We leave for NY early tomorrow morning.

Let me start with an update from last week when I had no access to internet.

Last week we had interactions with people who were to busy doing drugs to care about anything we had to say.

However that being said the L-rd made us available to a few key people who really had questions about what we believed, and we ended up giving out multiple new testaments.

This last week we were on an All guys team. Hiking all around, it was a really great growing experience as well as a very difficult and dark time for us as I mentioned the people who didn’t want anything to do with us.

I will try to give more details in a different blog post, right now I want to talk about how amazing this trip has been after I tell you about this morning;

This morning we arrived in Delhi and I went to bed around 6am because our bus had just dropped us off. When I woke up I felt really Ill and cold, even though Delhi is a extremely humid and hot place. Thankfully I went back to bed, turned off our AC and Fans and put on really warm cloths and got up around 3ish, being all sweaty, and no longer being cold, but needing to put something in my body to give me energy because I felt very weak. So Praise Y’sh’a that this illness hasn’t been a very long ordeal (I think) I still feel a bit ill.

Now onto the partial unpacking of what happened on this trip.

This 10 week Journey has been a wonderful and great ride and I am really appreciative of the fact that it exists, and all the people who have helped it become what it is right now, I also look forward to where this trip will go in the future…

Many difficult and wonderful things have taken place on this trip, and through it all the L_RD has provided for me in each and everyone.

From the long grueling hikes we were on last week, to the adventures we had in Israel and the people we met and friends we’ve made both on this trip with me and the people we encountered along the way. I am truly glad that Y’sh’a called me to this trip this summer.

Although this trip is over, The season that follows when I arrive home will be another journey that I am excited and ready for, and I know it too has hardships along the path but I look forward to tackling them as they appear.

I am sad to be leaving the people who have become such an amazing family to me in these past 10 weeks but also and happy to part ways from them that I might see how this trip will allow their changed lives to bear fruit in the different paths all of us are about to go on.

I am happy that we are going back to the states but saddened by knowing that I will be leaving 6 wonderful friends I have made behind. As they continue on with the call that G-D placed on their lives for these next 4 months.

This trip has really opened my eyes and helped me gain a new perspective on evangelism, life, living a life of evangelism, and also shown me what I need to work on next in my LIFE LONG journey to knowing and growing closer to Y’sh’a.

It gives me great joy to know I have such an encouraging community behind me. And as hard as this trip has been looking back on all the things that have been accomplished for “The Kingdom” and in my life, make all the hardships that my community and I have been through, worth it.

Before coming on this trip I knew that I would be changed when I went home but I didn’t know that it would be so drastic, the next issue on this journey will be not falling into the boxes and routine things that I used to do.

I want to thank all of our Supporters who have been praying for us and helped us come on such an amazing Massah Trip.

I pray that all of you will be blessed imensely for all the support you’ve given us.

This post seems very unorgainized but I hope that joy I have from this trip and appreciation I have for you helping us on this trip comes across.

In HIS Divine and Perfect Mercy

~Jonathan

So as everyone knows on the team I am extremely scared of spiders especially big ones. So funny story not so much for me but afterwards its pretty funny and remarkable. So we were all worshipping up near Remy and Johnathons room with other Israelis near by or listening to us when all of a sudden Sara inches back her chair in a frightful manner which causes me to look to see whats going on. I look down to see a huge spider which was the size of a small tarantula. At that point I freaked out and moved to the other side of the room where a girl named Avital was standing listening to Remy and Sterling worshipping. Thankfully Josh took care of it but yeah it was creepy. So me and this girl Avital then get into a conversation about the spider and then she tells me about a spider that they found in her room and then suddenly I am telling her about the songs that they are singing that they are worship songs and that we are worshiping God. Then I shared with her that we are yehudim meshukim and that we believe in yeshua all of us sitting down singing. First thing she says to me is, “You know Jesus was Jewish?” and I told yes I do and I was so happy to hear her say that. She then told me about how she is studying Kabbalah and she learned that Jesus practiced Kabbalah which then he used to do his miracles. I told her I never heard that and that I believed that he is the mashiac and that he is God and for that reason he is able to do miracles. This was all very fascinating to her. In the end I offered her the New Testament and she was very quick to say yes because she wants to compare what she is learning in Kabbalah to what the New Testament says about Yeshu. Instead I decided to just give her John for now and see what she thinks and tonight we are meeting to talk about part of the book. I am really excited about this and thanks to that fear of mine God used it for something good.

Please keep her in your prayers that her eyes will be opened to the truth.

Love Lea

Well we’ve been in India for about 5 days but it seems like a month.

Last night there was the heaviest rain we’ve been through yet. But lets back up earlier in the evening.

So last night we made ourselves available to talk and be around the large Israeli group who was here. A few of them wanted to Jam so Sterling jammed for a little bit, then Remy and Sterling played a couple of their songs last night. But we just didn’t have good interactions the Israelis who were around. It may have been that they were smoking drugs heavily I’m not sure. So we decided to go back to one of our rooms and have some prayer and worship time and talk about the day and unwind a little bit. on the way out there was a girl who had spoken with Lea and Sarah who wanted to hang so we told here we would be back in a little bit

The worship and prayer was great and refreshing I am really happy to be on a musical team during my first week in India. Praise Y’sh’a.

After we finish we went back out to the cafe, to see this girl and see if people are more willing to talk and hang after we got back but the scene had died a little bit and it was late so Josh, Sterling and Remy went to bed while Sarah, Lea, and I went to a cafe up the street a bit.

Once we got there we saw alot of Israelis there but the seating wasn’t very open so we took a table in the back near a couple who were playing (sheshbesh/backgammon) so we strike up a conversation with them. They happend to be from south africa and here in india for the drug scene and to have fun. One of their friends showed up, who also joined us and so the 4 of us played cards while the couple continued their game and took pictures of things they saw as really trippy, because of the “food” they were eating and things they were smoking.

as we played cards with this guy he asked us questions and commented on the fact that the rabbis tried to hide any information and make it unavailable to anyone who even wants to look at it. which he found odd and we had the opportunity to share what we believed and he was ok with what we believed, not really interested in it for himself but found it interesting.

After 2 games I was starting to think that it was time to call it a night because the people we were talking with didn’t seem responsive. there was also an indian man staring at me and it made me feel akward/evil/strange/uncomfortable the only way i could describe how he was looking at me is lustfully.

so I wanted to leave, but didn’t voice it to the girls yet because i was hoping the rain would stop. (it didn’t) There were a few other guys who when they looked at me give me an evil/uncomfortable look. they were looking at me but it wasn’t them looking at me I believe it was the drugs they were on that made the spirits involved with the drugs looking at me/us seeing that we belonged to the L-RD. These things tagged with loud obnoxious techno music, strange looks from people, feeling trapped because of these things and the place where the table was since it was packed. I was starting to feel overwhelmed and just then the people we were playing cards with needed to go. (praise the L-RD) so we left also.

I was glad that I didn’t become overwhelmed it was just starting to happen.

However earlier today we ran into the guy who started playing cards with us last night and spoke with him again.

Today we also met with 2 people who have a spiritual work/ministry here with travelers/israelis they encounter and it was good to hear about how it has been going for them and how we can pray for them. They were very interesting to meet.

Well that is all for now. Be Well

Pray that the people we are interacting with will see the peace and love in us, and ask us how they can reach that “enlightenment” (since we are in india)

In His Mercy,

~Jonathan

God has been making it so very clear to me how he does not need me.  He may use me, but he does NOT need me.

Yesterday was my team’s first day on site in Bahg Su, we arrived early yesterday morning.  Bahg Su is the rainy, spiritual, beautiful, somewhat secluded, Israeli backpacking area that had been so fruitful for my team last year.  When we were here a year ago radical things had happened, where through my and Sterling’s music, we ended up directly evangelizing to a community of Israeli trekkers of about thirty or forty.  This is where God showed me what he could do through me to reach people,  and where it became clear to me that I was supposed to pursue God further through this ministry.  That week here, we made such deep friendships with those Israelis and we were able to sit and discuss the the Gospel with them, and love them; they were touched, and we were stirred by it all.  That team a year ago was made of myself, Abe, Chelle, Sterling Stephanie, and Sarah; with Abe and Chelle as leaders.  Today I am here in Bahg Su with both Sterling and Sarah, and the three of us are now leading a team.  It is somewhat surreal.  We are now the leaders, encouraging and affirming and challenging and providing for a team of people who are new to this and have never experienced lifestyle evangelism here in India. 

And I am so proud of this team.  They are so willing and receptive, and I am so blessed by the three of them.  Our first day was yesterday and they have already initiated an incredible amount of conversations and have  made meaningful connections with israelis who keep coming around and wanting to be around us.  It is an honor for all three of us leaders to have the responsibility of guiding them.

I bring up the unique success of last year also because we came here knowing that could not come back and expect for things to happen the same way; that we have to make ourselves accessible for God to use us in any way that he wants.  We did come back to the same guest house to find that there were even more Israelis there then when we had left.  We found within our first meal or so that Israelis were receptive, and we were making connections.  What we had used last year to bring people to us was our music, so we decided to try that angle again and set up in our old place, invite people, and talk through our songs. 

 Well some people came inside to listen, and people liked the music but it was completely different.  We sat and played our songs and Jonathon, Lea, Josh, and Sarah sat in mostly deep conversations with Israelis.  We became back-round music.  Lea sat there with Sarah and three Israeli girls we had met earlier that day and poured over the messianic prophecies and the Brit Hadasha with them; while Josh and Jon discussed spirituality with our reappearing Israeli friend Adam.  We (Sterling and I) were almost completely dispensable, and that is when it hit.  God doesn’t need me!  It was such a beautiful reminder of his power and authority.  It was so perfectly and maybe ironically appropriate.  So, Sterling and I took our cue to intercede on behalf of their conversations and began playing worship to encourage them along.  They did such a great job.  God moved through those conversations.

Please pray for my team and  all the ways we could be used by God here.  Pray for encouragement, boldness, stability, and humility.

Things are going well, and we are asking God to surprise us more.

Much love. Remy.

India is one of the most interesting countries that I have ever been to in my life. The food, the spirituality, the people, the customs and of course the bathrooms!!!! Oh boy!!! So the bathrooms don’t always have toilets which at times can be frustrating coming forom a westernized person but we all here have to learn to deal with them. The food here is so good but it can cause upset stomach and other atrocities. Third, spirituality here is far different than anything I have ever seen in my life. It is in your face daily whether its someone holding a serpant to a creepy beggar hissing at you if you refuse him money to the way people make eye contact with you to even how spiritually hungry people are here for truth and something different. India is filled with many types of people and travelers who come to try out new things etc. The people of India are very nice and love to get you into their stores to buy things when they get a chance. They like to bargain with you on prices as well for products which they sell in their stores. Something that has been affecting me though is the fact that many Indians beg on he streets in Delhi. It’s really hard at times for me especially when its a mother and her baby or just a child period. It just shows me the amount of poverty that goes on over here. Please keep the people of India in your prayers as well as the Israelis who come India!!!

God bless

So we flew to india what feels like 4 days ago but was only about 36? or 48hrs ago.

we tried to catch up on sleep and get acquainted with india culture, how things work and of course take a little time to purchase some garb to wear.

Then the first night we had some worship rested.

The next morning we split up in our groups (my group is Remy, Sterling, Sarah, Lea, Josh, and myself) and had some break together and during that time we met a girl from England who was traveling and had a good conversation with her. She wasn’t jewish but enjoyed all religions and saw herself closest to buddhism. she mentioned that it may not be time for her to be called to G-d, she used to goto a religious school and sunday school when she was younger but lost interest when a tragic experience in her life happened and she cried out to G-d but she didn’t see HIS answer

After breakfast we met for more worship and a devo from Jesse, which was really great, he spoke a bit about being light in a dark place and other things that I can’t remember right now because of our 15hr bus ride +lack of sleep.

so after we worshiped with the whole group, we all went our separate ways and we first took a bike powered rickshaw to the bus and crossed a street where I thought I might die because of the cars flying towards us…

then when we got on the bus and started on our journey there were mosquito’s on the bus only about 20 total but about 10 minutes in and trying to kill them and then trying to open the window and shoe them out, roughly 60+ more showed up so we opened the windows again trying to shoe them out but each time we did it seemed that there were more and more in the bus. and the sun was going down so we could no longer see the bugs.

During this time I was praying and asking that the L-RD would remove them from us.

after about 1 1/2 or 2 hours and the sun setting the mosquito’s just disappeared, it was wonderful. Of course it took quite a while to notice they were gone because I just tried to shoe them away and couldn’t kill enough of them.

The bus we road in had seats that were like spring boards that always bounced and the shocks on the bus in combination with the poor roads here made it difficult to sleep. However when I did fall asleep The bus driver would stop the bus for a bathroom break which generally entailed just the side of the road in the dark so we weren’t sure where we were stepping and the first stop like this they almost left without Sarah, Lea and Me.

I’ve never felt more disgusting in my life from the sweat of the heat, to the cramped bus, with bugs, and squating as my bathroom.

BUT! the L-RD pulled us through the 15 hours and did bless us during the dinner break where the bus pulled into an india “rest” stop where we encountered 2 of the other groups riding on a seperate bus which was encouraging to see them.

During the breakfast stop we started having a really good conversation with an Israeli girl sitting behind us (after we loaded into the bus again). She could also use some prayer as she had never heard of Jews who believed in Y’sh’a it was good talking with her (mostly Lea and Remy were in the conversation and I sat and listened)
but good nonetheless

We arrived at our destination at 8am(ish) and took a couple cabs with one Israeli guy we met up to the area of the guest houses. Where we had “breakfast” (we didn’t really have meal food) while waiting to see if the guest house has enough rooms to hold us. Which come to find out they do. So we settled into our rooms and then gathered together to have a time of prayer and worship which was really good.

During the prayer and worship my heart just cried out to Y’sh’a that the people we meet would have the veil over their eyes torn off that they might see the Messiah who was sent for them. and the Love HE has for them.

Now I am here blogging about our travels and soon I will be going to take a nap until dinner. As I mentioned above the bus was really uncomfortable and I am not sure how little of sleep I had during the ride but I am exhausted.

It is great that all of you are praying for us during this time, Thank you so much.

I pray G-D will Bless you as you lift us up in your prayers, and you will be drawn closer to HIM day by day AMEN!

here are the prayer requests from above and some that I am adding

English Girl -from breakfast
Israeli Girl -from the bus
Israeli Guy – from the bus

Also
pray that the Holy Spirit will manifest in us and our ears, hearts, and eyes would be sensitive to HIM, and that we would speak love to our people, and that we wouldn’t use human wisdom but wisdom from G-D, when speaking about Y’sh’a; also that if it be G-D’s will that the Gifts of the Spirit would be used/manifest in us in this spiritually dark place.

Once again I thank you all for caring, loving, encouraging and praying for us during this trip.

In HIS Mercy,

~Jonathan

Wow so this has been an amazing trip for me!!! The Lord has been doing amazing things in my life. I have been learning how to communicate with different types of people, learning how to show love to different types of people etc. Besides all of that I have been having a great time in Israel!! A few days ago we went to the dead sea and that was so much fun for me. The water burned me and my feet where I had some cuts but floating in it was so much fun. I also got to put dead sea mud all over my body which was a lot of fun. I got to be black for a minute lol!!!! We also got to climb mount Masada which had a fascinating history to it. I had no idea that King Herod the Great was that crazy and that many Jewish people decided to kill themselves instead of be killed by the Romans after the collapse of the second temple on Mount Masada. The climb was rough because of all the stairs but it was totally worth the climb. I got to see the sun rise and the scenary was so beautiful. Being there was so much fun. In 2 days though everything is going to change for me and the team. We will be embarking on a whole new journey “India.” I have heard many things about it from the leaders, that there is a lot of darkness there, drugs, sex and so fourth in the places where we will be located and traveling to as well as diverse culture etc. I am excited for the cultural diversity but nervous about that darkness that I will see and feel. I know that God will pull me through it but that does not mean that it is going to be easy. So just keep me and the team in prayer for our next journey ahead that god will keep blessing our team, that sickness will not take over our bodies and that we will be able to reach many Jewish people.

This past week has been once crazy week of awesomeness but also confusion, pain and discovery in my life. I have truly enjoyed being in Jerusalem and seeing where Jesus supposedly was crucified and buried as well as seeing ceasarea where Herod made a kingdom for himself!!! Besides all these marvelous things that I have seen and done I have been listening intently to what God is calling me to do presently in my life. I am confused, frustrated, scared but also excited and hopeful!!! I feel like a new chapter in my life is about to begin and it will for sure put me upside down. I don’t exactly know how everything is going to turn out but I do know that God is showing me what I need to keep and throw out of my life. I am for sure going to need a lot of prayer because this is not going to be an easy thing for me to do. Thank you all so much for listening to me ramble!!

Lea Chernock

Today was my first time ever doing street evangelism as in passing out tracts!!! I was really scared in the beginning and almost started shaking, but God was there through my fear encouraging me to do his work. As I write all of this a lot of emotions such as sadness come to mind. Today was a very hard, encouraging and sad day all in one for me!!! The first part of the day started off with me handing out literature to Jews, Arabs and many others. Many people took the literature but many were not happy with the fact that I was passing the literature out. One man after seeing us the first time came out of a mall near the train station where we were near and told a guy that my leader was talking to that we were crazy in hebrew. At first it really hurt me and I took it personally and as I am writing this tears almost come to my eyes because today was such a challenge and I am crying inside for my people who really need to hear about Yeshua!! Then later on that day a crazy orthodox man came around and got really close to me and grabbed the literature in my hand but of course I did not let go and he kept telling me to give him the literature. I told him no of course but it was very nerve racking!! Finally I yanked all the literature out of his hands and walked away with the help of my leader tzachi!! But yah just keep me and the group in prayer and the Jewish people as well that their hearts will be opened to hearing the gospel!!!