We tend to think of Israel as “The Start Up Nation”, prosperous and free. But for many Israeli families the reality is much different.
Fully one in three Israeli children grow up in poverty. 469,400 families consisting of 1.8 million people were designated as under the poverty line in 2018. Some 841,000 of those people were children.
Think of the effects of that deprivation.
How even in the Holy Land a combination of a poor home and poor community can lead to a loss of good role models, a loss of hope and a loss of self worth.
The influences these children have in their formative years will affect them their whole lives.
Let us pray the remember the words of Hebrews 11:1,
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
And also that they remember God has a plan for them in the redemptive work he is doing in Israel in Jeremiah 29:11,
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”