Israel Sends Teams to Help in Miami
The site of the condominium collapse in Miami (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Following the tragic collapse of a condominium building in Surfside (a small community near Miami, Florida), Israel was quick to send a team of search and rescue workers to help at the site. The ten-person Home Front Command team of the Israel Defense Forces left on Saturday aiming to help in search and rescue, engineering, and social care.
In addition to the IDF reservists, a team from United Hatzalah, a volunteer emergency service, will assist in psychological assistance to the community. North Beach, where the tragedy occurred, is more than one-third Jewish. Israel is often one of the first countries to offer aid to nations hit by calamities. Last year, the World Health Organization identified Israel as having the world’s top emergency medical team.
Please pray for the families affected by the tragedy and the surrounding community.
Read more at The Times of Israel…
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
Israel has reinforced the indoor mask mandate (Illustrative/Source: Pixabay)
Israel has been leading the world in its coronavirus vaccination roll-out and subsequent drop in positive COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. The country has been slowly reopening, and the mask mandate ended ten days ago. However, as a result of some recent returnees not quarantining properly, the airport’s not testing people properly, and the introduction of the Delta variant, the nation has recently seen an increase in cases.
There are currently 1,175 active COVID-19 cases as opposed to only 340 last week. In response, Israel has reinstated the indoor mask mandate and asked everyone to be vigilant. Israel was slated to reopen its borders to tourists on July 1, but that has been pushed back to August 1. One of Israel’s primary industries is tourism, and the tourism sector has been crushed this past year and a half.
Please pray for those who have been hit hard economically by the restrictions and for those who are sick with the virus.
Farewell Tour for President Rivlin
President Reuven Rivlin (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
President Reuven Rivlin, whose seven-year term is coming to an end in July, is now traveling in the United States and will meet with President Joe Biden. President Rivlin will be the first Israeli leader to meet with President Biden since he came to office. Rivlin chose to travel on a commercial El Al flight and not a chartered plane. His trip will last three days, during which he is also expected to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as well as a group of Republican and Democratic members of Congress.
He will also travel to New York City to meet with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as well as foreign ambassadors of nations friendly with Israel. President Biden thanked Rivlin for his years of service and said that he looked forward to “honoring his dedication to the enduring partnership and the close friendship between our two nations.” Isaac Herzog, Israel’s eleventh president, will take over on July 9.
Please pray for President Rivlin as he adjusts to private life after his dedicated time serving as Israel’s president and pray for wisdom as Isaac Herzog becomes president.
Our Summer Ministries!
Chosen People Ministries–Israel ministers to Holocaust survivors
Thank you for praying for our summer ministries! Regardless of what COVID-19 restrictions are in place, we still are reaching out to our communities! Our workers at Chosen People Ministries—Israel recently took a wonderful group of Holocaust survivors from the south on a trip to the north for a few days of rest and relaxation! They played games, talked, laughed, and listened to the Word. Not all are believers yet, but they welcomed the time to sit and pray together and asked questions about the Lord. They really needed to decompress from the heightened tension of May, with the rockets from Gaza and hostilities on the border. It was a very crucial time for their minds, bodies, and souls to heal. We are so pleased that we could share with them the healing power of Jesus, who loves them so much!
Thank you for praying for us and for these dear people.
