Orphan Shabbat 2019 Recap

December 2nd, 2019 |HaTikva Families

As plans for Orphan Shabbat 2019 began falling into place, we knew that this year was going to be
special. The depth of relationship and connection made with individuals, congregations, and even
the international community, left us beyond words at the Lord’s goodness.

This year, we had the honor of having Orphan Sunday founder, Gary Schneider, and Ronnie Mosley,
Orphan Sunday’s official photographer, join us here in Israel participate in Orphan Shabbat. They
joined us for service projects, speaking events, and an intimate Shabbat dinner with our team.

Our first service project was with Neve Michael, a children’s home that houses over 200 orphans and
vulnerable children that we have partnered with on a few occasions. Our HaTikva Families’
volunteers painted and assisted with general maintenance around their campus. We also spent time
connecting with, encouraging, and learning from their director, Chava, which was a highlight of our
time at Neve Michael. Joseph Project also welcomed our team and a small group of volunteers at
their warehouse in Bet Shemesh for another service project later in the week. We sorted through
clothing and home items to be donated to children living in group homes. A number of
congregations and churches brought the message of Orphan Shabbat to their communities, and we
are pleased to say that many of them are creating actionable steps to serve orphans and vulnerable
children in their areas.

Our biggest event this year was our Prayers from Zion event in collaboration with CAFO and hosted
by Revive Israel. Our focus for Orphan Shabbat has been to engage local believers with the plight of
orphans in their communities. But the Lord’s heart and vision for this is so much bigger than us. He
took this event to every corner of the globe with a live stream prayer event that reached 40,000
people. Together with 20,000 viewers, we prayed for the orphan crisis in Israel, and offered up
prayer requests from China, Germany, Canada, Zimbabwe, Chad, Japan, Korea, and more.

Thank you to everyone who observed Orphan Shabbat 2019. Together we can make a difference.