Over the past two months, I have been asked a number of fascinating questions about Israel, Iran, The Twelfth Imam, The Joshua Fund, and the WikiLeaks controversy as I have spoken in 12 cities across the United States, as well as at the European Union Parliament in Brussels. 

Some of the questions I have answered this week include:

1. Were the WikiLeaks foretold in Bible prophecy?
2. Will the Twelfth Imam also be the Anti-Christ?
3. When will the sequel to The Twelfth Imam be released?

Here’s another one.

QUESTION: “Joel, we are grateful for all you’re doing for Israel through The Joshua Fund. What are some of the main ways we can be praying for the work right now?”

ROSENBERG: Thanks so much for asking. Right now, our main prayer request is that the Lord would use us to truly bless Jewish and Arab Israelis, as well as Palestinian Arabs and other neighbors in real and practical ways, and in a faithful, humble, Christ-like manner. This is our heart. We want the Lord to show us what to do, how to do it, and give us the courage we need to do His will, and not our own. Time is short. War is coming. Christ is coming. We want to be found faithful in the time we have remaining.

We certainly need prayer for physical, spiritual and emotional strength for our staff and board. As you might imagine, this is challenging work, with lots of travel and time away from our families.

Financially, we are asking the Lord to graciously provide The Joshua Fund $1.5 million in year-end giving in the month of December.  Should this happen, it will allow us stay on track with the educational and charitable projects to we have committed. We had a not insubstantial decline in giving in November. That was a bit of a surprise, but we thank the Lord that He is Jehovah Jireh, our Provider. His grace and provision is sufficient. He gives and He takes away, blessed be His Name. If you would like to make a year-end, tax deductible donation to The Joshua Fund, please click here.

Israel faces enormous challenges at the moment:

• One-in-four Israelis living in poverty (including 1-in-3 children)
• Recent fires in the north
• The threat of war with Iran/Hezbollah/Syria/Hamas and other Radical Islamic forces
• Rising anti-Semitism around the world
• Replacement Theology and other efforts to delegitimize Israel
• The growing threat that Palestinians will abandon all efforts to negotiate with Israel, unilaterally declare their own sovereign state, and receive widespread international recognition, thereby imposing a solution on Israel rather than encouraging diplomacy and true, lasting peace.

Honestly, the educational and charitable needs Israel has are far larger than our budget can meet. But we count it an honor to do be able to do our part in the Lord’s overall work.

Here are some of the projects The Joshua Fund has accomplished by His grace in 2010:

• 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.
• Expanded the number of food distribution centers in Israel that we have opened and assist on a monthly basis from 4 in 2009 to 7 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 provide monthly rent for a facility in central Israel for a soup kitchen.

>> To read a memo with more examples of The Joshua Fund’s work in 2010, please click here

>> To read my “Open Letter To The Friends of The Joshua Fund,” please click here