Blog

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem… and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8)

Dear friends,

Praise the Lord we have received another 40 ft. container of clothing from our friends at Hanseatic Help e.V. in Hamburg, Germany! We have been praying for a new supplier who could provide us with quality used clothing and we are so thankful that the Lord has partnered us with HEV. As you know, our distribution warehouse is where new immigrants, along with the poor and needy, come to us for practical assistance and encouragement in a safe and secure environment where we can share of His love freely. The building also serves as a meeting place for our congregation where we gather every Friday and Tuesday evenings to worship and study His Word. We have our administration offices, service kitchen for providing hot meals for our staff and a volunteer apartment for those who come to serve short term. Of course clothing distribution continues to be the main focus of our aid outreaches and we thank the Lord that He continues to provide enough clothing to keep our warehouse shelves filled…

Thank you all for doing a great job!!!

We also wanted to bring a brief update about Stas who fell several stories 2 years ago while working in construction and became paralyzed from the waist down. We try and visit Stas weekly along with his wife Olga, and Lior, their son who is also paralyzed, to bring encouragement and a home cooked meal that our ladies prepare.

There is a slight improvement in his condition as he is now able to feel his hip, however doctors say that he still has a very long road to go, especially in dealing with “phantom pain”… Stas wanted us to thank you for your prayers for him and his family and for all of the love they have received and feel from believers! Please continue to pray for Stas’s healing, as well as Lior and Olga, for strength and courage.

PTL that For Zion’s Sake Ministries has now developed into a full-fledged International Humanitarian Aid Organization, which is evidenced by the impact of our aid distribution that is now reaching around the world. For us, it is a fulfillment of our biblical mandate which is to reach out to the most poor and needy with His love and material blessings wherever He may lead us. This is our calling and the vision of FZS which is to proclaim the Good News with humanitarian aid, to the Jew first and then to the nations…

“For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—to the Jew first and also the Gentiles.” (Romans 1:16)

Philippines: Our dear Dutch sister Arianne Willemsen is now taking the big leap of faith and starting her own medical mission in Eastern Samar, Philippines. We were there with her since her first visit to the Philippines and we will be fully supporting her efforts amongst the sick and needy in Samar. Here is a letter we just received from her…

Dear Bradley,

Our time in the Philippines has been fruitful. Our purpose was to find an area to focus on, to survey and establish our ministry headquarters. We stayed in Borongan, Eastern Samar. Borongan has 61 barangay’s (districts). First of all we met a midwife and she told us that the people there are really hungry to hear the Gospel, but there’s no church or pastor. Besides that there are many basic medical problems (like skin-infections and asthma), bad water-quality and low education (50% of the children go to school until age 11, after that they start working). During our trip, passing through the different brgy’s we saw a lot of health-problems. We were able to help some people;

This is Queribene, 8 years old. She has this problems since almost 1 year. She visited 7 doctors and got confined for 3 times. However they didn’t find the right diagnosis. I promised to discuss this case with a Dutch doctor. When I visited her again she got worse; she gasped for air with lifted shoulders and widened nostrils. Her belly was also bigger than before. It was a miracle that she was even still alive! We took her with us to the hospital, her grandmother went with us. Fortunately there was an American Mission; Bulig Kablas Medical Mission with 51 American doctors (annual mission in the hospital performing big surgeries and consultations for hours).

Soon we got a lot of attention because of my white skin… They asked a lot of questions who I am, why I’m there, etc. When they found out why I was there they focused on Queribene. It was really amazing to see how 5-6 doctors sat around us and worked out a plan to help this girl. We translated for her grandmother didn’t speak English. One of the doctors, Dr. Anne, asked us to stay that day with them and make sure they would finish the blood test and her medicine. That doctor gave us a lot of money for this (because that blood test wasn’t available in their mission). Later that day we went back with the lab results. When we came in we saw Dr. Anne crying because of Queribene…she was convinced the Lord brought us here to bring Queribene to her. A lot of doctors were touched by her and kept visiting her that day. One of the doctors touched my hand and said ‘Let’s pray for this girl and her family’.

Queribene’s lab results were quite well and they sent her home for one night with diuretic. She had to come back the next day to get transferred to Tacloban hospital for surgery. We brought them home and were able to share the Gospel that evening…

This elderly woman has ulcers on her legs since 4 years… An 8-year old grandchild was taking care of her. I had no possibilities to help her, no antibiotics and we were far in the mountains. I advised one of the neighbors how to clean this and asked a doctor for antibiotics…

Please pray for direction and determination!
Arianne

Sierra Leone, Africa: FZS is now supporting AlphaJo and Mirium Bah who are currently establishing an Ebola recovery center for widows and orphans in Port Loko, Sierra Leone. They have decided to name their ministry, “BELIEVERS IN CHRIST MISSION INTER-NATIONAL CHILDREN’S HOME”.

Their Goals for the Christian Children’s Home program are:

The Believers in Christ International has been working in partnership with Partners in Health to identify and document various categories of vulnerable orphans and widows as one of our major activities, as it prepares the Believers in Christ Mission’s for THE PROTECTION AND CARE FOR PARTIAL AND COMPLETE ORPHAN CHILDREN as a sustainable protection measures for these children and widows.

Key objective for the Christian Children’s Home program is to provide a reliable and dependable source of sustenance for the beneficiaries (orphans and widows). In that regard, the Believers in Christ Mission International also intends on carrying out some of its objectives, such as:

· The Establishment of a Children’s Home in the Port Loko District for 10 Ebola Orphans and three Caregivers.

· Scholarly needs – fees and uniforms, and school materials for primary and secondary school children.

· Food Aid – The organization upon the establishment of the children’s home will be providing daily feeding for the Ebola orphans and the widows.

· Clothing –the organization will be also providing the beneficiaries with clothing as protective measures.

· Restore the lost livelihoods of the widows who will be caregivers with skills training opportunities.

· Provide discipleship classes in a way to encourage them to draw closer to the ways of the Lord.

· Provide post Ebola psychological support through counseling, regular health checkups and prayer sessions.

Beslan, Vladikavkaz FZS continues to support Jason Catizone who went with us on one of our first outraces to Beslan after the Horrific terrorist attack that took the lives of hundreds of children on their first day of school. Jason will be returning to Beslan this summer and we will be participating with him in this outreach. You can also check out Jason’s Beslan survivor page… https://ok.ru/profile/296065976388

Jason in Beslan visiting family members of victims

Bradley, Grace and peace in The Lord!

Just wanted to send an update on how things are going in the outreach to Beslan, Vladikavkaz, Thank you so very, very much for your prayers, and I can only give the glory to our Lord and report that He is doing amazing things. While it would take too long to report on everything – for we serve a Miraculous and AWESOME God – I do want to share on some of the things so that you too may be blessed in seeing some of your share in this ministry.

In short, here are some of the things you have taken part in:

* You have been greatly encouraging a young mom who was a hostage herself, and who also lost her mother in the 2004 terrorist attack.

* You shared in a Skype video call to a Beslan mom who lost her only child and her own mother in the attack. She is now living and working in Israel near Tel Aviv, and you helped bless her, as well as another Beslan mom who is working there with her and who lost her own brother in the attack. God is so Good and you shared in then letting Pastor Bradley and the saints in Jerusalem know about those two moms, and Lord willing they will be getting together with them. Pray for that!

We cannot change what took place – but we can continue to pray, to love, and to support emotionally. One young mom said that the very best help is – support. Support not financial, but the support of people saying they love them, remember them, are praying, etc.

She is growing up now

One sister on Facebook (thanks Cheryl!) asked if I could list specific prayer requests, & here are some things to intercede about:

* Pray for surviving youth who are now in their later teens and 20s – in some ways, their sorrow has become greater now that they’re older and understand more about what happened. One young mom who was a child then and was a hostage, and who lost her mother in the attack, told me that she will hate September for the rest of her life.

* Pray for parents who lost children, children who lost parents, etc. One mom in Beslan told me many years ago how it was so hard to see her son’s friends playing outside, now that her young son was dead. And as this is the 11th anniversary, many other families may have had daughters getting married in these days, as people there tend to marry earlier. You can imagine how parents’ hearts must break seeing their deceased daughter’s girlfriends getting married. They are happy for them, but of course also think about what would have been had their daughters and sons survived.

* Pray for survivors who still have physical pain. I personally know two girls now in the later teens who have leg problems sometimes; there are many people who still have shrapnel embedded in their bodies; some suffer from painful headaches; etc.

* Pray that our Lord uses me to share God’s love and comfort with them this week as I have taken off so that I can be in more contact with them via social media. The same young mom mentioned above who said she will hate September for her whole life told me how she was grateful for the support, because it was so important for her. To God’s praise and glory, may she and all of the people of Beslan know that they are loved, remembered, and prayed for.

And please pray, specifically, for two young ladies – Liana and Vika. Liana survived the attack along with her mom, but she lost her brother (her only sibling). About a year later, her dad died. Vika survived the attack, but also lost her brother (her only sibling). Just perhaps a year or two later, Vika’s mother – whom I met and knew – was tragically killed in a car accident. These two youth are especially on my heart, as they have lived through – and live with – such tragedy. And, as they are without other siblings, and have lost one parent too… you can understand why I am asking you to please pray for them specifically.

Thank you for sharing in this outreach, dear family in The Lord.

In Jesus’ love,
Jason

Myanmar: FZS faithfully supports pastor Elisha Sanga and Habakkuk Mang financially and with humanitarian aid for the work with the needy in Myanmar.

Dear Bradley,

Hope that you are doing well with your family and ministry. As for us, by His Grace we are doing well with the ministry. We have wonderful experiences in our recent Delta area trip.

With your financial help,

1. We have two people surgery in our ministry. God wonderfully healed one and another one passed away recently. Tomorrow will be his funeral day.

2. We traveled to 8 villages in 4 Townships. We distributed more than 2000 “Are you a good person” tracks. In this trip we felt simply sharing the Gospel of Christ is not enough. So, we challenged them to make a right worship and warned them not to delay in making a decision. We see a good response to the Word in those villages. We see that this is a time of God opening their hearts to the Lord. Day time, we have privileges of sharing the purpose of Christ’s birth in 6 government schools and 1 preschool to total around 1,000 children and around 60 house visitation. Every night we have open air preaching and Jesus film show with projector. What these villages need is missionaries who would continue the work follow up.

We returned back with a thankful heart to God for having such a privilege. We realize more about a special call of Andrew and his family to this ministry for their people.

Thank you once again for your fervent prayer and financial support.

In Christ,
Elisha Sanga

There is so much going on in the world today with soooooo many needs…

Yet our heart and vision is always to bless Israel first and this is done through our FZS warehouse distribution center in Jerusalem. It is through humanitarian aid outreach that we share the Gospel with His love.