FEBRUARY 2025
YOU ARE STANDING WITH ISRAEL AND BLESSING HER PEOPLE IN NEED ISRAEL
NEW IMMIGRANTS | YURA AND IRINA’S STORY
Yura a nd Irina were living in Lugansk, Ukraine, when Russian attacks began near their home in 2014. The fighting grew fierce, and the windows of their apartment were shattered several times as neighboring buildings were struck.
In 2022, when Russia invaded in full force, the couple made Aliyah and immigrated to Israel, settling near Nazareth and becoming citizens. Yura received the eye surgery he needed, along with monthly treatments to help maintain his
vision. But soon they faced other challenges.
Recently, the couple received government housing that needed some serious renovations. Now in their 70s, they were having a hard time making ends meet—let alone finding extra money to buy basic appliances and a bed.
Thanks to good friends like you, Yura and Irina got the assistance they urgently needed. Through CBN Israel, you provided finances for a new bed, refrigerator, and stove. In addition, you delivered food and groceries to them while also giving them guidance as they adjust to Israeli life and culture.
“We feel protected here in Israel. Even though there is war, we feel at peace,” said Irina. “Thank you for your kindness and generosity. It means so much to us to know that there are people who care about us.”
Your gifts to CBN Israel are bringing help and hope to many others facing challenges—by offering meals, housing, and other necessities. And your ongoing support is so important as we extend a lifeline to single mothers and their children, refugees, and war victims throughout the Holy Land. Thank you for making a difference!
THANK YOU FOR MAKING THE DIFFERENCE!
ISRAEL RELIEF
Your support provides food, clothing, housing, education, and hope to Israel’s most vulnerable people. You are blessing victims of war and terror, Holocaust survivors, widows, orphans, single moms, refugees, and others who desperately need our help.
ISRAEL NEWS
Your gifts make it possible to produce unbiased, independent journalism through broadcasts, podcasts, and online media dedicated to informing the world about what is happening in Israel and the Middle East through our news bureau in Jerusalem.
ISRAEL FILMS
Your funding helps produce groundbreaking films that tell the true story of Israel, its right to exist in the face of growing antisemitism, its extensive biblical history, its innovative and entrepreneurial culture, and its commitment to helping others—even its enemies.
ISRAEL INSTITUTE
Your partnership enables us to shape the future of Israel advocacy by training, educating, and equipping the next generation of Christian leaders to stand with the Jewish nation and counter anti-Israel propaganda, disinformation, and antisemitism.
EASING LONELINESS FOR HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS
They escaped a world that was hunting them down. Since World War II, multitudes of Jewish people who survived the Holocaust have found a haven in Israel. But those who managed to live through that horrific genocide are facing new challenges as they grow older. As of 2024, about 133,000 Holocaust survivors reside in the Holy Land.
Many of these vulnerable senior citizens are living at or below the poverty line—and struggling to keep up with ever-rising costs for medications, groceries, and rent. Some have difficulty understanding Hebrew, which makes it hard to connect with others, obtain necessities, and navigate what can seem to be a complex bureaucracy.
Thousands of these survivors deal with another critical problem: crushing loneliness. They have lost many friends and loved ones over the years and must deal with isolation that affects their physical and mental health.
But you are there for these precious seniors. Your gifts enable CBN Israel to partner with the Jewish Agency in offering an innovative program that matches Holocaust survivors with caring young adults who receive training and college scholarships as part of their volunteer commitment.
Thanks to you, these elderly people now have warm companionship as they receive help with errands, chores, and accessing benefits, services, and community activities that enrich their quality of life.
Yosef, an active 91-year-old whose entire family was murdered in the Holocaust, was teamed with Amit, a graduate student—and the two have become special friends. “We talk about all the issues of the world,” Yosef said. “When Amit comes to visit me, the room is filled with so much light!”
This is just one of the many ways you are blessing Holocaust survivors through CBN Israel. You are also reaching out to many other people in need with food, finances, and essentials and letting them know they are not alone. God bless you for caring!
FROM THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
By Chris Mitchell
Recently, many indigenous leaders from around the world gathered together in Jerusalem to support Israel during the war. CBN News followed along as they walked from the Jaffa Gate to the Western Wall in the Old City. These First Nations representatives—that is, the original peoples of their homelands—came to stand with Israel and fulfill ancient prophecy.
They brought a message of identification with the Jewish people who have returned to the land of their forefathers. Dr. Sheree Trotter is co-director of the Indigenous Embassy, Jerusalem and a founder of the Holocaust and Antisemitism Foundation in New Zealand. As we walked with this march, Trotter told CBN News this is a way for them to push back the wave of accusations against Israel that exploded after October 7. Those accusations included epithets that Israelis are “usurpers,” “colonialists,” and “stealing land from the Palestinians.”
Trotter said, “As indigenous people, we recognize that Jews are the indigenous people of the land. We stand against the false narrative that paints Jews as
the foreign colonizers in their ancestral homeland. Many of the delegates here come from the settler colonial countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and America, where this narrative has just taken hold, especially since October 7.”
Trotter said that the Jews have not colonized the land, but de-colonized it. “We know that Jews have been here more than 3,000 years. This is the land where their unique culture developed—their practices, the religion, their language.”
As we walked through the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City, the Honorable Alfred Ngaro told us, “There’s an old Jewish saying that you truly know your friends when in times of conflict and war, they stand. So, we’re here. We traveled from the farthest parts of the world.”
Ngaro is also the co-director of the Indigenous Embassy, Jerusalem and former member of the New Zealand House of Representatives. He sees the march as the Bible coming to life. He said, “Isaiah 62 talks about that. ‘Push through the gates,’ we just went through the gates; ‘remove the stones,’ the
Indigenous leaders gather at the Western Wall.
stones we currently have in our nation and around the world—stones of false narrative, hatred. So we want to remove that; it’s part of what we’re doing.”
As they carried a banner in support of Israel, Ngaro explained it’s one reason they carried their banner through the streets of Jerusalem. “It says raise a banner. Well, here we go. We’re raising a banner for the nations.” It also mentioned verse 11, which says, the Lord has made proclamation to the ends of the earth: “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your Savior comes! See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him’” (niv)
The delegates wanted to show their backing of Israel in what they see as its darkest hour since the modern Jewish state was established. Grand Chief Lynda Prince, Envoy of the Indigenous Embassy, Jerusalem, explained to CBN News that she is raising up an army of First Nations prayer warriors to fight alongside Israel.
“We’re fighting with you in the spiritual realm and many, many of our First Nations youth and the Maori youth that I’ve been meeting with, say, ‘Can I fight for Israel? Can we join the IDF from the nations of the world?’ We’re rallying up people from around the world, and our own people, to pray. It has to be 24/7 because you’re fighting a war here 24/7. And we recognize that Israel’s fighting for us in the West, as well as all the nations of the world.”
Gidon Ariel, founder of Root Source, said the
biblical relationship between Christians and Jews is the Bible coming to life.
“It’s really something that I think is a realization of prophecy—that people from all over the world are coming and blessing Israel and thanking the Jewish people and connecting to the Jewish people and supporting the State of Israel.
Xami Thomas, from South Africa’s Khoi Tribe, signed a covenant with Israel after their government charged Israel with genocide at the International Court of Justice. Thomas sees the conflict in blackand-white terms. “This fight against the Jews is not actually against the Jews; it’s a fight between good and evil. It’s a fight against those that hate God and His promises and don’t want to see the promises of God fulfilled. We stand with the Jews.”
Prayer leader Rick Ridings of Succat Hallel sensed this gathering is a promise of what is to come. “I think it’s like first fruits. Nations and peoples are in the valley of decision, and it seems to me that God is using these First Nations people, who are nations biblically. The Greek word is ethnos, so they are a people group, they’re leading the way for nation states to realize we’ve got to make a choice. Are we going to believe all the false narratives and come under that cloud and judgment, or are we going to stand with God’s Word and who He says Israel is to Him? So, they’re leading the way.”
Top (left to right): Indigenous peoples meet before the march in Jerusalem. Jewish man prays at the Western Wall. First Nations representatives walk through the Jewish Quarter. Bottom (left to right): Chris Mitchell and the Honorable Alfred Ngaro from New Zealand. March to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. First Nations delegate praying at the Western Wall. Chris Mitchell interviewing Gidon Ariel of Root Source.
FAR FROM THE PROMISE
David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam.
– 1 Samuel 22:1
For a period of his life, David had to flee from King Saul, who pursued him wherever he went. David felt so pressed that he even sought refuge with the Philistine king of Gath, Goliath’s hometown. As you can imagine, the Philistines mistrusted David, so that’s when he left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam.
Adullam sits on the border between the Philistine territory of Gath and the tribal territory of Judah David’s tribe. It overlooks the Elah Valley where David defeated the Philistine champion, Goliath (1 Samuel 17). So as David fled from Saul during one of the lowest periods of his life, he found himself in a cave overlooking the site of his great victory.
When David defeated Goliath, he saved Israel, defended the honor of God and Israel, and was taken into Saul’s court. Also, the prophet Samuel had secretly anointed him as the future king. Things looked promising! But David’s path from victory in the Elah Valley to the throne was not smooth or straight.
While hiding in that cave, David seemed to be far from the throne God had promised. Yet that’s when he wrote in Psalm 57:2-3, I cry out to God
Most High, to God, who vindicates me. He sends from heaven and saves me, rebuking those who hotly pursue me—God sends forth his love and his faithfulness.
Have you ever found yourself in a place of despair? The vision God gave you for your life and your future may seem a million miles away, and God Himself may seem even further away. You remember your victories and those moments of triumph, but now they seem like a dream and you feel hopeless or discouraged.
But the cave of Adullam was not the end of David’s story. Nor will your times of despair be the end of your story. As David said, God is loving and faithful. Rarely does He bring us straight from the victory field to the throne.
Rather, He leads us on a winding journey where we learn to trust Him and His promises even when they seem far away. God is at work; therefore we can declare with David in verse 9, I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. Scripture is quoted from the NIV.
PRAYER
Father, we praise You for leading us in Your ways and to Your promises. Amen.
PRAYER POINTS
Pray that more people will stand with the people of Israel.
Pray the nations will recognize that the Jews are the original people of the land of Israel.
Pray the Lord will raise up an army of intercessors to “stand in the gap” for Israel and the Jewish people.
Pray for God to grant wisdom to the political and military leaders of Israel.
Pray for CBN News as it reports on the ever-changing landscape of the Middle East and to be like the Sons of Issachar, who “understood the times.”
Pray for CBN Israel as it reaches out to comfort the people of Israel while at war.
Pray for Gordon Robertson as he leads CBN and speaks out courageously for the State of Israel and the Jewish people.
DO YOU HAVE A PRAYER NEED?
CBN F ILMS PRESENTS
Based on the New York Times bestseller by Dan Senor and Saul Singer, The Genius of Israel reveals why the Jewish state is largely immune to the social problems that plague many Western societies.
Filmed on location in Israel and hosted by Gordon Robertson, this new CBN Films documentary explores the unique religious and cultural traditions that make Israel one of the most innovative and resilient democracies on earth.
