By: Sherri B.

Nancy came to Carmel Shelter more than seven years ago directly from a prison for young teenaged asylum seekers.  Nancy had actually come with her mother, Miriam, and younger brother and sister from Egypt but they were separated soon after crossing the border and she was sent to a prison for "unaccompanied minors.”  We could see that she was a very bright and sensitive girl but had clearly suffered much in her young life.  Born in Sudan, she never knew her own father and her mother, who was born into a Christian family, married a Muslim man who took them into his home near Khartoum.  The husband and his family began to put tremendous pressure on Nancy’s mother to convert to Islam, even threatening their lives.  No longer able to live in such fear, Miriam took the three children and fled to Egypt where they stayed for several years.  

Due to the pressure for money, Nancy’s mother forced her to begin working at age 11 in the house of an Egyptian doctor.  Nancy stayed there for five years, not going to school and never knowing the life of a "normal” teen.  Their home life was unstable, sometimes violent, and Miriam decided to attempt the dangerous journey on foot across the Egyptian border into Israel.  In the dead of night, they walked until they were picked up, like so many others, by Israeli soldiers.  After spending a year in separate prisons, the family was reunited at Carmel Shelter.

After knocking on a number of doors, we were able to get Nancy into a program where she could make up for the years of schooling she had missed and earn her high school degree.  The day she graduated—with special commendation—was a proud day for all of us!  She has come a long way from being a traumatized young girl to a genuine woman of God, loving the Lord with all her heart and seeking His will for the next step in her life.  Her dream is to be a nurse but, sadly, her future is an unknown.  Due to the current refugee policy, it is doubtful whether she will be allowed to remain in Israel as much as she would love to do so.  She has even wondered whether God may open a door for her to go to Canada!  We want only His perfect plan to be fulfilled in her life and appreciate prayers for this precious child of the King.     

VULTURES

When you are interested in prophecy, you know the big ones - Israel becoming a nation in one day, Armies from the North (Russia) will attack Israel, the world embracing one religion, to name a few. But what always catches my eyes are the little, more unknown passages that are fulfilled without any big fare. 

Mentioned twice in the Bible, in regards to the final wars in Revelation 19 and Ezekiel 39, God speaks to the birds.

"Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, "Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave,[a] both small and great.” Revelation 19:17-18

Ezekiel 39 repeats this, "As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God: Speak to the birds of every sort and to all beasts of the field, ‘Assemble and come, gather from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth—of rams, of lambs, and of he-goats, of bulls, all of them fat beasts of Bashan. And you shall eat fat till you are filled, and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you.”

Knowing these scriptures, when I came across an article online a few years ago, it peaked my interested in all things, vultures. The article mentioned how Israel has set up a bird sanctuary to help build the vulture population, as they were unprotected and almost extinct. At the time, it was one of the only articles on this effort to save the vultures. Now, a quick google search of ‘vultures’ and ‘Israel’ brings up pages of articles about the effort to save vultures; the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Israel Nature and Parks authority, and the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo to name a few.

Vultures and buzzards and other birds of prey are back from near extinction - when the Jews left the land during the Diaspora, the land wasted away. With no trees or crops, the bird population disappeared. Now that Israel is back, and the Jew have developed the desert, the vultures are back too - with help of the efforts listed above.

Is this a sign of the time? I believe it is! Things are slowly heating up, the stage is being set. This is just one more piece of the puzzle that must be in place before the war of Armageddon. During the terrible years of Apartheid in South Africa, it was a known fact that vultures were so full from eating corpses, they couldn’t even fly up to the trees. We will see vultures unable to fly again, fat from feeding on the armies of the Anti-Christ. 

Five Supreme Court justices have examined the appeal by former PM Ehud Olmert and partially accepted the appeal. He will serve 18 months in prison. He will begin his sentence on February 15 2015. Olmert was found guilty in 2014 on two counts of bribery and sentenced to six years in prison, two years probation, and a fine of $257,000. He was also ordered to forfeit $144,000 in assets. While the Supreme Court has now absolved him from the charge of receiving a $187,000 bribe, it unanimously upheld his convicted of receiving $15,000 in a separate bribe. Seven other people were also found guilty in the case, including former Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski. The crimes revolved around Jerusalem's Holyland property development. Prosecutors claim that Olmert, during his term as mayor of Jerusalem, received 500,000 shekels in bribes in exchange for easing the approval process for Holyland. Olmert will be the first Israeli prime minister sent to prison. Former President Moshe Katsav is also currently in prison, though he may soon be released on parole. (Arutz-7) Pray for men and women of highest integrity - and a vision for the Jewish state that is in agreement with that of the God of Israel - to be placed at the helm of Israel’s government. [Comment]

The United Nations Public Information Department recently held an International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East in Pretoria, South Africa, but neglected to invite any official Israeli representatives, according to Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon. Film directors, journalists, politicians, academics and experts in a variety of fields were invited to the three-day seminar to explore "new ways to narrate the complex and evolving story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." Despite the notable lack of Israeli officials, the Palestinian representative to the United Nations and former Palestinian ambassador to the EU participated extensively in the seminar. "The vast majority of the speakers at the seminar are known for having anti-Israel stances," Danon said, adding that BDS activists played a significant role in the event. In a letter to the UN secretary-general, Danon, who was not invited to the seminar, stressed that such events damage the UN's integrity. (Israel HaYom) [Comment]