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Ever felt your prayers went unanswered? Try sending a letter to God and chances are it will end up, as many do each year, at an Israeli post office in Jerusalem, where they are read and sent on to the holy Western Wall.

The letters come from all over the world in a host of languages. The elderly ask for good health. Others seek heavenly remedies for debts, relationship assistance, or help finding jobs. Children mainly ask God to spring them from homework assignments. The trickle of requests turns into a flood around Christmas and the Jewish holidays.

“We have hundreds and thousands of letters sent to either God or Jesus Christ and for some unknown reason they all come to Jerusalem,” said Yitzhak Rabihiya, a postal spokesman.

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The postal workers' favorite anecdote is about an Israeli man who, years ago, wrote a letter to God describing his crippling poverty and asking for 5,000 shekels ($1,000). Postal workers were so moved they collected 4,300 shekels and mailed it back.

“After a month the same person writes again to God,” Rabihiya recalled, “but this time he writes, 'Oh, thank you God for the contribution, but next time please don't send it through those postmen. They're thieves; they stole 700 shekels.”'