Tuesday of this week was a red letter day, well not really red, more blue and orange. You know one of those days that you get that unexpected letter like, “You Won”, “Your Invited”, or maybe “The Publishers Clearing House IS coming to your Neighborhood”!

I was not the only one who had a “Red Letter day yesterday, actually everyone in Sderot had a “Red Letter day”. It wasn’t the “Red Letter” we were hoping for, not the kind you like getting. It was sent, not from the The Publishers Clearing House, but rather from the Home Front Command.

It did not tell us we had won something but instead it reminded us that we need to be prepared for war, Kassam attacks, and hard times. There was a map of Israel in different colors that when you looked at the chart below it let you know how long you had once an air raid siren sounded in your area to run for cover… we still only have 15 seconds.
It reminded us that we need to have “War Supplies in our bomb shelters, canned good, snack foods, radios with batteries, flashlights, paper goods, first aid supplies; all the things we have been telling you about that we are trying to prepaid for those who we help each week with food.

Unfortunately not all people can afford to spend money they don’t have to be prepared. When you live from welfare check to welfare check you buy food for today and not to have a three day supply sitting in your bomb shelter; and that is if you have a bomb shelter.

Bomb shelters have been going up at an incredible rate here but not all homes and apartments have them yet; they have not started building them in the area in which I live yet. For those people who don’t have a shelter yet, they suggest you run to the second floor stairwell if you live on the top floor, like I do.

We are now, more than ever, in need of completing the “War Boxes” for those we serve and have them ready for the inevitable. The reality of the next war coming is just that, a reality, which maybe someone living in America has difficulty in grasping. Perhaps the urgency to complete this project may be only felt by those who live in the sights of Hamas’s Kassam rocket launchers. If this was not the case why would the Israeli government spend the millions of shekels it is spending to build bomb shelters here in Sderot?

Not wanting to sound dramatic but time is running out for us to complete this project, that is just the truth and the everyday reality we live with. If you want to help, and Ha’Shem knows we need the help you can click here.