Steve Linde on South Africa’s LOVE LETTERS 2 ISRAEL
How did you come up with the idea?
It was mid-March 2024, five months after October 7, 2023, that my heart started to really pound anxiously as I thought about how we Christians could help Israel on a more practical level. Praying day and night has its benefits, but so many of us were frustrated beyond measure and needed to do more. I was literally praying desperately to the Master of Ideas to give me something that most people could do or give to bring comfort to Israel. As an artist, I naturally used that side of my brain and thought about how well my cards have been received over the years when a light bulb went down in my head: This is it! Anyone and everyone can write a love letter to Israel – especially my large database of thousands of Israel supporters who are also traumatized by what happened. LOVE LETTERS 2 ISRAEL was born!
How do you explain how quickly this phenomenon has taken hold in South Africa?
The reason for this is because we know we are living in the end of days and it is time to give preference to Zion. So my friends sent a WhatsApp to everyone with a little homemade clip of what I had envisioned under the conditions – and boom! Within two weeks I had over 1,500 letters/cards clogging up our house, even from Zimbabwe. Then we got messages from friends abroad from Singapore, UK, USA, New Zealand and Taiwan as this vision took hold. It was incredible! And all because I, like many others, know that Israel has been given to you as an eternal inheritance. So what happened in October last year was, in our opinion, the beginning of this showdown between good and evil as the prophets had foretold before redemption comes. So everyone just stepped up and wanted to do their small part and help in this unique way to encourage and comfort all of you to stay the course and read your Tanakh (Bible) instead of listening to the fake news media and become the people you are meant to be. A light to the world.
Is there a particular letter or highlight you can share with me?
No, that’s impossible because 90% of the letters are handwritten and many handmade cards are so beautiful that we could never say that one of them stands out. Everyone sends their stacks of letters to our team here in Cape Town where we stamp them and check that our conditions are met and this is where we get so sidelined. We all break down in tears reading the incredible messages, which is a highlight in itself. Then we also get the feedback in the form of clips and voice messages from our foot soldiers who distribute these letters on the ground in Israel. They say that many tears and wonderful conversations are shared by stunned Israelis when they receive unexpected love and recognition. Especially with love letters from South Africans, many are very skeptical or dismissive at first, so we have to put a lot of effort into breaking the ice at first. Then they soften when they read and see how much love and effort people have put into composing and writing these letters. So it’s hard to say what a highlight is, because for us the whole process is one big, fat, glorious highlight.
What is the basis for your support for Israel, even though South Africa is officially vehemently anti-Israel?
The foundation of our love is the Tanakh and knowing the truth about Israel’s fate! Our government does not represent the South African people and unfortunately this is a curse on our nation. So the pressure is on and we no longer have time to sit in our pews like Christianity used to. There is a new generation of us, non-Jewish believers, thousands of us, who are willing to pay the price for which many of us have already been thrown out of conventional church structures because of our stance on Israel. We believe that the war is not just physical but spiritual and we want you to understand that we, a remnant in every nation, not just South Africa, are here for you and that we need each other like never before. Unfortunately more isolation and hatred will be the norm but the difference now is that we too will be punished for standing by your side and this will be both of our fates for a while in the future until your God shows up again as he always does to show who is BOSS. Just wait and see.
How do you distribute these love letters in Israel?
So far, it has been amazing how many people have wanted to bring bags to distribute. Since our first 10 bags of 50 letters each were sent out, the feedback has been overwhelming. Now we even get daily calls from people who want to be our foot soldiers (as we call them) to distribute letters to IDF soldiers, people in restaurants or at the bus stop, etc. So we have a few exciting options now, one of them is also through WIZO. Yes, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Believe it or not, 10 years ago I became the first Christian chair of the WIZO Ruth branch in Cape Town. We have created an incredible Jewish-non-Jewish sisterhood and raise money together for Israel. That’s why we proudly stamp each letter with our WIZO stamp, which gives us so much credibility and honor, for which we are very grateful. So we distribute them together with many other trusted friends who travel to Israel with the same heart when it comes to stoking Israel’s fire in this unique, personal way.
What are your plans for the future?
Well, depending on how long it takes us to keep you all happy and strong, it sounds like a global focus. But our simple and only goal right now is to comfort you in these dire times, as the book of Isaiah says. We need hundreds more love letter writers to increase our quota of 4,000 in less than three months. A great start, but the rest of the world is taking a huge comfort until Israel gets it – that (whether it wants to or not) it is not to be like the other nations, but to be different from them. So our plan for the future is to remind you, encourage you, try to heal you, and give you hope that this unity between Jew and Gentile is prophetic and reserved for the end game. As Ruth says in the Bible, “Your people are my people, your God is my God…” and who knows, maybe out of this unity a redemptive miracle will happen again? So, as the WIZO motto says: Let’s keep doing what matters! We love you!
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