Shevet Achim: Healing hearts and building bridges across the Middle East

Shevet Achim is a Christian ministry founded in Jerusalem in 1994 to bring children with serious congenital heart defects from across the Middle East to Israel for lifesaving treatment. Working with Israeli hospitals and medical teams, the organization helps arrange everything from travel and accommodation to medical care and much of the cost of surgery. Its volunteers also live alongside and care for the children and their families during their time in Israel.

For more than three decades, Jonathan Miles and a community of Christian volunteers have sought to build bridges between Israelis and their neighbors across the region. Shevet Achim, whose name comes from Psalm 133’s call for “brothers to dwell together in unity,” has welcomed families from Gaza, Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and, in previous years, Iraq and Syria.

At the heart of the ministry is a vision to heal lives, not simply provide healthcare.

“The hospitals in Israel are a little bit like the kingdom of God. Everybody is equal there. There's no Jew or non-Jew, rich or poor. The doctors invest and care for each one equally. It's just a lovely, lovely thing and very healing,” Miles said during an interview with Christian journalist Paul Calvert.

For Miles, that compassion also reflects Israel’s biblical calling. He sees 'chosenness' as a responsibility to serve others. “Chosenness is not a privilege. It's a call to service. Like following Jesus, whoever would be a leader in his kingdom will be the servant of all,” he said.

He said that war in Gaza following the Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, has made that calling increasingly difficult. Access to Israeli hospitals for Gazan children has largely been cut off, while restrictions and the crisis in Judea and Samaria have dramatically reduced the number of children the ministry is able to help.

Miles said the conflict has also brought a painful hardening of attitudes, including toward children who have no say in the circumstances surrounding them.

However, he believes personal encounters can break through those barriers. Families who see their children welcomed and treated in Israel can experience something that transcends politics. As Miles puts it, “Politics isn’t going to save us, but changed hearts can.”

The ministry itself operates with limited resources and depends heavily on prayer and faith. Hospital costs can still leave thousands of dollars to be raised for a single child, while volunteers sacrifice time and comfort to serve families in crisis. Miles sees that dependence not as a weakness, but as central to the ministry’s identity: “We're poor people. We have no money, no connections, no recognition in the world. So it's just faith in God that I think has carried us through these years of never really having to turn away a dying child and always trusting God that he'll make a way.”

As Shevet Achim faces an uncertain future, Miles said he continues to ask God for wisdom about how to serve faithfully. For him, even one transformed life is enough: “So as the Jewish and sometimes Muslim saying goes, one life as a whole world. So if the Lord has reached even one, then it was all worth it.”

Click here to listen to Paul Calvert's full interview with Jonathan Miles, which explores the stories, challenges, faith and miracles behind this remarkable ministry.

For more information, including opportunities to volunteer or donate, visit the Shevet Achim website.