“The Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6
God Is Blessing Our Personal Ministry in Israel
Chosen People Ministries has been working diligently to meet Jewish people’s spiritual hunger and needs in the midst of the pandemic. Restrictions on meeting seekers in person caused our staff to become more creative in order to fulfill their ministry.
For instance, our staff member, Robin, has been organizing short-term mission trips to reach “wandering Israelis” in popular tourist destinations, such as New Zealand and India. This ministry became impossible as Israelis were unable to travel and countries like New Zealand were closed to visitors. So, Robin hosted an online event for the Jewish new year and decided to expand it into a Facebook watch party. Many of her Facebook friends are non-believing Israelis she met on backpacker outreaches around the world. After the event, she heard from Orit* and Dan* who were interested in knowing more about Jesus. Orit began to read her Bible again, and Robin is following up with her about what she is reading. Dan is also in touch for prayer and further dialogue. These two Israelis are seeking the Lord because of Robin’s persistence through the pandemic.
Ayelet, one of our newer Israeli staff members, is leading Zoom Bible studies in Hebrew and English, and often receives emails from those who wish to meet more often. Many of the ladies offer appreciation for the in-depth studies. One woman, Rivkah,* who was in low spirit at the beginning of one Bible study, stopped everybody from getting off the Zoom meeting because she wanted to share how important and life-giving the weekly Bible study has been for her. Since she has been unable to enjoy in-person fellowship with her congregation, she shared what a blessing it has been for her to have an online community to meet with and study God’s word together.
Israeli staff members Randall and Luda continue to make follow-up phone calls with people who ordered the Isaiah 53 Explained evangelistic book. Many of these phone calls turn into lengthy conversations, and some people even want to meet regularly through Zoom. Levi* met with them several times via video during the Passover season, and he was amazed to discover that having a relationship with Jesus is not like joining another religion but about connecting to Jesus personally and relationally. It was the first time he had seen how Jesus is pictured so clearly in the Passover Seder. After a few weeks of Zoom meetings, he prayed to receive Jesus! Since then, apart from one in-person meeting to give him a Bible, the entire ministry has been through Zoom calls! Personal outreach is still possible!
God continues to bless the work of Chosen People Ministries, and Jewish people are being reached with the gospel every day—especially in Israel!
God Is Blessing Our Digital Outreach
The Lord is prospering and multiplying our ministry in new and innovative ways we would never have imagined before quarantine life. Our online outreach, Bible conferences, and holiday celebrations enable us to meet a completely different audience than we did in person. We look forward to going back to in-person events but will continue doing virtual ministry as well. The pandemic has opened doors of ministry that were not open to us before, and we thank God for these new opportunities.
Our online Bible seminar, “A Keener Understanding of the Bible,” saw 5,000 attendees, while our in-person Bible seminars in the past averaged around 50 people.
Our single virtual presentation of Messiah in the Passover drew almost 7,100 viewers, while our yearly Passover banquets in New York City, Chicago, Boston, and Florida drew 368 registrants combined in 2019.
We had a unique Pandemics, Prophecy, and the Middle East webcast that drew an astounding 21,000 attendants with more than 1,160 requests for our free book, The People, the Land, and the Future of Israel.
We held high holiday virtual services, which had a combined total of more than 27,200 viewers.
Our new podcast, Our Hope, which began on July 1, has been downloaded almost 21,200 times.
Our first-ever virtual Hanukkah children’s program, “Yeshua: Light of the World,” reached almost 4,000 households. It was so successful, our second virtual children’s event, “A Purim Pajama Party,” was held at the end of last month.
Our Messianic testimonies of Jewish believers on the I Found Shalom website now number more than 100 stories of faith and continue to attract thousands of viewers!
We praise God that our online events are drawing so many participants, including Jewish seekers looking for hope during the pandemic.
We are so encouraged how God has used the creativity and technical capabilities of our global staff to proclaim the gospel in new and creative ways that will certainly become a regular part of our ministry tool chest for the foreseeable future.
*Names changed
God Is Blessing Our Online Evangelism and Discipleship
Quarantines and lockdowns cannot stop online ministry! The pandemic gives us the opportunity to expand our online presence and reach even more Jewish people with the gospel. Over the past year, we officially launched three new innovative websites. Two of them focus on evangelism and the other on discipleship.
Chosen People Answers
In December 2014, Chosen People Ministries’ president, Mitch Glaser, challenged one of our missionaries to dream up the ultimate Messianic apologetics website to reach Jewish people with the gospel. For the past five years, a team has been working tirelessly to make Chosen People Answers a reality. Finally, in December 2020, we officially launched the beta version of the long-awaited project.
Chosen People Answers contains a massive library of both Jewish and Christian texts, a growing collection of apologetics content, and an interactive design to allow user participation. The site’s social media design enables users to like and dislike paragraphs, post comments, and earn achievements. Each engagement requires digital “shekels,” which are earned weekly, and every shekel spent will earn experience points that are required to unlock additional features, like in a video game. The more one reads the more one can engage on the site.
The site contains two types of apologetics compositions: long- and short-form articles. The long-form pieces consist of in-depth arguments making a case for belief in Jesus. Examples include “The Historical Reliability of the New Testament,” “An Introduction to the Incarnation and Jewish Theology,” and “How Can Jesus Be Messiah if There is No Peace on Earth?” The latter is one of the major Jewish objections to Jesus as it presumes a second coming, and Judaism generally teaches that the Messiah will only come once. Although we are still testing all of the features, you can still visit the site now at chosenpeopleanswers.com.
About Messiah
The idea for and the execution of About Messiah began with the pandemic. It is a digital evangelism site geared toward a secular Jewish audience with little knowledge of Judaism or Christianity. A team of our missionaries and summer interns joined forces to write evangelistic content with this audience in mind.
The site consists of brief articles that respond to some of the questions Jewish people might have about belief in Jesus. For example, some titles include questions such as “What Does It Mean to Have a Relationship with God?” “Is Jesus the Messiah of Israel?” and “Can I Be Jewish and Believe in Jesus?” A live chat box allows Jewish seekers to interact in real-time with one of our missionaries. You can go to AboutMessiah.com to check it out. Please share it with a Jewish friend!
Follow Messiah
In January of 2018, we recognized the need for a discipleship series to help new Jewish believers in Jesus grow in their faith. In partnership with Digital Harvest and One for Israel, we created the first-ever video-based, online Messianic Jewish discipleship program, Follow Messiah. It is a sixteen-unit series consisting of lessons on prayer, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, God’s Word, Jewish identity in Jesus, and living the Kingdom life as taught in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. At the end of each lesson, discussion questions appear for further reflection. You can go to FollowMessiah.com to learn more.
Old Neighbors Reconnect for Bible Study
One of our staff members recently had the opportunity to share the gospel with his Orthodox Jewish neighbor. They have spoken over the phone a couple of times, and each time he asked our missionary about his faith. Recently, Shmuel* said he wanted to start studying a book of the Bible with him. When our staff member heard this, he could not believe his ears! The two of them are now studying the Scriptures together in the early morning when nobody is yet awake in Shmuel’s house. It is a very big deal that someone from the Orthodox community is speaking to someone outside of the community on matters of the Bible, especially the New Testament. Please continue to pray for Shmuel.*
*Name changed
A Grandson’s Faith
Recently one of our staff members received a phone call from Ira.* Ira is a Holocaust survivor and an important person in his community. Occasionally, Ira calls, especially after he receives a greeting card from our missionary for the Jewish holidays. Ira had a unique question during this phone call. Ira confided that his twenty-nine-year-old grandson recently “converted” to Christianity but told him that he was still Jewish even though he believed that Jesus was the Son of God and the promised Messiah. Our staff member reassured Ira that what his grandson told him is true, just as the identity of an Asian or an African is not altered by their convictions about Jesus. Ira told our staff member that he would love and accept his grandson no matter what he believed. Our staff member was not exactly sure why Ira wanted to share this news about his grandson, but sensed that the Holy Spirit was stirring in his heart and had been for quite some time. Pray for Ira; he is eighty-five now and one of the few Holocaust survivors still alive to share his story. There is still hope!
*Name changed
Reaching Jewish People through the Creative Arts
Since classes and church services have been shut down, an associate pastor asked our staff member if she would be interested in teaching a Sunday morning class in the creative arts studio at the church…in front of a camera. For our staff member, cameras were not exactly in her comfort zone. But she prayed, and God immediately directed her to say, “Yes.” For twenty weeks, our staff member prepared lessons and spoke to the audience beyond the camera lens. As it turns out, this audience included many Jewish non-believers. The Passover Seder she hosted was virtually attended by people from Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and South America. Since 2005, our staff member has taught Bible studies at a retirement community with an 85 percent Jewish population. Since the pandemic, they have enjoyed teleconferencing Bible studies. Several months ago, Daniel* shared, “I was always intrigued with the Bible, and now I’m really enjoying it. Our Bible study is my most favorite event of the week.” Following the study, our staff member called Daniel and asked if he could pray, “Jesus, Messiah, Son of God, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” He responded with, “Sure, I can say that. I know that I’m a sinner. I believe that Jesus is the Messiah. What are those words?” Daniel prayed and became a new creation in Messiah Jesus.
*Name changed
