Shalom Chaverim (friends)
 
Greetings from the Land of Israel which, as I'm certain you have heard,is  currently under heavy enemy fire, especially in the Southern Region of the Negev. 
 
Last week, even before we heard it on the news, my little dog, Pepper, started acting strangely - walking with his tail down, and wanting to sit on our laps, refusing to leave our side as if he was scared of something only he could sense.  It was only later that we found out about all the rockets and missiles being fired on Israel, even as close as the out 
 
Please keep Timothy's new bride, Victoria, in your prayers for safety under the shelter of God's wings, as she is yet to be released from the army; and she is stationed in this Southern area near Be'er Sheva as a heavy truck driver.  Please pray she will be released to join Timothy  as his wife in Haifa in God's perfect timing, despite the challenge of  Israeli bureaucracy.
 
Thank you for keeping all the people of Israel and the young men and women of the IDF in your prayers.  Since the barrage of missile and rocket attacks that have been fired from Gaza into Israel, Israel has begun Operation Pillar of Defense.  Note that this is a 'defensive' operation ; and not an offensive one, despite how the media tried to portray small 'David' as the aggressor against a poor, pitiful, defenceless Goliath.
 
Israel has a right to defend its citizens and to ensure its survival, as decreed in the Book of Esther:
 
"...the King permitted the Jews who were in every city to gather togethre and protet their lives - to destroy...all the forces of any people that would assault them...."  (Esther 9:11)
 
No longer will be led like sheep to the slaughter as in the Holocaust.  We are back in our Land, never again to be uprooted from this Land God has given us. Halleluyah!
 
 
Thank you for being like an Esther, to petition the King  for our salvation and for victory over all those who seek to harm us.  We thank God for providing this place of refuge for us and for all Jewish people.  This week is 'aliyah week'.  May Jewish people from all the nations hear God's call to come home and trust God to defend us.
 
I love this courage and faith of the Israeli Defence Forces and am reminded of this Scripture, "In that day, Adonai will defend the inhabitants of Yirushalayim; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David and the house of David shall be like Elohim, like the angel of Adonai before them." (Zech. 12:8)
 
Thank you also for the flood of encouragement, prayer and support that has been coming in from God's people in the nations to Israel in our time of need. 
 
You are like a Ruth, a faithful friend,  to  Naomi who has come back to her Land; so I want to thank you for your commitment to stand with us and with all Israel unto the very end.  May you receive your full reward by the God of Israel under whose wings you have come to take refuge.
 
Although we do not know where this conflict will lead, yet as Believers, we are instructed to 'fear not' and to keep our eyes fixed on Yeshua, the Living Word. 
 
And so I attach the Torah study for this Shabbat, Parashah Toldot (Generations) which is packed with insight and powerful revelations from the Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit) for our lives.  May you be nourished, enriched and inpired by this Word out of Zion.
 
Love & Shalom in Yeshua
 
Hannah & family
Box # 63 Ramat Raziel, 90974, Israel