Amy Knapp, a founding Joshua Fund board member, in Israel, a country she loved dearly.

The Joshua Fund has just lost a dear friend, a founding board member, a true prayer warrior, and a woman who truly loved Israel and her neighbors and wanted to bless them in the name of Jesus. Amy Cheree Knapp, 41, went home to be with the Lord Jesus Christ on Friday night, April 17th, after a long battle with cancer. Her wisdom, her generous spirit, her cheerful heart and her passion for the Lord will be so missed. She was, as the Apostle Paul encouraged us to be in Romans chapter 12, always “joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.”

Lynn and I have been friends with Amy for more than a decade. She traveled with us often to Israel and the Muslim world. When we founded The Joshua Fund in the summer of 2006, Amy was right at our side with wise counsel and a compassionate heart. She loved the people of Israel unconditionally and was absolutely committed to blessing the Jewish people in every possible way. At the same time, she loved Israel’s neighbors and was absolutely convinced that one of the greatest ways to bless Israel was by helping Muslims hear the gospel and come to know Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, as their personal Savior and Lord. She was, therefore, gently insistent from the beginning that TJF be committed to loving Israel’s neighbors in real and practical ways, because that’s what Jesus commanded us to do. We completely agreed and loved her for her deep convictions. She had, after all, personally taken the good news of God’s love and mercy to several Muslim countries, and trained many other women to do the same.

In Amy’s honor, therefore, The Joshua Fund is raising $300,000 to produce 300,000 copies of the new DAMASCUS film for distribution in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Holy Land. The film is a powerful docudrama about Saul of Tarsus, a religious extremist and persecutor of the Church, who came to faith in Christ in the first century A.D. through a vision on the road to Damascus, and then went on to become known as the Apostle Paul, writer of nearly half the New Testament and one of the greatest leaders in Church history. The film, made by Arab Christians, was recently seen and endorsed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and premiered in Assad’s personal theater in the Syrian capital. The film will premiere at the Vatican on May 16th. It will then be shown in theaters and distributed on DVD throughout the Islamic world. Because of the film’s message of peace, redemption and hope, The Joshua Fund is proud to stand with the producers of the film and assist with its distribution, and we do so in honor of Amy Knapp who gave her life to lift up the name of Jesus in the epicenter.

>> To learn more about Amy, more about the “Damascus” film, and/or to read excerpts from Joel’s remarks at her memorial service, please click here

>> To make a tax-deductible contribution to The Joshua Fund for projects such as this one to distribute the Damascus film, please click here

HEADLINES TO TRACK:

• Obama Invites Mubarak, Netanyahu, Abbas To White House
• Israel criticizes U.N. chief for meeting with Ahmadinejad on Holocaust memorial day
• Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu insists Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state: “We are currently formulating security-diplomatic policy.  This process will conclude ahead of my trip to Washington in four weeks.  In the framework of these deliberations, we will hold Cabinet and Government discussions.  I would like to set one thing straight in advance simply because it was reported incorrectly in the media today.  We insist that the Palestinians – in any diplomatic settlement with us – recognize the State of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people.  The entire international community demands that we recognize the principle of two states for two peoples, and we are discovering that this is two states not for two peoples but two states for one people, or two states for a people-and-a-half.  That is to say, there is no doubt that we are being asked to recognize the Palestinian state as the national state for the Palestinian  people, but there is doubt – and not just doubt; it is clear that the Palestinians have no intention of recognizing the national state of the Jewish People.  Of course, this is completely unacceptable. I will not now respond to the question of what the nature and components of the settlement will be and what authority the Palestinians will have.  We reiterate that we have no intention of ruling over the Palestinians.  We want them to have self-rule , excluding areas of authority that could threaten our security and our existence.  But we insist that they recognize the State of Israel as the national state of the Jewish People.”