Subject: Ami Update - 23 April (excerpt)
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Greetings to the Lord's Network around the world!

(resurfacing after a rather long break for Passover preparations....)

Leah has started writing her own updates now, which is of course much better than receiving news about Ami 2nd and 3rd hand. So I will pass on what she had to say earlier this week:

Ami and all of our family thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your prayers. We have felt them and seen the results before our eyes. Everyday our Ami improves dramatically. He can walk and sit in a chair. He sees perfectly with both eyes, and he improves daily, emotionally , physically and spiritually. His wounds are healing so fast that it astounds the nurses and doctors. I can truly say that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and that he will eventually return to normal life. Even though a horrific act was perpetrated, the Lord has been Good, and we are grateful. Ami has received hundreds of postcards, emails and letters from all over the world that have been a real encouragement to him and to us. It has helped him to know that families and people know what happened to him are holding him up before the throne, helping him go through the pain and hardship of recovery. Ami will God willing move to a rehabilitation facility soon where he will begin intensive physical therapy. Please continue to pray for continued total healing.

by Joel Rosenberg), Charisma Magazine (published by Steven Strang) and the International Christian Embassy (represented by David Parsons).

Another up-front public statement was made by the legislature of the US state of Kentucky:

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:

Section 1. The House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky hereby adjourns the 2008 Session of

the Kentucky House of Representatives in honor of Ami Ortiz and his family for demonstrating the love and forgiveness of God in the face of murderous religious persecution.

Section 2. The Clerk of the House of Representatives shall send copies of this Resolution to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, 3 Kaplan Street, Hakirya, Jerusalem 91950; Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik, Knesset, Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem 91950; Mayor Ron Nachman, Ariel Municipality, Ariel City Hall, Ariel, Israel 40700; and Ambasador Sallai Meridor, 3514 International Drive N.W., Washington, DC 20008.

These gestures from prominent believers are wonderful, and we are glad to see them using their influence to honor our brothers in the Land. But we want to also acknowledge the many "grassroot" believers, pastors and leaders around the world who have taken the same kind of stand on our behalf -- and it means just as much to us!

You don't need to be "prominent" to encourage the believers in Israel. In fact, I can tell you (from 25 years of living here) that most of the real, solid Body Restoration going on here is being done by people whose names will never be in the newspapers. Their reward is going to come from the Lord Himself.

BTW, a big Thank You to the Israeli sisters who are still faithfully turning up with meals for the family, and this is valuable beyond what you might think - especially for Leah, who can tend to the many other demands without worrying about supper too (like the other day when she and David had to run around Jerusalem taking care of legal issues associated with the bombing).

I stopped over there when she got home from that chore, and sat talking to her and watching her sort her medicines (she has MS). I suddenly realized what a miracle it is that her own health is holding up under this tremendous stress. The Lord is providing for so many of the details that escape us.

Another example of His forethought is the timing of Mary Jean, who came to visit from the States. This lady is a veteran critical-care nurse as well as a family friend, and she was able to help Ami by explaining in simple language why he was experiencing certain sensations, what he could expect in the healing process, and other troubling questions. A little of that goes a long way toward relieving anxiety about the unknown, and restoring a sense of ownership over your body when it suddenly becomes a stranger to you.

A lot of people have recently asked to be added to these updates, and yet at the same time the news about Ami is slowing down. That's not a bad thing - it's because the Lord has been so faithful in hearing all of your prayers! Ami is out of danger, and there are fewer and slower changes to report.

But "slowing down" does not apply to the prayer that is needed. Quite the contrary. Let me share something from my sister and good friend Lynne, who is a professional trauma / grief counselor:

So what you want to get from your group is an extended prayer commitment from people who are reliable prayer warriors, to pray daily for a year for this kid. I promise you he will need it.

So please pray during the times of silence between updates - the support is definitely needed, and felt.

Pray for Ami to have patience with the physical therapy, which is PAINFUL but out of necessity (stretching out the shrunken tendons, which I guess must feel like a cramp that won't go away...). There is going to be a lot more of that when he is transferred to a rehab hospital (the med team is still debating which one).

There is gain with the pain, though. He also has times of just being a kid again. (Leah: "I came in and he was watching TV and laughing at something - I could see the old Ami coming back into his face.")

Along with the media focus on Ami, a group of Messianic believers appealing for citizenship in the Supreme Court received ample coverage (probably more than would have been the case if Ami's story hadn't received so much attention). Like many others who followed that case, I at first thought it was a landmark breakthrough for Messianic Jews.

I was remembering the ordeal of our friends Gary and Shirley Beresford and several other families in 1989 (who were declared no longer Jewish solely because of their faith in the Messiah, and therefore were denied citizenship under the Law of Return). That truly WAS a landmark case... the head of the Supreme Court, militantly liberal Aharon Barak, announced that for the first time in Israeli history, the secular authority needed be more strict about Jewish identity than the ultra-orthodox establishment (who upheld the ruling of many centuries that "a Jew who leaves the faith is nevertheless still a Jew").

The recent victory for our brothers and sisters did not overturn that earlier ruling, but upheld it. They received citizenship as non-Jews (believers in Messiah) who were still entitled to citizenship as relatives of Jews (in this case their fathers, who were not believers in Messiah). A short and clear explanation can be found in the Jerusalem Post:

Hundreds of thousands of non-Jewish immigrants from the former USSR have received Israeli citizenship under this clause, so it is not a precedent. But every believer who gets planted in this country is a victory, and it's becoming a situation of "Jewish is in the eye of the beholder". Officially, the distinction between Jewish and non-Jewish citizens has become so marginal that the national ID cards now being issued no longer have one's "religion" specified on them.

But it remains to be seen whether the Interior Ministry will carry out the court decision (these things can drag on for years, sometimes due to nothing more than the whim of one hostile office clerk who keeps "losing" the file). So those who want to extend their prayers for Ami to include other Israeli believers, please pray for a righteous conclusion.

Likewise, continue to pray as the police and security people hunt for the would-be killers that left the bomb at the Ortiz home. This is the only angle where no announcements have come through about any progress or suspects. But the Lord's hand does not need to wait for the police, and our prayers don't need to either.

And a last note to Israeli bilingual readers -- the family has asked me to translate the Ma'ariv article "Ani Soleach" from a couple of weeks ago (a long interview with one of the Ortiz boys) for the benefit of English speakers - but after a long on-line search I have not been able to locate it. If anyone has the URL, please send it to me.

blessings,

Hannah