Testimonies
The Wonderful Story of S.
It has now been three years since we met her. By God’s grace, her debt is paid. She came to faith in Yeshua and shares the Good News with those around her. Her sister and her niece have also received the Lord. She said to Marianna, “Before I met you and before I got to know the Lord, I felt I was stuck in the mud, and I had no hope. And now I see the light.” Even though she still has many challenges, there is indeed hope for her future and for the future of her children.
Returning to the Lord
God Gives Second Chances
S., though not yet a believer in Yeshua, is very open to know about the ways of the Lord. She was a battered woman, and her partner, a drug addict, had forced her into a life of prostitution. One day he tried to kill her, but she fainted, and when she came to, he was gone. While he was hitting her, S. heard a voice telling her that she needed to run out with her kids and get help. She found a shelter for battered women, where she met some of the other women that receive help from our organization, and thus she became connected to Afikim BaNegev. S. has a sense that God has given her a second chance. Through aid from our ministry, she studies psychology at the Open University in Beer Sheva, and her mother moved here from Russia to help her with her two children.
Both of S’s daughters are ranked in the top 15% of extraordinarily gifted children. The older daughter, age 15, was accepted last year into a special NASA training for teens. This program included a trip to NASA in the United States for three weeks and a six month special training course in astronomy at Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva. Our organization raised the $3500 needed to help send her to the program in the U.S. where she did extremely well. Because she excelled in the program, she was then accepted into the program in Beer Sheva for free.
Child Beating Curtailed
M. and an Angel
Marianna accompanied one of the mothers to an appointment at the National Insurance Ministry. She dropped the woman off and continued on to park the car. By the time Marianna approached the building to join L. at her appointment, she saw L. sitting by the street and wailing like a crazy woman. When L. spotted Marianna, she began yelling even louder, bellowing out things like, “God, why did you give me those kids I can’t support?” The crowd on the street gawked at L. as she continued to shriek and writhe in hysteria. Marianna went out into the street, and as she held her, she sensed the woman relaxing in her arms. She proceeded then to tell Marianna the story of how she became aggressive during her appointment when they told her that they would not receive people with her problems that particular day. She reported that she started yelling, screaming, kicking, and wailing. Two security guards were called in, and they carried L out and set her on the pavement.
While L. was relating this story to Marianna, someone drove up along side of them on a motorbike. He appeared to be a typical, swarthy Israeli man in his mid-forties. He looked straight at L. and said to her in Hebrew: “They’re always going to be cruel, and they’re always going to be wrong. You can’t be moved by them; you need to be moved by the Spirit.” Marianna stared at the man in utter astonishment, and he looked back at her and winked. Then L. began arguing with him, “But you don’t understand.” Speaking Russian to L., Marianna said to her, “Listen, I think God is speaking to you.” Marianna looked at the Israeli man and he nodded at her in understanding and then repeated the same thing to L. that he had said previously. Marianna and L. turned away for a brief moment, and the “man” on the motorcycle had disappeared. Though L. did not seem receptive to the message at the time of her duress, Marianna, was very encouraged by the encounter and is totally convinced that the motorcyclist was an angel. We work for a great Boss and He sometimes sends us help and encouragement in unusual ways!