Give Thanks To The LORD

50 Years Beth-El Community

50 years Beth-El community in Israel This presentation will contain the following: •

We want to be glad about GOD‘s miracles and his grace in the past 50 years

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We would like to give thanks to all our brothers and sisters and members of our community

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We will have a short review on the last five decades

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Future of Israel

This was the word sister Emma shared at the inauguration service of the house Bethanien: Isaiah 41,8 – 17 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee,

THOU ART MY SERVANT

Our sanctuary in the house Bethanien in Korntal, Germany

On New Year‘s Day 1963 the LORD revealed the word from Matthew 10,6: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. A new journey of belive began........

On

April 29, 1963,

four pioneers left for Israel by ship

1963 They spend the first week in Shavei Zion, praying and asking GOD where to go from there.

Through GOD‘s guidance they reached Zikhron Ya‘akov. Very soon later they were able to buy an unoccupied coffeehouse and renovated it by tough handwork.

1963

Zikhron Ya‘akov today, viewed from above

In 1992, an other storey – the Obersaal was added to the house Beth-El.

2013 And that is how the house Zion looks today…

• Our first house for guests and visitors in 1963 and 2013

In November 1963 a first group from Germany travelled for two weeks to Israel. Untill this day there followed about 300 other groups. The foundation stone of the house Beth-El was layed in 1965. In 1967 followed the inauguration. This was a holy day in the presence of GOD and the LORD spoke: I, the LORD, am on this place. This is the house and the dwelling place of GOD and the gate to heaven.

House Beth-El in 1967

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path....(Psalm 119, 105)

1963 - 1970 • In the sixties and seventies, the foundations of a small community being self-catering in Israel were layed • Over the course in Binyamina a farm and a market garden was set up

The farm and the nursery

This is how our first tractor looked like...

And this is the one we use today – Thank GOD, so....

1964 Our first orchard in Pardes Hanna

A dairy and a cheese factory were built...

A laundry, an ironing and a sewing room were established...

A kindergarten was founded...

... and in 2010 the new school “ Beit Shlomi” with a big festival ground for the community.

An old people’s home was built for our elderly brothers and sisters...

House Beth-El – Center of our Community

1966 House Beth El today More than 300 groups have been visiting…

Beth El guesthouse

Bird’s eye view of Beth El

• In fall 1974 the life and love community Beth-El was founded on Acts 2,4 and 4,32:

“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teachings, brotherly love and fellowship...”

Our subsistence

Rainbow – bomb shelter aeration device

Since 1977 we were able to equip bomb shelters for almost one million people with these devices

We are very thankful to the LORD for this branch of industry we able to establish, so we can provide for our own living.

It all started with the bread making for our personal needs…..

Carmel Natural Products Ltd.

...then followed the down production.

Thanks to GOD, that not only our congregation grew, but also our companies expanded...

1998 Filt Air

Production of airfilters for cleanrooms. A lot of newly arrived jewish immigrants from surrounding settlements were employed

2004 Beth-El Food Bnei Jehudah, Golan Export of Israeli fruits

2007 Shakhak Tec Ltd.

Production of synthetic and injection molding pieces for the medical domain and irrigation systems

2008 Beth-El engineering GmbH

GOLAN

Production of bottling machines for diary and cosmetic products M a c h i n e r y

2012 Vocational education centre in Shakhak Because of a big shortage of qualified craftsman in the metal industry in Israel, Beth-El founded a vocational education centre for metalworking professions in the fields of sheet metal shaping and machining in Shakhak in 2012.

Life in the Beth-El community The community is the body of Jesus and Christ is the head of its body. If we -as living limbs- are connected to the head Jesus Christ, true, fertile and fulfilling fellowship – internal and external– is possible and this not only by the perserving process of fruits.

Vacation Possibilities in the Kibbutz In this house near Beer Sheva, brothers and sisters of Beth-El have the possibilty to relax and explore the beautyful NegevDesert.

Ashalim cottage

Bible courses on the Golan

Beit-El organises regularly bible courses for young and old in Bnei Jehudah, Golan, to strengthen spirit, soul and body

Our building on the Golan

And they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the LORD, and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. Zechariah 6,15

We experience the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.... .

The brothers and sisters from Canada came to Israel In 2004 started by the grace of our LORD the immigration of our Canadian brothers and sisters to Israel. They found a place in Magen Shaul, at the foot of the Gilboa mountains, and established the Kibbutz Shalva (= tranquillity, harmony)

Gilboa Tooling, Magen Shaul

An other miracle: the Immigration of brothers and sisters from....

… Hungary…

…and Romania

Opportunities we have to bless Israel... Childern of the children‘s home in Nethanya

Support of the children’s home in Nethanya 220 children live in the children‘s home in Nethanja, who all come from broken homes. The head of the children‘s home, with whom we are in close contact, mentors the children from their first day of arrival and maintains to support them also after they left the care of the children‘s home. A lot of „his“ children managed to enter a normal and neatly life. We support this children‘s home with donated items, for example: Matzot on Pessakh, jam, doughnuts on Hanukkah or school bags for the first day of school etc... Furthermore we support them with internal and external donations of brothers and sisters and friends of Israel from the US.

Support for settlers in Samaria, starting in 1997

In 1997 began our contact to settlers in Samaria and Judea, whom we are able to help in different ways...

Assistance with the yearly grape harvest in Samaria

Assistance with the yearly sheep shearing in Maale Levona, Samaria

Support for Sderot In Sderot – the city who is been shot at from Gaza since years – we are in contact with Avichai, the torah scribe, who assists 670 poor families in Sderot with groceries. Once every week he and his helpmates distribute staple to poor families in Sderot. Regularly we donate products from our own grocery factories (pasteries, jam or honey).

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Assistance of the soup kitchen in Sderot •

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Avichai managed a soup kitchen, which was closed at the end of 2010 because of financial reasons. After he witnessed the poverty of the elder population in Sderot, as one of his former soup kitchen guests committed suicide out of despair, that he lost the daily food support, Avichai decided to reopen his soup kitchen. Beth-El donated a part of its own kitchen equipment so that the soup kitchen could be reopened at the end of this year‘s Feast of Tabernacles. Each day between 40 to 50 people are provided with a warm lunch. The soup kitchen staff are all volunteers.

Fear and distress in Israel That is how the remains of a Katjuscha rocket look like. Hundreds of these rockets are fired on the south part of Israel since Israel‘s retreating from Gaza. The inhabitants of Sderot have about 15 seconds to reach a bomb shelter from the time the sirens go off.

But GOD can do the impossible... The Bible says in Luke 18, 27:

„And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after. Jeremiah 30,17

Visitors in our factory

Almost every day we welcome visitors to our factories. They are hosted with a little snack, enjoy our choir‘s performance of Psalms in hebrew and are able to gather information about Beth-El.

Choir performances in Beit Theresienstadt

Beit Theresienstadt is a memorial museum for the KZ Theresienstadt and a meeting place for Shoah survivors. Our choir was already invited several times to perform there.

Each guest received a little gift from Beth-El.

Contact to Holocaust survivors from Zikhron Ya‘akov through WIZO This people are part of the Holocaust survivors from Zikhron, who gathered under the wings of the WIZO organisation. We were invited to their New Year‘s festival.

Beth-El’s service for Holocaust survivors Two women from Beth-El are working as full-time employees with a lot of love and devotion for these Holocaust survivors.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Isaiah 40,1

Assistance as guards in Benjamina and as volunteer firefighters 1. Part of our young men are helping as nightguards in Benjamina. 2. Beth-El has an own volunteer fire brigade, containing 25 people. For all the major fires –usually forest fires during the hot summer months– they are in duty for the Israeli fire department. (The pictures show scenes of the horrible fire in 2010 on the Carmel.)

Other assistance We have a lot of other opportunities to serve our Jewish fellow citizens, e.g. by babysitting the three-week old triplets last Jom Kipur…

Future project New farm for visitors Animals outside of the housing area

Some additional important things we would like to share... Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? Psalm 115, 1-2

Promises for the future of Israel Return to Israel And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. Ezekiel 34,11-13

Promises for the future of Israel Peace and safety And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid.. Ezekiel 34,28

Promises for the future of Israel Property And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God. Amos 9,15

Promises for the future of Israel Fertility and abundance Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. Amos 9,13-14

Promises for the future of Israel New spiritual life Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. Jeremiah 31,31

An olive tree of the Beth Bara community has been planted in the Beth-El garden

Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities. Jeremiah 31,21

My heartfelt thanks to all community members, who assisted Beth-El over many years in its inner and outward growth:

- through faithful prayers, - through assistance in group times, - through smaller and bigger donations, - and by supporting us in many other ways.

Many Thanks!!!

END

• Let us start a littel earlier: • In October 1952 sister Emma, her sister Babette and her aunt gathered for times of prayer in their kitchen in Gerstetten, Germany. That is how the community started. After a few weeks there were already 17 brothers and sisters meeting and they witnessed a wonderful baptizing festival. The LORD blessed and added to the believers and here and there other small congregations arose and started to meet in their houses. • In the year 1956 the LORD commanded: Go and build a house for me, where the congregation can gather. Brother Benz provided the place for the community building in Korntal. The building process startet on June 17, 1957. Through many steps of faith and miracles this house was built and consecrated on January 5, 1958 and was named Bethanien.

1963 - 1970 • In the sixties and seventies the foundations for a small communal life with self supply were laid • In Benjamina a farm and a nursery were built…

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Certainly there were a lot of concerns on the part of the population in Zikhron Ya‘akov. People asked oneself: What do this Germans want? Who knows whether they are nazis or missionaries? Stones were thrown, straw and the barn at the farm in Benjamina were set on fire, water pipes were cut through, fires were started. Some Yeshiva-students from Zikhron and Pardes Hanna were catched as they were throwing stones and the juvie court was about to step in. The parents of the boys then asked sister Emma: Please do not undertake anything. If the boys will be punished their professional future is ruined. They came to an agreement: The boys will have to come and apologize, what they also really did. They came to Beit-El and there, they were served and hosted with love. During the years we met some of these men (boys) again. Some of them are filling important and influential seats in the country and are now faithful friends of our community. We are very thankful and glad that today, the relationships to the citizens of Zikhron are very good and that we can meet each other in mutual love and are accepted in their midst.

• Prayer for the daily bread and the development of an industry •

Ask and entreat for the daily bread, was one of five requests, witch were prophesied in a revelation by sister Emma in 1983. The more brothers and sisters left the community in Germany to come to Israel, the more the financial support from Germany for our community here in Israel dried up. Already in 1973, we started to built a little factory at the eastern village exit of Zikhron Ya’akov. Military and civil defense consultants recommended us, to begin with the production of filters, because no Israeli competition was expected in this field of industry. It was a major concern to the sisters, to protect the people of Israel from death through lethal gas. Even though we were not yet confronted with the threat of terrorism like nowadays, we started with the development of a bomb shelter aeration device, witch would supply the shelter with clean air in case of an chemical or biological attack. With a lot of help from the LORD we succeeded to develop different aeration devices for private bomb shelters and public buildings. Since January 1, 2012 each new private Israeli home is equipped with one of our aeration devices. In public facilities bomb shelter aeration device are mandatory since several years.

• The one who bless Israel, will be blessed.