The Welcome They Never Expected

Written in the Prophets

What Tatiana stepped into at seventeen, God has been announcing for thousands of years. The Hebrew prophets return to this promise of the regathering of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland dozens of times across the Scriptures. “Fear not,” God declared through Isaiah, “for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west” (43:5). Through Jeremiah He promised the day would come when Israel would be remembered not by the Exodus from Egypt but by a second, greater gathering from every nation of the earth (16:14–15). Through Ezekiel He spoke plainly: “For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land” (36:24). 

We are the generation watching those words come true. The ancient promises of the prophets are not history; they are today’s news. It is astonishing, if we allow ourselves to feel the full weight of it, to realize that we are called to play a part in their homecoming.

And yet God’s purposes do not make the path easy. If anything, from our own lives we know the opposite is often true. Saying “Yes” to God is rarely the comfortable choice.

The Real Cost of Coming Home

For those who answer the call of aliyah (immigrating to Israel), the cost is genuine. The fortunate ones leave behind comfort, familiarity and community. Others do not come by choice alone. They are fleeing, driven from the countries of their birth by the rising tide of antisemitism that has made Jewish life across France, the UK, the former Soviet states and elsewhere increasingly unbearable. They arrive carrying wounds, bewildered and afraid. Some cannot cover the cost of transportation to the airport, let alone a flight to Israel. They land with no savings, no job, no understanding of Hebrew and no clear picture of what comes next.

Regardless of how they came, they came because God said they would. Whether they know it or not, they are walking out the words He gave the prophets. Who can say whether these very men and women were among those God had in mind when He showed Isaiah and Jeremiah the great return from exile?

In that exposed, uncertain space between leaving behind and beginning again, small things carry enormous weight. A set of warm blankets to replace the ones that wouldn’t fit in the suitcase. School supplies for children who don’t yet know a single word of Hebrew. A copy of the Tanakh (Gen.–Mal.) in their mother tongue. A set of pots and pans. Yes, they need these things. But it is never only about the things. 

When our team hands out these welcome gifts—with unhurried presence, warm smiles and genuine care—we regularly see people reduced to tears. And with those tears come stories. We hear how Christian classmates bullied their children at school for being Jewish. How teachers and principals shrugged their shoulders and told the worried parents to find a different school. For many of these new immigrants, that is the full extent of their experience of Christians: indifference at best; hostility, at worst.

These are the stories they carry with them on the plane to Israel. And then, on arrival—in the first steps of their new life—their welcome comes from Christians, people who love them, who see their homecoming through the lens of Scripture and understand its significance, who represent the millions of Bible-believing Christians around the world who are cheering them home.

Can you imagine what that does? The simple gift of home essentials we often take for granted can reshape a lifetime of pain and suspicion.

Your Part in This Story

Will you be part of this? Will you stand with us on the threshold with a new immigrant and say, with a warm blanket, a set of kitchen utensils, a child’s backpack full of school supplies, a set of pots and pans: “You are seen, you are welcome, you are home.”

Your gift to our Immigrant Welcome Gifts fund is more than practical support. It is the love of God, made tangible. It is prophecy, lived out in a kitchen. It is a gift that—as MK Mazarsky will tell you—lasts a lifetime.

With love and shalom,

Rev. Peter J. Fast

International President & CEO