A project organized by two women members of a Baptist church in Amarillo, Texas, has been arranging gatherings of evangelical and other Christians in churches and public halls in Texas cities which have raised hundreds of dollars for Israeli causes and which are forums for efforts to persuade fellow Christians that Jews must be protected as God’s chosen people and that believing Christians must support Israel on that basis.
Charlsie Byrd and Virginia Chestnut described the project, “With Love To Israel,” which Ms. Byrd reported the two had organized more than three years ago, in a communication to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Ms. Byrd reported that she and Ms. Chestnut organized the project in March, 1979, when “God awakened us and began to reveal to us by His spirit what He desired us to do for His chosen people.”
The letterhead on which she reported the project to the JTA bears the slogan “With Love To Israel,” beneath a reproduction of a Star of David, which has, in its center, two cupped hands in prayer position. Within the cupped hands may be seen a tiny geographical outline of Israel. At the bottom of the letterhead is verse 40:1 from Isaiah: “Comfort Ye, Comfort Ye, My People.”
ASKS GOVERNORS TO PRAY FOR ISRAEL
Ms. Byrd also wrote that “Gad then began showing us certain things to do and how to go about it. Our first project was to have a tree planted” through the Jewish National Fund for each of the nation’s 50 governors. She added that a letter was sent to each governor “exhorting them to pray for Israel 15 minutes a day and support” Israel and the Jews “every way they could.”
Reporting that 28 of the governors had responded, Ms. Byrd also reported that trees were planted for President Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan and for Vice President and Mrs. George Bush.
She also wrote that the newest activity of “With Love To Israel” was the sending of a letter and a JNF tree certificate to each member of Israel’s Knesset and that planting of seven trees had been arranged each for Premier Menachem Begin and President Yitzhak Navon. Ms. Byrd reported that the San Jacinto Baptist Church, to which she and Ms. Chestnut belong, and of which the Rev. David Walker is pastor, “is one hundred percent behind us as we take on different projects to show our love and concern for Israel.”
She reported that the church has always helped “by giving members of the church an opportunity to have a part” and “open the doors when we want to show a film or bring special speakers concerning Israel.” She added that Walker “has always exhorted the members to have a part in being a blessing to Israel and stresses how God expects us to pray daily for Israel and the leaders and the Jewish people everywhere.”
Ms. Byrd stressed that “With Love To Israel” had been developed not “to promote anything but to love and pray for Jews everywhere and Israel daily and to get church members enlightened in how they can be a blessing to Israel.” She added that, in stimulating the raising of funds for the JNF to plant trees in Israel, an “excellent opportunity” existed to help make Christians aware that there was much material in the Scriptures about “the restoration of the land.”
Ms. Byrd declared that the organization had been approved by Texas state officials as a non-profit agency and that “we have shown our film, ‘Apples of Gold,’ about seven times “and that the film had been loaned to a Baptist minister in Henderson, Texas, to show “to a large group of pastors at a conference.”
She said the minister is the Rev. Wayne Griffith of the East Side Baptist Church of Henderson and that he was working to stage “a rally for Israel next spring, which will include the Jewish community and the Christian community.”
Ms. Byrd asserted that through its projects, the organization had sent more than $1,300 to the JNF. She also said contact had been made with several other churches in Texas which have sponsored tree plantings, so, “altogether, there have been about 550 trees” and about $2,700 sent to the JNF office in Dallas. She estimated total collections for the JNF through “With Love To Israel” efforts as about $4,000.
She wrote that the two churches mainly involved in the program are the San Jacinto church and the Trinity Fellowship. She reported that Walker was on television each Sunday morning, that his telecast was seen and heard over a 150-mile radius, and that the pastor “has spoken several times over TV about our part in being a blessing to Israel in the planting of trees.” Ms. Byrd asserted that the Trinity church had arranged for the planting of more than 300 trees.
She declared that within a 100-mile radius of Amarillo there are “at least 500 churches whose members have never heard about the planting of trees” in Israel “and why, according to the Holy Scriptures, we are commanded by God to help in the restoration of the land and to pray daily for the ‘Peace of Jerusalem’.”
She wrote that when “we begin to tell them of JNF and what they are doing, this opens doors for us to tell of the needs in the hospitals, the orphans, the elderly, the survivors of the Holocaust and many others.”
“Apples of Gold” is a brochure published in Toronto, which describes a film by that name, produced, according to a note on the back of the brochure, by “Crossroads Christian Communications, Inc., a Canadian non-profit organization,” which produced “Apples of Gold” to “show its support for the State of Israel. As a tangible expression of this support, Crossroads has established a fund in Israel to help victims of terrorism. Crossroads donates ten percent of the gross income received through ‘Apples of Gold’ print sales and television broadcasts” to the fund in Israel.
Ms. Byrd reported that the San Jacinto church planned a trip to Israel next June or July with a hoped-for participation of 45 to 50 congregants in the first tour of Israel sponsored by her church. She said she had made her first trip to Israel in 1974 for a five-week visit and her second in June, 1980, when she was accompanied by Ms. Chestnut for whom it was a first visit to Israel.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
