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Through the eyes of a newcomer

Carmen Ullersma - 13 March 2018

A week ago I arrived from Moldova in Vinnytsia. In a short time I have been able to experience all kinds of meetings between the Christians for Israel team and the Jewish community. The day of arrival started with Purim! What strikes me is how open and hospitable the leaders and people in the Jewish community are to Christians for Israel. During these meetings I see several Bible texts unfold before my eyes. What came to my mind several times is the text from Isaiah 40: 1-2 “Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, […] “. This is also an aspect of Christians for Israel’s work, to bring comfort to the holocaust victims and the Jewish families they are in contact with.

It feels like a privilege to be an eyewitness to the well-known prophecies in which G’d is calling his people back to Israel. Isaiah 49: 22 stands out for me because it states that it are people from the nations who bring G’d’s people back to Israel, like the co-workers of Christians for Israel in Ukraine who are helping in a practical way.Now, in the beginning, I am still mainly an eyewitness. Hopefully, in the course of time I will become more active.

Yesterday I went with aliyah fieldworker Natalia to a place north of Kiev, near the border with Russia. There is a Jewish community consisting of more than 200 people. They have asked Christians for Israel for help. Many elderly people in the community have to get by on a small pension, of which they can barely pay the rent and other costs. We have been able to bless the people with food parcels we brought for them. This was immediately a good reason for Natalia to talk with the leaders of the Jewish community about the aliyah program. We also gave folders, posters and calendars with information about the aliyah program, and there is also an information leaflet in each food parcel. The Jewish leader is positive about the aliyah program. He also wants to make aliyah himself, when his little children have become a little bit older. The food parcels are also a good way to make new contacts.

We are living in interesting times in which we see the hand of G’d on the world stage, but also in my own life, with the change from Moldova to Ukraine.

Carmen Ullersma worked in Moldova in the past five years and now she wants to dedicate herself to comforting the Jewish people in Ukraine. Just in time! Because on Monday she is going to assist in our hiding place in Kiev and she arrived with her Moldovan minibus. An extra driver and minibus are no luxury here in Ukraine!

Will you help?
The cost of one food parcel is 10 euros or 11 US $. For this amount we buy wholesale products. The parcels are packed by volunteers and distributed throughout Ukraine. Will you help with one or more food parcels? Your support is desperately needed!

1 food parcel costs 10 euros / 11 US $ and consists of:
1 kg of sugar
1 kg of rice
1 kg of grits
2 kg of pasta
1 liter of oil
1 kg of flour
500 gr of oatmeal
1 box of tea
250 ml of condensed milk
1 can of fish
1 box of cookies
1 bar of chocolate
200 gr of coffee
1 can of peas
1 can of corn

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Through the eyes of a newcomer

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