By: Anastasiya Gooding

For over four decades now, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem has been helping Jewish families make Aliyah to Israel. Among the Jews we have helped bring back to their ancient homeland are doctors, teachers, artists, engineers and people from many other professional backgrounds – each one making their own unique contributions to the success of modern Israel. Amazingly, we are eyewitnesses of the fulfillment of Isaiah’s vision that one day a restored nation of Israel would make the desert bloom and fill the earth with its fruits (Isaiah 27:6).

This divine work of restoration is taking place one family at a time, and each family must make the journey home to Israel one step at a time.

Lydia Lagunova, along with her husband Yuri and their young daughter, just made Aliyah in early April. They arrived on a special “evacuation flight” from Kazakhstan sponsored by the ICEJ. Lydia insisted the entire family had no doubts when they made the final decision to begin the process of Aliyah.

“We wanted to live and work in our homeland and nowhere else”, she said.

“Our family lives a very active rhythm. We are all engaged in completely different activities,” Lydia added in describing her small family.

Lydia has been an actress with the Russian academic theater for more than seven years. She first performed as an actress in Ukraine and later in Kazakhstan, in the National Russian Academic Theater in Almaty. Besides working in the theater, Lydia and her husband also organized their own theater school, where Lydia was teaching stage speech, choreography, rhetoric and stage performance. Her husband, Yuri, has a higher education in engineering and economics. For over 20 years, he has been working in the automobile industry. Their nine-year-old daughter Alexandra is in the fourth grade and is already an actress in her own right.

“We had been thinking about Aliyah for a long time, but a lot of difficulties prevented us from realizing our aspirations,” Lydia recalled.

The first time they tried to make Aliyah, their plans were thwarted by the outbreak of the military conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014, which forced them to move to Kazakhstan. The Lagunov family faced many hardships there, but the moment finally came when they resolutely decided it was time to move to Israel.

After contacting the Jewish Agency For Israel, they received all kinds of assistance in taking their next steps toward their dream of making it to Israel.

“We passed the consular check successfully, and for us it was the most important and desired gift in the difficult year of 2020,” Lydia confided. “What a miracle, that despite the acute issues with crossing borders and no air traffic, there was still an opportunity to take a direct flight to Israel, the country of which I have long dreamed of.”

The Lagunov family’s dream came true when a special Aliyah ‘evacuation flight’ from Kazakhstan sponsored by the ICEJ landed at Ben Gurion Airport earlier this month with a group of 102 Jewish immigrants on board.

“Thanks to everyone who was involved, who gave us the opportunity to start a new life here”, said a grateful Lydia.

Many more Jewish families are waiting to take their next steps in making the journey home to Israel, the Land where they truly belong. As Christians from the nations, we are invited to play a key role in the prophetic return of the Jewish people back to their ancient homeland. You can play your part by supporting the ICEJ’s Aliyah efforts.