There were three teams that went to a park in a Jewish neighborhood on Sunday. One team felt led to play and sing Jewish and Messianic Jewish songs for the two hours as a witness as the other two teams spoke to passersby. The music team tried to engage in conversations as well but were refused by those listening. Interestingly, some Jewish people who refused to speak to them then followed them to other parts of the park to listen to more music!
Here is the report from one of the teams who were actively speaking:
A Gentile couple asked us what anti-Semitism was and listened as we further explained that Yeshua was the Jewish Messiah who came to reconcile all nations to God. We spoke about the plan of redemption through His sacrifice. They asked us for our contact information and how to listen to our teaching messages on YouTube.
Toward the end of the messianic music, a Jewish father and son approached us and received anti-Semitism pamphlets. We emphasized the importance of reading God’s words in the Tanakh, and not just the first five books, because many of the prophets also help us identify the Messiah. They accepted a Brit Chadasha even though they saw it was the New Testament. Their receptivity was better when they saw it was written in Hebrew.
In all, the team gave out 11 anti-Semitism pamphlets and the one New Testament.
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Here is the report from the other team, which gave out 15-20 pamphlets and had several good conversations.
We encountered a CEGEP (junior college) professor who had already received leaflets from the other team and was eager to share with us about social degradation in the younger generations. We were all ears as we listened to her. She elevated the religious moral class, Jewish and any other religious group that keeps society from corruption by teaching moral laws. We then said that the key to counter moral decline was a relationship with the one true God of Abraham Jacob, and Isaac. Only through the sacrificial offering by Yeshua HaMashiach as the Lamb of God can this relationship be re-established.
We read the four verses on the Isaiah 53 leaflet out loud to her and she listened with great interest. At first, she declined our offer of Scriptures but as she listened to those verses, she recognized that Yeshua was to be rejected by the people and so she suddenly asked us to give her a set. We showed her our web address and invited her to listen in to the teachings we offer about the Jewish Messiah. Praise the Lord that the other team was praying nearby. We saw the Spirit at work!
A friend of hers who had refused our leaflets was listening in, and abruptly took her mask off to agree with our claims about the need for the Jewish Messiah.
A Jewish man was lying in the shade with his son, mocking our claims. He even expressed his sympathies with the Palestinians, so we asked him who started the conflict. He then condemned Israel in front of his astonished son. We said that we were praying for the peace of Jerusalem, at which point he expressed his disgust by waving us to move on. Maybe he was an atheist. We left, expressing our love for both Israelis and the Palestinians. His son lowered his head, perhaps embarrassed of his dad’s position.
As we started to speak to one woman, we could see that she did not understand what we were saying so we asked her if she was Spanish-speaking. She said she was Mexican, so our conversation continued in Spanish. We shared about our Savior Jesus and explained that we are in total support of Israel. She received the anti-Semitism and Isaiah 53 leaflets. We showed her the phone number and address of Beth Ariel in the leaflet and suggested she visit the website, call us, and maybe attend some day soon.
We then encountered a Muslim lady with her children. When we said that we were stepping out as Christians in support for Israel, she nodded respectfully. We said that we also loved the Palestinian people and were sad at their plight. We then shared that not only was Issa (Jesus in Arabic) the Messiah, but the Holy Scriptures claim He is the Son of God. Psalm 49:7,8 claim that no man can redeem another man. That is why He had to be God incarnate and die on the Tav (cross) for the atonement of the sins of all who receive Him. We invited her to consider the claims of Scripture and turn to the true and only God of the Bible.
Thank you all for praying with us.