By Staff Writers

Pastor Manasa Kolivuso at Kfar HaNokdim 

The Feast of Tabernacles opened at the Kfar HaNokdim oasis, in the Negev desert, where evangelist Manasa Kolivuso from Fiji gave an inspiring message on living a life of worship towards Jesus. Pastor Manasa, the new interim chairman of the ICEJ-Fiji branch, encouraged the pilgrims to always remember the purpose for coming to Jerusalem for Tabernacles, which can be found in the Feast theme passage of Zechariah 8:20-23. 

“The purpose we have ascended to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles 2025 is to seek the Lord”, he said. “Time spent in seeking God is never a time wasted; it is always a time invested… Everything else can wait. Food can wait. Rest can wait. Worship cannot wait. We are called to the Feast of Sukkot to have an encounter with God.” 

“The world can reject Israel today, but one day they will come running back. And from every nation, people will join hands and cling to the robe of a Jew… [We need to] cling to the robe of the One Jew. If we miss that One Jew, Jesus, we miss it all.” 

Pastor Manasa also led the entire assembly in fervent prayer for the safe return of all the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza before the Feast ended the following week. Amazingly, our prayers were answered when the last 20 living hostages came home on the very last day of Sukkot. 

President Isaac Herzog on Israeli Guest Night 

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog made a riveting appearance on Israeli Guest Night, delivering a warm welcome address to the Feast pilgrims and thanking Christians worldwide for standing with the Jewish nation and people during these past two turbulent years. 

“It is no coincidence, friends, that you have gathered here at a decisive moment in the history of this region. You, lovers of Zion, have arrived here at a crossroads in which the choice for blessing or curse, for life and liberty or death and destruction, is laid out before us,” said Herzog. “Of course, your love for Israel is not new. For decades, your Embassy in Jerusalem, the ICEJ, has been a global voice of Christian friendship, solidarity and action for Israel. When others left Jerusalem, you came and said, like Abraham: ‘Hineini, we are here. We stand with the State of Israel, with the people of Israel, and with the Holy City.’”  

“I want to thank the ICEJ, its president, Dr. Jürgen Bühler, and his excellent team. And Christian Zionist communities around the world. And I want to thank each of you who have made this pilgrimage of body, heart and spirit to Israel. And those joining us now from around the world”, Herzog added. 

“May God bless you for blessing Israel. May He bless Jerusalem. May He bring our hostages home as soon as possible. And may He spread His tabernacle, His canopy, His sukkah of peace, over all who love this land. Thank you.”  

Fiji’s DPM Viliame Gavoka attends Feast 
 
The Deputy Prime Minister of Fiji, Viliame Gavoka, came to Jerusalem as a Feast pilgrim just weeks after his nation opened its new Embassy in Jerusalem, the seventh nation to do so. Gavoka was the key figure who insisted on the Embassy opening as a condition for joining the new government last year. “Fijians know that God is with Israel”, he told the Feast gathering. “For decades, Christians in Fiji have longed to see our government stand in Jerusalem—the eternal capital of Israel… Fiji is small but growing in Spirit. We stand unashamedly with Israel and unshakably upon the Word of God. We are a people guided by faith, a people of prayer, and a nation that stands with God’s Word.” 

Malcolm Hedding receives Nehemiah Award 

During the Feast, ICEJ President Dr. Jürgen Bühler presented this year’s Nehemiah Award to his predecessor, former ICEJ Executive Director Rev. Malcolm Hedding, in recognition of his lifetime of achievements in building Christian support for Israel. Hedding first served as chaplain for the Christian Embassy beginning in the 1980s and later came back from South Africa to head the ministry from 2000 to 2011. He remained on the International Board of Trustees and was an international speaker for the ICEJ until last year. 

“I can say that in all my fifty years of activism and ministry on behalf of the Jewish community in the world and the nation of Israel, I have simply strived to be faithful to the call of God over my life,” Hedding told the audience. “I do understand that faithfulness leads to significance. This award gives me that sense of joy that in some way my life has been significant for the Jewish community and for the nation of Israel.” 
 
Over 2000 Christians Join Jerusalem March 
 
The Christian Embassy arranged to hold the traditional Jerusalem March during the Feast this year in Sacher Park, where over 2,000 pro-Israel Christians from some 75 countries paraded with their national flags and engaged with the thousands of Israelis gathered there for Sukkot holiday activities. This year’s Feast gathering constituted the largest solidarity mission to Israel since the war began two years ago. The March came just hours after news broke overnight that Israel and Hamas had agreed on the first phase of US President Trump’s plan for ending the war in Gaza and releasing the remaining Israeli hostages. 

Timely Prayers for Israeli leaders in Knesset Rose Garden 
 
The Jerusalem March ended with a Prayer Vigil in the Rose Garden overlooking the Knesset, where over 2,000 Christians from around the globe zealously interceded for the hostages only a few hundred meters away from where the Israeli cabinet was convening in the Prime Minister’s Office to consider and approve the first phase of the Trump peace plan for Gaza. Within four days, all 20 living hostages still left in Gaza were released to return to their homes and families, a joyous moment that Israelis will never forget.