I wish that you guys could see the scenery and landscape that has surrounded us for the past two weeks.  Beautiful streams and snow capped mountains cover the view and the amazing beauty of God’s creation is so sobering and awe-inspiring.  After hiking up a hill with some Israelis to see a better view of the sunset, one of our Israeli friends looked out at the scene of giant mountains colliding with beautifullly colored clouds.  He commented, “wow, I’m not religious, but it makes me feel like I need to wrap tifilin.”  This struck me as interesting and reminded me that all of creation glorifies God and points to him, and even those who don’t know him can understand the magnitude of the Creator and our smallness in comparison with him.  I realized that it is true that creation points to God and tells of a beautiful creator, and it has been doing that the entire time we are here.  God is bringing glory to himself, and has priveleged us with the opportunity to join in with all the rest of creation in telling others about him and in reflecting his majesty as a loving Creator who desires to be known.  How wonderful and amazing is that…?!

We met some American believers here the other day- there are 5 who are here ministering to the native Ladakhi people.  I am always freshly amazed at the instant community believers have with each other, even though we had never met it was so refreshing and exciting to meet them and be able to hang out for a little bit.  They are here until December with an organization called SEND; there is one team in northern India, one in southern, and one in Israel right now.  Please keep them lifted up also- pray for health and renewed strength every day as they battle lies of Hindism and Buddhism out of their love for these people.  And thank you, God, for community!

Please also be praying for the Israelis we have been talking to these past two weeks.  We have been able to make some really close friends and have some in-depth discussions about the gospel and how that pertains to Jewish people.  One guy that Sean and I talked to last night admits that although he is agnostic, he recognizes that he does not know and is open to the possibility of the supernatural.  He acknowledged that he is on a spiritual journey and is seeking truth.  We were able to confront him with truth last night- please keep him in prayer that God will remind him of what we talked about and continue to draw him closer.  The rest of the team also got into some great conversations last night- PLEASE keep praying for the people we are talking with.  We have one more day here, so we are also praying that God will use us to make the most of it.

I really miss you guys at home! The family, friends at home and school (and Cali!) and Alef- I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately.  I love you so much and am so excited for whatever is coming next!

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”  -Isa. 52:7

Description: We’re going to the Lake

So I would just like to agree with Talia that its definitely been a week of ups and downs, but God always comes through… and sometimes when youre least expecting it.

Yesterday we celebrated my best friend Remy’s 20th birthday. It was a lot of fun, we had dinner at this funny little place and had arranged for them to bake a cake for Rem…which wasn’t very good but its the thought that counts right? Afterwards we had arranged to watch one of Remy’s favorite movies at a little cafe that shows movies, but had given him a choice. We had played music a couple of the nights earlier on in the week, and had not played the night before, but had told a whole bunch of Israelis that we would be playing tonight. So Remy chose to save the movie for another night, and take advantage of the opportunity to share our music and share our faith.

We made our way to Wonderland Cafe (the most popular cafe in town) and found it busier than any other night we’d been there. After strategically finding seats in the middle of the center wall, we started playing. That was at 8:30… we didn’t stop playing until around 10:00 It was probably one of the craziest times we’ve played. There were soooo many Israelis there, and we got to interact with a lot throughout, and after the music. And its so cool to see how God uses the music to open the door for us to talk with people that we would normally not have a chance to talk to, and have them asking us about meanings of songs.  God is way cool!!

So just wanted to share with all of you about how God is using us, and how in control He is. We all miss home a lot, but God just keeps drawing us into Him and reminding us of our purpose here.

We love you all and need your prayer sooo much!!! We’ve gotten close with a number of Israelis here so please pray that God would soften their hearts as we share with them.

love

sterling

Description: We’re on a plane.

It is so crazy to me that God has me where he does.  He has blessed me with two incredible decades of life and I am in complete awe and humble surrender to him for using me.  The other day, walking along the Pagong Lake, the reality of God in my life became so overwhelming.  To think of how, despite my attempts to escape his grasp at times, God has never let me go and has blessed me in amazing ways.  When I try to recollect where I was even a year ago, to the place God has me now emotionally, mentally, spiritually… I am so thankful and amazed by his faithful and transformative love.  I cannot begin to imagine where he has me, or what he has for me in my twenty-first year.  I am scared for sure, but with a fear that clings me that much more to His side.
I am so thankful to my parents who gave me life.  My father dedicated me before I was born, completely to God, and I am so humbly grateful for his obedience in doing so; and my mother for teaching me by example, to humble myself before God and others in asking for forgiveness. They are so loved by me, and I am so blessed to be here, doing what I am doing, with total support from them.

Tonight we are playing music at our favorite café at the many requests of many Israeli friends and acquaintances.  God is crazy good.

So much love on this day, 8/23/2009
Remy

Isaac here. The conversation, as Remy stated, was indeed surprisingly well-received on Nadav’s part, as well as our 3 other friends who were, at many times, pulled away from their other conversations and listening intently to the dialogue. Although a self-professed “cynic”, Nadav seemed intrigued by the Gospel as we shared it with him. He was raised observing cultural Judaism in Israel, and had somewhat of a bewilderment when it came to the religious practices of Judaism, and any other religious practices for that matter. After clearing up a few theological confusions regarding Messianic Jews, Remy and I along with well-timed help from Sterling and Talia, were able to lay out the entirety of the Gospel, including potent nuggets from our own testimonies. Nadav, elated, many times shared that he felt our beliefs were “a very sane way of life,” which we took as a compliment. We were able to skim the surface of several key doctrines; just enough to peak his interest at the moment and end the conversation on a positive note, just as the café began to close down for the night.

Later that night, as we had made our way down the 700 steps in the dark, we reconvened in another small restaurant closer to our guest house. After sharing a few more laughs, Nadav invited our group to accompany him and his friends on a trip to the lake further up in the mountains. Earlier in the night Nadav had expressed his desire to do this trip, but that he was having a hard time finding “quality people” to go along with him. I guess we made the cut. Our plans are to make the trip with Nadav and two of his friends in the next day or so.

It would mean a lot to have your prayers in these next few days that we will be spending with our new friends. Please pray that God would be revealing Himself to them in a dynamic way, and that we would get a chance to answer more questions and even open up His Word with them. Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support.

It starts with the six of us sitting at our favorite café, late evening, a few nights ago.  We were somewhat unsettled by the day’s lack of Israeli interaction, but we had made the best of it and were going to eat together and play cards before retiring for the night.  The only space available this particular evening was at a table located in the very back corner.  We were again disappointed, thinking that this positioning would secure the reality of our non-Israeli-interaction-day.  Shortly after sitting down, the table behind us empties, and as I am dealing the cards for our favorite traveler card-game, I recognize the two young Israeli girls that sit down at the empty table.  I had met Alona and Sivan in Kheer Ghanga with Trankie, Barry, Jonathon, and Dan two weeks ago.  We had hiked down the mountain together and eaten dinner in Kasole before leaving them to meet up with the rest of the Massah teams.
They were happily surprised to be running into me, and they quickly joined our table as I introduced them to the rest of the team that they had not met.  We spent an enjoyable meal with them, and got to know them and their travels.  The girls related that they had been here since just after we had left them in Kasole, and hadn’t been around the last few days that we had been here, because they had gone on a few day trek.  As the evening was coming to a close they invited the six of us to join them the following night on a mini-hike up to this Buddhist temple where there was an amazing view.  We accepted and chose a place to meet up at.

That next evening we walked the literal 700 steps up to the humungous and gaudy Buddhist temple a top an incredible mountain view.  After catching our breath, adjusting to the even higher elevation, and taking a multitude of photos, we all sat down and enjoyed the sight before us.  At our suggestion and excited responses of Alona and Sivan, we brought the guitar with us to the top to play some  music for them.  As we settled down to possibly play, an Israeli guy approaches Isaac and asks him to take his picture in front of the view.  We quickly become friendly with Nadav and he joins our circle.   After talking about ourselves and asking him about himself he asks us to play, and the girls agree.  In front of this absolutely incredible painting of a skyline, Sterl and I begin to play in spite of the breath-choking elevation. We played first ‘Flowers Of The  Sun’.  Following this a few fellow hikers joined around and Nadav called his friends over to join as well.  We continued with “In Your Hands’ and ‘Siren’s Song’.  It was absolutely enchanting sharing the music with Israelis back-dropped by the sunlit Himalayan mountains.  At some point an Israeli friend interjected between songs: “It’s like MTV Unplugged on the top of the world!”

As the light decreased and so did the temperature, the six of us plus our four Israeli friends, retreated to a little café on the mountain top and warmed ourselves with a round of Chai and ‘Hide and Seek’ cookies.  Almost instantly after sitting down, Nadav asks with very little segue way, “Tell me, what do you Y’hudim Mishichim believe?”, and we entered into one of the most surprisingly well-received conversations that any of us have had, over about an hour plus.

During which Sterling leans over to me and says, “This is the first time ‘Mobile’ feels real; that we are a real Mobile team.  This is what we are here for”…

Description: Story from Sarah

Well, it’s finally here.
Our Beit team has officially “transformed” (video coming soon) into Massah Mobile. Our friends on Aleph have gone home, and we are pushing forward as a team of 6 and pressing in to what God has for us. The transition has been a difficult one; its hard to develop relationships with people that become such close friends and then see them off only to shift gears and have things intensify. We are however more passionate and ready to see God work than ever.

Since arriving in our new location, we have spent a lot of time in prayer, especially intercession for the many Israelis we built relationships with who interacted with the Gospel during our time with Aleph. We have also been submitting our plans for the rest of the entire trip to God’s will. Although we have a tentative plan, its easy to get caught up in what “sounds” like a good idea versus what God is actually moving us to do by His Spirit. We have also run into a few friends that we made earlier on the trip, and are praying about how God might continue to use us in their lives. There is an abundance of opportunities here and we are excited about being able to spend an indefinite amount of time investing in the lives of of the Israelis we meet and loving them.

With that, here are a few of the things we are in need of your prayer for:

• Continued love and support for each other as a group
• Spiritual discernment as we press into God’s will for our time here and for the rest of our trip
• Wisdom in making ourselves available and being obedient in opportunities to witness
• Health and endurance

I just want to thank you all so much for continuing to support us through prayer and love in all of this. None of us could be here if it weren’t for your loving encouragement and support. We need you, and you are very much appreciated.

More soon to come!

love,isaac