Translating Our Faith Into a Language People Can Understand

The Goal of Knock and Talk is to bring the Scriptures door to door and translate our faith     into a language people can understand.

Report from Montreal:

On May 1, the team set out in a new neighborhood. It was a warm evening and people were outside going for walks and working on their landscaping. We found many people quite welcoming. One young woman couldn’t believe the books were free. She mentioned how she always reads to her children at bedtime from books that came from Jewish sources and was excited about reading the Scriptures to them. We even spoke some about prophecy with her. Another woman listened to how relevant the Scriptures were for today, prophesying the coming northern invasion of Israel by Russia, Iran, Turkey, and others.

A couple of homes had someone answer the door in a big hurry, being busy with other activities, but who still took the sets into their homes.

In all, we gave out a total of eight sets and one T’nak. What a great start we had in this new neighborhood.

A team went out May 29^th in the same area, but on a new street. There were very few doors sporting mezuzahs but we had some great opportunities to speak. At one door an elderly gentleman, who was in quite a rush to leave the house, took the sets, and seemed particularly interested in the Hebrew English New Testament. He asked us if we wanted Hebrew lessons and invited us to come back again next week. He also gave us his phone number. We are planning to visit him and perhaps we will have the opportunity to show him what Yeshua (Hebrew for salvation) really translates into, for his life.

At another door, an older woman in her 70’s listened how we shared about upcoming prophecies. She said that her mother often used the expression Ven di Moshiach vet cumen which is Yiddish for … when the Messiah comes). She asked how we could really ever know who He is and we went on to share that Messiah’s credentials were in the T’nak. We read Isaiah 53 to her. She took a New Testament only, claiming she already possessed many T’naks  in her house.

At the third door we offered a set to a gentleman in his 80’s. He said he would like to make a trade and said he had something for us. He came back with a book he wrote describing his life at the Auschwitz Death Camp.  He showed us the tattooed number on his arm and asked us if we would like to come in and speak for a while, which we did. He is a lecturer at schools, conferences and universities and speaks about his experiences at the camp. He spoke for quite a while and we listened quite intently trying from time to time to interject with questions such as …What do you think about God in all of this…. What do you think about the Passover story and blood protection … how do you justify the evil you saw, in consideration that God is the final judge of all our acts and that there is an eternity to consider….  He appeared to be agnostic at best and it was evident how important is it was for him to speak about his life (we were there no less than 45 minutes). We plan to return next week and ask him if he would sign the book he gave us. We pray that would lead to more conversation.

We gave out two sets and one New Testament.

Thank you for your prayers, as always, and praise God for opening doors and hearts.

Report from Calgary:

May 6

 This week, five out of the 10 homes we visited responded to our knocking. The very first lady we encountered was fluent in Hebrew. She told us that we were mistranslating verses about the Messiah, at which point we showed her how an English rendering of the word life was really plural in the Hebrew and in that context lent itself to showing that man was more than just a physical being but had a soul as well, enabling man to communicate with God.  We encouraged her to continue reading the T’nak pointing out that she could understand the text just as well as the scholars or religious leaders! We encouraged her to read Isaiah 53 and Daniel 9. We pray we provoked her to jealousy.

Another lady accepted the T’nak we offered her. She also mentioned that the T’nak was not to be understood literally but allegorically.  We pointed out the literal realization of Israel’s birth back in May 1948. She was very happy we visited her and accepted to read the T’nak for herself! The 3 other respondents were men who were friendly but as soon as we pointed to the T’nak and the Brit Chadeshah they backed away, so we were only able to leave with a friendly greeting!       

May 13

Thankfully, people are praying for the ministry because we’ve had a surprisingly successful outing this week! We had 8 homes to visit, and got 5 responses all of whom expressed gratitude that we visited them, our Hebrew neighbors!  So, two T’naks (OTs), one Brit Chadeshah (NTs) and 2 Hebrew pamphlets were accepted!

On the eve of Israel’s 70th Birthday celebrations, we were able to exchange on many prophecies concerning Israel’s return to the promised land. The young man we exchanged with was rejoicing as we cited various verses and proclaiming the faithfulness of the Redeemer of Israel.

May 27th

 We had another great outing this week, all 5 respondents were very friendly and were thankful for our visits! 4 declined our offer of Scriptures, of which one lady busy on the phone mentioned she preferred we offered the Scriptures to someone who didn’t already have a copy, and another lady just about to go out with her family, was a recent gentile-convert to Judaism and already had all she needed to read in her library. Another lady kindly refused our offer of Scriptures after asking if we were Christians.

 A Russian speaking elderly Jewish couple were out working in their yard and joyfully greeted us As Valerie started speaking with the lady, I asked the husband how it could be that in Ezekiel chapter 38 concerning his native Russia, it is so closely relevant to today’s news concerning Israel. I asked how these Jewish Prophets could write over 2000 years ago and be so current, if they weren’t inspired by the One and Only True God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! He mentioned how he was following with great interest what was happening in Israel. I then asked him how Daniel in like manner, could be so precise in his prophecy in chapter 9 verse 25 about how the Messiah had to come before the destruction of the City and Temple in 70 CE, and that it is written that Yeshua HaMashiyach died in 32 CE for the redemption of His people, something prophesied by Isaiah 53! He simply stated that he disagreed with me on that! When we offered the gift of Jewish Scriptures he declined saying he already had a copy. As we parted we exchanged greetings encouraging them to study the Holy Scriptures and verify if Yeshua was in fact the Messiah!

Then we were overwhelmed with joy as a Jewish couple gladly accepted our gift of Scriptures! We invited him to read Isaiah 52:12 to 53:12 and Psalms 22 to verify for themselves if Jesus wasn’t the Suffering Servant. I then asked if he remembered the seven-time American gold medalist swimmer … he immediately answered yes, Mark Spitz! Well I mentioned that in like manner Yeshua ( Salvation) HaMashiyach  had represented His nation Israel in winning Redemption for the Nation of Israel and all the Nations of the World! On that we parted praising the Lord in our hearts for our encounter with this couple that obviously had already been touched by the Holy Spirit convicting them!

Please continue to pray for the ministry amongst the Jewish Calgarians so that they may open their eyes and come to know Jesus their Messiah