September 2, 2008
During a recent outreach, a team from Messiah’s Lighthouse, a Metropolitan District C&MA Jewish congregation being planted by Abe Sandler, distributed 24,775 tracts proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah. Sandler also is the C&MA national evangelist to Jewish people.
“Twenty-six Gentile believers and six Jewish believers stopped to talk with us,” said Sandler. “They want to receive our newsletter and material to help them witness to Jewish people. Some would like to visit Messiah’s Lighthouse, the congregation we are planting in New York City.” The teams also received some phone calls and e-mails in response to the outreach.
The third annual Awake O Israel evangelistic campaign took place from August 18–22 in New York City, home to more than 2 million Jews. Volunteers spent the five days on the streets and in subways and parks, handing out tracts and witnessing to all who stopped to talk to them. “As each day passed and the team became more experienced and more prayers went up, we gave out more tracts and had more conversations and got more contacts to follow up on,” said Sandler.
One young man, a Gentile, prayed to receive Jesus as his Savior. “Three unsaved Jews and ten unsaved Gentiles gave us their names and addresses and said they wanted to hear more about Jesus being the Messiah and Savior,” said Sandler.
Despite hostility from the Jewish community, some religious Jews accepted the group’s tracts and read them. “As we headed out to our site one afternoon, William read our shirts and said, “I’m Jewish but don’t know much about my heritage. Can you help me?’ We let him know that we could and that we would share with him that the Jewish Messiah is Jesus,” said Sandler. “He readily gave us his name and address.”
David, a member of the Awake O Israel team, was on a subway platform as the group was returning from giving out tracts. A Hasidic Jewish man, ultra religious, was standing near the team. David felt the Lord “push” him over to the man, who couldn’t help seeing the message that Jesus is the Messiah emblazoned on David’s shirt. David began a conversation with him and was able to witness to him. “To our amazement, he did not turn away or cut him off, but allowed David to talk to him,” said Sandler.
“We sowed a lot of seed, it is being watered with prayer, and we are trusting God for fruit. I am now in the process of following up on all of the contacts with appropriate literature and phone calls and setting up visits with the unsaved contacts,” said Sandler. “Please continue to pray as this outreach is ongoing. There is a veil over their spiritual eyes, and only the Holy Spirit can remove it. Pray, pray, pray!”
For more information about Jewish Ministries and/or help in witnessing to Jewish people, e-mail [email protected] or call 215-676-5122.