Dear friend in the Messiah,
Thank you for your prayers for Israel during these difficult days. I recently spent a week in the Holy Land visiting with our staff. The entire nation is mourning over those murdered by Hamas and the many hostages yet to be found and released.
During my trip, I witnessed our staff serving the displaced and evacuated, helping to provide food for the elderly who are unable or frightened to go out of their homes to shop. The sirens were blaring during most of my time in the Holy Land as Hamas fired hundreds of rockets into Tel Aviv neighborhoods and many other cities within Israel.
Despite this, we are still progressing with our new Messianic center in Tel Aviv. Though delayed because of the war, we hope to complete the work by the end of this summer.
Transformed by the Power of God
Our Israeli staff told many stories about Israelis turning toward heaven for answers to life’s most profound questions. They have lost trust in their leaders, especially in Israel’s military and intelligence agencies, leading to a number of Israelis coming to faith in Jesus, the Messiah. We baptized one young woman who recently became a believer within a week of the October 7 attacks!
I well remember the day when Jesus came into my life. I was raised in a traditional Jewish home in New York City. At the age of nineteen, I ran out of answers to the deeper questions of my heart and turned to the Messiah Jesus. Ever since then, the Spirit of God began transforming my life! The Bible describes this change, in the words of the apostle Paul: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
I never tire of hearing the stories of others, both Jewish and Gentile, who have been transformed by the power of God. Helping Jewish people find eternal life through the Jewish Messiah remains the focus of Chosen People Ministries as it has from the very beginning of our ministry 130 years ago.
May I share some testimonies of Jewish people who recently came to faith in Jesus?
Leah*, for example, found Jesus when facing a dangerous medical condition:
In 2018, I was diagnosed with a rare heart condition causing abnormally fast heartbeats due to an extra electrical connection in my heart. While recovering from surgery, I was stuck at home and depressed. My mother encouraged me to read the Bible. One day, following the voice of the Lord with a deep feeling that repentance would save me, I decided to go to the beach to repent before God, and at the beach, I had an encounter with the Lord and was filled with His peace.
A few days later, I woke up with a new “spiritual” heart. Words could not describe the joy. Though my faith was so new, and I often thought my physical heart would fail me, it did not because God was so faithful. I give thanks to my Lord and Savior, Yeshua (Jesus). He enables me to stand firm today, encouraging others, loving others, and sharing my story of salvation. Though the journey has started, it is not over until He returns.
* Name changed.
Anya*, who came to Israel from Eastern Europe in 2014, discovered hope as she saw believers helping people like her flee from Hamas rockets:
A couple of months ago, when the war started, we were running away from rockets in the city where we lived. Days later, I saw some people coming to help us, giving us a place to live and some food . . . but, it was not just physical food they gave us as we began to talk about spiritual matters. They helped us sacrificially without asking for anything in return, and this caused me to think about what made them different.
I looked at their lives, relationships, how they related to one another, and I thought I wanted to be like them. Over time, I came to understand Who was behind this. I came to love not only this community of believers but the God they loved and the Messiah they worshiped. I see the change not only in me but in my ten-year-old daughter too. She has become not just more friendly but is starting to pray and understand more about the Lord. Before, I believed in myself, but now I know God exists and wants us to follow Him.
* Name changed.
God used logic to reveal Himself to Miriam*, who now has a passion for sharing her faith:
Though I grew up in a secular, atheistic Jewish family, God showed Himself to me in a special way. He had to get hold of my intellect before He captured my heart. One of my teachers in high school was a Messianic Jewish believer. He did not make a big deal about it, but I remember one of the students pressing him about what he believed one day, and he said, “Yes, I’m a Messianic Jew; I believe in Jesus.” Later, I dated a guy who also said he was a Jewish follower of Jesus. We had lots of theological arguments.
By then, I was more open and wanted to learn about his point of view. At first, I tried to prove him wrong. He gave me a Bible (including the New Testament). I remember reading the Gospels and writing my questions in a notebook. My boyfriend later invited me to attend a congregation with him. I was glad to because I had all these questions I wanted to ask. I was not convinced of everything at first, but then it made sense to me, and I put my trust in the Messiah Jesus. I was baptized soon after.
* Name changed.
Reading the Gospel of Matthew changed the life of Doron, a former Orthodox Israeli:
My family moved to Israel from Russia in 1998. After I joined the army, I became Orthodox. I followed a religious lifestyle for about three years—observing the Sabbath, eating kosher, and reciting the daily prayers, but I was never fully convinced. I wanted more evidence than just taking someone’s word for it. So, I continued searching, and after slowly abandoning religious Jewish practices, I led a secular lifestyle for about six years.
I still believed in God and was always interested in spirituality. I read books about Jewish mysticism, Buddhism, Japanese philosophy, etc. Then, I began listening to sermons on YouTube about Jesus. Though I knew very little about the New Testament then, I found what this “preacher” said was extremely powerful, and I wanted to hear more. The videos helped me connect a lot of the dots about how Jesus fits with the Old Testament. So, I started reading the Gospel of Matthew and soon became convinced Jesus was the Jewish Messiah and gave my life to Him.
* Name changed.
I hope these testimonies touched your heart as they did mine. We pray many more Jewish people will join the remnant of the redeemed the apostle Paul described in Romans 11:5: “a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.”
Your prayers and financial support are essential to us, and we know we could not fulfill our calling without you. One quick way to proclaim the message of the Messiah to Jewish friends is to send them a link to one of our testimonies on www.ifoundshalom.com.
Please keep praying for the peace of Jerusalem and for our work among Jewish people in Israel and beyond. Your gift today encourages us to proclaim the gospel, and God is answering your prayers and filling our dedicated staff with power from on high to be His instruments of grace, leading Jewish people to Jesus.
P.S. Our board of directors has made a $100,000 donation as a challenge to our friends and supporters. They want to encourage you to be generous and match—or even exceed—their $100,000 gift. Please help us meet their challenge today!