▪••  •  • ••  • •  • •  •••      AUGUST 2020      ▪••  • ••  • •▪  ▪▪  ▪•••  •  •▪ ▪ 

            COVID-19 Casualty: (It's NOT what you think!)

            We finally got bit by the COVID-19 pandemic, but not quite in a way we expected.  

            As we shared last month Catherine’s mom, Norma, passed away very unexpectedly.  Our immediate thoughts were to get flights home ASAP and be there with Catherine’s father and siblings.  After looking into flights, our visa situation, and COVID-19 restrictions, we found out that we could leave Israel and fly back to the US, but we would not be able to reenter Israel under the current COVID-19 situation.  Technically, we would need a reentry visa in our passport to come back into Israel.  Due to COVID-19, The Ministry of Interior is currently very touchy about non-citizens entering Israel.    

            This caused us to rethink the whole situation.  In the end, we decided to stay in Israel. We really felt if our situation was presented to Norma, she would have told us to stay on the mission field.  

            On August 22, we were able to participate in a memorial service for Norma.  Les was privileged with the honor of officiating the service, and it was a wonderful time of celebrating Norma’s life via Zoom at Christian Outreach Church in Missouri.  Who could have guessed we could be involved in a special service while living 6,500 miles away that spanned 8 different time zones?  We are so very thankful for the time we could share with family and friends.  God is so good!

           
      NEW Amazing News!

            Within the last few days, we have received some exciting news.  The details are yet to be completely spelled out to us, but we have been told that we need to travel to Jerusalem and get our approved volunteer visa extensions and approved re-entry visas. This is amazing news to us because initially we were denied re-entry visas as we had hoped to travel back for Catherine’s, mom’s funeral.  Our current volunteer visas would have expired on September 19, 2020.  Now with the news of extensions and re-entry visas, we can begin to evaluate the options before us for a return trip back to the US. 

            Please keep us in your prayers, praying especially for wisdom.  Thank you

            Have you ever heard this one-liner? Faith is like a muscle, the more you use it the bigger it grows.  Of course, the opposite is true as well. The less you use it, the less it will grow.

          This month’s nudging’s deals with the ownership we should have for our faith journey.  Our spiritual growth really depends a lot on how purposeful and determined we are to help it grow. We personally are reminded of our phase in life when we were actively raising a family.  The more passive of a role we took, the less likely we would see results or the more assertive of a role we took the more likely we would see results.  It just goes to show, that good things don’t just happen by accident.  If you think about it, it really makes sense.  As an example, if we wanted to instill responsibility into our children, we needed to create an atmosphere of evaluating how responsible they were. We gave them chores and voiced our expectations.  Without guidelines and criteria, there wasn’t a capability to measure growth or success.    The more planning, preparation, and purposefulness, the more potential for achieving positive results.

          At the end of 1Timothy 4:7, Paul says these words to Timothy, “…And exercise thyself unto godliness:”  Paul implies there is a need to work at being godly.  Unfortunately, there can be a mindset that spiritual growth is 90% God’s responsibility and 10% ours.  The truth is just like the family chores scenario, we must be purposeful and have criteria and goals to measure how well we are doing in our spiritual growth.  As I mentioned earlier, good things don’t just happen...it is even more true with our spiritual journey.  The challenges that daily impact our faith can be overwhelming.  It is important to have a plan and stay on course as life takes its toll.  Remember, failing to plan is just planning to fail. 

          So, here is what we would suggest.  Spend time in God’s word each day.  Asking for wisdom and application as you are reading.  Spend time praying each day.  Use a method called ACTS, A-adoration, C-confession, T-thanksgiving, and S-supplication. Finally, find a great group of people to fellowship with.  Look for other people who want to “exercise themselves unto godliness.  May The Lord bless you abundantly!

         Judaism:

            Although there isn’t an official state religion in Israel, the most predominant religion by-far in Israel is Judaism. What is Judaism?  A common definition is – a religion developed among the ancient Hebrews and characterized by belief in one transcendent God who has revealed himself to Abraham, Moses, and the Hebrew prophets and by a religious life in accordance with Scriptures and rabbinic traditions. 

            It’s not quite the scriptures you would think....  Typical Judaism revolves around the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament), and the Mishna (ancient rabbinical writings).  The New Testament Scriptures of the Bible are not recognized in Judaism, as a matter of fact, they put more credibility in the rabbinical writings than in the New Testament.  Jesus Christ is also not recognized and is referred to as a Gentile Messiah.  Those who believe in Judaism would argue that if there is a future messiah coming, Jesus Christ will not be that messiah for the Jewish people.  

            On a personal note:  It’s very hard to wrap our Western Gentile mind around the Israeli Jewish mindset of Judaism.  Please keep us in your prayers as we hope to work with and interact with people of this religion.