Edel is a 23 year old mother of two who is single parenting. Her husband is presently serving a home incarceration sentence for Spousal Abuse at another location. In the past He has beat Edel and has threatened to kill her. Needless to say life is not going to well for her now. She is now contemplating divorce.

Edel is a neighbor of one of our volunteers. She has heard screaming and yelling from their apartment in the past and Edel has been the topic of “Monday night quarterbacking” (O.K gossip) with the others in the building.

Since Edel’s husband is temporarily out of the picture the living situation has grown even worst. For the past several months there has been very little income. She receives a small amount of child support for her two children and that has been it.

When we first went to visit her the refrigerator had two bottles of water and that was it! As she shared her story of how hard it has been and the difficulty with just feeding and keeping in diapers her two small kids she also shared that she was considering giving her two children over to social services because it’s just too hard.

It is interesting how things happen in life. Eti (pictured on the right) is one of our volunteers; she too has gone through the same situation in live and raised her two children by her self, working some times two and three jobs to help keep food on the table and the lights on. It was YAH who sent Eti to talk with and to Edel.

After spending time with her, Eti had a hard time sleeping as she relived her life in Eden. Full of compassion for Edel and her situation she has become a friend to her. We have added he to our list we give food to and that will help a bit but not as much as she need for now until she gets back on her feet.

She has found a job and soon she will get her first pay check of around 3000 shackles. With a rent bill of 1800 you can see that she will have a hard time keeping the lights on and food in the refrigerator.

This past Shabbat we were able to fill her refrigerator and the diaper supply. More important than that she has made some new friends that care about her and will do whatever we can to help her over this hump.

It wasn’t that Edel was in tears as we brought the grocery bags full of food in that stood out in my mind but rather the joy her children had. They couldn’t look in the bags fast enough and wanted to eat this and that. For the first time in a long time they had a Shabbat full of not only nutritious food but there was the junk food kids like as well.

Yes we help with food and other items as YAH provides them but Hope For Sderot is so much more than that. YAH has put together a group of people that love Him and those He brings our way. Those who have come to volunteer and stay with us have not only seen but have become part of those stories.

Want to become part of what YAH is doing? Want to become part of a family? Are you willing to put your life (quite literally here in Sderot) on the line to reach out to the children of Israel? If so drop us a note and we will go from there!