, as he made his journey from Nazareth to Capernaum.

In Haifa, Bruce visited the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ): Haifa Home for Holocaust Survivors. It was an honor to meet with those who had survived the horrors of the Holocaust and are today very important living testimonies of what happened during World War II. Another ICEJ focus supported by Hargrave Ministries is the Aliyah Program. This program has assisted over 160,000 Jews to move to Israel from the difficult situations they faced in many countries.

After this, in Tel Aviv, it was a privilege to meet with the chief executive officer of the Israeli Defense Forces Widows and Orphans Fund. This fund helps over 8,000 women, men, and children whose loved ones have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect their homeland. The next organization on the trip was Yad Eliezer, which is equally as impacting on Israel and her needs right now. Every week Yad Eliezer distributes thousands of packages of food, clothing, and supplies to the most needy in Israel.

The journey concluded with a fun visit to the City of David Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation, development, and archaeology in the biblical city of David. Going underground to see the excavations, it was exciting to walk the same steps that the Jewish people walked in the time of Christ.

Key Verses:

• Genesis 15:18. “To your descendants I have given this land.”
• Genesis 17:8. “I will give to … your descendants … all the land of Canaan.”
• Ezekiel 11:17. “I will gather you … and I will give you the land of Israel.”
• Ezekiel 28:25-26. “I will gather the house of Israel … they will live in their land.”
• Matthew 4:13. “Leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum.”
• James 1:27. “Visit orphans and widows in their distress.”
• Jeremiah 29:11-13. “To give you a future and a hope.”
• Romans 15:13. “You will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Quotes:

• “For me, it’s really amazing that, number one, we get to go to Israel and personally experience God fulfilling his Word, but also be able as Christians to position ourselves to be part of that fulfillment in blessing the Jewish people.”
• “It was life changing to travel throughout Israel and see the faith and feel the heart of the Jewish people. You know, God has blessed Israel and continues to do so, but I also saw how important it is that we minister God’s hope to the ones living in Israel.”
• “I bless each one of us to abound in hope by the Holy Spirit and be able to minister this to our neighbor, to Israel, and to the world during these days in which we are living. I believe that it’s in the heart of God to give each one of us a future filled with His hope.”

Takeaways:

1. There is something special in the heart of the Lord about the land and the people of Israel. He promised all the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants as an everlasting possession. And He promised to bring those who were scattered back to the land of Israel.
2. Something that we need right now in the Church is a greater revelation of the Jewish people and the relationship that we as Christians should have together with them.
3. We are seeing in the world a true resurgence of anti-Semitism and violence against the Jewish people. The Aliyah Initiative is one way we help people move out of areas that are a present danger to their lives and bring them back to Israel to start new lives in safety.