Middle East Prayer Update
©Asher Intrater January 17, 2008

Israeli Security
Fighting has intensified along the Gaza strip today. Over 50 kasam rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza today, reaching for the first time all the way to Ashkelon.
Carlos Chavez, a volunteer from Ecuador, was shot in the back by a Palestinian sniper as he did agricultural work on an Israeli kibbutz near the border. 23 Palestinians were killed, including the second son of Hamas leader Mahmud Al Zahar and one of the leaders of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza. Unfortunately, 3 innocent Palestinians were killed as one Israeli missile missed its target.

Israeli Politics
Avigdor Liberman announced today that he will pull out his "Israel Beitinu" Party from the government coalition. This leaves the current coalition with only 67 seats. (29 for Kadima, 19 for Labor, 12 for Shas, and 7 for Pensioners).

South Korean Elections
In December South Korea elected Lee Myeong Park (known to the West as Bak) as its new president. Bak is an evangelical Christian, and former head of the giant Hyundai corporation. His election probably reflects a desire of many South Koreans to improve the economy, more than it does an endorsement of Christian values. Nonetheless, his election will hopefully provide a breakthrough both spiritually and economically for the nation.

The fact that South Korea has an evangelical Christian as president, and that Ban Ki Mun, is the Secretary General of the UN (although he is not a Christian), places South Korea in a particularly influential position for the coming years. I believe that Ban and Bak represent an opportunity for the praying Christians in Korea to touch the peoples and governments of Asia for the kingdom of God.

Lapid Testimony
Yair Lapid, well-known Israeli television host and son of former cabinet member Tommy Lapid, wrote the following article in "YNet." Here is my translation of certain excerpts, which may give an insight as to one of the reasons why the little State of Israel is so important to us Jews:

In February 1945, my father was 13 and lived in a basement in the Budapest Ghetto, surviving primarily by eating the flesh of dead horses pulled in off the street. German and Hungarian Fascists began taking the Jews out on death marches. Many were taken to the frozen Danube River, where they were ordered to cut holes in the ice; then they would be shot and dropped into the water.

Early one Monday morning, the Nazis surrounded my father's block and took out about 600 people on this death march. At one point a Russian fighter plane flew low overhead, and the German soldiers raised their rifles to fire at it. At that moment my father hid behind a public lavatory, that happened to be painted green. The Nazi soldiers didn't notice he was missing and the death march went on without him. Six hours later none of the others in the march were left alive.

My Dad wandered around the streets of Budapest, and having nowhere to go, finally returned to the Ghetto, waiting in hope for the Russian troops to arrive before the next death march.

Many years later, I traveled with my Dad to Budapest. As we walked down the street, all of a sudden he stood still and began to weep. He pointed toward a public lavatory, painted green, and said, "That's it. That's the place I was saved. That's the place where Zionism was born in me. Everyone else in the world has a place to go to. Here I realized I too needed a place to go to and didn't have one."

There we stood, two grown men, crying and hugging that green wall…

Salvation Testimony
We want to give thanks to the Lord for Shani's Dad, who came to eternal salvation last week. May the Lord continue to work in this precious Israeli family.

Ministry Testimony
We want to give thanks to the Lord and ask for your continued prayers for the bountiful ministry opportunities the Lord has been giving us these couple of weeks.

Pray for fruit to be born of meetings or teaching times with: Chuck Pierce's New Year Prophetic Conference, Seattle Community Fellowship, Christian City Church of Dallas, Women's Aglow international staff, the Israel Messianic Soldiers conference, the God-TV international staff, the Jerusalem young adults' fellowship, Gateways Training School, El Shaddai Congregation, a new teen discipleship group, Ahavat Yeshua Congregation, Revive Israel Equipping Center, and many, many personal witnessing opportunities for all our team here in Israel.

Wow! That was all in just three weeks. Thank you for standing with us. We need you and appreciate you so much.