One For Israel

Isael: We were in our congregation cooking the food to the soldiers, and we heard the siren and immediately we heard this big boom that came above on the roof. Different pieces are falling. So pieces that fallen into our church and this is one of them. To remind us the grace of God how much we've been saved by the grace of God.

Erez Soref: Shalom everyone and welcome to another Pod for Israel. Today I'm speaking with a good friend, Isael, Pastor Isael from Kiryat Shmona. This is the northernmost city in Israel on the border of Lebanon. Isael, shalom. So good to have you.

Isael: Thank you for having me here.

Erez Soref: Of course. Isael, you and I met when you studied at the Bible College. When you graduated, you felt God's calling to go to Kiryat Shmona, the northernmost city in Israel, and start a congregation over there that really serves almost a quarter of a million people all around you in the north of Israel. God has really blessed this work.

Then October 7th happened. We've been in some state of war ever since. For our viewers, it's very difficult to understand and to comprehend. How has life been for the past year, and especially how are they in this last month of the current war with Iran?

Isael: As I mentioned to you earlier, we knew already much before, four or five years before, we spoke with the congregation about a war that is not if, it's when. We spoke about it between us that we would stay to serve. If they evacuate, we'll stay to serve because it would be a great need.

We didn't know that it would be through food, but the Lord made it that way through my son who actually started a restaurant and closed it down. We had to bring everything into the church. It was an amazing time. To be in a place of food and harvest and sharing the gospel, it was amazing.

Erez Soref: Just to give context to everybody: after October 7th, when the Hezbollah started bombing Kiryat Shmona and the area, from a city of 26,000 people, most evacuated and there were only several thousands left. You and most of the believers remained and you started using your church basically as a kitchen to feed the people in need, the many reservist soldiers and so on that were coming out of Lebanon. I remember at some point there was something pretty dramatic that happened during that season.

Isael: There is a rocket that hit. It was on Friday, praise God. Friday is the time that we usually have our meeting, but because we've been evacuated, 5:37. We've been cooking there in the kitchen until 2:30. We left the kitchen. At 5:37, the rocket hit literally five meters from our church. The whole building, the roof, everything collapsed down. One thing that was amazing, the kitchen stayed. We looked at each other and we said, "The kitchen is okay, we'll carry on cooking." Three or four days later, we started.

Erez Soref: How many portions of food have you served during that season?

Isael: During the year and a half of that war, more than 150,000 meals that we've done to the soldiers and to the people of Kiryat Shmona, but mainly for the soldiers. We didn't stop even after the war. We still gave the people that stay in Lebanon. We used to do a barbecue every two weeks for the soldiers.

Erez Soref: The other week, I was talking to a friend who spent four months immediately after October 7th at the northern border. He came home after a while, then there were several other rounds, but now this last month, as soon as the war began, his unit was called back up. He said it was like we were again in October 7th. They were in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing. They were eating combat portions and they were out in the rain. There was nothing.

Then he said this group came and they did a barbecue for us. He said you cannot imagine what that did for the morale of the soldiers. It's just food, just warm food in a sense, but it's a huge encouragement. Thank you for doing that under fire.

For many of our viewers, they watch the news and they hear some of our stories. We say we live under alarms and under the missiles from Iran and so on. When a missile is shot from Iran over here, like we had a little while ago, we get a notice on our phones and it takes between 10 and 12 minutes until the missile gets close enough that we have to go to a shelter. In Kiryat Shmona, when Hezbollah shots from Lebanon, you don't have that time. How long do you have?

Isael: We don't. Sometimes we hear the boom and then we hear the siren, or sometimes together. We don't have time, so we trust on the Lord. In my office, I've got many Bibles. I put a construction to hold many of the books above my office.

In the beginning, before you brought us the shelter, I told them, "Go to my office because the Word of God will be your protector." We've got almost 40 centimeters of Bibles over there. We don't have time, so we need to go immediately.

Some people, unfortunately, they have given up. It's too much. There's eight, seven, six, even more times a day. Before I came here, we had already four sirens in Kiryat Shmona. People live in the shelters. Many people left Kiryat Shmona. It's a 26,000-person city and only 10,000 left. It's difficult.

Erez Soref: It's definitely a difficult season. You brought this piece of metal right here. You just brought it for us to see. Tell us about this.

Isael: This is about three or four days ago. We were in our congregation cooking the food to the soldiers and we heard the siren and immediately we heard this big boom that came above us. We heard different pieces falling.

Some pieces fell into our church, and this is one of them, amongst many others that were around and fallen on the roof. The police came to take all the other pieces, but I said, "This one I'll keep for a memory." I've got another smaller one that shot into my office, so I kept it in a frame. This one I need to keep for something from this war to remind us the grace of God, how much we've been saved by the grace of God from the enemy's rockets.

We are meeting in the congregation at 3:00 on Friday. We made it a little bit earlier because they start shooting about 5:00 or 6:00. There is a barrage of rockets coming from Lebanon. We made it early. We told the families with small children not to come, but the church came. Last Friday, we had a siren in the middle of the worship. We went to the shelter and just spontaneously just worshiped there. That's the reality in Kiryat Shmona.

Erez Soref: A lot of people ask me, how are Israelis responding to spiritual reality at this time? I'm curious of your experience in Kiryat Shmona in the north of Israel. You meet a lot of civilians. You meet the mayor. You meet leaders. But you also meet reservists, people that come to serve and they're called to serve from all parts of Israel.

What is your sense when they ask you, "Why are you doing this?" and you tell them, "We are the congregation in Kiryat Shmona, we're the believers in Yeshua." What's the response? Do you see any difference from the response now versus 10 or 20 years ago?

Isael: Definitely. I think one of the key things, I'll tell you a story of three commanders that came into our kitchen. They sat with me and said, "Okay, you guys are people of faith. How do you explain all of this?"

I said to him, "That is a very good question, but I can tell you that there is no answer to it. You try to find answers in political ways, in your philosophy. If you don't read the Word of God, only that makes sense because everything that you see, everything that you experience is written in the Word of God." That doesn't take us by surprise. We know the answer. We know the end.

That opened for us so many conversations with soldiers that came and saw volunteers from all over the world. While Israelis don't even dare to come to Kiryat Shmona, they ask them, "What are you doing here? Why are you risking your life?" It gave them such an amazing opportunity to share the gospel.

Erez, you should have just sat outside and looked at what God is doing among the volunteers, among the soldiers, and the mix of conversation. It was just an amazing opportunity to see what God is doing through this difficult time. Seeds have been sown. The gospel has been preached to thousands of people.

The people know about us already. The mayor knows about who we are. The people in the city know who we are. There was an ideal case that some religious man that came to our congregation, and because of what we've done in the war, he came to our congregation with the phone and shouting, "There is no place for Christianity in Kiryat Shmona." He posted in Facebook and it went viral.

The response that he got: "Shame on you. Shame on you, shaming those people. We are in the time of the war. They were here to cook for the soldiers to do so much good. Where were you? You were in Tel Aviv. You were in Eilat in a hotel." He got such an attack from so many people that know us. We fed them, the mayor, the deputy mayor that we gave them so much food and goods to give to the people of Kiryat Shmona.

The guy, after all of this, came to apologize. We went to the court after that, and he apologized before the judge. Even before we went to the court, he apologized: "I didn't know. I didn't know who you guys were." Sometimes what you do, the service that you give, the Lord works in different ways and in the end of the day, it works for good for us and the congregation because it brought a good name to the congregation and to the name of God. Praise God that we were part of it.

Erez Soref: A well-known person said, "Go and preach the gospel, and if you have to, use words." I think that's what you're describing. I've had an opportunity even to chat in previous podcasts with people that have been in the Israeli security world for decades. They come to realize, they say, "We can't explain the situation besides the fact that there's a spiritual component."

These are people that do believe in God, but they certainly don't know the Messiah. But they say there's definitely a spiritual component in this war. It doesn't make sense, particularly when you look at anti-Semitism around the world. It doesn't make sense. I think a lot of Israelis are in this place where they seek for answers and then what a great opportunity it is.

Isael: It's funny enough, I remember even before I came to faith, people that came to visit in Israel, just random people, not even believers, they used to tell me there is something about this country, that there is spiritual peace here. They don't know how to explain it.

I think this is something God has been doing and has done many miracles in the life of this people. Israel continues doing this. It doesn't make sense that so many rockets fall into this land and very few people got hurt. It's a miracle.

The whole story of the Book of Acts and telling the story, the whole story is a miracle. We're privileged to be part of this chapter. We're living in the most amazing time in the history of Israel. The body of Messiah is strong. Now we stand. We don't just shy out. We stand to share the gospel without shy. We stand out there. We are there. Praise God. By the grace of God, we will overcome.

Erez Soref: It's so encouraging to sit together and talk. We get to talk to different people, friends from different parts of the country, and hear how each person is keeping the post. The church, the congregation is keeping the post and just bearing testimony and serving our people at this difficult time. How can our viewers pray for you specifically, for the congregation in Kiryat Shmona, for the whole situation?

Isael: First of all, pray for my son, David. On his 29th birthday, he been called to serve. Pray for David that serves now. He probably will go to Lebanon. Second, for the safety of the congregation. We still meet in the congregation. All our people didn't evacuate, they stay where they are.

We don't have a shelter, so we need to run in the middle of the night to the shelter that is just outside our house. As I say, there is very short time to find a safe place. Safety and peace. It's something that I think we all experience. There is a peace that comes with everything.

We have peace, the peace of God that really passes all understanding. When people look at us cooking and doing what we're doing, they tell us thank you so much for what you're doing. They don't understand, but they appreciate it. That's what perks the curiosity.

Erez Soref: We definitely will continue to pray for your son David, for all the soldiers, for your congregation and for peace, encouragement, strength, and stamina for these days. Thank you, Isael. Thank you for the opportunity.

Isael: Thank you, Erez. Pray for us.

Erez Soref: Thank you so much, Isael. It's really good to connect. To you, our viewers, we ask you to continue to pray for Pastor Isael and specifically the things we talked about, and also for the many other pastors, leaders, and congregations and our people that are standing holding the post to encourage and serve our people at this difficult time. Stand with Israel at this time. We thank you for your prayers and we wish you God's shalom and blessings.