Dear friend,

Shalom. The summer has been exciting, and I have lots to tell you! First of all, I want to tell you a bit about what our outreach teams have accomplished in Israel over the last month. We have had two teams of young adults sharing the Gospel on the streets, beaches, parks and in the homes of Jewish people in the Holy Land. Robin,* our team leader for Outreach Israel—a month-long program in the Holy Land—told me a few stories that I absolutely must share with you.

Robin writes,

We got to spend a day in Jerusalem with two Israelis, Amir* and Naomi.* I met Amir through Israeli friends I had met in India. Amir asked about our group and was surprised to meet young people who would spend their vacation time serving people in Israel.

He also asked how the Jewish people on the team became believers in Yeshua (Jesus). One of our team members who grew up in a Messianic Jewish home said, “I believed what I heard from my family.” This absolutely amazed Amir because he had thought that Jews believing in Jesus was some kind of fad! Another, who is a more recent believer, told her story of salvation and how meeting Jesus dramatically changed her life.

These conversations happened while talking about Israel, eating the best hummus in the universe and sharing everyday life experiences with our new friends.

Here is another story from Robin that I think you will want to read!

We met Avi,* who is from Europe and is living in Israel in order to learn Hebrew. He is preparing to make Aliyah (become an Israeli citizen). His dad is Jewish and his mom is a Gentile, but he grew up knowing little about either side of his heritage. He was seeking to understand his identity, and a friend brought him to an event that our team was attending.

After a Bible teaching, a few of us talked with Avi. He started to ask questions about making Aliyah, as well as spiritual questions about what he had just heard. We shared some of our testimonies, and he responded very positively, asking for more details about our experiences. He also wanted to know what the Bible said about life, Israel and having a relationship with God. We exchanged contact information and a few of us met up with him again in Jerusalem.

These are great reports, and I have so much more that I could tell you! Please pray for the follow-up with these Jewish seekers who heard about Jesus through our short-term teams. Praise God that we have staff members in Israel who will be able to share with them further about Messiah!

Reaching Israelis in Los Angeles

We are reaching Israelis not only in Israel, but also in India, New Zealand, New York City, and Los Angeles, which may be home to the largest concentration of Israelis outside of Israel. As you are reading this letter, we have a team of more than a dozen people reaching out to the more than 100,000 Israelis living in the greater Los Angeles area. Our team is witnessing on the beaches and in other spots that are frequented by Israelis.

Many of these Israelis are traveling—and like so many other travelers, Israeli visitors to the U.S. are often more open to new ideas, philosophies, and things they might never have considered in their homeland—including Jesus!

You Can Reach Israelis, Too!

There are so many ways you can help reach Israelis for the Lord. First of all, you can pray at home and in your church for ministry to Jewish people and especially to Israelis. You can also go to your local mall, buy Dead Sea products from Israelis, and share the Lord with them—no joke! Many believers have meaningful conversations about Jesus with young Israeli salespeople selling these products in malls across America.

Secondly, you can help connect us with Israeli believers who would like to be more active in serving the Lord. If you know any Israeli believers living in the United States, I would be truly grateful to receive their names and addresses (e-mails and phone numbers if possible). We would love get in touch with them and invite them to volunteer in our outreaches to Israelis, since native Hebrew speakers can share the Gospel very effectively in these evangelistic campaigns.

We also have a vision to train a new generation of Israeli evangelists! One of the best ways to train these dynamic young people is to give them a chance to hone their evangelistic skills outside of Israel, where it is sometimes easier to reach their fellow Israelis. This past year, we took some Israeli believers on missions trips to India and New Zealand, where there are thousands of young Israelis, just out of the army, who are searching for answers.

These young Israelis are highly effective in outreach and will bring this training back home with them to the Holy Land. We had hoped to bring a few to Los Angeles this year, but they were denied visas! We have little difficulty, however, in bringing them to India or New Zealand, but we need your help in getting them there, as these missions trips cannot be locally supported from Israel.

As we think about the future, we would like to bring three or four of these young Israelis to India or New Zealand with us on next year’s missions trips. We will try again to get them visas for Los Angeles, and hopefully some will be able to join us in March when we have another evangelistic campaign! Your gift today will make it possible for us to reach Israelis around the world—and will make a big difference in Israel as well!

If we believe that the end-time turning of the Jewish people to the Messiah is the key to the Second Coming of Christ (Romans 11:11-29), then what could be more important than raising up a new generation of Israeli evangelists to reach their own people for Jesus?

Can you help support this prophetic ministry? We need $35,000 for this outreach—which will help provide Gospel materials in Hebrew, housing, food, airfare, vehicles, gas, and more—as well as for our ongoing efforts to reach Israelis in the Holy Land. Your gift today will be used by God to reach Israelis for the Lord Jesus. Whatever the Lord provides will be appreciated!

Thanks so much for caring about outreach to Israelis around the world—and thank you for your faithfulness, love, generosity and partnership.

Your brother in the Messiah,

Mitch

P.S. For your gift of $200 or more, I want to send you a new book that was just published by Kregel Publications entitled The Gospel According to Isaiah 53. I know that you are going to love this book, and as you read it, you will be reminded to pray for our outreach to Israelis—both at home and around the world.