It is almost a week since we have returned from Portugal and Spain after the conference in Castelo de Vide. The conference was for the Restoring of the lost heritage of the Jews that were forced to convert to Catholicism in the 15th Century. We had very close to 200 people from all around the world who gathered in the small town of Castelo de Vide to hear and to call attention to this historical injustice. We even had a representative of the Catholic church who called what the Spanish and Portuguese inquisition did to the Jews "a stain" and "a horror" and "atrocity," but he never said that it was a sin or that it was against the will of God. It was a "mistake" that the church did these horrible things to the Jews. I suppose that an infallible church can make mistakes but cannot sin. The conference was a success from many points of view, but the success of the conference is only the opening seed. Now it is time for those who participated in the conference and those who want to see the restoration of these poor souls who were forced to become Catholic Christians to lift up their voice and ask for divine intervention to correct the injustice and sin that was committed by people who called themselves Christians. I believe that this battle is for justice and righteousness and civil rights and freedom of conscience for millions of people who were robbed of their right to chose what they believe and how they will worship and forced to give up their names and their identity and above all their relationship to the nation and people-hood of Israel. You might ask, why is Joseph Shulam so interested in the Jewish identity of these who have been outwardly Catholic for near 500 years? The real reason is that I believe the Word of God, I believe the promises that God made in His Word, “And the exiles of this host of the sons of Israel, Who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, And the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the cities of the Negev.” (Obad. 20)

God is faithful to His promises and He will actually fulfill all of His promises. I don't know how and I don't knew when, but I do know that the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the cities of the Negev. I don't believe that this has anything to do with the doctrines of some Christian Denominations. It has to do only with God's promises that Paul says: “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” (Rom. 11:29) You please pray for God to fulfill all of His promises and to bring Yeshua back as soon as possible.

I ask you to pray for the food distribution program of Netivyah. We have grown to a point where we have to find some solutions to the challenges that we face. We want to do the best job possible for the poor people of Jerusalem. Two days ago we had a meeting with a government director of social services and we had a very fruitful meeting. We will get good advise and cooperation from the authorities that deal with food services and old age services and children's services. This is very important for us. It is this kind of cooperation that actually make us more efficient to accomplish our goal – that is to simply care and bless the population of Jerusalem. Especially we would like to bless the older population and the children. We learned that the two greatest needs of the poor of Jerusalem are dental care and eye-glasses and clothing for the elderly. For the dental care there is a clinic that actually will receive dentists who are willing to volunteer for two or three weeks or more and treat children and older generation of people who can not pay for the expensive dental care. I know because as I get older there are problems with my teeth and I know the price.

The second need that we heard about from the government is a need for eye-glasses for children. Right now we are busy with providing food for more than 160 families. Every day we still have at least three or four different people coming to our office wanting to register for receiving food. We are asking you to pray for the food distribution program. We are thinking of expanding the number of families that we serve by asking the city of Jerusalem to refer a set number of families that will receive food or coupons for food from Netivyah. The important thing for us is to not only speak peace over Jerusalem but to show our love in action for those in Jerusalem that are in need of food, dental or ocular needs. By helping these people with these needs it frees some of their funds for other needs that right now are unreachable for them. We shall continue to become more efficient and more generous to the generations of older people who have stepped out and immigrated to Israel after their retirement. We have the faith for expansion because we don't have the stomach for turning our face away from these needs. Please pray with us that our position in the city of Jerusalem will be one of service and community involvement for doing good.

The fire on mount Carmel devoured thousands of acres of natural forest, tens of thousands of forest wild animals have lost their lives, a Jewish village and some Arab villages have also been lost and eaten by the fire. A total of 43 men and women died in this fire. It will take nature several decades to turn those blackened mountains of the Carmel range back into green and may be some animals like deer can be replenished. Several have lost their homes and their businesses and others have lost faith in the government’s ability to protect them from natural disasters. All of Israel is saddened by totally unnecessary fire lit by a 14 year old boy playing with his friends. We lift up our brothers and sisters living on Mt. Carmel and in fact all of Israel because the Mountains and the Rivers and the beauty of this land is the heritage and inheritance of all of Israel.

We pray for our sick and right now we want to pray for Daniel a very sweet baby girl who is in need for our prayers. We continue to pray for Sara and Zvi, Ahuva, Leah, Ilana, Tania, Marcia, David S, and David. We are also praying for Ruby, and Ishiida San, Paulo, June, and Tim Tucker, all of these brothers and sisters are outside of Israel and we will continue to pray for their healing and care from God.

We also pray for Noaam and Danah and for their health.

We wish all of you who celebrate Christmas and New Year a very happy season and good weather. It seems like so much of Europe and the United States is experiencing bad weather and we know the One who controls the winds, the rain and the storms .

We thank you for praying for us and for your support of the Lord's work in Israel!

Joseph Shulam