There are so many wonderful stories out there of people who are making a difference in the community. Rabbi Eckstein was one of them. The day after I got the opportunity to spend an hour with this amazing man, he sadly died.

Many of these elderly immigrants are from the former Soviet Union who came with nothing. They have no pension or savings and now they are totally dependant on the government pension which is meagre. Even the government itself admits that the pension they give to poor is only able to cover roughly 40% of the basic needs of the people.

So we help in a variety of ways. We provide not just food and for poverty but we also have 2 other major programs. One is Aliyah (coming to the land) where we have brought roughly 800,000 Jews from every part of the world to Israel to live here.

The other area is security. We have built or refurbished here in Israel over 5,000 bomb shelters and command centres and we help the poor soldiers. We don't help politically or the military, but Israel's army is a reflection of the society and there are a lot of poor people who are drafted into the army. They need help not only for themselves but for their families and often they are the provider of funds and food for their parents.

The people who came from Ethiopia barely speak Hebrew and so they rely on the younger generation to help them. A number of Ethiopians in the military end up going to military jail for what is being called AWOL; going off and leaving the base. We found out that these people almost always went home to help their parents as they are their only source of income. As well as helping them we also provide security to 200 cities around the world with a Jewish community that is under threat.

So the bottom line is Christians have found through our ministry a way in which they can tangibly, meaningfully bless Israel and the Jewish people. Every year we are helping 1.4 million people around the world and it is causing Jews to have trust by breaking down the walls of suspicion that Jews have of Christians.

Today Christians are seen by Jews as our best friends, in fact perhaps our only friends.

We help roughly 110,000 elderly Jews many of whom are holocaust survivors from the former Soviet Union and we have supporters in the Far East. There is such great potential yet there are so many Christians today who want to help Israel and the Jewish people but don't know how. We have 400 projects so if you are interested in adopting children or helping orphans we can arrange to help with that.

I believe that it is the combination of the Jewish community sitting down together in cooperation with the Christian community and with the blessings of Government.

Today in 2019 (we are) seeing pronouncements of pure anti-Semitism. In France, the Yellow Jacket movement has been saying that it's the Jews fault. We have it in America and we never thought that it would get to America. In the late 19th Century Christian Zionism started with Pentecostal Evangelical ministers, and today some 110 years later or so Christian Zionism is flourishing, which leads me to believe that all this is of God. Yes I spent 36 years working and toiling as did others, but ultimately if God wouldn't bless it then it wouldn't happen and God wants to bless such efforts, "How good and how pleasant it is when Brothers dwell together in peace".

I believe that God is calling us all on a mission and for Christians and Jews to do that mission together; to bring more light into the world of darkness, to help those who are needing their basic food, medicine and heating. I am very grateful to God that he put me in this place, that he gave me this challenge and that he held my hands during the years as I was vehemently opposed by the Jewish community in those earlier years.

I even had to have body guards sometimes, not from Christians but from Haredi Jews, more right wing Jews who like to keep it very simple; "Christians hate Jews!" and there are still those who live with that same mind set. Not just thanks to me and the fellowship but thanks to many Christian ministries and others that today there is reconciliation. There is cooperation and the Bible says that the two are better than one and so if one falls the other can lift him up.

Paul: It sounds like at the very beginning you were doing a lot of pioneering work and Jews weren't really liking what you were doing. How was the response from the Christian community at that time?

The response from the Christian community from the very beginning has been thirsty and hungry. They want to learn more about the Jewish roots of their faith and the Passover that Jesus commemorated at his last meal.

Christians often don't even realise that when Jesus was asked what the two most important commandments are, He said, "To love God and to love your fellow man". Both of those are references from the Hebrew Bible, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul with all your might", which Jesus said was the most important one and the second one, "To love your neighbour as yourself".