So we’ve been talking a lot about the attributes of God, like His justice, love, sovereignty, holiness, and others. I just wanted to give props to God for being so much bigger, grander, better, and smarter than I will ever be. Because I know that we should strive to know more about God all the time, but I’m wrestling with the fact that I will never know Him in the way He originally intended until this earth is finished. Though I may never have really thought about it before, God’s teaching me that I don’t know a lot. And that’s a very humbling idea to learn.

Ok, now that I’m done talking in circles I just wanted to thank you all for your prayers for this evening. The show that some of the guys from Bet, with the help of many others, put on tonight was a big success. We also spent some time in prayer that God would be working in and through us for everyone that showed up (a lot of whom were Israelis that Massah met last year) and I think that He is definitely using every situation here to His glory. Aaron A. talked about how Y’shua became a real part of his life, and it was awesome to hear how Israelis were interested in what he said and what it meant. Not to mention Remy, Sterling, and Isaac have incredible musical gifts and are continuing to use them to God’s glory! It’s a big encouragement to all of us here.

Learning that being a disciple should be part of who you are as a person, not just what you do when you go out to hand out tracts or when you think people are looking is so much of what God is showing me here in Israel. Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement, they mean so much! Please tell everyone at camp in the midwest that we say hi and we miss you! And family and friends back home – you are all so vital to me being here and feeling the love of community from the states!

Sorry if I’ve talked myself in circles… A little bit of sleepiness has set in.

Much love from Israel – Lizzy

Let me catch everyone up since the last time I posted. I apologize for not writing as these last weeks have been very full. If my posts have not made it clear I am very interested in the current conflict that Israel faces between the Israeli and Palestinian people… let me specify, I am very interested in reconciliation tactics between these two groups. Fortunately our group visited an organization that dealt solely with this issue. Musalaha is an organization which provides different opportunities for Jews and Arabs to interact as children and teens as well as in various other ways. Our team was able to hear a lecture from the founder about their methods and the theology that fuels the success of this organization.

Let me summarize the conflict:

Often in Conservative Christian circles the mere existence of the Palestinians are “in the way of the end times”.

For the religious Jews, Israel is the land God promised to them which negates the fact that the Arabs were occupying the land first. The Palestinians are an enemy of God.

For the Messianic Jew who supports the state of Israel the land is justified biblically to the Jew.

The obstacles:

1) Complexity: The Arab and Jew have not always been fighting. It has been the last hundred years.

2) There is external power involved.

3) Imbalance of power: The Israelis have a lot more.

4) Dehumanization: The Arabs in many cases are treated like 2nd or even 3rd class citizens. “we are good they are bad” mentality. This causes an indifference to other people’s suffering.

5) Identity complex is more complicated than the land issue: both the Jews and Arabs suffer from a victimization mentality, ” the Europeans killed the Jews and the Palestinians pay the price.”

Reconciliation:

There is a problem with our theology.  Jesus is about reconciliation, he died for all.

Both sides need to admit pain and wrong doing. Reconciliation is divine and that is what Christ desires.

Also a lot of Palestinians are Jewish by blood.

My desire is that this will give you some insight into the current conflict and give you something to think about.

Ok so we need everyone’s prayer for tomorrow night. We’re putting on a concert for all of our Israeli friends we met in India last summer and also people we’ve met this year in Israel. We’re barbequeing in the evening and then we’re playing all of our music.

So please be praying that God would prepare their hearts for this time. We’ll be sharing our testimonies and stories throughout the night and throughout the music. We’re really excited and we’ve been praying for the night. We need all of your prayers, thanks so much for keeping up with the blog, its really encouraging to us knowing that you are

love

sterling

Hello everyone!

I know all of us say this, but we’ve been very busy lately.

Some of the others have already written about the “Amazing Race”, which was a lot of fun and very successful. As one of the people planning the race I can tell you that it was a great feeling to see it come out well, and to see people enjoy it and grow from it as individuals and as a team.

The Beit team got to have some interesting experiences on our way to meet Aleph in the Negev. We visited a moshav consisting of a community made up entirely of Jews who made Aliyah from a Jewish community in India! In the Diaspora, they had developed their own community in a place called Cochin, India, with unique customs for observing festivals and feasts. It was quite interesting, and appropriate considering the nature of our trip.

After this, we had an amazing opportunity to spend time with the leaders of a Messianic congregtion in Arod that has experienced a great deal of persecution over the years. Their perspective was extremely encouraging, and we were able to spend time praying together and encouraging one another in what the Lord has in store for us. It’s always such a powerful thing to spend time with other members of the Body in Israel that can provide a unique perspective on living your life for Yeshua and serving him.

Our time in the Negev was very fun as well. When we got back, we were all very tired, but we took a break for dinner and then headed out to tell more Israelis about Yeshua! Late night Bissur (evangelism) is always fun, because you get a chance to connect with people you wouldn’t normally meet, and who wouldn’t normally encounter the Gospel. We had quite a few significant conversations as a result. Everyone was very encouraged by this time, because we pushed through fatigue together and did something to impact the Kingdom. Praise God!

I’ll end this post with a petition. We’ve spent some time over the past few weeks organizing an event/get-together based around Remy’s and Sterling’s and my music, to which we are inviting all of our friends that we’ve met during our time in India and Israel. Some of the people that will be coming are people we’ve already reconnected with during our time here, and have had more interactions with the Gospel as a result. We are praying that God will move in their hearts during the event in such a way that they will come to know Yeshua as their Messiah. Please pray for our interactions with them tomorrow night.

Thank you all so much for your continued prayer. We all need it. Please know that we love you dearly.

love,isaac

The Amazing Race:

So let me start from the beginning. On Wednesday we were told that we were going to Be’er Sheva to go camping in the Negev. I was all packed and ready to go. I even wore long pants to ride the camel! All of Aleph and Bet were together and we sang a few songs in worship. ALL OF A SUDDEN a video starts playing on the screen and everyone except the Aleph team leaves and it starts with Aaron going “So we told you that you’re going to Be’er Sheva…but we haven’t told you how you’re getting there.” and the rest of the video was the Bet team explaining the Amazing Race that were going to do.

We were in 3 teams of 4. I was the team leader of Team 1 with Dan, Tamar, and Ben. We opened our first task and were off running through Tel Aviv. It was so much fun to bond with my team and do funny things like make a 30-second musical video on Rothschild Blvd. and play leap frog on a busy street. All of this had to be documented on our digital video camera by the way. Just when we thought we were done, we went to the location on our last clue. There waiting for us were Rachelle and Remy ready to give us the next set of tasks for JERUSALEM!! We booked it over to the bus station and took the hour long bus ride to Jerusalem. By this time we were all tired and it was so hot outside. PLUS, our task was to go to Me’a Shareem (most orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem)…and Tamar was wearing shorts! After trying to chase down a few buses, we started to walk and then we took a taxi to the neighborhood. Dan had an extra pair of basketball shorts in his bag so Tamar put those on so at least her knees were covered…she was still uncomfortable with the thought of offending the people in Me’a Shareem. The taxi driver took us way into the heart of the neighborhood and it was looking more and more dense with Orthodox Jews…women dressed in long skirts and long-sleeved shirts and men dressed in long black coats and hats. By this point Tamar is crying in the back seat of the taxi and I didn’t know what to do. The taxi driver stopped and I made a quick decision to just have Dan and Ben go do the task while Tamar and I stayed in the car, but our driver had to go! So we all got out, Ben and Dan tried to do the task, and Tamar and I stood on the street anxiously looking for another taxi. Tamar was sobbing and it only got worse when an orthodox drove up next to us on the street and angrily talked to us in Hebrew. Tamar understood and said that he called us “filth,” which only added to the anxiety of the situation as young girls walked passed us staring and men steered clear of us. By the grace of God we finally hailed a taxi and rushed in without completing the task, which we really didn’t care much about at that moment. We finished the tasks in Jerusalem and then found out we had to get ourselves to Be’er Sheva as well! In short, we were the last team to arrive in Be’er Sheva, but it was such a relief to see everyone again. We had a nice dinner and spent the night at a church.

The Negev:

Our next adventure was in the Negev. On Thursday morning we rode camels (Tamar and I rode a camel that we named Sally) and experienced the desert like true Bedowins After much driving around, checking out craters and Ben Gurion’s memorial site, we made it to the campgrounds, where we set up camp and took a nice nap. We had an AMAZING worship time under the stars and the Holy Spirit was totally moving in all of our hearts.

THE HIKE!

Woke up at 5:45am to go on a hike. I was really looking forward to it because of what people had said about last year’s hike, but I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. We hiked the tallest bluff in the Negev called Mt. Ardon (I’m pretty sure) in the HEAT of the desert. Isaac and I were in front leading the way and I was feeling pretty good….and THEN we started going up a pretty steep part. My heart was beating so fast and it felt like it was gonna jump out of my chest, not to mention that I felt like my legs were gonna fall off! BUT with much encouragement, I made it to the top and was able to catch my breath. It was such a beautiful view, which made me a little upset that my camera is broken. Then! we had to go up a little bit more before we headed down, which was crazy too, but definitely more fun then going up. I felt so good when we all finally made it to the bottom. What an accomplishment! YAY! After a cold shower and a hearty lunch, I felt even better.

What’s more is that when we got back to the Hostel from such a long 3 days away, we found out that we were going to do street evangelism from 11pm-1am. It was a little bit shocking, but it was definitely a huge test in trusting God to be our strength. We went out in our Amazing Race teams along with some of the Bet team as our leaders which was SO encouraging and so many of us had really good conversations with people! God totally worked in our weakness and spoke through us.

The Finish Line:

When we got back at 1am from b’soor, Talia announced the winners of the Amazing Race and….. WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was only by a few points that we beat the two other teams (who coincidentally had a tie). Our prize was a VIP movie, which is basically dinner and movie worth 120 shekels (about 30 bucks!). WE went last night to the VIP movie and saw The Proposal haha

Anyway, this week is going to be pretty packed as well. Keep us in your prayers for strength and energy to press on.

Love,

Shaina

This past Wednesday the Alef team was given a task.  Actually, a series of tasks that in following would get them to Be’er Sheva; a city a few hours south.

The evening before they were told that they we would be driving down together to spend the last half of the week camping in the desert.  In the morning, when they arrived downstairs with all their stuff, they were told what was actually going on.

THE AMAZING RACE involves sending the Alef team out into samller teams with a set of clues, tasks, and rules to follow to navigate themselves to their end point. What’s the point??  The point is to challenge participants (in a fun way) to learn how to work as a team-unit, give them experience getting around solo in a foreign country, and deal with the possible stresses of it all and problem-solve. All in preparation for India.

As the Beit team, we organized and ran the race this year; being that we participated in it ourselves last year and know intimately what it involves. We attempted to expand on what was created last year, and possibly make it better. One way in which we attempted to up the fun, was by making an introductory video to present the race.

We gathered the Alef team into a room with a monitor; pressed play; and exited the room.

This is the introductory film we showed, (Hope everyone at home enjoys):

Description: Time to clean

We had the privledge this week of meeting with some very interesting, convicting, and inspiring speakers.

As both Teams Alef and Beit, we visited the offices of ‘Musalaha’ –a ministry whose mission is to pioneer reconciliation between Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians alike through the message of Jesus as the saviour for ALL peoples. 

Can I just say that I was incredibly convicted while hearing from our speaker Salim.  Salim, I believe , is the founder of Musalaha (which means reconciliation in Arabic) being a christian-Palestinian raised in Israeli raised amongst Jewish-Israeli society. Sofie-sett to say, he had a very unique point of view about the Israeli/Palestinian-conflict; emotionally, psychologically, politically, and spiritually.  Salim had some amazingly challenging things to say about the views of a lot of believers concerning the peoples of the Holy land.  All that he said, I cannot even begin to think about how to regurgitate  the points he made, BUT, a theme hit home for me: that as believers it is our duty to bridge the Gap and promote healing and reconciliation in all areas, EVEN and ESPECIALLY concerning the middle-east. 

All of my conscious and subconscious views  about the conflict, adopted through my limited American-Messianic upbringing, were challenged as I heard his testimony and his heart for all people in this land.  He refuted “christian-zionism” and any purely-eschatological excuse for racism and in-justice, calling for a stance that calls the Jewish people ‘chosen’, and wants them redeemed, while desiring to see Palestinians saved.  His words were compelling and struck an undeniable chord of truth for most of us present.  Something he said has stuck with me:  “Jews value holiness above all, and Arabs value Justice. Only on the foot-step of the cross are either made complete.” I was left desiring for God to give me a passion for the salvation of all peoples and for him to remove any hate from my heart.  I think that we as a body of believers create obstacles for many non-believers when we justify any kind of injustice to be accepted in our hearts, while rationalizing our unrighteous dogmas with sampled scripture, or convienient perspectives.  I wish I could really do justice to what Salim spoke on, but I can really only accurately share what it caused in me.

Moving along with notions of self-decided righteousness, the Beit team visted with the humble leaders of a congregation in Arad who have been consistently persecuted by the self-righteous Orthodox community there.  Apparently the community of believers have had the most persecution in the land, by far, over the last five years.  At least thats what others say about them.  What they say about themselves is a different story.  When we asked about their persecution, their Pastor responded first by saying that he had a real problem considering the “struggles” they endure, persecution. He felt unworthy to call what they are going through “persecution” when, “there are people dying for their faith all over the world, and here, they just make life difficult for us.” 

I think this is just semantics, BUT the humility concerning their circumstances really struck me.  They deal with tire-slashings, demonstrations, rioting, discrimination, and more, and they are committed to loving their oppressors.  Not because they are Jewish, not for any reason besides the fact that they are human in need of salvation.  Their pastor said to us concerning how he remains in love towards these people: “I want to be able to ask someone once they have come to faith, whether I was and inspiration or an obstacle to their path to faith, and to have the answer be the first.  I do not want to be an obstacle to anyone’s salvation.” This also got me.  The thought that my actions or attitudes, not surrendered to God, could be an obstacle to a person’s walk towards Jesus.  That hit me in a heavy way.

And so I felt compelled to present this: What injustices inside our hearts are we rationalizing, and so possibly stumbling others by creating obstacles for them, between them and God?

I want to know that I am inspiring people to faith, and not giving them ammunition to ignore God’s call on their heart.

Thanks for reading. Much love,

Remy

***this is officially yesterday***

We have been given the wonderful opportunity to lead a morning devotional. Each person has this same opportunity. So this morning we heard from Joshua N.

He spoke about, 2 Chronicles 7:14;

14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Josh spoke about how the Jewish people are open to everything but Y’sha’, and how HE is the only way to the father yet, they stand and pray trying to speak to him but are missing the key “Piece”, and how every interaction we have with them is important.
it was a really good devotional, however I don’t really remember details right now as it is 1:20am two days later.

*today!*

We are placed in different groups each week with a team leader to help learn team dynamics and understand what our different skills are. So Today my group (Tamar (team leader), Rachel, Barry and I) were on dinner detail we cooked it and I thought it was very well made, details aside, something about the portion that I helped create, didn’t seem to be a big hit with people at dinner or at least that was my impression.

Time and time again so far on this trip different insecurities have been coming to light that I was unaware of. This happens to be one of them, so I found out tonight.

Being an artist when I work on a piece of art, if it is not well received it is a wound to my heart and soul since in my eyes it is a part of me, that I have poured part of myself into, no matter how small the project.

Rambling aside, I was trying to rebuke this insecurity after dinner because I find it to be a ridiculous and childish thing, (or at least the logic and reason side of me does).

In my life when insecurities appear or come to light, others that I am already aware of come back and they swarm me, so I start to think of myself as the victim. Which turns me into an introverted overly self analyzing person, who I don’t even want to be around.

And soon after dinner we are supposed to go speak with people about Y’sh’a. So I’m “trying” my best to rebuke these insecurities and we are soon leaving to go talk with people about our Y’sh’a, but I am attempting to keep myself stable.

Long story short G-d really provided as I didn’t want to talk with people tonight because I was trying to rebuke my insecurities, but my last conversation of the evening, went really well.

I spoke with a russian girl named Isabella, who told me a very interesting story about her going to an island just off Thailand, on a plane from a company who just had a plane crash 2 weeks earlier, and her jewish friend read to hear from the Psalms to help calm her down. She read that G-d will send an angel to guard you. So the plane landed, and they went to this motel, where this dog came and tried to Attack them. However another dog, came and interceded and protected them, but stuck around for 3 days at the door of their room just guarding them, it didn’t beg for water or food, it just sat there and guarded the door.

This led her to believe that there is something out there, but she doesn’t believe in G-d because she can’t see HIM. She had to run to meet someone but I just ask that you would pray for her and ask that Y’sh’a would reveal HIMSELF to her.

Thanks for your time and bearing with my rambling.

I know I say this every time but your prayers are very appreciated!

In HIS Sovereign Mercy and Grace,

~Jonathan

Please lift us up and ask that Y’sh’a and the Holy Spirit would help us overcome our cultural boundaries of jumping out of our comfort bubbles and talking with people. Also that G-d would show us the skills, giftings, and talents HE has sown into us that we may use them for HIS Glory! Todah Rabah!

*side thought*

Todah La EL (Thank the L-RD)
For putting this team together, and having your love and support on our Massah (Journey)
as we become broken and rebuilt in the mercy and grace of our L-RD Y’SH’A!

Every once and a while I get inspired to write a poem.   I haven’t had much time for extracurricular activities recently, but I was studying A.W. Tozer’s “Knowledge of the Holy” and got inspired.

God Incomprehensible

God Incomprehensible

My mind has deemed to know

The shadow cast by Thy great light

Upon this earth below

Lord give me eyes to see Thine heart

And heart to see Thine eyes

That in my dying breath I’ll not

Be taken by surprise

Aaron Trank