A Brief History of Israel [David’s 5th Blog from Israel]

06Oct

A Brief History of Israel [David’s 5th Blog from Israel]

The modern nation of Israel was birthed on May 14, 1948. We might like to imagine a handful of smiling Jews being handed a deed to their uninhabited ancient homeland by United Nations dignitaries on a sunny day. But that wouldn't be an accurate history. The birth of modern Israel was preceded by hundreds of years of birth pangs. And the birth itself was bloody, to put it mildly. Let me share a short history, because it would seem that, before we take sides on a political issue that has existed for hundreds of years, we ought to at least have a basic understanding of the issue.

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02Oct

The Regatherings of Israel [David’s 4th Blog from Israel]

I ended my previous blog asking a question: When the modern nation of Israel was birthed in 1948, did God return to the descendants of Israel the sovereign right to the land of Palestine that He gave to (and took away from) their ancient ancestors about 25 centuries ago?

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01Oct

Meet Mutebi…

"My heart wrenched within me...and I knew we had to do something." With those words Heaven's Family staff member Jeff Trotter reported what he witnessed on his recent trip to Uganda. "Lying on the floor, little Mutebi's head protruded sideways from a thin curtain that divided his 8' by 8' mud-floored home. His clothing and mattress were soiled with his own excrement, but there was no one else at home. That, I learned later, was a typical day for Mutebi."

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01Oct

Neverland in Naivasha

We could hear their cherub voices singing praises before we even laid eyes on them. They were the students at Cindi's Hope Academy in Naivasha, Kenya. Then came the rush to surround us, faces beaming with eagerness to greet their visitors, and then to lead us excitedly to the new highlight of their campus: bright, new playground equipment!

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30Sep

An Anniversary to Celebrate

Just over a year ago, in response to a special letter from David Servant, many friends generously contributed to a primary and secondary school in the Mathare slum with conditions like no other I've ever visited. At the time, their test scores were in the lowest percentile of the whole country of Kenya.

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30Sep

New Beginnings

His pitiful cry came as sheer joy after 14 exhausting hours of labor and 9 months of waiting! My wife and I teared up as we saw our son for the first time! As you may know, Elisabeth Walter has stepped down as the director of Orphan's Tear so she can spend more time being a mom. In August I, her older brother, became the new director, and a month before that I became a new dad.

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30Sep

Is God a Racist? [David’s 3rd Blog from Israel]

Is modern Israel a divinely-favored nation? For many Christians, the answer is yes. Most of us know the biblical history concerning God's calling of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the latter of whom became the father of Israel's twelve tribes.

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29Sep

From Pain to Peace

My husband and I were in Kitale, Kenya, earlier this year, enjoying a wonderful church service with the congregation of Pastor Cleophas Makona. Afterwards, I began meeting people who had medical needs. In that line was a young man named Mark. My heart was immediately touched when my eyes met his—that's because his eyes were red, swollen and watering profusely.

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28Sep

Bandana Party!

We felt such joy meeting some of the young girls rescued from slavery (a culturally-accepted, centuries-old practice known as restavek) in Haiti during our visit last January. We are also delighted that Lynne, one of our team members on that trip who happens to be a local friend, continues to stay involved with the girls.

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28Sep

“Is God the God of Jews only?” [David’s 2nd Blog from Israel]

Greetings once again from Israel. I promised in my last blog that I'd give you some more specifics about what Heaven's Family is doing here. But first, I'd like you to know that Heaven's Family's Board of Trustees has recently been working on fine-tuning our Mission Statement, which I believe it will help you understand why we're working here.

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