THE SPIRITUAL NEED "Comfort, comfort my people" Isaiah 40:1
Pressure and discrimination from within Israel, difficulties making ends meet for the basics of life, coupled with hostility and media bias against Israel from the outside world has led many Messianic and Arab believers to feel "unloved" and isolated.
Messianic Jews (Jews who believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah) are being harassed and persecuted by Ultra-Orthodox Jews who see them as a threat to the Jewish nation. They believe that if a Jew believes in Jesus as the Messiah they become a Christian and stop being a Jew - many families will treat someone who comes to faith as if they had died! For this reason they see Christians and Messianic Jews as "missionaries".
Christians in Israeli Arab towns are small minority groups and face increasing pressure from the rest of their communities. Christians, especially the Evangelicals, are often accused of being "Zionists" and have to defend their loyalty. Christians in The West Bank are harassed and persecuted by Muslims and in Gaza, Hamas makes life very difficult for them.
MMT distributes prayer needs and prayer requests enabling "prayer partners" to focus prayer and encouragement for Pastors, their churches and their congregations and individual families. These prayer partners stand alongside them, shoulder to shoulder, as brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
THE MATERIAL NEED "Share with God's people who are in need" Romans 12:13 NIV
According to official Israeli Government Poverty statistics there are over 2.54 million Israelis (Jews and Arabs) living below the poverty line. There are small social welfare payments but these do not come close to covering the cost of rent, food, clothing etc. In The West Bank and Gaza there are no welfare payments for the poor.
The poverty line is defined as “those having disposable income that is less than half the national average” ie those in the bottom quartile. This includes: 1 in 5 families (441.000), a staggering one in three children (998,000) and more than 180,000 elderly (almost 1 in 4) including 45,000 holocaust survivors
The problems are not confined to families where the parents are unemployed - around 50% families living in poverty do so despite the head of the household having work. For the first few years new immigrants struggle as they have to learn a new language and culture before they can really integrate and enjoy the sort of jobs they were used to. Many skilled and educated people have to resort to manual work until they can speak, read and write the language well enough to take up their profession. Also low rates of pay, a high proportion of part-time work and short term commitments from employers are contributory factors.
Mount Moriah in the Old City of Jerusalem from the Mount of OlivesMMT working through Pastors, makes commitments and covenants to provide regular and reliable financial support to help needy families whilst relying on God to provide the finances now and in the future to cover these commitments.
MMT sponsors and funds several monthly food parcel programmes targeted at the neediest families. These are mostly the elderly, widows and single parent families.
Each food parcel typically costs around 140 Shekels (£25 or US$40 or AU$50) If you chose to sponsor one or more food parcel(s) on a regular basis, you will know exactly how you are helping a needy family in the Land.
MMT's most recent focus has been on helping children to obtain a good education by ensuring that they have all the necessary school work/text books - last year over 60% of children did not have a full set. In addition MMT supports children, youth and young adult programmes including those building reconciliation between Jewish and Arab believers. The aim is to encourage and strengthen their walk with the Lord.
“Whatever you do for the least of one of these, you do it unto me.” Matthew 26:40