Standing With Israel - Pastor Larry Huch and Guests - November 23

·55 min·5 clips

Aviva recounts being abandoned in a pitch-dark Hamas tunnel, praying to die before seeing her husband Keith dead.

The service starts while everyone is still getting settled. Pastor Larry and Tiz welcome the podcast audience, call guests forward, look for a handheld mic, and make room on the platform. It feels live, a little messy, and very much in the room. Diane Benjamin introduces the special guests, tying together years of relationship, hospital fundraising outside Tel Aviv, and the ministry's long connection to Israel. Then the tone changes hard. A guest describes captivity after October 7, including a release date, separation, bombing starting again, and the cruelty that followed. Listen to the small details, because that is where the fear sits. He talks about lying on the floor, needing permission to use the toilet, and worrying that even basic needs could make his captors angry. This does not land like distant news. He says he was screamed at, cursed, spat on, kicked, and left hurting after ribs may have been broken again. The account keeps tightening. He says he was moved around 33 times through tunnels, schools, a stairwell, and places packed with civilians and terrorists. Guns were pointed. Death threats were made. Another woman was taken after a false accusation about the IDF. Pastor Larry then brings the room back to covenant language, Christian responsibility, and the promise that Israel will not stand alone. Standing with Israel becomes the refrain. After 32 years of going there, he says Jewish people openly thank evangelical and Christian brothers and sisters for staying with them. The close turns into prayer for Israel, Jerusalem, blessing, anointing, and the courage not to forsake the land.

As heard by us

A church-centered expression of solidarity with Israel, anchored by a former hostage's harrowing testimony.

Standing With Israel opens in a church welcome, then gives the episode over to a former hostage's account of captivity. The testimony is difficult because it stays with immediate fear: broken ribs, forced silence, needing permission to use the toilet, threats of death, and the…

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Why you'd press play

Press play when a captivity testimony and a forceful prayer for Israel fit the moment.

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