December 18, 2007

9 Tevet, 5768

Dear Praying Friends,

In this letter:

- The perfect hindsight

- Calling the nations

- An unfolding strategy in Germany

- A room for intercession

- Making the blessing known

- Reflecting and projecting

- Personal notes

- In light of Annapolis

I’ve had a desire to close out this loop around the sun with a recounting of the past year’s earthshaking events, which, as far as our lives are concerned, have been unequalled. For nearly two weeks I have been trying to get a handle on how to describe this past year.  I have given up.  So we’ll just talk about where we are and where we are headed.

20/20 Hindsight

In 1990 the Lord showed me (arni) His heart’s desire for worshipers and intercessors to come from the nations to fill the Land with His praises in preparation for Yeshua’s return.  Seven years later, after our immigration to Israel and a time of connecting and acclimating, the Lord set us on a course to fulfill the vision He had planted in our spirits.  It bears noting that ten years ago we thought we were ready, when in fact the training period was just beginning. In hindsight we can see that the time was not ripe, we were not prepared, and the vision needed some refining. Sometimes the ways of the Lord are a little beyond us mild understatement!).  Where we are today may not be where we thought we were ten years ago, or where we think we are today, but we are surely closer to whereever it is we are going!

Calling the Nations

When we were stewarding the facility in Tel Aviv, though we recognized the Holy Spirit was calling for the nations to come, the major part of our activities was regularly ministering to the Lord and interceding as a team.  Today, rather than focusing on doing the worship ourselves, we are directing our energies more towards gathering believers from the nations and helping to release their worship and intercession throughout the Land.  As we travel, the message we bring is caring about what God cares about, getting His view of Israel, and encouraging the nations to rise up and take their place in the battle for God’s inheritance -- the salvation of the people of Israel.

The other side of the coin for us is the need for prayer and intercession to break through the mind-blinding spiritual darkness resting over Israel.  By the Spirit we see a worldwide army of youth praying for their Israeli counterparts to recognize the Messiah and lay hold of our national calling to be a light to the nations.  In October, at a missions conference in Germany, the Spirit impressed me that the bulk of this prayer army was in the Third World.  We are praying for the Lord to open the right doors for us into Africa, India, Nepal, and China.  From January through May we’ll be ministering monthly in Germany and Switzerland. We sense a leading to be in Africa sometime between May and July. There are millions there that love the Lord and have a heart for Israel.  We desire to bring them specific strategic understanding in order to make their prayers even more effective.

An Unfolding Strategy in Germany

As you know, for the last five years God has turned our face towards Germany.  In the last few months the Lord has been deepening and expanding our connections in the area of Saxony.  This region has played a significant part in world history.  Saxony gave birth to the Moravian revival and the subsequent explosion into world missions, the Pietist movement, and the Reformation. We will be there next month meeting with various leaders, seeking the Lord for the next steps in releasing the vision concerning the youth of Germany and Israel.  We believe this to be a piece in God’s unfolding plan that will influence many others.  If a whole region can be set on fire, how easily will it then spread to the rest of the nation and out into Europe?

We have a big God.  Nothing is too hard for Him.  We are praying and believing for every church with God’s love for Israel to send a team once a year to minister to the Lord in the Land.  Scripture is filled with injunctions and promises of blessing to all who would so serve the least of these His brethren.  Let a special offering box be put in the sanctuaries so that all the people, during the course of the year, would be able to have a part in this mission.

Of course this vision is not limited to Germany.  But Germany’s historic relationship with the children of Israel leaves a natural opening from which to launch it.  If the church worldwide would just understand this aspect of His ways as set forth in Genesis 12 and Romans 11, overnight Israel would be flooded with worship and intercession and revival would come to the nations.  Can you stand with us in faith to see that day? 

A Space for Intercession

Several months ago we wrote of a plan to create a recording studio in partnership with the 24/7 Jerusalem worship ministry, Succat Hallel.  For several months it seemed the project was being held up by the need to raise finances.  Recently in a conversation with Rick Ridings, the director of Succat Hallel, who is also the Chairman of the Board of Emmaus Way, it was evident that elements of our respective needs that we had not seen before had come to light.  On their side, as a result of new responsibilities it was no longer practical to have their studio 30 minutes out of Jerusalem.  From our side, we realized that with more and varied groups coming to pray and worship, we needed a separate room for prayer in addition to our worship Tabernacle.  How blessed and relieved we were to find out that the change in plan we each sensed was from the Lord.  This missing piece was far more important than we had realized.  Oh, how we needed a “Prayer Cave”!  Now that it is completed, we feel that the Center is ready and able to meet the needs of the people God will be sending our way.

Making the Blessing Known

Up to this point we have not really extended ourselves to make the existence of the center known.  But now the Holy Spirit has recently impressed us to let the many intercessors and worshipers coming to Israel know of the treasure He has laid up in the Judean hills.  So we have put a new link on our website especially for information about the Emmaus Way Center.  We invite you to have a look at it. Click here to go to the site.   Would you mind, as you hear of friends coming to Israel to worship, pray, and seek the Lord, to pass on the link to our website?  Judging by the responses of the groups we have hosted, once people have tasted, they will be back again and again.  It really is the Lord’s doing.  He chose the location and gave us the facility…we are just the doorkeepers. 

Reflecting and Projecting

Although our lives are sowed into eternity and God our source is outside of time, cyclically looping around the sun does have some significance for us earthlings. It seems we have a little to say about 2007 after all.  It was a complex season of internal growth and expansion of vision and ministry against a backdrop of external trials and multiplied temporal loss.  As we shared about the development of the Center in the previous paragraph, we expect that it will take a little time for the traffic to increase so as to help significantly with our running expenses.  With that in mind, we’d like to ask you to pray about two things:  can you help us purchase a much-needed van; and would you consider standing with us financially through the coming year?

Personal Notes

We realize this letter is quite long and we are all so overwhelmed with mail at this time of year, but we have two important personal items for prayer and we ask you to please bear with us.

The first is that Arni’s 88-year-old Mom, Beatrice, was taken to the hospital in New York City with severe bilateral pneumonia, and she is on a respirator in the intensive care unit.  They have been trying to wean her from the machine, but she is not strong enough to breathe on her own.  As of yet, as far as we know, she has not given her heart to the Lord.  Please pray as the Spirit leads.

Secondly, from December 23-30 we will be going away for an intensive time of writing/editing away from the press of daily responsibilities here at the Center.  Arni is working on a book which will call people to the vision of raising a worldwide prayer army for the salvation of Israel, with an emphasis toward the youth.  We so appreciate your prayers for this time to be fruitful and uninterrupted.

In light of Annapolis

What and how are we to think about Annapolis?  On one hand I want to call it one more passing blip on the radar screen.  But we know that the forces of light and the forces of darkness are getting into place for soon-coming scenes where few will feel like extras.  Then, we’ll all feel the shift.  The ship is definitely moving and God is very much in control.  We can say that, seemingly, all the talk produces little change.  Are these summits worthless?  Look at it this way:  there is no natural, peaceful, reasonable, workable solution.  Here are a few thoughts to add to the equation:

- Regardless of anything else, God always responds appropriately to anyone who treats His inheritance with disdain;

- Concerning the removal of Israelis from Judea and Samaria and the division of Jerusalem…historically we’ve been through two national exiles and the destruction of two Temples.  It was very likely difficult for the people in those days to see the hand of the Lord in it all; 

- Since eating the eye-opening apple, we have been compelled to label things good or evil without having the benefit of seeing the larger picture.  God’s ways really are different from ours;

- Only by the Spirit, as we commune with God in our hearts, can we know as God knows and see as He sees.

So let us press on to know the Lord and not hesitate to open when He knocks.

* * *

We wish you all the fullness of joy in the coming days of celebration, and we take this opportunity to thank you so very much for all the love and support you have given us in the last year.  We could not have walked this way alone.

May God bless you from Zion!

Your servants…

For the Glory of His Name, 

   Arni and Yonit

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