Seeds of Hope  

Source: WORLD magazine

     City of Life is a Messianic congregation in Sderot, a city one mile from Gaza's border. Despite trauma and displacement among his congregation of 50 people, Pastor Michael Beener's church has a mercy ministry, delivering food, diapers, heaters, blankets and other necessities to more than 100 families in Sderot. 

     Across Israel, Christians are stepping into areas of need and suffering, looking for creative ways to minister and provide hope in a time of war. Months of leading from a hotel, sleeping in tight quarters and creating a Bible school structure for the church's kids have left Beener exhausted. 

     But he's grateful to be alive. Terrorists shot out his windows and set fire to cars but didn't enter his home. Hamas murdered all seven Gaza-Palestinian workers employed at an agricultural company...evidence of the group's crimes against its own people. 

     David Pleggi has lived in Israel since 1980, and for the past 15 years has pastored Christ Church Jerusalem, a 175-year-old congregation in the heart of the Old City. Some 30 members serve in the IDF, including one of his sons. 

     Hamas and the wider Muslim community have a view of the last days, that says Muslims will rule the world under Shariah law. Pastor Pleggi said, "In the last hundred years or so, they have imported Western anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories, and they somehow believe that the Jews, and in particular the state of Israel, are hindering (the end times)."

Conclusion tomorrow