00:00Devastation and destruction ripped through Israel as Iranian ballistic missiles rain down on civilian areas.
00:09Well, Michael Mastretta, CEO of FIRM, joins us now from Jerusalem.
00:13Michael, what's happening on the ground right now in Israel?
00:16Hi, Raj. It's an honor to be here. And yeah, it's been brutal the last 72 to 96 hours.
00:23We were thrust awake in the middle of the morning, Friday morning, June 13th, as Israel decided to do a preemptive strike on Iran.
00:33And Iran retaliated about 24 hours later, firing over now 370, as of right now, ballistic missiles directly at civilians.
00:44Really, I mean, these are targeting our population centers of Tel Aviv and Haifa, our infrastructure.
00:50And for the first time ever in the lifetime of the modern state of Israel, I think in the lifetime of any country, anywhere, we're having direct ballistic missile hits on apartment buildings directly into families' homes.
01:04And that's led to, over the last three days, 24 Israelis killed in cold blood.
01:09Two of them were in their bomb shelter, and it was a direct hit.
01:12They were killed as well. That's shocking and frightening.
01:15Now over 500 that have been wounded in hospitals, and over 1,200 that now have lost their homes with literally the skin on their back.
01:22And so they're displaced, and they're trying to figure out what's next, and the government's trying to put them in temporary housing.
01:27So that's the reality we have right now.
01:29And it's amazing how our entire reality can shift just in a matter of a couple days.
01:34So obviously, Michael, you lead a very important messianic organization in Israel.
01:40I think the question a lot of folks must be asking is, where is God in this madness?
01:44Like, where can hope be found?
01:46So what are you guys up to?
01:47Well, thank you for saying that.
01:48What we've been trying to focus on during this entire operation is really our vision at FIRM.
01:54FIRM stands for Fellowship of Israel Related Ministries.
01:57We serve a network of gospel-centered congregations and ministries all across the country, and we want to see lives in Israel transformed by the love of Jesus, by the love of Yeshua.
02:08And so when fear sets in, and really, we're seeing some of the most frightening times that I've seen in my time in Israel, where people are running and living in shelters.
02:17Literally, you can't go to school, and you can't go to work right now.
02:21You're staying around the shelter around your home.
02:24And especially in Tel Aviv, these old buildings, they don't have bomb shelters in the apartments.
02:28So elderly couples have to run down multiple flights of stairs in the middle of the night.
02:34Fear is rampant, but we also know that perfect love casts out fear.
02:38And as we show up and serve and be the hands and feet of Yeshua and just somehow try to love people and care for them, we know that our faith is going to rub off on them.
02:49We've already seen that happen since October 7th. There's been more openness to who Yeshua, who Jesus is in Israel.
02:57Why? Because the things we had our faith in have now been shaken.
03:01Our government, our military, our intelligence.
03:03And honestly, we put a lot of faith in our Iron Dome.
03:06Probably the number one question I get is, why are missiles not being intercepted?
03:10And I have to tell people, our Iron Dome is amazing, and it saves thousands of lives, but it only prevents 90 to 95 percent of the missiles.
03:18And when there's a barrage of missiles all at once, over 100, or when they're targeting civilian centers, it can't withstand everything.
03:27So we've had 30 direct missile strikes in the middle of the night that have been shocking to our country.
03:35And we just know that on the other side of this, when there's fear, when our faith is shaken, we're able to share our faith and share the true shield of Israel, the true one who watches over Israel.
03:46It's the God of Israel.
03:47And that's the real message that we're trying to share in tangible ways by showing up and serving right now.
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