A Daystar Television Project
They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks; foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers; but you shall be called the priests of the LORD; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast.
Isaiah 61:4-6
Since the Hamas attack on Oct 7, 2023, Daystar has invested significant resources, time and energy to rebuild the areas destroyed by the onslaught. We believe Daystar is called to be a light in the darkness and a friend to Israel. Our efforts will continue in the coming months with only bigger and broader impact. The below information is just some of the projects and rebuilding efforts Daystar has contributed to Israel in the past few months.
On December 6th, down in Kibbutz Dorot, only 7 kilometers from the border of Gaza, we hosted a Nation-wide Serve Day through our partnership with organizations on the ground in Israel. We had over 250 volunteers come down for the whole day to help clean, paint, and prepare the kibbutz for families to return home in the next couple of weeks. We also had volunteers serve in the agricultural fields meeting the urgent need of harvesting crops and building irrigation systems.
Foreign workers typically make up 90% of the Israeli manual labor market for agriculture and now, none of them are in the country anymore. The kibbutz was exceedingly thankful for our help and said that many of our teams accomplished more work in one day than expected, some even saying that they saved the kibbutz over a month's worth of work.
The first families to return to their communities are those living 4-7 kilometers from the border. The biggest obstacle for those moving back, if they haven’t had their home destroyed, is not having a place for their kids to go to school since the existing schools are close to Gaza and will remain a war zone for the foreseeable future.
In order to move back, they need not only formal education options but also after-school activities: art, music, dancing, sports, etc. Currently there are no facilities to host these activities.
We want to start with the community we have already been serving in Kibbutz Dorot and help them be one of the first communities to return home.
We now have the open door to renovate two existing classrooms, add bomb shelters, and build four new classrooms with bomb shelters and kitchenettes to create a school and activity center on the kibbutz. We expect to have this done within the next 2-4 weeks so that the families of the kibbutz can begin to move home! The one Serve Day truly opened the doors for us to have a long-term relationship with this kibbutz — and we expect to have Christian volunteers coming and living on the kibbutz in the coming months to do activities with the kids as they return home. Daystar has done the following:
- Renovating 2 Existing Classrooms + adding a bomb shelter to each
- Built 4 New Classrooms with new bomb shelters
Daystar will continue to focus on rebuilding efforts in multiple communities across Israel. Right now, we are focused on communities in the south, central and northern parts of Israel. It is our Daystar partners’ continued support that gives us the ability to stand with Israel in such a committed and powerful way.
Shalom,
Jonathan Weiss
Daystar’s Israel Liaison
