Caring for a Family Handpicked by God
Published on: 5.7.2023
By: Corrie van Maanen

It was early morning when I set off to visit Sveta recently. She lives with her extended family in a small apartment in a deprived neighbourhood near Jerusalem. I have known the family since 1998, three months after they made Aliyah to Israel.

Sveta’s husband had a desire to join the many Soviet Jews making their way to Israel during the 1990s. However, he struggled in a low-paying job to support the family, which by then included seven children. When the couple heard that the Christian Embassy was supporting Soviet Jews, they tentatively approached us for help. Since that day, ICEJ Homecare has been there for them in their ongoing struggles.

The family soon grew to ten children and for years we supported them by providing monthly groceries, paying dental bills, and purchasing an extra cupboard, bed linens, shoes, or children’s toys. They knew to call on us if there was an urgent need or a joy to share.

“Your help has always been given with a positive encouragement and a big loving heart”, Sveta said during my visit.

Many years ago, she mentioned in a moment of despair how “all social workers give up on us, but ICEJ Homecare continues to faithfully help us.” Indeed, faithfulness is one of the hallmarks of the Homecare program, because we represent a faithful God who does not give up on people.

Sveta’s family made Aliyah together with her husband’s parents. A few years later his father died, so his mother Maya came to live with Sveta and her husband and the many children still at home in their crowded, subsidized apartment. Love for each other knitted them together and there was still room for everyone in their tiny home.

Maya had experienced the darkness of the Second World War. At that time, her father was taken away by the Stalin regime, so she lived with her mother, two-year-old sister Luda and two cousins in a small house in the north Caucasus. Maya was about 11 years old when the Germans occupied the area in 1942 and took everything they had. The Nazis continuously harassed them. Quite often, they came to the house looking for food and checking that the family was not hiding anyone. Although Maya was still in her early teens, she was very afraid the Nazi soldiers might force themselves on her. So every day, she whipped herself with a nettle to make her skin look red and sickly. Like all the young girls, she also shaved her head and tried to avoid the Nazis. They lived in constant hunger and the children often went to the forest to find berries and edible roots. They experienced great famine through this dark period but survived and moved to Latvia after the war.

There, Maya married her Jewish husband, a journalist, and they had two children. From Latvia, they made Aliyah and – like Ruth in the Bible – she made her husband’s people hers, embracing life in Israel, loving every day she could watch her grandchildren being born and growing up in the Land. Now 95, she is in the last season of her life. Loved by her son and beautifully cared for by her daughter-in-law.

That recent morning, I administered the nursing care Maya’s frail body needs. After the work, sitting beside her bed together with Sveta, we drank a cup of tea. I told her I would like to share her family story with ICEJ supporters around the world. Her face began to shine.

“Tell them that I thank you that you believe in us and love us and this is not unnoticed. I thank the God of Israel from the bottom of my heart for your precious friends”, gushed Sveta.

Dear Christian friends, this is another story of how ICEJ Homecare is there without hesitation to share our love and assistance with a family handpicked by the God of Israel, who were once in peril and uprooted by great evil but found their roots in the Jewish soil of Israel.

照顧神精心挑選的家庭
發佈於：2023 年 7 月 5 日
作者：科里範馬南

最近我出發去拜訪Sveta是清晨。她和她的大家庭住在耶路撒冷附近一個貧困社區的一間小屋裡。 我從1998年就認識了這個家庭，當時他們回以色列三個月後。

Sveta 的丈夫渴望加入 20 世紀 90 年代前往以色列的眾多蘇聯猶太人的行列。 然而，他在一份低薪工作中掙扎著養家糊口，當時他已經有七個孩子了。 當這對夫婦聽說耶路撒冷基督徒大使館正在支持蘇聯猶太人時，他們嘗試向我們尋求幫助。 從那天起，ICEJ Homecare 一直在他們持續的鬥爭中為他們提供幫助。

這個家庭很快就有了十個孩子，多年來，我們透過每月提供雜貨、支付牙科費用以及購買額外的櫥櫃、床單、鞋子或兒童玩具來支持他們。他們知道如果有緊急需要或有分享的樂趣，就會打電話給我們。

Sveta在我訪問期間說道：「你們的幫助總是帶著積極的鼓勵和一顆博大的愛心。」

許多年前，她在絕望的時刻提到「所有社會工作者都放棄了我們，但 ICEJ Homecare 繼續忠誠地幫助我們。」事實上，忠誠是家庭護理計劃的標誌之一，因為我們代表一位信實的上帝，祂不會放棄人們。

Sveta的家人和她丈夫的父母一起實現了回歸以色列地。幾年後，他的父親去世了，所以他的母親瑪雅搬來與Sveta和她的丈夫以及仍然留在家裡的許多孩子一起住在他們擁擠的補貼小屋裡。對彼此的愛將他們聯繫在一起，在他們的小家裡仍然有足夠的空間容納每個人。

瑪雅經歷過第二次世界大戰的黑暗。當時，她的父親被史大林政權帶走，她和母親、兩歲的妹妹盧達以及兩個表兄弟住在北高加索的一所小房子裡。 1942 年，德國人佔領該地區並奪走了他們擁有的一切時，瑪雅大約 11 歲。納粹不斷騷擾他們。他們經常到家裡尋找食物，並檢查家人是否有隱藏任何人。雖然瑪雅才十幾歲，但她非常害怕納粹士兵會強迫她。於是她每天都用蕁麻抽打自己，讓自己的皮膚看起來又紅又病態。 和所有年輕女孩一樣，她也剃光了頭，試圖躲避納粹。 他們生活在持續的飢餓之中，孩子們經常去森林尋找漿果和可食用的根莖。 他們在這段黑暗時期經歷了大饑荒，但倖存下來並在戰後移居拉脫維亞。

在那裡，瑪雅與她的猶太記者丈夫結婚，並育有兩個孩子。 來自拉脫維亞的他們實現了阿利亞，就像《聖經》中的路得一樣，她讓她丈夫的百姓成為她的百姓，擁抱以色列的生活，熱愛看著她的孫輩在這片土地上出生和成長的每一天。 如今95歲的她正處於人生的最後一個季節。 受到兒子的寵愛，受到兒媳婦的精心照顧。

最近的那個早上，我為瑪雅虛弱的身體提供了所需的護理。 下班後，我們和Sveta一起坐在她的床邊喝了一杯茶。 我告訴她我想與世界各地的 ICEJ 支持者分享她的家庭故事。 她的臉開始發光。

「告訴他們我感謝你們相信我們並愛我們，這一點並沒有被忽視。 我從心底感謝以色列的上帝賜予了你們寶貴的朋友」，Sveta滔滔不絕地說。

親愛的基督徒朋友們，這是ICEJ Homecare如何毫不猶豫地與以色列上帝精心挑選的家庭分享我們的愛和幫助的另一個故事，他們曾經陷入危險並被巨大的邪惡連根拔起，但在猶太以色列的土壤找到他們的紮根。