On the eve of Rosh Hashanah this month, Iran unleashed ballistic missiles across Israel. This is in addition to continuing Hezbollah rocket attacks and the still occurring war in Gaza. The escalating violence and widening conflict only adds to the fear, anxiety, and physical and spiritual needs of war-weary people.

Refugees are included, as after the beginning of the war in Ukraine, many Jews emigrated to Israel to escape only to find themselves in the middle of another war. But in the midst of the bombardment, the church remains, and they greatly need the support now of the SGA family.

By God’s grace, the destruction earlier this month was minimal and the loss of life was from a terrorist attack that occurred at the same time. We reached out to the pastors SGA supports in Israel for their thoughts and comments. No pictures were provided—just word pictures of those who take cover for a moment, and then press on trusting in God’s guiding and protecting hand.

From Pastor Pavel:

A family (wife plus three children) was at home. There is a secure room in the apartment. Sirens were sounding. The family went into this room. The cat hid in the wardrobe. No explosions were heard. At that time, several guys from the church and I were in the center of Israel. We were helping the guys from our church move. They had recently arrived from [a different city] and were moving to a permanent residence. When many things were taken out into the street, sirens sounded. We went into the secure room. There we prayed and asked for protection for the families, the church, and all of Israel. There was no panic. We tried to be positive and even joked a little so as not to create panic. For some reason, at that time, a sister shared how she was going to build relationships with people in Israel and evangelize. We heard a lot of explosions. It was probably the sound of the Iranian missiles being shot down by the Israeli air defense. We were actively texting our brothers and sisters in the church chat. We were posting photos of where we were. These were mostly family photos from protected places. Some were forwarding news, some were joking. Probably, some kind of psychological self-defense was at work. A person does not want to take difficult events to heart during stress. Periodically, we began to pray again and reminded each other that we are under God’s protection. The sirens died down for a while. And we decided to finish the move. We made it in time. We were thinking about whether to gather for the Rosh Hashanah holiday or not. We decided to act in accordance with the government’s recommendations. For now, we are leaning towards meeting at the holiday and inviting non-believers. Personally, I think that this conflict will always be there. In order for there to be a lull, we need to pray, supporting the Israeli army and government so that they can neutralize the aggression of the attackers.

Feedback from one of our sisters in the chat . . . “Guys, thank you! You are truly heroes. Oksana, special thanks to you!” For me personally, it was not easy today. The first time I was seriously scared was when we were sitting in the bomb shelter. The siren started while we were carrying our things. We dropped everything and ran to the shelter. When the shelling stopped, I thought we would finish moving, too. But all the guys continued to carry until the very end, and thanks to your efforts, we moved today. Thank you very much!

From Pastor Wilhelm:

Good afternoon. Yesterday Iran attacked Israel again. I just returned from a rehabilitation center where we had a Bible lesson. We talked about repentance, about the Jewish Rosh Hashanah, and the Book of Life. And when I returned home, literally a few minutes later the sirens started. We had already been shot at, but this time everything was different. The sirens stopped and only after about 15 minutes the explosions began. The explosions were so powerful that the house shook. We were in the protective room and prayed. The youngest daughter was very scared, she cried and even when they said that she could leave the shelter, she did not want to go out. My wife and I calmed her down, gave her water and prayed. People in the church were also scared, some live in houses where there is no shelter, and they had to run across the road. Praise the Lord it ended, there are no victims. I understand that many want to destroy Israel, but the Word of our Lord is true, strong and solid for every believer. We pray that the Lord will strengthen us in all our affairs and fill us with His love and peace, so that we can help others, support in these difficult times. Thank you all for your prayers and may the Lord keep you!

From Pastor Dmitri:

[Our city], like other cities in Israel, was under fire from Iran. [Our city] is closer to Iran than the southern cities, so there is less time to escape to safety. I felt myself ok. I, my wife and children gathered together, read the Bible, prayed and went to bed.

From Pastor Oleg:

On the evening of October 2, an alarm suddenly sounded on my phone. This is a special program for alerting Israeli citizens about danger. Along with the alarm, a text in Hebrew came, which said that everyone in Israel needed to urgently take shelter in safe places, since rockets were flying from Iran to Israeli territory. My wife, daughter, and I went to the bomb shelter (a special room in many apartments in Israel). After a while, I went out and went to the balcony to see what was happening. Right in front of me, many rockets were flying from Iran in the sky. The rockets that were flying higher seemed very small, and those lower were large. The Israeli military immediately began to repel the attack, and we saw rockets flying from Israel in the sky, which shot down rockets from Iran. That evening, many rockets were fired all over Israel, starting from the north and including the south. There were also terrorist attacks by Islamists in some cities in Israel. My family and I felt calm. We corresponded with our eldest daughter, who also lives in [our city] with her family, to find out if everything was okay. My daughter and her children were at home, and her husband was hit by rockets somewhere on the road while driving home from work. But God saved us all. Today is a calm morning again. Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) is approaching in Israel. We do not know what will happen today or tomorrow, but we trust in God, who controls everything.

From Minister Maxim:

It was relatively quiet in the north this time. We saw missiles fired from Iran flying over our city, and the Israeli air defense shot down these missiles. It was at this time that we had a prayer service, so we did not react much to what was happening, we just prayed, clearly understanding that God is in control. In addition, we know well that our main war is not with man, but with spiritual forces that rebel against God and His people. We hope in Him.