During the parade, we were also welcomed by the parade announcer as the first evangelical baptist church to be a part of this specific Christmas Eve parade. The other organizations in the parade were mostly nominal Christian churches and non-profit organizations. The crowd welcomed us warmly and clapped their hands, and we understood what a miracle it was to have been invited to share in this parade.
We’ve already been invited back for next year’s parade — what a testimony!
We are lifting our vision higher for next year’s parade and aim to bless the people in attendance with more than 3000 Christmas gifts. The 800 Christmas gifts that we prepared for this year’s parade were all handed out within 30 minutes! These gift packs contained chocolates and candies, a toy, a coloring book about “Jesus being the Reason for the Season”, as well as a fridge magnet declaring Acts 4:12 – “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Through these Christmas gifts that you helped support, the Word of God is coming inside the homes of Israeli Jews, Arabs, Muslims, and Druze families — hallelujah!
The fruits of this Christmas outreach were phenomenal! We received so many text messages, phone calls, and emails of people thanking us for the blessing that Home of Jesus the King Church has been to the people of Nazareth. Many people testified how they were enjoying the spectacle of the parade, but that when we started handing out gifts, they really felt what Christmas is supposed to be — a celebration of the birth of Jesus and a time for generous giving.
Your prayers and donations were powerful seeds that impacted thousands of people this Christmas! We are seeing so much fruit and so many testimonies come forth from our Christmas project, and it makes us understand that it’s only because of Jesus’ intimate involvement in our work. We wish you were with us, and we pray that the doors to Israel will be open so that you can join us and participate in next year’s Christmas parade alongside us.