Dr. Mike Evans, founder of the Friends of Zion Heritage Center in Jerusalem, the world's headquarters of the Jerusalem Prayer Team, arrived in Israel this week.
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On Tuesday morning, Evans and his team headed to the south of Israel, where they met with police officers and municipality workers who showed them around the city of Ashkelon. They visited a house that was hit directly by a missile fired by Hamas. The house, which had been home to a Holocaust survivor and her aide, was in complete ruins. The Holocaust survivor was seriously injured, and her aide was killed in the attack.
The adjacent house was also heavily damaged, leaving a young woman and her baby without a home. After seeing this astonishing site Evans has said that he will mobilize financial support from the Jerusalem Prayer Team to help these people rebuild.
The team then went on to a shelter where they met with a group of children suffering heavily from anxiety and PTSD, children who were too afraid to leave the shelter to play outside on the playground just a few meters away. They had been in the shelter for eight days. The shelter is bare, with only thin old mattresses and old filthy chairs, no proper beds, no television for entertainment, no toys, no Wi-Fi to connect with the world outside. The mothers sit clustered around the entrance outside so that when the sirens ring out, they can be with their children within a few seconds. These children only have 12 to 15 seconds to get in once the sirens go off.
After seeing this shelter, Evans left with a promise: "Jerusalem Prayer Team will completely renovate the shelter into a place with beds, tables, TV's, internet access, and toys table chairs so that they will be able to use it even in times of peace. We did something similar for a shelter in Jerusalem for Holocaust survivors, who use it on a daily basis."
Following their visit to Sderot, Evans and his team headed to Sderot, a city whose name has become almost synonymous with rocket-fall. There, he met with Alon Davidi, the mayor of Sderot, who shared the heartbreaking story of his daughter Emunah who has suffered from PTSD for most of her life.
Davidi said, "I don't know any family in my city that does not have someone without post-trauma, in a city of 30,000 people." Evans has promised Mayor Davidi that he will share the tragic story of Emunah, and the many citizens of Sderot with his 77 million followers, and encourage them to support these people. Evans himself invited Davidi and his family to come and rest at his home.
The team then visited the site of a Chabad kindergarten that had been bombed just the day before. While there Evans asked the Rabbis, how many people from Sderot have fired missiles at Gaza, or threw grenades, or fired bullets? The answer, of course, was none. Evans plans to raise funds for Chabad, and to encourage all members of the Jerusalem Prayer Team to support their work.
In addition to the Friends of Zion Heritage Center, Evans is also the founder of the Jerusalem Prayer Team, a movement with over 77 million followers, all dedicated to defending Israel's brand and combating antisemitism.
Just a few days before he arrived in Israel, Evans' Facebook page, Jerusalem Prayer Team, was attacked by radical Islamists, who flooded it with antisemitic and anti-Israel hate speech. The page, which was the largest pro-Israel page on Facebook, has been shut down.
"These days Israel is in a battle against media bias, therefore I decided to produce a major television special titled Guardians of the Wall, the name of Israel's military operation. The special will be given free to all Christian media through the works of the Israel Government Press Office, who sponsors annual global Christian Media Summit."
Christian broadcasters politicians, faith leaders, and celebrities, such as President of the CBN Network Gordon Robertson, former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Governor Mike Huckabee, Pastor Robert Jeffress, Jon Voight, Pat Boone, Pastor Jack Graham and Pastor Paula White and a host of others will take part.
Evans stated, "In times like these, you know who your friends are. The 750 million Evangelicals whom I lead are Israel's secret weapon – 77 million of them are members of the Friends of Zion Museum, who follow and support the museum's activities and the Jerusalem Prayer Team Corporation."
Jokingly, he added, "A Jew, Mark Zuckerberg, shut the world's largest Christian pro-Israel site down that was praying for Jews. Now that should be on Saturday Night Live, John Oliver, Bill Maher, Chris Hardwick, James Corden, and Seth Meyers' shows. So I hope the check is in the mail."
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Evans is the founder of the Friends of Zion Heritage Center and the author of 108 books, which have sold over 38 million copies worldwide. He also served as Jerusalem Adviser to former US President Donald Trump and he is also the driving force behind numerous initiatives supporting Israel, including the Jerusalem Prayer Team, which has 77 million members, and the Holocaust Memorial Museum Corrie ten Boom in Haarlem, The Netherlands.
