Six hearts beat for Israel
A few weeks ago my husband Willem and I attended the Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast in Copenhagen. Jews from Israel and Christians from various countries came together to be informed about the situation in Israel and to pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.
Good and warm contacts we had among ourselves and with the Jewish participants. One of them was a young Jewish woman who had worked in Jerusalem for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She had served in the Israeli army and had been a sharpshooter. Now she was here in Copenhagen assisting the Israeli delegation. At one point she came up to me and put something in my hand. I looked and saw that it was a silver necklace with a small Star of David. She had taken her own necklace off and had given it to me. That struck me deeply. I put on the necklace with the small star of David and never took it off again!
After two days, we said goodbye to the participants and left for the airport in Copenhagen. We had some time to have a drink and we settled down at a small coffee shop. There we had a special encounter. One of the conference participants greeted us and asked us to sit with him. It was Einar Inge Ellingsen, who had come from Norway to Denmark to attend the conference.
Over coffee, Einar Inge told us that he had taken his vacation days last October to be a volunteer for three weeks at an Israeli army base. He said: “I had just been there for a week when the terrible attack of October 7 happened. The leadership of the military base urged me, for my own safety, to leave the country immediately. But I didn’t. Especially during that difficult time, I wanted to be with them. So I stayed for three weeks and was then able to return home on the last plane home to Norway.”
Einar Inge did not go to Israel on his own, but through the organization Sar-El, which is a volunteer project of the Israeli Army (IDF). The project was set up in 1982 because there was a severe shortage of men at the kibbutzim during the war. As a result, in some places the harvest could not be brought in. Volunteers also came to work on the military bases, and thanks to their help, the Israeli men were able to return to their kibbutzim. The volunteers come from all over the world and work mainly in logistics, maintenance, supplies and medical services.
If you are healthy, you can come and help from the age of 17. Sar-El has a beautiful logo: a round emblem with six gold stars in the shape of a heart…. Einar Inge explains what that means: five stars for Jewish volunteers from the five continents where Jews live, one star for Christian volunteers. Six hearts beat for Israel. Jews and Christians together help the people of Israel to stand strong in the defence of their nation.
From all over the world, they come to Israel. When Einar Inge worked at the military base, Elsa Mita from Brazil was also present. She is 82 years old and is committed to Israel in her hometown of Fortaleza, Brazil. But now she had come to Israel to help and encourage the soldiers. Together Einmar Inge and Elsa stand beside the flag of Israel in the green coveralls they received from the army. Einar Inge tells how they often had to go to the shelters. ”We sometimes saw the fear on the faces of the young soldiers then. To encourage them, we then sang Israeli and Hebrew songs in the shelter.”
Volunteers with the Israeli army through the organisation Sar-El | Photo: Sar-El
This is how Elsa from Brazil and Einar Inge from Norway joined others in assisting Israel when it was most needed. And they certainly plan to go back again, if God makes it possible. No matter how difficult that may be at times. And they experience it in their inner being: whoever blesses Israel, will be blessed!
But my country, the Netherlands, is not blessed right now.
What terrible events took place in our capital city of Amsterdam recently. A pogrom on Israeli supporters of the soccer club Maccabi Tel Aviv. I am deeply ashamed to be Dutch. Strict measures must be taken by our Dutch authorities against this antisemitic violence. But will that really happen? Or just sympathetic words but no action? I wonder. Whatever it will be, it motivates me all the more to work for God’s people the Jews and for Israel and wear my necklace with the Star of David with pride!
