By Steve Strang
This week I’m presenting an eyewitness account of the devastation in Southern Israel that is the result of the violence perpetrated against Israel by Hamas. The account is written by my good friend, Rabbi Aaron Rubinger.
When the air-raid sirens go off in cities such as Sderot, the people have 20 seconds to get to safety. Often there is nowhere to run to, so a ministry named Operation Lifeshield has made two different kinds of bomb shelters, one of which doubles as a bus stop in the cities. Thanks to the readers of Charisma magazine, along with the people who have attended Nights to Honor Israel in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, a total of four bomb shelters have been donated so far.
I wrote this report without knowing the Friends of the Israeli Defense fund had purchased an ad. I encourage you to click on it and to respond as I have. Like Operation Lifeshield, they are doing a good work. It’s timely that their ad is running at a time we need to show our support to Israel.
Now we must help out even more because, as Rabbi Rubinger says, the Israelis need us to hold up their arms as Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ arms when the Israelites were fighting their arch-enemies, the Amalekites.
Our help is particularly needed now because, due to the downturn in the economy, donations nearly dried up during the month of January, according to Shep Alster, Founder of Operation Lifeshield. Thankfully, Christian Zionists helped build two bomb shelters in January. One of them was a result of some fundraising I did about a year ago. Faith Assembly of God in Roaring Spring, Pennsylvania, had read about it, raised some money through their church and in January sent a check for $19,500. Shep was overwhelmed because the only donations he received in January were from Christian Zionists.
You can give online through Christian Life Missions by clicking here. In answer to the question “To which project would you like to contribute?” choose Operation Lifeshield. Every dollar raised will go directly to this organization. Our goal is to raise $19,000, enough to build a bomb shelter. This e-mail is being sent to 25,000 people, in addition to the 16,000 who have signed up to receive the Strang Report. We have strategically chosen e-mail addresses from some of our other e-newsletters because we feel that this appeal is so important.
Please take time to read Rabbi Rubinger’s message below. He gave it at his synagogue last Saturday after returning from Israel. If you want to contact Rabbi Rubinger you can do so at Your browser may not support display of this image.clergyassist@ohevshalom.org Your browser may not support display of this image.Your browser may not support display of this image.. I am including this with his permission. He has a great writing style, and it is written from his perspective as a Jew. It’s very interesting for me to see the conflict in Israel through the eyes of my Jewish friends.
If each of us would give a little it would add up, and we could build another bomb shelter. I’m attaching some pictures of bomb shelters that were built with donations we’ve received in the past and that are now being used to help keep people in Israel safe from enemy attacks.
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Steve Strang is publisher of Charisma magazine.
(Source: Charisma on-line)