ISRAEL: Update from Calvary Chapel Tel Aviv Founding Pastor Stephen & Pat Apple.

Stephen and Pat Apple have been longtime Calvary Chapel missionaries to Israel for nearly 20 years. Stephen is founding pastor of Calvary Chapel Tel Aviv. Arriving in January 2004, they planted CC Tel Aviv that following July. Two more churches were later formed. A fourth church plant, Shepherd’s Light Online Church, reaches into the rural areas of Israel and all cities that don’t have a Calvary Chapel plant.

Photos from anonymous source

Israelis and family members attend a funeral to mourn the loss of a young couple who were killed by Hamas terrorist on October 7 as they hid under their bed.

October 18-19, 2023:

During Tuesday’s Shepherd’s Light Women’s Online Bible Study, rockets were shot into the Tel Aviv area several times during the 40-minute teaching. The Israeli women were able to tell us in the chat that they were headed to the bomb shelters. Afterwards they said it was such a comfort knowing we were praying for them during that time. Shepherd’s Light is a Calvary Chapel-sponsored ministry.

One of the women couldn’t stop crying. She recently had a heart attack so was extra scared when the sirens warning of incoming rockets went off. One of the women in America who volunteers to help us with Church Online called her and prayed with her until she calmed down.

Citizens around Tel Aviv were told to prepare for the possibility of staying in a bomb shelter for 72 hours. A precious believer called us, scared because she said they could sleep on the floor since there wasn’t a bed, but wondered what they would do about a toilet. It’s details like this that people don’t think about unless you are living it.

Israel wasn’t prepared for this; 360,000 Israeli reserves were called up for this war. Many of these young men and women are having to go into battle without bullet-proof vests, not having the correct boots, and in many cases without sufficient bullets. The Calvary Chapel Haifa congregation was recently able to purchase eight specialized scissors for the medics. And our Small Blessings nonprofit was able to buy many bulletproof vests and medical supplies and equipment.

The Calvary Chapel congregations are gathering up supplies for both the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and the displaced citizens. They are putting kits together to send to the displaced Israelis from Southern Israel.

Some of the Israeli businesses are now open. Most people take a bus to work, which is scary for them. When a siren goes off, the bus stops, the door opens, and most of the people run onto the sidewalk. They then lay down with their hands over their head as protection in case a rocket hits nearby and debris fly around. (This reminds us of the 1960s when we would hide under our desks during drills.)

Many Israelis are telling us that when they hear of someone praying for them, caring for them, it is such an encouragement.

While U.S. President Biden was in Israel, the rocket attacks from Gaza, for the most part, stopped. As soon as he left, a barrage of rockets was fired into Tel Aviv.

Things are heating up in the north. For example, Hezbollah shot eight rockets from Lebanon into the north of Israel on Wednesday. Israel has started heavy retaliatory strikes into Lebanon, but a full-scale war on that front has not started there yet.

Stephen Apple & his wife, Pat.

Israel intercepted signal intelligence for audio communications when a missile hit the hospital in Gaza, killing many. The Hamas operatives can be heard telling each other in panic that the missile was from their own people from a cemetery behind the hospital. The missile had misfired or malfunctioned and slammed into the hospital. It was later found out that the missile had been fired by another terror group in Gaza, Islamic Jihad.

Israeli intel along with the U.S. and other western nations have collaborated Israeli SigInt (signal intelligence) that the missile was fired from within Gaza; the captured audio and other blast evidence show evidence that Hamas knew this. The missile shrapnel and other findings concur that it was not an Israeli missile. Nonetheless, Hamas is trying to spin a news version that it was an Israeli missile. These accounts have set much of the Arab world ablaze with protests and rage against Israel.

But the LORD will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel. Joel 3:16b

Learn more about this ministry at www.smallblessings.org and www.shepherdslight.org

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