September 1 is almost here. Across Israel, backpacks are being packed, pencils are being sharpened, and children are getting ready to walk through their classroom doors for the first day of a new school year. Through our Back to School Project, many children from struggling families have already received the supplies they need—but there are still children we hope to reach, and now we have only a few days left.
As a pastor and as a father, I keep thinking about that first morning of school. Every child will walk through the gate carrying something—not only a backpack, but all the excitement, nervousness, and hope that comes with beginning again. No child should have to enter that classroom already feeling different because their parents simply could not afford what was on the school list. Before the first bell rings, we have one final opportunity to change that for another child.
Over these past weeks, it has been a joy to watch this project come to life. Through our Humanitarian Aid Centers, backpacks and school supplies have been reaching Jewish and Arab families, new immigrants beginning their lives in Israel, and parents carrying financial burdens that have made even ordinary school expenses difficult. The circumstances behind each family are different, but the relief we see is often the same. A child opens a new backpack with excitement, while somewhere beside them a mother or father quietly realizes that one more burden has been lifted.
That is what your generosity makes possible. A backpack may seem ordinary, but for a child who was expecting to begin the year without one, it can restore something very important: the feeling that they are ready, that they belong, and that they can walk into school just like everyone else. For their parents, your kindness says something equally powerful: you do not have to carry everything alone.
Yeshua taught us that when we welcome a child, when we care for someone in need, and when we make room for the person others may overlook, we are doing something precious in the eyes of God. This is why, for us, a backpack is never only a backpack. It is another opportunity to say through our actions: you are seen, you are valued, and you are loved. Our humanitarian assistance is always given freely to people in need regardless of their background or beliefs, because we believe the love of God calls us to treat every person who comes through our doors with dignity, compassion, and genuine care.
Our goal has been to help approximately 400 children, and I wish we could help every child who needs us. We may not be able to do that, but while there is still time, I do not want us to stop reaching for the ones we can. Friends, there are only a few days left, and this is why I am coming to you one final time before the school year begins. If the Lord places one of these children on your heart, there is still time to make a difference. Your gift today can still become the backpack a child carries through the school gates next week.
Help Us Prepare a Child for the New School Year:
$50 helps provide essential school supplies.
$100 provides a quality backpack filled with school supplies.
Perhaps we cannot remove every difficulty a family is facing. But together, we can make sure that another child begins this new chapter with something good in their hands and encouragement in their heart. In these final days before school begins, every backpack prepared means one fewer child still waiting and one more family entering September with a little less weight on their shoulders.
Thank you for standing with these children and their families throughout this project. Thank you for turning generosity into something a child can carry, use, and remember. My prayer is that when the first bell rings across Israel on September 1, hundreds of children will walk into their classrooms prepared and encouraged—and that through something as simple as a backpack, they and their parents will have experienced a small but very real expression of God’s love— they were not forgotten.