Issue 1/2015 in this issue What God Can Do pg.2 Through Our Obedience Momentum is Growing pg.3 in the USA Past Accomplishments, pg.4 Future Goals Trusting in the pg.6 Faithfulness of Our God A Love Story pg.7 Find us in the App Stores! Know that the LORD your God is God, the trusted God who faithfully keeps his covenant... - Deuteronomy 7:9 ISV A Christian ministry helping the Jewish people return to Israel 1
What God Can Do Through Our Obedience Debra Minotti President Operation Exodus USA According to Holman s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, a succinct definition of biblical obedience is to hear God s Word and act accordingly. In Jerusalem during the first Gulf War in 1991, Gustav Scheller received a call from God to bring the Jewish people home. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: See, I will beckon to the nations, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their hips. Isaiah 49:22 NIV He said Yes to the commission. Why? Gustav s motive was obedience to His God, and subsequently Operation Exodus was birthed. As the Lord continues to lift His banner, others in the Church from many different denominations came alongside. As a result, during the last twenty-three years our ministry, together with Operation Exodus International, has brought by plane and by ship over 142,000 people to the land of Israel what an honor and a privilege. Our primary motivation must always be to walk in sustained obedience to God s call and purposes for this ministry. We position ourselves through intercession to hear His voice and follow His Word. Our Purpose We are called to encourage and help Jewish people return to Israel and to proclaim God s purposes for their return. I believe that in the not-too-distant future, long-awaited biblical promises will be fulfilled! Despite many challenges, including social, economic and political pressures surrounding Israel and the Jewish people, God will return the Jewish people to the Land in fulfillment of His Word. This will happen through our obedience, prayers and unshakable commitment to God. We will not conform, adapt or water down our primary call. We must stay true and walk with the integrity of our purpose in love! As we walk like Ruth, assisting Naomi back to Israel, there will be a blessing for both Jew and Gentile, Israel will be strengthened, and we will bless the heart of God. Come join us; God is lifting His banner to you. We need your prayers and financial support. Believe me you will be blessed. 2
Momentum is Growing in the USA Pete Scheller Director, Planning and Development Operation Exodus USA As one year turns to the next, many of us will have taken time to reflect and look forward. We have been doing just that at Operation Exodus USA. Records, Milestones and Foundations Momentum is growing in the USA we set a new record, assisting over 400 immigrants in their return to Israel in 2014. In doing so, we passed a significant milestone: 1,000 Jewish people helped from the USA since our inception. Through your generosity we were also able to play an important part in assisting the thousands of immigrants who fled Ukraine following the Russian invasions. We moved into a new office and updated our website, laying the foundations for future growth. We reached out more than ever before by attending conferences, speaking in churches, and connecting with many of you for the first time. We extend a special Thank You to all our faithful partners and to those who responded by becoming supporters, donors and prayer partners this past year. All Things Are Possible Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. - Isaiah 54:2 (ESV) Through the record snowfall that came as we gathered to plan in Buffalo, New York, last November, the Lord brought a timely reminder:... apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5 ESV). It was very literal we couldn t even get from our homes or hotels to the office! However, as we prayed, talked over the phone and waited out the storm, we also heard the corresponding truth from the Lord s lips:... with God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26 ESV So we enter this year expectant not of what we can do, but of what He will do as together we offer Him our time, our finances and our prayers. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21 ESV Join our mailing list or refer a friend. See back cover for details. 3
Past Accomplishments Future Goals Kathy Ardino Aliyah Director Operation Exodus USA The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is glorified before the eyes of the world each time a Jewish person answers His call to return home. Israel is the only piece of property in the world referred to by God as My land. You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O God, before their eyes. Ezekiel 38:16 NKJV Make a Donation Help a Jewish person return to Israel. See back cover for details. Another year has come and gone! The increase in those we have assisted back to Israel in 2014 compared to 2013 was about 38%, bringing the total in 2014 to over 400, which includes 333 individuals and an additional 70 75 via organizational grants. We were able to say yes to every person who asked for assistance. The number of people requesting assistance was lower than we projected in Hope to Home 2016, our 3-year plan. This was due, in part, to a reshuffling of personnel in certain key positions within the Jewish Agency, as well as a lower cash flow than we had expected; however, we were able to strengthen the groundwork for the expected increase in requests and the infrastructure that will support their return. Most of the assistance we gave came in the way of individual grant gifts, as well as other assistance through the programs listed below. Here are some of the immigrants Thank You notes. Avi writes: You were not just part of my dream. You are why it happened. A happy healthy new year. For what you have done, there is no repayment. A Christian ministry helping the Jewish people return to Israel 4 Michael writes: As the first 24 hours in Israel come to a close, I sit here with a much clearer realization of the scope of what living in this country entails. I realize the blessings that it will add to my life, and I realize the struggles that I will need to go through. Yet, with the extra financial assistance offered to me by Operation Exodus and the support that it has given, I feel more secure in my decision, more content in my journey, more comfortable in my new home. So, from the bottom of my heart I must thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
The photo to the left shows some of those we assisted in 2014. Team USA, just arriving in Tel Aviv on September 1, 2014 OE USA gifted grants to the following aliyah (immigration to Israel) education programs in 2014: Friends of Israel Scouts: Friends of Israel Scouts (FOIS), Inc. FOIS encompasses programs that develop and maintain a connection between the Israel Scouts movement in Israel and North American Jewry. The particular FOIS program we support has a 70 per cent aliyah rate. Of that 70 per cent, 30 per cent of their families follow soon after to make aliyah. Habonim Dror of North America (A Labor Zionist youth movement). The goal of Habonim Dror is to build up the State of Israel as 1) a progressive, egalitarian, cooperative society, at peace with its neighbors; 2) a nation actively involved in a Peace Process with the Palestinian people with the common goal of a just and lasting peace; and 3) as the physical and spiritual center of the Jewish people. To this end, Habonim Dror calls first and foremost for aliyah to communal and collective frameworks that actively work to achieve the aforementioned goals. Naale Elite Academy: The Naale Elite Academy is a pluralistic program that brings Jewish teens to Israel to complete their high school studies. Eighty-five per cent of the students make aliyah and stay in Israel. Of that 85 per cent, 60 per cent of the families follow their children and make aliyah as well. Looking Forward Following our 3-year plan, in 2015 we will be going into key areas of the country to meet with Jewish communities, and express our support for them and their desire to return to Israel. Also on our calendar will be several trips into New York City to establish a work in the midst of the largest Jewish community in North America. At this point, we intend to continue with the grant gifts to individuals, couples, families, and aliyah-supporting Jewish organizations, hoping to assist 700 1,000. We also plan to continue offering Hebrew lessons at an Ulpan school and online. However, we believe the Lord will give us more creative ways as well. Absorption is another way we hope to help; aliyah is only successful if the new immigrants have a successful absorption within the Land of Israel. How exciting your prayers and support are what propel this ministry. As you can imagine, this is a big undertaking. God does it, and He does it through you! In closing, we would like to thank you for your faithful support in prayer, giving and volunteering. You have touched the lives of so many to the Glory of God. May the Lord bless and keep you in the New Year. A Christian ministry helping the Jewish people return to Israel 5
Trusting in the Faithfulness of our God Wendy Beckett USA Prayer Coordinator Operation Exodus USA Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. Deuteronomy 7:9 NIV The Word is full of proclamations of the faithfulness of our God through all generations. In this first bulletin of 2015 we look back to give thanks for His faithfulness in 2014 and to trust Him as we look forward to a momentous year ahead. Become a Prayer Partner See back cover for details. We see the Lord keeping His covenant of love with His Jewish people as the number of returning immigrants keeps rising. Almost weekly we hear of miracles of protection on those living in the Land. Christian Friends of Israel has documented 8 to 10 amazing incidents where the Lord stepped in and saved lives in the recent Gaza conflict. You may have seen the comment of a terrorist: Their God changes the path of our rockets in mid-air. Thus Israel was protected. In Operation Exodus, when we declare, Thus far the LORD has helped us (I Samuel 7:12 NIV), we are expressing our praise for His faithfulness. He sends us prayer partners, staff members with just the needed skills, and trusty volunteers. He shelters us, strengthens us and heals us! In the days ahead we will need an even deeper trust in His faithfulness. Those who truly rest in the Faithful One (quote from Hudson Taylor) can expect more miracles for His Name s sake. He will hear our persistent prayers! He will show Himself strong! He will work mightily on behalf of His Jewish people and those of us who are helping them! The One calling you is faithful and He will do it I Thessalonians 5:24 CJB. As we give thanks, let us pray for: A Christian ministry helping the Jewish people return to Israel 6 All His purposes for aliyah (immigration to Israel) to be fulfilled in 2015! Sufficient expansion of our network to sustain the coming growth in aliyah His guidance as to how, when and where to return to the New York City area Continued protection for those helping and those returning and their families His hand on preparations for the leadership from the U.S., Canada and Latin America gathering in Manhattan in mid-may to call out to the Lord for a mighty aliyah
A Love Story Dear Friends at Operation Exodus USA, I want to tell you a love story. In the autobiography by Primo Levi, a great author and Holocaust survivor, he tells of a man whom he met during his years in Auschwitz. The man was not a Jew and not an inmate; he was an Italian civilian who had been commandeered by the Germans to perform repair work around the camp. Lorenzo was his name. Lorenzo was a bricklayer by trade. Primo Levi, who had been a chemist in his previous life, was forced to carry heavy buckets of poured concrete every day in the concentration camp. He was not very good at it, he says, partly because, like all the other Jews in the concentration camp, he was weak from near starvation. One day, without any explanation, Lorenzo brought Primo Levi a tin of soup. The danger in doing this was obvious. Lorenzo and Levi belonged to different castes in Auschwitz one was a civilian repairman; the other was an inmate. One had some rights; the other had none at all. Contact between them was strictly forbidden by the authorities. To help a Jew was to put your own life at risk. But this did not stop Lorenzo. Every day for six months he delivered soup to the Jewish bucket-carrier. Levi noticed that the soup was never the same. Lorenzo would make the rounds of the workers dormitories, collecting scraps from their bowls for the starving Jew who carried the buckets. Levi writes that he was amazed by Lorenzo. In that violent and degraded environment, he writes, a man was helping another man, and doing so out of pure altruism, pure goodness. This was simply incomprehensible to me. He was like a savior who had come down from heaven. Primo Levi survived Auschwitz, thanks in no small part to the food he got from Lorenzo. And now comes the surprising and sad part of the story. After the war, Levi went back to Italy and there he found out that Lorenzo also lived in Italy. He decided to go see him in order to thank him for what he had done, for risking his life in order to save a stranger s. But much to Levi s surprise, when he arrived at Lorenzo s home he did not find the same man. Lorenzo, who had been so vigorous, so resourceful and so heroic at Auschwitz, was now weary, depressed, withdrawn and indifferent to life. With no family and no one to depend on him, he seemed to have lost his reason to live. In Auschwitz, writes Levi, Lorenzo was a man with a purpose, a man on whom others depended. But now it was over. Now there was no one left to save, no one left to protect, no one left who depended on him. Therefore, Lorenzo had no more reason to live. What is the point of this story that Primo Levi tells? It is that life is empty without love. We know that love, both in the sense of the ability to love and in the sense of being loved, is the gift of God. These days, in spite of Israel s greatness and incredible contributions to the entire world, she finds herself in a terrible neighborhood surrounded by hatred and violence. But it is so comforting to Jews in Israel and throughout the world to know that the kind of boundless love extended to Primo Levi by a Righteous Gentile, Lorenzo, is being perpetuated by you, the readers and supporters of Operation Exodus. You are the Righteous Gentiles of this generation. May God s blessings always be upon you and your families. Rabbi Jon Haddon Danbury, Connecticut Note: Operation Exodus USA deeply appreciates Rabbi Haddon s graciousness in regarding us and our supporters as Righteous Gentiles. We know that a special group of very courageous people received this title because they risked their lives to protect Jewish people during the Holocaust. May we continue to stand by God s chosen people in times of increasing anti-semitism here in the U.S. and around the world. Definition of a Righteous Gentile: Non-Jewish people who, during the Holocaust, risked their lives to save Jewish people from Nazi persecution. 7
Our Purpose We are called to encourage and help Jewish people return to Israel and to proclaim God s purposes for their return. Our Vision We believe God is drawing the Jewish people back to the Land of Israel from the USA and other nations in fulfillment of biblical prophecy (Isaiah 43:5-6), and that the Gentiles are called to assist in their return (Isaiah 49:22). So we will assist immigrants with the immigration process through prayer, encouragement and financial support. Our Values Godly character, partnership, honor, courageous service Our History Operation Exodus USA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charity. We are affiliated with Ebenezer Emergency Fund International, a ministry started in the United Kingdom in 1991 by Gustav Scheller. There are representatives in over 50 countries around the world. Together, we have helped over 142,000 immigrants return to Israel. Get Involved! Name: Address: Phone: Email: Add me to your mailing list Send me information about becoming a prayer partner Here is my donation in the amount of $25 $50 $100 Other Payment Options: Monthly Auto-deduction One-time Gift For monthly auto-deduction checking/savings account (ACH), please call (716) 681-6300. You can also call in your gift on your Credit/Debit Card or give online: operationexodususa.org Send information to my friend Friend s Name: Address: Phone: Email: Send me 5 10 25 extra copies of this bulletin For more information about Operation Exodus USA: Phone: (716) 681-6300 Address: PO Box 568, Lancaster, NY 14086 8 Email: Info@OperationExodusUSA.org Website: OperationExodusUSA.org Find us in the App Stores!