END OF THE YEAR PRAYER NEEDS

PRAY FOR ISRAEL:

* Please pray for peace and safety for all the people of Jerusalem -- Jews, Christians and Muslims -- and that political leaders do not try to divide the Holy City.

* Please pray for peace and safety for Israelis living along the border with Gaza. Sderot and similar Israeli towns have been hit with more than 2,500 rockets and mortars over the past two years. Pray that a combination of forces are able to stop radical Islamic groups in Gaza from firing at the Israelis and that the 21,000 residents of Sderot are able to resume normal lives, including sleeping through the night without fear of attack.

* Please pray for calm and quiet along the Lebanon and Syrian borders to the north. Many Israelis are still recovering from the Second Lebanon War in 2006, when more than 4,000 rockets and missiles rained down, forcing more than 1 million Israelis to flee or live underground in bomb shelters for well over a month. Let's pray that despite all the preparations that Hezbollah and the Syrian military are making that no conflict breaks out in 2008.

* Please pray for wisdom for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his senior advisors to know how best in 2008 to deal with the growing geopolitical threats against Israel.

* Please pray for the 15,000 followers of Yeshua (Jesus) in Israel who worship in upwards of 150 congregations to have courage and wisdom to know how best to bless their families, friends and neighbors in the upcoming year.

* Please pray for the leaders of The Joshua Fund to have wisdom to know what relief projects in Israel to finance this coming year, that we might be able to show true, unconditional love to the poor and needy in Israel as well as to victims of war and terrorism.

PRAY FOR THE MUSLIM WORLD:

* Please pray for the followers of Jesus in the West Bank and Gaza to have great courage and compassion in the wake of tremendous persecution and the October assassination of Rami Ayyad with the Palestinian Bible Society at the hands of radical Islamic jihadists.

* Please pray for believers around the world to wake up and find ways to encourage and strengthen our Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters in the West Bank and Gaza.

* Please pray, too, for Arab believers throughout Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Sudan and other Arab countries to have courage and compassion to live for Jesus Christ with boldness and holiness despite war and persecution.

* Please pray for the believers in Iran -- now more than 1 million of them -- to endure hardship at the hands of government officials who hate Christianity and are desperate to stamp it out. Pray for the leaders of the 10,000 new house churches expected to be planted in Iran over the next 12 to 18 months.

* Pray for Muslim people throughout the epicenter to be able to live 2008 free of warfare, terrorism, violence and injustice. Pray for new political leaders to be raised up who are true reformers, committed to expanding freedom and opportunity for Muslims who are currently be oppressed by their corrupt current leaders.

* Please pray especially for the suffering people -- particularly young people and widows -- in Kurdistan (Iraq) and Afghanistan who have largely been forgotten by the outside world. Pray that evangelical Christians wake up and remember to pray for them and to find practical ways to bless and encourage them.

* Please pray for the leaders of The Joshua Fund to have wisdom to know what relief projects to finance in 2008 throughout the Muslim world so that we can truly show unconditional love to the poor and needy, as well as to victims of war and terrorism.

* Finally, please pray that followers of Jesus around the world would be generous so that we can invest more heavily in relief projects to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus. If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to The Joshua Fund, please click here.

THE JOSHUA FUND'S TOP YEAR END RELIEF PROJECTS TO BLESS ISRAEL AND HER NEIGHBORS

UPDATED (12/14): The Joshua Fund believes we are supposed to dramatically increase the delivery of humanitarian aid to the needy people of Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq and the region in 2008, and expand our strategic allies and prayer partners.

In light of the enormous needs and looming threat of war, we believe over the next 36 months we are supposed to bless Israel with at least $100 million worth of humanitarian relief supplies and 400 tons of food. We also believe we are supposed to bless Israel’s neighbors with at least $20 million worth of relief supplies in the next 36 months. At the same time, we are seeking to recruit at least 100,000 evangelical Christians all over the world who will stand with us in praying knowledgeably and consistently for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6) and for the people of the entire region. By God’s grace, we already have more than 35,000 prayer partners signed up on our email list.

As we end 2007, we are racing to complete several specific and important projects (update: these figures are double what we originally posted after TJF's board approved higher amounts last week):

* Funding 50 tons of food for Bridges For Peace to distribute to poor and needy Israelis in the first quarter of 2008 (cost: $110,000)

* Sending two trucks filled with some $300,000+ worth of humanitarian relief supplies into Iraq, to distributed through Iraqi evangelical Christians (cost: $24,000)

* Funding two emergency 40-foot containers of desperately-needed food aid for the suffering people of Sudan who are not only enduring civil war but even genocide. Each container holds 44,000 pounds of food, or about 270,000 servings, at cost of about 8.5 cents per serving. (cost: $46,000)

If you would like to help us with these and other projects, we would be deeply grateful for a generous year-end financial gift. To find our mailing address or to contribute securely on-line, please click here.

FYI: This past summer we received from the Internal Revenue Service our official status as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, meaning that every donation to The Joshua Fund is tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.