February 9, 2005

30 Shevat, 5765

Dear Praying Friends and Tent Pegs*,

Faith is always a leap off the edge of that which can be seen and touched.  It stands between total victory and total disaster.  It has no contingency plan.  God’s arms alone are the safety net.  No healthy balanced person looks for wild chances to risk his or her life. (Those in the world that do are driven by things other than the Spirit of God).  However, God brings us to points in our lives where to not leap is to deny our foundational declarations.  He carefully chooses the times and seasons of these critical crossings. 

Following Yonit’s surgery, which successfully got out all the cancerous tissue, the doctors once again made their case for chemotherapy followed by radiation and hormone therapy.  They sited their statistics of the percentage increase in survival based upon using the recommended treatments.  This was not like choosing which car to buy.  We were compelled to do a thorough check of our foundations.  What did God really say? 

Last June, some days after Yonit’s one round of “poison therapy,” as we cried out to God for direction, He awakened her with a dream.  It was an obscure scene from a movie we had seen some years ago in which a wicked stepmother was assuring a sick child that healing was on the way, while pouring poison into the child’s oatmeal.  There was no question as to whether this was the Lord’s answer.  Armed with this confirmation, Yonit quit the treatments.  As clear as that was, it didn’t immediately also confirm God’s mind concerning radiation and hormone therapy.  While the treatments are touted to reduce the chances of  recurrence of breast cancer, they increase the chances of other types of cancer and serious disease and damage the immune system.  (According to one doctor, you don’t need your immune system unless you get sick!)  The doctors arguments to us were to convince us to join the statistics and play the odds.  After much prayer, waiting on Him, and reading about non-toxic therapies, Yonit felt clarity to do non of the conventional therapies.  Our conviction does not by any means exclude all means of treatment or additional measures, but only those that do harm to the body.  If our choices were determined by statistical probability (which actually offers only a dim hope anyway), what then is the reality of this personal relationship with God we proclaim? 

We have received numerous words about God healing Yonit.  Do we really believe that God has spoken?  Do we believe that He loves us and is not trying to catch us?  Do we believe that He is able to speak to us and change our direction?  Do we believe that He cares enough to do that?  Will we let Him be our only safety net?  For sure, the “what if’s” will come.  The voices of doubt, fear of failure, and shame will come.  They always do.  Then what?  In the end, when we have done all to stand, isn’t there some alternative to reckless abandon? The violent take the Kingdom by force.  Faith is always a leap. The ultimate question, the primary concern, has got to be not whether we live or die, but did we do what we believe God asked of us? 

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As we relate to the ministry of the Worship Center and the fate of Esther House, we essentially come to the same question…What did God really say?   We really don’t want to write about this subject anymore, but it is the reality of our life.  We have not received the word God gave George Mueller to not tell anyone of his financial need.  Therefore we believe to not relate our state of affairs with those that are standing with us would be somewhere between prideful, presumptuous and super-spiritual.  It would be like not telling you about our battle with cancer.  Though God’s plan is still unknown to us, we are standing in the faith that He is not a parent that brings a child into the world and leaves it to fend for itself.  (For the record, as of this writing, we are yet without the funds to pay our rent for February).   

We think it is important that you have a full understanding of what has led us to the place we are in, so we want to go over a few points.  In 1997 God spoke to us concerning His desire for continuous worship in the Tel Aviv area, and funds were provided for that. (If you are not familiar with the history relating to this, you can find it on our web site).   The word to purchase a complex in the center of Tel Aviv for a Messianic center, which would house the worship facility, did not come to us but directly to the same friend that provided the initial funds for the worship center.   At first we resisted having the Worship Center in the city and in particular in what is now Esther House.  God made it clear, however, that He wanted this place.  Later, concerning maintaining the Center, He said, “If you try to raise the support to maintain it, it will kill your anointing. You can’t do it.  You will have to leave it to me.”

There is an important fact we have never shared with you.  At the onset of the project, we were in a partnership with another ministry.  They had committed to raise the funds to cover all the ongoing building-related expenses, and we put money in up-front  towards the renovations.  The dissolution of the partnership in mid-stream resulted in our becoming responsible for these monthly expenses, which account for 60% of our total budget. (If we had done what was in our minds, and located out of the city, our monthly costs would be around half what they are now).  Our intent is not to cast blame, but we feel that if you are to pray effectively for us, you need to understand how we came to be in a situation that is so far over our heads.  When we agreed to the revised conditions of our occupancy in the building, having gone from being one of the owners to being a renter, we had funds for the following  four years.  We stepped out in faith, believing that when we got to the bottom of that well God would open another.  Having done all to stand, we are awaiting the salvation of our God and Father, and are very thankful to have friends bearing this burden with us.

* * *

A few weeks ago we had a two-day retreat in the Center with three other ministries in the building. Represented were a worship ministry, a Messianic congregation, an outreach center and a ministry called to strategic intercession for Tel Aviv.  Since then, our mutual  sense of unity, love, and partnership has taken a quantum leap.  Most of you know how we have prayed and cried out for unity in the Body in Tel Aviv.  We have always believed that God wanted Esther House to be a lighthouse of brotherly love filled with His glory.  Something happens when corporate entities get together.  We are very excited that since the retreat these ministries have agreed to join together with us to build the canopy of continuous worship over Tel Aviv.   When people are of one mind, anything they set their heart to can be realized. When individuals pray in unity the Lord Himself is present.  How much wider and deeper is the influence when the “individuals” are corporate entities like congregations or ministries?   Would you please continue to press in with us for the realization of God’s plan to establish His Presence in Tel Aviv? 

* * *

Last Wednesday evening our entire team went to Tiberius to join with the worship team and members of Morningstar Messianic Congregation (Claude and Michelle Ezagouri) for a time of worship.  This is our second such outing since the Lord directed us to go and stand with other brethren in the Land for the release of blessing and breakthrough in their ministries.  It was simply super.  We had no plan, no program, no human leader, no time constraints and no expectations.  Every time we have done this, the Presence and pleasure of the Lord has been so evident.  We just knew that the darkness was moved back.  It is no small thing for the entire team to pack up our instruments and equipment, unload, set up, break down, reload, unpack, and set up in the Worship Center again for just a few hours of worship, but our sense of elation (even after the long late drive home) has us looking forward to the next such outing.  More and more brethren and leaders are recognizing that the unity we seek will come as we worship together.  Will you pray with us for this revelation to spread throughout the Land?

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May God bless you from Zion!   

                                                                        Your servants...

                                                                            For the Glory of His Name,

                                                                 Arni and Yonit