“Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11: 28). Lent is a season of repentance, a period of some 40 days of solemn meditation as we mentally walk alongside Jesus on His way to the Cross. Lent concludes on Easter, as we celebrate our Lord’s resurrection from the dead. But imagine observing the most intense Lenten season of your life for over *five months*—awash in grief, fear, and with no end in sight. This is what Christians in the Holy Land are experiencing in this profound season of horror that crashed upon Israel last October 7, when thousands of Hamas terrorists burst through the border fence, murdered over 1,100 Israelis, and took hundreds more hostage, as Sahar Sadlovsky Gold, a Lutheran candidate for the Holy Ministry in Israel (see my FB post from Nov 29, 2023) explained in a video chat yesterday. He also shared the little-known fact that some of the Israeli soldiers fighting for the survival of their homeland are Christian. One of them, whom Sahar knows personally, lost both legs in battle and Sahar is asking us to pray for this brave brother and his family. A few weeks ago, Sahar passed his final examinations with the Consistory of the Mission Province of Sweden and is looking forward to his ordination this fall, which will take place under the episcopacy of the Mission Province of Sweden, in close affiliation with the LCMS and the involvement of Rev. Dr. Cory Rajek, Executive Director of the Office of International Mission. In the meantime, both institutions are looking for a suitable church building in which Sahar will begin to pastor Israel’s first-ever Confessional Lutheran Church. May the Lord grant that by that time, all the remaining hostages would be liberated and that the dangers from Gaza would be removed. And yet, as Sahar explains, even during this protracted season of Lent, all Christians in Israel and beyond who labor and are heavy-laden have a reason for hope because Jesus Christ rose from the dead, is now alive, and is giving us all His rest…even in the midst of war. (Photo: Sahar with Bishop Bengt Ådahl of the Mission Province of Sweden).
The Tiews in Germany 