Year End Letter to Donors from Joel Rosenberg
“I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there. For [the believers in] Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.” – the Apostle Paul (Romans 15:25-27)
Dear faithful friend of The Joshua Fund:
Thank you so much for your generous support of The Joshua Fund this year! While many of you, by God’s grace, are doing okay, or even well, through these difficult economic times, I know some of you have lost your jobs, or are struggling in other ways to make ends meet. I want you to know how grateful I am to all of you. As you’ll see in the pages ahead, because of your kindness and your faithful prayers, the lives of thousands of Jews and Arabs in the epicenter have been touched with the love of Jesus Christ, and many saints in the epicenter have been blessed and encouraged.
The enormous challenge we face now is getting ready for what is coming. As you know, the stakes are very high. In October, a senior Israeli official told me that Prime Minister Netanyahu would give the international economic sanctions against Iran until January. At that point, he said, the Israeli government will have to assess whether the sanctions are having any meaningful effect in stopping Iran’s nuclear weapons program. He did not say what would happen if the answer was no.
Will Israel launch a military strike against Iran in 2011? Will Iran launch first? What will Hezbollah and Hamas do? None of us knows what the future holds. We may eventually be headed for a major regional war, but I continue to pray for peace, and I urge you to join me. In the meantime, I believe the Lord is telling The Joshua Fund team to continue caring for the poor and to accelerate our preparations for a possible war. I am so glad to report that since 2006, The Joshua Fund has consistently and significantly invested in blessing Holocaust survivors, the elderly, single mothers, homeless people, widows, orphans, and other needy Jews, Muslims and Christians in the epicenter; in training and encouraging pastors and ministry leaders in the epicenter; and in educating and mobilizing Christians around the world to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We couldn’t have done this without you, and we are deeply grateful. But there is so much more to do. Our top priorities in 2011:
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Doubling The Size of our Warehouse – We are prayerfully considering buying a 20,000 square foot warehouse in Israel. Currently we are renting a 10,000 sq. ft. facility. Please pray with us, and I will keep you posted.
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Opening more Food Distribution Centers – Lord willing, we hope to double the number of food distribution centers in Israel from seven to fourteen. We are also preparing to purchase more vehicles and equipment to distribute aid, and to hire more staff to help us with relief distribution. Please pray for the Lord’s wisdom and clear direction.
- Proclaiming The Good News of God's Love – Lord willing, we will invest in a wide range of other important projects “to bring the good news to the poor…bind up the brokenhearted…and proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners,” as the Lord commanded through the Hebrew prophet in Isaiah 61:1-3. This includes supporting Christian radio ministries in Iraq and the West Bank, Bible training conferences for pastors in the region, a “Prayer & Vision Trip” to Israel in May 2011, and the 2011 Epicenter Conference in Jerusalem on May 15-16 to teach more people about God’s everlasting love for Israel and all the people of the Middle East.
Would you stand with us in prayer? We need this most of all. And if you are able, would you also make a taxdeductible, year-end gift to The Joshua Fund of $100, $250, $500 or more? Would some of you who are able be willing to make a $5,000, $10,000 or $25,000 investment to help us advance this urgent work?
In Matthew 24-25, our Lord Jesus tells us some of the ways He wants us to serve Him in the last days – feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoners, care for the suffering, teach the Word of God, proclaim the gospel of the kingdom, and help the Church be ready for His return. He calls us to do this with unconditional love and unwavering support, and with gentleness and respect.
This is the mission of The Joshua Fund. Thank you so much for standing with us. May the Lord bless you and your family!
Yours to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus,
Joel C. Rosenberg
Founder and President
The Joshua Fund
As always, we will do our best to keep you up-to-date on the kinds of projects we are doing, and brief you on how those projects are proceeding. In no way do we want to pressure anyone to give financially. We fully believe the Lord will provide for the needs of the people we seek to serve. But if you or others wish to help, we gratefully welcome your support. All financial gifts are tax-deductible in the U.S.A, and TJF is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). If you would like to make a contribution to the on-going work of The Joshua Fund, donate online now or make your check payable to “The Joshua Fund” and send to:
The Joshua Fund
18940 Base Camp Road
Monument, CO 80132-8009
Designated Giving: If The Joshua Fund is successful in raising our financial goal for a specific project for which you have designated your donations, all excess funds for that project will be applied to related projects or to the general fund of TJF.
Donor Update: Blessing Jews & Arabs in 2010:
Here are some of the projects we’re working on. In 2010, The Joshua Fund:
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Made our rented warehouse facility fully operational and began using it to care for poor and needy people throughout Israel – Last year at this time, I reported that TJF had just signed a lease to rent a warehouse in central Israel. By God’s grace, today I am pleased to report that in the past 12 months, TJF:
– Hired a full-time Israeli warehouse manager
– Hired an Israeli assistant to help in the warehouse part-time
– Hired a full-time Director of Humanitarian Relief
– Hired a full-time Deputy Director of Humanitarian Relief
– Built two offices in the warehouse
– Built a kitchen and conference room in the warehouse
– Outfitted the bomb shelter with emergency supplies
– Installed a state-of-the-art video security system
– Purchased a forklift and had our manager trained/licensed in its use
– Purchased a delivery truck and had our manager trained/licensed in its use
– Best of all, since spring 2010, we have been purchasing, storing, repacking, and distributing hundreds of tons of flour, rice, beans, corn, pickles, tuna, cooking oil, honey, paper towels, diapers, and other supplies to the poor and needy throughout the Land of Israel.
– We are stockpiling food and relief supplies in our warehouse for the next war. And we continue to provide funds to a Christian organization ally of ours so that they continue stockpiling more food and relief supplies at a separate warehouse in northern Israel ahead of the next war.
– Dozens of evangelical Christians from the United States – including several church groups – have come to Israel to volunteer in TJF’s warehouse, packing food and relief supplies, praying for the Lord to bless each of the recipients of those supplies, and then actually going out and deliver those supplies to the poor and needy.
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Expanded the number of food distribution centers in Israel that we have opened and assist on a monthly basis from four in 2009 to seven in 2010 – We refer to these seven centers as “storefronts.” The staff and volunteers in each work with the social welfare offices in local municipalities to determine the poorest and neediest in their communities, and then distribute boxes or baskets of food and other aid to these needy families, supplies.
– Thousands of poor and needy Israeli Jews – including Holocaust survivors, elderly, children, single mothers, widows, orphans, and others – are being served and cared for each month.
– Some storefronts are strategically located near the northern and southern borders. Others are in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the interior of the country.
– TJF has purchased a total of 7 vans in Israel to increase the mobility of our allies and our staff and help them deliver aid directly to people’s homes, especially important for the elderly and Holocaust survivors.
– TJF is training storefront managers in best practices and for the next war.
- Through our storefronts, some 1,200 needy Jewish families in Israel were directly provided food and supplies for Passover. In another project we financed, about 1,600 needy Israeli families living under the poverty level received gift cards that enabled them to buy Passover supplies for this vital Biblical holiday.
- Helped purchase two ambulances for Magen David Adom (“Red Star of David”), Israel’s emergency response organization. (see article in this month’s newsletter)
- Helped provide monthly rent for a facility in central Israel for a soup kitchen.
- Helped purchase backpacks again this year for needy Israeli children. Both Jewish and Arab children received these bags.
- Helped finance urgently needed heart surgeries and follow-up care for more desperately sick Arab and Iraqi Kurdish children.
- Helped provide monthly support for a Christian ministry caring for needy Palestinian Arab children in Bethlehem.
- Helped finance the “Back To Jerusalem” conference run by Arab Christians in Israel and the West Bank for the third year in a row. Volunteers distributed 23,000 packets of materials containing copies of the New Testament, the JESUS film, and other Christian materials in Arabic (see article in this month’s newsletter).
- Helped finance medical clinics in Bethlehem, Tel Aviv and Ramallah, run by two physicians who volunteer for TJF (see article in this month’s newsletter).
- Helped the first officially licensed Christian radio station in the history of Iraq increase the size of their antenna and make other technical improvements. This expanded the range of the station from reaching an area of some 2 million Muslims in northern Iraq to an area of some 3.5 million Muslims. TJF also began sending an Arab believer who is a specialist in gospel radio to train the radio staff.
- Financed the production of an additional 140,000 copies of the Damascus film on DVD, on top of the 300,000 copies TJF financed in 2009. This remarkable film was produced by Arab Christians in Syria to reach their Muslim and nominal Christian neighbors with the gospel. The DVDs financed by TJF are being distributed in Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, and Lebanon.
- Organized Bible conference for Iraqi pastors and ministry leaders, and took three American pastors to help TJF staff with teaching and other ministry projects. The conference was held at the newly completed ministry training center in northern Iraq that TJF helped finance for an Iraqi Christian ministry organization.
- Participated in the Epicenter Conference in Philadelphia and the first Epicenter Conference in Asia (Manila, Philippines). Through these, Christians in 94 countries learned about God’s love for Israel and her neighbors and about the work of The Joshua Fund through live webcasts and TV/radio broadcasts.
