By David Parsons, ICEJ Senior Vice President & Spokesman 

Over the past two years, as the battered Israeli communities along the Gaza border have started returning to their home villages, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem has undertaken nine major rebuilding projects in the area to help restore communal life and draw back the thousands of residents evacuated from their homes following the mass terror invasion on October 7, 2023. 

Many Christians from around the world have donated towards these efforts and we wanted to give you an update on where they currently stand as we approach three years since this prolonged war began. Thankfully, 90% of the funds needed to complete these rebuilding and renovation projects has come in, but we need your help to finish these construction plans, especially so we can move on to one more major project at the hardest hit community of all, Kibbutz Nir Oz. 

Sha’ar HaNegev – Shelters for Resilience Center (Completed) 
During a recent visit to the Gaza border region, our ICEJ team started at the school complex for the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council near Sderot. Here, the council has built a new resilience center for their 10,000 residents. It is located right beside the campus for their elementary, middle and high schools, to make it easier for their vulnerable young students to get much-needed trauma care. The ICEJ funded the construction of three large bomb shelters needed for the resilience center to open. 

Our host, Rotem, explained how they have turned the ICEJ’s three large shelters into useful therapy rooms as well. One was turned into a colourful art room for young children and we were taken by the cheerful artwork they were creating. 
 

“In Sha’ar HaNegev, we have over 1000 children in three schools, and every week they take turns coming over here for an hour each to build their resilience”, said Rotem. “The children have many activities. For us, this art room is a safe place, but for them it also is a fun place to be.” 

“Since I was ten, I suffered from the security situation here, and now I have my own kids and I need to choose every single day to live and stay here”, she explained. “This place provides a safe haven for my kids. For my daughter, any noise can be a trigger for trauma. But here in this center, she can express herself and process everything, and it helps a lot.” 

“Thank you for being with us”, Rotem added. “We couldn’t do it without you.” 

Sdot Negev – Shelters for Resilience Center (Completed) 
A few miles away, we next visited the head offices of the Sdot Negev Regional Council, which has greatly expanded its own resilience center for area residents. This required two new large bomb shelters, which were provided by ICEJ. Our host Esther noted that they too were turning these large shelters into extra therapy rooms.   

“We have people coming in the daytime and the evenings for therapy. So having the shelters enables us to make them feel safe when they come”, she said. “You have to have them to stay open.” 

“Before October 7, we had a team of 17 therapists serving approximately 200 to 250 people per year. But now that has jumped to a team of 200 therapists serving over 3,000 people. This is a need all over Israel, but especially here in the Gaza border area.” 

“I just now spoke to a mother whose eight-year-old son has finished a therapy course, but he’s still not talking”, Esther confided. “He won’t talk to his teachers. He’s still very scared, even though it’s almost three years later.” 

Kfar Aza – Child Therapy and Music Centers (Underway) 
A short drive further south we entered Kfar Aza, where our host Orit showed us a daycare building which the Christian Embassy is currently renovating to serve as a children’s trauma center. In addition, we are turning an old community pub into an innovative music therapy center. She noted that Kfar Aza had over 80 residents killed or kidnapped on October 7, and thus their rebuilding plans are just now getting underway. 

“I’m still coming every week to see that everything is being built like we planned”, said Orit. “It is very important for us to make this daycare center into a place that will treat the kids.” 

“Sadly, 90% of our children from ages three to six need emotional treatment after October 7”, Orit explained. “Some of them were really young, even babies. Nearly every family in Kfar Aza lost someone – a father, mother, brothers and sisters. You’re growing up among broken families. So, we believe that these kids really need this extra strength for their emotional health. This daycare center is an important part of drawing these families back.” 

Meanwhile, the ICEJ’s music therapy center will be situated right beside the community dining hall, placing it at the hub of communal life for Kfar Aza as evacuated families return over the coming year. It will feature an auditorium for performances, a recording studio, therapy rooms, and music classes, while the ICEJ also is purchasing an array of musical instruments for the innovative facility. 
 

Kibbutz Be’eri – Three Rebuilding Projects (Underway) 
We next stopped at Kibbutz Be’eri, ten minutes down the road, to check out three ICEJ building projects now under construction. This includes totally rebuilding the youth activity center from the ground up, turning a retirement home into an elderly care and activities center, and building a brand new dental clinic. 

Our host at Kibbutz Be’eri was Lior, who suffered through October 7 and somehow survived. Like other kibbutz members, he has been living many miles away over recent years, but he assured the community is happy about starting to come back. 

“We’re so exciting to walk around the kibbutz and see all the building that is going on”, Lior gushed. “It will be newer and nicer than it was, thanks to organisations like yours that helped us so much!” 

“It has been very surprising for me to find that Christians love Israel and support us so much”, Lior added. “We only expected Jewish organisations in the beginning, but now I understand that Christians like us more than the Jews and are more open-hearted to help us. I am always smiling and laughing that they like our kibbutz more than our own Jewish people.” 

Walking around the kibbutz, we found that the restored youth center is nearly closed in, with electrical wiring and plumbing being installed. One block away, the old retirement home has been cleared out and is ready for workers to turn it into a new therapy and activities center for senior citizens called “Neot Be’eri”. Finally, just behind a walled-off area, we were thrilled to see dozens of busy workers building a new medical complex which will include a first-class dental clinic sponsored by the Christian Embassy. 

Kibbutz Urim – Animal Therapy Ranch (Underway) 
Passing the site of the Nova music festival massacre, we turn east towards Kibbutz Urim, where the ICEJ has been assisting a horse therapy ranch and animal corner to greatly expand its boundaries and services. Kibbutz Urim already had the animal therapy ranch going to help area residents deal with the trauma caused by years of incessant rocket barrages from nearby Gaza. The ICEJ has now been helping them expand these animal therapy outlets, buying them four new therapy horses so far, and helping to rebuild their animal corner to provide expanded child trauma treatment services. It was especially exciting to meet our newest therapy horse, Appollo! 

“We’re building a brand new, amazing facility to host our patients here, to provide the best conditions for the patients, for the therapists, and for the animals”, our host Karen explained. “We are in the final process of receiving the permits for this expanded project on adjoining farmland. There have been lots of hoops to jump through. But we already have gone from helping 100 patients before October 7 to 250 people in the last twelve months, and we are hoping the new facility can grow to serve 350 or even 400 people.”  

“We’ve been working to expand on three branches. The horse therapy ranch with new stables and riding rinks, the small animal and dog therapy center, and now we have therapeutic cycling activities”, Karen added. “These are partly educational and partly pure therapy activities. And we thank the Christian Embassy so much. Your support is everything.” 

Sde Nitzan – AgroTech School (Completed) 
Finally, we visited the new AgroTech high school which the ICEJ has helped launch in the village of Sde Nitzan. The school started out with 30 students in 2024 and then jumped to 50 students in its second year. It aims to draw young pioneer farmers from across Israel to help resettle and strengthen the Gaza border area in the wake of the October 7 attacks. The Christian Embassy built a large greenhouse classroom for the innovative research the students are undertaking. We also donated four regular classrooms and a learning center at the agro-tech school. But more help may be needed as the school has additional expansion plans. 

Asaf, who hosted our visit, is one of the founders of the cutting-edge farming school in Sde Nitzan. He noted that “the Western Negev region produces 70 percent of Israel’s farm products. Thus, it is important that the region recovers from the severe impact of October 7, and the school is one of the bright spots for Eshkol’s future.” 

“The school has two big impacts”, added Asaf. “First, the farmers need our help all over the area, and the students in this school are working every day to help them. Every day, I see these kids in the greenhouses, in the fields, they give it a lot of power with their hands and their smiles and their energy. So, it brings us a lot of hope.” 

“The second impact is I think this school is the ‘new Zionism’. The local farm villages were evacuated after October 7, and these young kids are helping the elderly and families in the villages, in their gardens, in everything they do.

This is the new Zionism, here in the borders of Israel, touching the land, working in agriculture, learning. This is our hope for all of Israel.” 

Help Us Leave This Lasting Legacy  
Taken together, these nine initiatives are the most ambitious series of building projects the Christian Embassy has ever undertaken at one time, and we sincerely appreciate all those who have helped us so far. As you can gather, we especially have sought to meet the special needs of the most vulnerable – children and the elderly. 

We are 90% of the way towards funding all of these projects, which are leaving a lasting testimony of Christian love and concern for the Israeli communities still recovering from this monumental tragedy. The sooner we finish covering these costs, the quicker we can move on to one more major project, which will be the capstone of our rebuilding campaign. 

 We have been selected by Kibbutz Nir Oz, the hardest-hit community of all, to help rebuild an important part of their communal life. This project will be key to allowing Nir Oz to recover and reach for a brighter future. This is your chance to fulfil the prophetic promise to Israel that “foreigners will build your walls!” (Isaiah 60:10) 

Main photo: Meet ‘Appollo’, the newest ICEJ horse at the Urim therapy ranch