(Excerpts from a
letter I received
Dear Friends,
I hope this e-mail finds you well and enjoying God's richest blessings!
I thought you would
like an update on things happening here in
First, let me tell you that your prayers are making a difference...
1- Probably the biggest answer to prayer has been the Friday night dinners! As you remember in one of my last e-mails, I asked you to pray about the dinners we were having in the market-place chess club for the poor as well as those in the congregation who wanted to come. As you might remember, we had been invaded a few times on Friday evenings by as many as at least 300 members of an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish fringe group who were screaming at us and calling for our expulsion from the country, even in caskets if necessary, while the Arad police quietly looked on to make sure we didn't do anything to harm our intruders...
Well, the good news is they haven't been bothering us lately for our dinners!!! Why? Because the Lord gave us the wisdom to take the dinners out of town out of their "Shabbat reach". So even if they knew where we were, which was in a park about 12 km outside of town, they wouldn't have been able to come! We met there a few times, but now we have another meeting place, which we believe is further answer to prayer...
The Russian woman who has a catering restaurant right next door to our chess club is willing to cook for us on Monday evenings! So it will be not exactly a soup kitchen, but also a place where people can get a great home-style Russian dinner in a restaurant once a week. She is giving us a good price, and not only is it a blessing to us and the others who will be eating, but it blesses the restaurant owner, who normally has no business on Mondays. And the demonstrations that go on at the chess club next door doesn't even phase her, she is willing to do it gladly for us! Pray for these dinners to be a blessing to all, and that the restaurant owner will get saved through this!
HOWEVER, ALONG WITH THESE ANSWERS TO PRAYER, WE ARE STILL UNDER SEVERE ATTACK BY THIS SMALL BUT EXTREMELY POWERFUL ULTRA=ORTHODOX GROUP WHICH IS BENT ON MAKING ARAD A "HOLY CITY" FOR THEM, THUS BASICALLY ELIMINATING AND DRIVING OUT ANYONE WHO DOES NOT GO ALONG WITH THEIR THEOLOGY, STARTING WITH US-THE BELIEVERS IN YESHUA!
Let me make it very clear again, we are not dealing with ALL Orthodox Jews! This is just a very small and somewhat militant group. Most Jews, whether Orthodox or not, might not like us, but they say that "The Righteous Will Live by their Faith", and have no problem with us at all!
While I don't want to get into all the harm they have done and continually try to do, I would specifically ask for prayer for a few of our members. (If you would like to know some more of the details, you can go to Eddie's site...
https://www.angelfire.com/super/redhorse/Reports/Reports.html
and scroll down to...Praise and Persecution Reports
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO STAND WITH US IN PRAYER, HERE ARE SOME
SPECIFIC ONES OF US THAT REALLY NEED PRAYER FOR STRENGTH, WISDOM AND
ENCOURAGEMENT BECAUSE OF THEIR PROXIMITY TO THE
Eddie and Lura, my friends from
R*, a single mother who was once in that Orthodox group and now is a believer, and her 4-year old daughter who are regularly is harassed by them. One of their tactics with her is screaming at the daughter telling her that her mother is a no-good prostitute, which of course is totally false. They usually try to do this tactic in front of innocent bystanders.
Y*, our pastor and his family. They have endured illegal visits from 15 or so of these guys screaming and throwing rocks at their house while the police look on and basically do nothing.
GENERAL PRAYER POINTS...
Pray for unity of purpose and spirit, for us to react in the right way, So as to show the Lord. One of the problems is that we are not really in agreement as to how to proceed, as some say take it to court, while others are dead against it.
Pray for protection for us and our belongings, as these guys have been known to slash tires, as well as other not-so-nice things.
Please pray for wisdom and strength for us...also pray for us to totally rely on the Lord and His strength for our victory, WHICH HE DOES GIVE US!!! Please pray for God's mercy and of course Salvation for our accusers. One of the main ones is named Mendel, and I have actually felt compassion for him and was able to tell him, even in the midst of his screaming and cursing us, that Yeshua loves him and died for Him.
Please pray for more boldness for all of us to share the Good News with our accusers, as well as innocent bystanders who have to listen to these guys slander us, some of who actually believe their lies that we steal Jewish babies and baptize them, thus stealing their souls making us "worse than Hitler", and that they "should stay away from us at all costs!" Another one of their mantras says, "They appear really nice, but it's just to steal your souls!!!
Pray for the
Through all the persecution, we have seen many more people curious about what we believe and we have been able to send petitions around with many signatures to try to stop what these guys have been doing to us. Most townspeople have only heard the Orthodox side, and think we are bad people, but when we show them the pictures and explain our side of it, wow, many of them are appalled at what these guys are doing, realizing that they could be the next group that they go after to get them out of the city.
Well, this has updated you a bit on the situation. Thanks for your prayers, and keep them up. May the Lord bless you for your faithfulness to Him and His people! Please keep in touch!
Standing only by His grace,
A*