Dear praying friends,
As you may remember from my last update, about two months ago we established contact with Tanya, a woman from a shelter for victims of human trafficking and sexual slavery. (By the way, here is the website of Tanya’s shelter: http://www.maagan-shelter.org.il/English.html). The shelter was forcing her to move out and start an independent life, but she had nowhere to go with her two little children. Today, praise God, a small home church in Haifa is ready to take care of Tanya and her kids. They do not have the necessary funds, however, since they are just a small group of people, so we have to provide the money for Tanya’s family to move and start living there. Praise God, there were believers who responded to this need and sent their support, so we have been able to start putting some money aside for Tanya’s future needs. She will need it when she moves to Haifa, and this is going to happen as soon as the social workers decide whether they are letting Tanya’s kids stay with her or not. We had a very important meeting with the social services several weeks ago and it looked like they were willing to give Tanya a chance!
Our contact with Tanya let us get acquainted with several other victims of human trafficking who live in the same shelter. Soon after we met these women we decided to start weekly Bible studies for them – the offer they gladly accepted! Five-six women (and their kids) attend these studies, which have been taking place in a local park so far. A noisy park, however, is not the best background for Bible studies, so we have found and rented a good Christian place nearby for this purpose. Although now we will have to pay for this place and for a taxi to bring everyone there, we still think this effort is worthwhile: these women are so eager to learn more about God! (And we see clearly they do not attend our Bible studies just in order to get some social or financial help from us, since all of them, except for Tanya, are doing pretty well financially.)
One day I received a very precious encouragement from God. After one of our Shabbat services a woman from our congregation approached me and gave me an envelope saying: “God has put it on my heart to give this money to you.” It was amazing to hear that, since this woman – just as most of our believers – is an elderly lady who lives on a small pension. “For the expansion of God’s kingdom” – this is what was written on the envelope with a sum of money that is quite unusual for a pensioner to donate… This donation encouraged me: now we believe that God will take care of everything and provide for the new Bible study with these women.
Please keep praying for Tanya and her friends from the shelter!
Thank you very much for your prayer support and may God bless you,
Dov and Olga Bikas
As you may remember from my last update, about two months ago we established contact with Tanya, a woman from a shelter for victims of human trafficking and sexual slavery. (By the way, here is the website of Tanya’s shelter: http://www.maagan-shelter.org.il/English.html). The shelter was forcing her to move out and start an independent life, but she had nowhere to go with her two little children. Today, praise God, a small home church in Haifa is ready to take care of Tanya and her kids. They do not have the necessary funds, however, since they are just a small group of people, so we have to provide the money for Tanya’s family to move and start living there. Praise God, there were believers who responded to this need and sent their support, so we have been able to start putting some money aside for Tanya’s future needs. She will need it when she moves to Haifa, and this is going to happen as soon as the social workers decide whether they are letting Tanya’s kids stay with her or not. We had a very important meeting with the social services several weeks ago and it looked like they were willing to give Tanya a chance!
Our contact with Tanya let us get acquainted with several other victims of human trafficking who live in the same shelter. Soon after we met these women we decided to start weekly Bible studies for them – the offer they gladly accepted! Five-six women (and their kids) attend these studies, which have been taking place in a local park so far. A noisy park, however, is not the best background for Bible studies, so we have found and rented a good Christian place nearby for this purpose. Although now we will have to pay for this place and for a taxi to bring everyone there, we still think this effort is worthwhile: these women are so eager to learn more about God! (And we see clearly they do not attend our Bible studies just in order to get some social or financial help from us, since all of them, except for Tanya, are doing pretty well financially.)
One day I received a very precious encouragement from God. After one of our Shabbat services a woman from our congregation approached me and gave me an envelope saying: “God has put it on my heart to give this money to you.” It was amazing to hear that, since this woman – just as most of our believers – is an elderly lady who lives on a small pension. “For the expansion of God’s kingdom” – this is what was written on the envelope with a sum of money that is quite unusual for a pensioner to donate… This donation encouraged me: now we believe that God will take care of everything and provide for the new Bible study with these women.
Please keep praying for Tanya and her friends from the shelter!
Thank you very much for your prayer support and may God bless you,
Dov and Olga Bikas
