As part of the Israel Mandate, Mission Discipleship financially supports various ministries involved in cutting edge outreach to the Jewish People in the Land of Israel.  One such ministry has a unique outreach to the orthodox community and recently sent the following report. In Israel the rabbinic religious system draws students from poor families, taking them into the Yeshivas (orthodox schools) where they sleep and spend all day studying and praying.  The Rabbis give them a monthly bill for this without demanding payment. If and when a student either loses interest, or becomes disillusioned with living the “orthodox Jewish lifestyle”, he is suddenly required to ‘pay in full.’ At first, pressure is placed on the family.  Failing that, increasingly harsh methods may be used, even locking students in a room for weeks without food, whisking them off to another location in the country, or in extreme cases, beating them. Because of this there is a growing underground, secret world  of disillusioned orthodox young people who are hiding and living homeless in Jerusalem. One ministry that Mission Discipleship will be supporting financially has begun to help these young orthodox “runaways,” providing food, shelter and Torah study for them, in order to help them navigate their futures in loving, nurturing environments that will help them become men and women of God who know the truth, as the seeds of God’s Word are planted in their hearts.