From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
Date: Mon, 1 Dec 1997 23:53:21 +0000
To: Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup
Subject: A Sister needs our help
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
From: Shannah Stirn
Subject: A Sister needs our help
Dear Eddie..
I received these two letters from a friend in Spain in the past few days.
Rhode has posted on the newsgroup before and she is experiencing some very
real and terrible troubles. I'll let her letters speak for themselves. I
am trying to help her by sending her some winter clothin for her and her
daughter Tami, but it isn't enough. Prayer is not enough either... which
I've been doing. Rhode needs our prayers AND some tangible help.
Please, read her letters and maybe we as a body of believers can
through prayer and some work, can help our sister in Spain.
I humbly give thanks for you patience and help Eddie. Feel free to
edit her letters if you choose to post them.
Your sister in Yeshua,
Shoshannah
>
>To: Shoshannah Stirn
>From: Rhode Flores <rhode@lander.es>
>Subject:
Very beloved, sweet sister and friend Shannah:
Your love fills me with a very sincere and humble gratitude. These are times
in which I feel a mixture of confusion, fear, uncertainty and also I feel
ashamed because when you live like this, it is only natural to loose all
selfassurance and confidence. I know I can't depend on my efforts or wisdom
to solve any of our problems, I feel pressure by time and circumstances. I
am scared of being ashamed and threatened by the owner of the apartment,
of loosing everything and not knowing when or how our lives are going to get
back on track.
I apologize because I am a person who is incapable of bottling up all my
feelings. I cannot pretend to feel what I do not feel. My daughter, for
example, is more ashamed of our situation and does not wish other people
to know, so she keeps much of her suffering inside, but then she gets to a
point when she cant take it any more and she breaks down completely. I let
off steam little by little and that helps me keep my sanity, although it
does not really solve much, but she goes half crazy with sorrow and worries
and scares me. I also feel as though I can no longer be a good mother
because much as I try to, with all my strength, I can no longer provide even
our most basic needs.
I had two gold little crosses of the Huguenots (I no longer wear them, I
wear a little gold star of David that Tami bought for my last birthday) and
I went to an Evangelical bookstore where they said they might buy them. They
were going to buy both and give me 5.000 pts. (about 43 dollars). Then the
lady, who is German, changed her mind and only bought the largest one and
gave me 3.000 (about 25 dollars). Yesterday I sold a bread toasting machine
and got about 10 dollars for it, so that is what we have had to buy
groceries in over a week. We are mostly eating things like rice and pasta,
which go a long way. No fruit, vegetables, yogurts or many other things. I
can notice the change in my body and Tami is starting to have stomach
problems, so it is up to God.
I was going to sell a second PC we have, not the one I use. I am aware that
if I sell it I will get very little for it, but it is getting to a point
that we cant even buy food and that is critical. I never thought the Lord
would allow us to reach such a, humanly speaking, desperate situation, but I
can't do anything about it, very unfortunately. It is difficult to
understand why out of over 4.000 e-mails not a single one can have a
positive answer and none of the things I have done or can do in Madrid is
going to have any positive results. We are still facing closed doors.
Yesterday Samuel del Coso visited us. As I might have mentioned, he is the
representant in Spain of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. He
has a wife and two children and he is paying for ALL his ministry out of his
own pocket because the Embassy only works with people as volunteers. His
car broke down and he had to pay, believe it or not, over 4.000 dollars in
repair work.
***** Eddie, perhaps this is domething we as a group can help with?
....Shannah
He has a project SHALOM SEFARAD, to serve God and Israel. He wants to
set up a large house in Toledo (twin city of Jerusalem and a city with a rich
Jewish history) to receive Jews on their way to Israel and to help other
gentiles and believers who love Yeshua and Israel, set up a shop of Israeli
objects and jewelry, a travel agency, a Translations Department (that is
where I come in), but as always happens, in Spain we have no money.
Evangelical and Messianic projects are easy to carry out in the USA, where
churches and individuals give a lot of money. In Spain the Evangelicals and
Messianics are still poor people, (and when the church has money, as the
church next door, they use it to make the church building more beautiful,
NOT to help people. I informed the pastor next door about the fasting and
prayer day in Toledo and he answered: "I cant advertise it to the church
because you know I DO NOT believe in what you believe" so we really cant
count with any economical help and, therefore, this project has not gone
ahead because of lack of money, though it is as worthy as any in the USA
and maybe more than some.
About two years ago Bridges for Peace wanted us to go to work in Israel, BUT
they expected a church to pay for all our expenses!!!!! I am so amazed at
all the things Messianics and others can carry out in the USA and in Spain
we are just at the level of praying and fasting after years and years of
careful planning. This is a very difficult country and things are going to
get much worse. We are probably soon going to loose our religious liberty
again (I have lived through that, of course, during Franco's regime and so
has Samuel) and the job situation is every day on the news, but the
Government is NOT really providing any answers. In fact, they said that in
five years time things would improve. What are we supposed to live on till
then? And I am not refering only to Tami and me, but to several million
people who are unemployed and loosing everything, being evicted from their
homes and that is why at times I am scared.
Shannah, I know God is all powerful, but like Samuel said: "Jesus did not
move a finger to save his own cousin's life and John the Baptist lost his
head" so who are we not to loose our lives? I confess I am scared because I
have no idea how much more we are supposed to endure. I have not reached
the high spiritual level in which I don't mind how much more we have to suffer
because we are very tired. All I can do is continue to pray.
Please believe me, I am deeply grateful for your love, for accepting me as I
am, with all my fears, uncertainties and complainst at this time. You are
seeing my worse side. When I look at myself in the mirror I see a face that
has aged beyond recognition, a face in which the lines of sorrow are deeply
marked. I am young inside, but that outward aging is not very pleasant to
live with. It makes me want to keep to myself knowing this is a world in
which outward appearance is the most important thing and my daughter and I
are suffering the consequences.
Tami is suffering all our miseries, plus all the problems in her studies and
her mental and emotional situation is like one walking on a tight rope (how
often I have felt this way!!) on one side a deep ravine that means certain
death and on the other safety! Tami has no real opportunities here. She sees
the opportunities in Israel and in the USA and she hurts and feels utterly
frustrated with life in Spain. She can't love Spain because all she sees are
closed doors, so I don't blame her for not loving this country. I am not exactly
thrilled with the lack of opportunities and miseries I am suffering, though the
first time I went to the USA, as a new bride, I came face to face with poverty, for
the first time in my life, in the land of opportunity, so I am aware that "all that
glitters is not gold" and we suffered much more discrimination in Florida
than in Spain. Cuban girls would NOT play with Tami because she had fair
hair and a light skin. I told them off for discriminating Tami who, after
all, was in her own country and State, they only turned around and left me
standing there, without answering my rebuke.
We are still awaiting a miracle. At times we pray, at others Tami says "what
good is praying going to do? God knows our needs and until He decides to
help us, why should I try to say anything, I no longer have any words left?
It is certainly a difficult time for her and I suffer more for her than for
myself, of course. I hope one day we can look back from a better position.
Love you, sweet and faithful sister. I feel humble beside you, who are a
wonderful and patient sister. May God bless for for being so full of love
for us,
SHALOM,
Rhode
**************************************************************************
From: Rhode Flores (rhode@lander.es)
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: Urgent Prayer Request
Dear Eddie:
I am glad one day I came across your ministry and benefited and
learned a lot. Thank you for all you do.
This is possibly the last time I will be able to write to you. I
wanted to thank you once more for your loving kindness. For several
years things have gone from bad to worse, until we have reached a dead
end situation. As from Monday Tamara will no longer be able to go to
class, and will loose a 5th year of school, we will also loose our gas
(cooking and hot water), our Internet and soon the electricity, phone
and no doubt the apartment will go sooner or later.
I had been selling small items I had to buy groceries and put ads to
find work and to sell our second PC. No one answers my ads asking for
work and a believer, from one of the Messianic churches, told me he
would buy the PC and with that I planned to pay for our monthly
transportation tickets, pay two pants that Tamara desperately needs
(she is wearing summer pants and the weather is cold and we have had
intense rains that can possibly continue), the gas and Internet
because he knew how desperate our situation is. But he called this
morning saying that he had spoken with a technitian and had decided
NOT to buy our PC after all.
We have no way of understanding why we must loose everything, not know
where we will go or what will happen to us. My daughter is suffering
from emotional and mental exhaustion and has already gone through
several crisis of depression. I can't fight disaster any more, so we
will have to face whatever evils still lies ahead in our future. I
send you my love and will continue to pray for you, as well as others.
I appreciate people who have prophecied good and positive things from
God for our near future, but it seems they were mistaken, though well
intentioned.
Love in Yeshua,
SHALOM,
Rhode
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