We have been in Rio since the 1st of September.  It´s amazing how fast the time has gone by here.  We have been located in Copacabana which is an area located on the beach.  It is a very beautiful place that has so many types of people. We have been doing outreaches here in Rio almost everyday and we seem to be getting some good results.

Today is  the Brazilian Independence Day and there was a parade that the army put on.  At this parade we were passing out tracts and a Jewish woman seemed to be very interested in the fact that we were from Israel and that we were promoting Yeshua.  From the broken Spanish that we know we understood that she has family in Israel and was happy to meet people from Israel.  She gave us her contact information and we know that a local Brazilian believer will be in touch with her.  I am praying that God touches her life.

Tomorrow is Rosh HaShana and we are looking forward to celebrating all of us together and bringing in the new year.  We are leaving  for Peru on Friday and I´m looking forward to meeting more Israelis there.  There are supposed to be a lot of young Israelis and will be many opportunities to share with them.

So Lord we pray that you use us during this holiday season to bring Your Word to our people.  Please bless us and our travels.  We thank you for you the New Year and we look forward to seeing what new things You will do.  B´shem Yeshua, amen.

A new journey begins. We are in the midst of training time getting prepared to hit the streets today. 6 young men just out of the Israeli army. We are in South America expecting God to move in our lives as we will be together for the next 5 weeks. Please keep me and Daniel in your prayers as we are leading the training sessions . Also pray for the team as some of them are hitting the streets for the first time.

We have just about wrapped up our ten week journey, and we are spending our last day here in India.  We have come so far in what seems a short time, but when thinking about it, it’s been quite long.  So many changes have taken place, and so much growing has been accomplished.  I cannot say that we are the same people who all met up on a sunny afternoon in New York.  God has been so present throughout this adventure, guiding us in the most difficult situations, and faithfully providing opportunities to speak to people both in Israel and India.  I can only hope that what we have presented will be remembered by those we spoke to, but I leave that concern to the Lord.  I could not have been blessed more by those that I have traveled with these last two months, and have truly been encouraged by their testimonies and their faith, and the friendship they have extended.  In many ways I wish that this journey would never end, but there are important things that call for us back home, others who need to learn about a relationship with Y’shua.

It’s been a crazy few weeks in India, full of conversations and opportunities to share the gospel with people. The first week was an extremely encouraging and busy one for our team, we got into a ton of conversations with all sorts of people, many of whom were curious and open to what we had to say. During that week I gave three people New Testaments.
The next week was very different. The people we were around tended to be much more disconnected from reality and interested in smoking chillum. However, there was a group of very friendly tourists who connected with us, and after five days we were able to talk with every tourist in the village about Y’shua. But it was a very difficult week in terms of energy.
As a team we’ve come a long way since we first met each other. I’ve noticed ways that I and other members of the team have changed. Even though we aren’t ready to say goodbye to each other, I know that God has prepared each person on the team in unique ways to take the many lessons they learned back home so that they can do ministry there.
Thank you so much for reading our blogs, praying for our team, and supporting us as we have been gone. God has been faithful in answering your prayers. All that’s left is the return journey, so please pray for traveling mercies. Thanks so much!

Our time here in Dharmsala has been very rewarding. There is a growing sense of unity in the group, as the Lord works to bring us closer to Himself and the true purpose of our being here in India.
Today Joel and I were able to minister to have a good discussion with a religious young man who we’ve been getting to know the past few days. He is really serious about his study. I feel like there’s a lot that I can learn from Him. Today we discussed the stories of Jesus and His disciples picking grain on the Sabbath. For him, HaShem becoming a man is a philosophical absurdity and impossibility. I have to agree that it is an absolutely amazing truth and a very tough concept to grasp. How awesome is our God.
The three of us and our friend’s father, who is not religious, hiked up to the waterfall here in Bhagsu, the region of Dharmsala where our group is staying. It was incredible. Really too beautiful for me to express. We also got to get up close and personal with a few goats along the way, which I thought was thoroughly enjoyable and fun. India is a crazy place.
There’s another contact here in Dharmsala that I really hope to be able to speak to more. He is a genuinely kind young man who is jaded to spirituality and religion. I haven’t asked his story, and he hasn’t shared it with me, but when I share scriptures with him, he quotes them word by word in Hebrew. No kippah or tzitzit, but clearly he has had serious religious training. He knows what we believe, and we see each other around town a few times every day. I’m really hoping for more of those gospel seeds to be planted in his heart.
A crazy thing happened this morning. Eli and Liz came into our morning devotional time and told me that they had just met someone who knew me. A girl from the synagogue I grew up in in California was in Dharmsala. Can someone say divine appointment!? Just to make the story a bit more uncanny, Joel, Shoshanna, and Liz S had just met her the week before in Leh. What a cool testimony to God’s ability to bring about the situations for our stories and the gifts of God to be shared with others.
There’s one last story that I wanted to share with all of the blog readers. On our last day together in Vashist two young Indian men received the Lord. Their names our Rao and Seth, and they come from Hindu families and backgrounds. They were both struggling with their faiths–the failure of Karma to execute justice, and the lack of presence of their gods had turned them off to the beliefs that they had grown up with. After hearing about Jesus and us Messianic Jews, they both said, “We want to be Jewish.” Perhaps a little bit of a misunderstanding, but what they were really interested in was the God of Israel and His Messiah! They certainly need our prayers right now as they seek in the Word for further understanding. Our God is so awesome to use us to speak words of truth into the lives of the lost!
Joel and I both felt strange today after our conversations. Perhaps it was something we ate, or possibly spiritual warfare. In any case he was feeling crummy enough to go to bed early and could use some prayer.
God is good and may He bless you all!

Quick update… I’m alive and fine. In Northern India somewhere, and really excited to see what God will be doing with out group this week. Please pray for safety and protection from spiritual attacks/darkness. Update more later! Thanks, and God bless! Elissa

Hello bloggers,
Today we split into our new groups and took off on a new adventure. New sights, new sounds and new people to hear the gospel! Our group, joel, shoshanna, elissa, tirza, elly, liz k, josh l, and I are getting used to our new surroundings.There is a lot of Buddhism being practiced here. I saw a few monks walk by on the road (Sidenote: I also saw some monkeys on the 8 hour car ride today) and our cab driver told us that the Dalai Lama is in town. Strangely enough, in spite of the religious focus, the atmosphere is very much like the other Israeli tourist destinations we’ve visited–lot’s of drugs, cafes, hikes, guitar music, etc. Oh and of course I shouldn’t forget “Hello to the Queen”, the must have dessert among Israeli travelers in India. Hot chocolate chip cookies, and chopped bananas, covered in vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Yummm
I’m looking forward to our time here. I’ve heard that there is a heavy spiritual presence here, along with opposition from Chabad. Acknowledging these things, I think we’re all excited to be here and to see what the Lord has in store for us and the people we’ll soon meet and speak to. Our God is at work here in India and it is such a privilege to be a part of it!!!
Thank you for all of your prayers and support

We have completed week one here in India, and I have to say that in many cases the conditions here are better than I originally thought they would be.  We’ve had some great food, good living conditions, a chance to enjoy our surroundings (unlike while in Delhi).

Overall, our time in Dharmsala was enjoyable but challenging at the same time.  The number one thing that stands out the most there is that the travelers are looking for something.  What that is, many do not know, but they seek it out, mostly in the forms of the many classes which are available there.  We spent time in a number of different cafes, trying to interact with people and trying to find out what they thought about Jesus.  It was somewhat difficult to stay in that environment at first because left and right people are lighting up, and I am morally against such an act.  But you look past that in order to see the person instead.  None of the people that I personally spoke to were open, and instead held their own opinions very strongly.  It was definitely a struggle, and a very draining experience.

Our group has now come together again for several days, and it’s very uplifting to hear their stories, to be able to share struggles, and just be a whole group again.  For the previous seven weeks, we have acted together almost as a singular body, each person with his/her strengths, and now as we put our talents to work here in India, it’s amazing to see how God is using those talents.  We’ll be heading out to a new location soon, with new teams, so just pray that God would do a good work in us and that we are able to reach many people.

Well we’re not in Israel anymore. We arrived in Delhi last week. I keep hearing that delhi was a bad experience and it smelt and it was gross. BUT I LOVED IT. it was such a blast to walk through an area that was so third world ish, and i see the smiles on peoples faces, the level of contentment. it really puts my two story house with a/c into perspective. We are a spoiled nation, even when we don’t have the plushy lifestyle we always seem to complain about any situation that seems to distance us from our idea of home. anyways we left delhi and split off into our groups. my team just spent the last 8 days in Manali (I’m pretty sure i can tell you where i stayed… but i may be wrong, if i don’t write again assume the worst). and it was so beautiful there. the community of people we met and talked with was great. unfortunately for my entire team every time we attempted to write on the blog at every internet cafe, the site was blocked. so now i type with joy as i familiarize my fingers to the keyboard once again. the first few days were fantastic (other than three of our group staying in bed sick) it was fresh, it was new, and we had hundreds of people to meet and talk to. but as the fourth and fifth days rolled by we slowed down quite a bit. it was very interesting to see God work in us when we had little to no energy or urge to let Him. Spiritually this time has been trying. it is hard to always want to pick of the bible instead of the ipod, or pray instead of eat . but now i am with the entire group, reunited at last. and life is good. its good to see familiar faces again. i am a little hesitant towards the idea of splitting up again and going out, but at the same time i am so excited to see how God will use our group. please pray for us and our journey (or as jhan would say “quest). we need your prayers and support as we try to bring the gospel to these lost people.

So,we have been for a couple of days in India and my team is about to leave Leh. By now we know a little bit the routine, basically we hang out at little coffee shops all day trying to come up with strategies to start conversations with whoever leaves its guard down. One of the most creative strategies, implemented by Liz S, was writting on paper napkins to comunicate with the person sitting next to her but separated by a window in a cafe. Thanks to the happy face drawn in the napkin and an inviting “how are you doing?” we got to start a conversation with a really cool girl from California that had spent the last 6 months in Israel. We had the chance to talk about many things and answer some questions she had, ended up being quite a deep conversation. Also we learned she was traveling by herself and was taking a bus at midnight. We didnt want her to go by herself since it is a bit dangerous to walk alone at night, so we decided to walk her down and Joel had to come with us because our leaders didnt want us to walk back by ourselves either. Im soooo glad we walked with her, it was indeed scary!! we had to wait by the musk here for almost 30 minutes with scary pot smoker Indian men around us. The bus finally arrived and we said our goodbyes gave our new friend a new testament with a little note and prayed that she made it back safely. Please pray that she reads her new testament and find more than she thought she would when she started her trip!