Dear friend in the Messiah,
I am writing to you from Israel, where I was encouraging our twenty-five-plus staff members—visiting one-on-one to talk and pray with them as they serve the Lord in the midst of some really challenging conditions.
I spoke to a gathering of more than seventy-five young adults at our current rented Tel Aviv Center. My message was from the book of Acts about relying on the Lord and the power of His Spirit during very stressful times.
I was also part of a teaching team at a leadership retreat for forty young adults serving in congregational and mission leadership throughout Israel.
The summer is always a busy time for Your Mission to the Jewish People as we are in the midst of many evangelistic efforts and campaigns around the globe, especially in New York City and in Israel. Please take a moment to pray for our annual Shalom New York outreach, which takes place during the last week of July.
Also, please pray for our children’s camps in both the United States and Israel. Our Israel camps this year will focus on both Russian and Ukrainian new immigrants and their families who have fled one war only to find themselves in the Holy Land experiencing another.
I found some very desperate needs in Israel because of the Israel-Hamas war, and I am praying and hoping for good fruit through our Israeli staff at this very moment.
I am particularly concerned for several groups within Israel, including evacuees, soldiers, and the hostages brutally taken on October 7.
There are still thousands of evacuees unable to return to their homes because they live in border towns in both the north and south of Israel. There are thousands of families who have been living in hotel rooms for almost a year now. This living arrangement is becoming so hard, especially on their children. At the hotel where we held the leadership retreat, there we evacuees all around us, which led to some great opportunities to speak to them and try to encourage them during this very difficult moment in Israel’s history!
I told many of those displaced people how American Christians are praying for them, and they greatly appreciated this news. So, please pray for these displaced Israelis all throughout the country.
Prayer for Soldiers
Please also pray for the young people in Israel, especially those serving in the Israel Defense Forces. Remember, Israel has a mandatory draft, which begins when these teenagers graduate high school. Every day, eighteen- and nineteen-year-old Israeli boys and girls head to the military. They are young, not yet seasoned for battle, and are learning about life the hard way!
Please pray the Lord would especially keep the believing soldiers safe and also provide them with ways to grow spiritually and opportunities to proclaim the gospel among their fellow soldiers. I cannot tell you how many great stories I heard from our staff during my recent time in Israel as well as from some of the younger leaders who took the weekend off from battle to join us! Two brothers in the Lord are tank commanders and went back to Gaza immediately after the retreat to rejoin their fellow soldiers.
Prayer for the Hostages in Gaza
Please continue to pray for the hostages. The Israel Defense Forces have made repeated attempts to rescue the more than one hundred hostages still held in Gaza. Some continue to die in captivity, and others have been tortured and mistreated to an incredible degree. How human beings can treat one another so cruelly is not something I can even begin to understand.
We hear of repeated attempts to bring the hostages home, but for the moment, there has been only limited success. On the last day of the leadership retreat, we rejoiced to hear how four hostages were freed by the IDF in a very dangerous and costly military operation.
Photo 299776592 | Hostages In Gaza © Irina Opachevsky | Dreamstime.com
We need our all-powerful Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to directly intervene on behalf of those still in bondage. While in Israel, I saw signs all over the country asking for their release. There are pictures of these young men, women, and even still some children, who are being held by merciless captors. It reminds me of the words in the Psalms,
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst of it we hung our harps. For there our captors demanded of us songs, and our tormentors mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.” How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy. (Psalm 137:1–6)
In Jewish tradition, the authorship of this beautiful and mournful psalm is sometimes attributed to the prophet Jeremiah—the weeping prophet. The contemporary Messianic songwriter Joshua Aaron from Israel sings a soul-filled version of this psalm, which captures the hopes of Jewish people in exile from the land of Israel and their longing to return. I am sure hearing his modern rendition of the ancient text will inspire and bless you!
I can hardly imagine what the hostages are going through and what their families are experiencing. Of course, I am writing well before you receive this so, perhaps, by God’s grace, additional hostages may have been released or rescued by the time you read our newsletter. At this moment, it does not seem likely, and if they have not been released, please pray, ask your church to pray, and may the Lord bring them home soon!
May I make two more prayer requests?
Prayer for Gazans Suffering under the Heavy Hand of Hamas
Please pray for the Gazans who are suffering at the hands of Hamas who constantly use their own citizens as human shields. I pray for their deliverance and for the “day after” plan for Gaza to include a more benevolent and caring government to nurture the well-being of so many who have suffered. Pray Israelis and Gazans would find hope and peace through the Prince of Peace, Jesus the Messiah, and for the Lord to touch both groups.
Pray against Antisemitism
Finally, please pray for Jewish people around the globe who are experiencing the greatest movement of antisemitism since the Holocaust. This resurgence of the “oldest hatred” is why Your Mission to the Jewish People recently held a rally with more than 1,000 attendees in Manhattan last month. It is why we are sponsoring a conference for college students who are experiencing antisemitism on their campuses. We want to prepare these dedicated young adults to handle the opposition from fellow students and sometimes from faculty and staff to be able to stand for the Lord, Jewish people, and Israel on their campuses.
This conference, COURAGE, will be held from August 15–18 on the Moody Bible Institute campus in Chicago. We welcome registrants up to the last minute, so if you know a Jewish or non-Jewish student, or are one yourself, and fear when you go back to school you will encounter opposition because of your stand for the Lord and Jewish people, then please apply at www.chosenpeople.com/courage-conference.
We are also planning a larger conference to gather Christians of all ages and backgrounds to stand against antisemitism. This event is also at Moody Bible Institute from November 8–9. For further information, please see the back page of the newsletter.
I cannot tell you how powerful and positive it is for Christians to stand with Jewish people and against antisemitism. This creates a new environment of friendship between Jewish people and Christians, which I know will be a blessing to both communities!
A New Survey of Christian Views about Israel and Jewish People
So, what do Christians think about Jewish people and the State of Israel post-October 7? We felt we needed to know, so we asked two Jewish scholars who have done some amazing surveys on this topic to let us help them do a new survey. The results of this survey are stunning, and you will find a summary of the results in the middle section of the newsletter. I believe you will be encouraged by what you read!
So, please keep reading and praying for Your Mission to the Jewish People during these very challenging days!
Thank you for caring and for your generous support and prayers!
Your brother,
