JOSHUA FUND DELEGATIONS COMPLETE RELIEF PROJECTS IN SDEROT, CARMIEL AND YAVNIEL, ISRAEL

(JERUSALEM, ISRAEL) -- UPDATED: A Joshua Fund delegation with 52 evangelical Christian business leaders from the U.S., Canada, Germany and Australia just completed a two-week tour of Israel. The purpose of the "prayer & vision trip" was to help Christians from around the world better understand the geopolitical threats that Israel is facing, see first hand the importance of providing humanitarian relief for Israelis who are currently living in poverty (nearly 1-in-4 Israelis and 36% of all children), as well as to see the urgency of pre-positioning more relief supplies ahead of the next war, whenever that might be.

The group was briefed by current Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman on the growing Iranian nuclear threat; former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky on the threat to Jerusalem; MK Yuval Steinitz, Member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee, on the growing strategic threats to Israel from Iran and Syria and the growing Russian involvement in the Middle East; former Israeli General Yossi Peled on the Hezbollah threat in Lebanon; and former Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Dore Gold on the upcoming peace conference in Annapolis.

The group was briefed by a senior advisor to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the importance of Jews and Christians working together, especially in light of the upcoming 60th anniversary of the rebirth of the Jewish State. The evangelicals were also briefed by various humanitarian aid leaders. During their visit, they toured Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the Galilee region. They also did two humanitarian relief projects in the towns of Carmiel and Yavniel, distributing care packages of food and kitchen supplies to needy families in cooperation with the Mayors of these two towns and Bridges for Peace, an evangelical Christian relief organization based in Jerusalem.

On November 12, The Joshua Fund took a group of 25 evangelical Christians from Rio Rancho, New Mexico to do a humanitarian relief project in Sderot, an Israeli town on the southern border of Gaza. The town has been hit with more than 2,500 Palestinian rockets and missiles since the Israelis withdrew from Gaza in 2005 for "peace." Three rockets hit the day we were there, but by God's grace we were safely able to distribute more than $100,000 worth of clothes, toys, school supplies, and others goods to some 300 needy Israeli families who live below the poverty level and live in great fear of these constant terrorist attacks.

The Sderot relief effort was done in cooperation with the Acting Mayor of Sderot, the local social welfare office, and The Joseph Project, a Jewish organization committed to caring for the poor and needy and for victims of war and terrorism in Israel.

* Please pray for peace for the 21,000 citizens of Sderot. More than 6,000 residents have left the town and relocated elsewhere in Israel in the last two years because of all the attacks.

* Please also pray that more evangelical Christians around the world become involved in helping needy families in Israel with humanitarian relief and unconditional love.