548 Shelters and counting… The next one is up to you

Dear Friends,

As November arrives, many of you are preparing to gather around the Thanksgiving table. It is a season for counting blessings and pausing to thank God for His goodness, including the simple gift of a safe home filled with the people we love.

Here in Israel, safety is a blessing that can never be taken for granted. The threat of rocket and missile fire has not gone away. Sirens still sound without warning, in the middle of the night, in the middle of a school day, in the middle of a meal. In some communities, residents have as little as fifteen seconds to reach a protected space, and far too many have no protected space at all.

That is why, in 2021, Vision for Israel began installing safety shelters in vulnerable communities across the country. Each one is placed where people actually live, work, learn, and play. We want to tell you about one of them.

On July 22, 2024, we installed three safety shelters in the village of Majdal Shams: one at the entrance to the soccer field, one near the children's park, and one in the center of the village. None of us could have known how fateful that decision would prove to be.

Five days later, on July 27, a missile struck the soccer field. Nearly a hundred children were there. Twelve of them were murdered.

Recently, we met a mother named Duaa at Majd el Shams, at the very spot where one of those shelters stands. We had been told we were about to meet a woman who had endured an unimaginable ordeal. Hearing her story brought us to tears.

Duaa saw the missile strike the field from the window of her home. In an instant, her world was turned upside down. Overcome with panic, she ran toward the field in search of her son, but she could not find him. Barefoot, screaming and weeping, she moved among the wounded, desperately searching for her boy amid the chaos and terror. Every second felt like an eternity.

She reached the shelter near the park on the verge of fainting. Then a man from her village, someone who knew her, approached and said, "Your son is alive!" Duaa was so distraught that she could not even process his words.

And then, in a single moment of grace, she saw him. Her son emerged from the shelter, alive.

Inside were children who had managed to get in immediately after the blast. Amid the inferno, the structure had covered and protected them, and lives were spared. Duaa's son had been injured in his head, arm, and shoulder, and his face and body were covered in blood. She rushed to him, and with the help of others, began carrying him toward the clinic. Her husband, a doctor, learned of his son's condition and raced to help. Together they found a vehicle that took them to the hospital.

The road to recovery was not easy. The boy endured a difficult rehabilitation. But he survived. He lived, and today his mother is able to tell his story.

A safety shelter is a structure of steel and concrete. For Duaa's family, it marks the point where their lives split in two: the moments they believed they had lost their son, and the moment they discovered he was still alive. Behind every shelter lies hope. Behind every child who survived is an entire family that got their lives back.

Today, thanks to the generosity of faithful friends like you, we have installed 548 shelters. Every one of them exists because someone chose to give. Someone like you decided that a family they will never meet deserves to be protected. We cannot thank you enough for that.

But the sirens have not stopped, and neither can we. There are still communities waiting. There are still schoolyards, bus stops, and playgrounds with no protection at all. Shelter number 549 is waiting to be built, and so is the one after that.

Sometimes the difference between life and death hinges on a single decision, a single act, a single shelter placed in the right spot. This Thanksgiving, as you give thanks for the roof over your head and the peace in your neighborhood, we are asking you to help extend that peace to a family in Israel who does not yet have it. Your gift today will go directly toward installing the next safety shelter in a community that urgently needs one. To give, please click HERE and dedicate your donation to Medical & Disaster Relief.

Thank you so very much, for standing with the people of Israel. From our table to yours, may your Thanksgiving be filled with gratitude, and may every child in Israel have a safe place to run to.


With grateful hearts,

Barry & Batya