Montreal, Thursday September 9
Three of us went to a small shopping area in a French neighborhood and then went to an English one. We offered holiday greetings and 30 Book of Life pamphlets were given out.
A Jewish lady dressed in black received the pamphlet and immediately associated it with the Messiah. She then accepted the Isaiah 53 leaflet and the bookmark on other messianic prophecies to look up at home.
Another Jewish woman, after taking a quick look at the pamphlet, chided us by saying we shouldn’t be giving them out there. However, most were happy to receive what we offered them.
Sunday September 12
Before the Walk and Talk, there was a morning time of prayer in a park. At the end, a man came over to ask if he could use our guitar. One from the prayer group began to speak to him and he mentioned that he was Jewish. We gave him a Book of Life pamphlet and he also received an English Bible set along with the messianic prophecy bookmark. We place this bookmark in the Tanakh at the Isaiah 53 passage. We asked him to take the time to read this passage that reveals Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel. We also invited him to come to the congregation. Before he left, we sang two worship songs for him. It was a very beautiful and joyful moment.
In a different park, seven of us went in the afternoon to do Jewish outreach. Someone stayed to cover the group in prayer, and we sang some of the time, too, accompanied by a guitar. We wished people a happy holiday with Chag Sameach (Hebrew) or Gut Yontif (Yiddish) and received many smiles and good wishes in return. Here are some of the stories.
We had a long conversation with a couple at a picnic table. The husband was Jewish, and his wife was from South America. We spoke about the work of Yeshua the Messiah revealed in Isaiah 53 and then we asked if they believed He was their Savior. They said “yes”. They rejoiced as they heard that they could listen to the Beth Ariel Saturday messianic teachings in Spanish on YouTube. They received the Book of Life pamphlet and a set of Scriptures from us. When we offered to share a worship song with them, they asked for Hevenu Shalom. We had a very joyful and blessed time with them. They were so grateful, thanking the Lord and blessing us as we went back to join the others.
We met a Jewish lady who went through World War II while living in Ukraine where she was born. She came to Canada with her husband in 1981. She has a daughter and two grandkids. One of them is an 18-year-old young man who is in the Israeli army. N. asked us to pray for her and for her grandson O. as well.
During our conversation, we spoke about Yom Kipper and asked what she believed. She said it was a day to repent and to try the best to be good. We explained to her that, in the Hebrew Scriptures, it is stated that no matter how good we are, we cannot obtain forgiveness of our sins by ourselves. The only way is through what God provided since the Jewish people do not have a Temple to perform the sacrifices anymore.
We also explained that in the Garden of Eden, God provided the skin of an animal to cover Adam and Eve when they sinned, which meant that blood was required for atonement
She asked us why Arabs who hate Israel think that the land belongs to them and not to the Jews. We explained the covenant God made with Abraham by his son Isaac and also what happened with Hagar and Ishmael.
When we asked her if she had read the Tanakh, she said “no”, so we offered het a set which she gladly received!
While she was telling us her story and the sad moments she had gone through, we told her that God loved her. She was a bit emotional, and we could feel the hurt in her words. She received the Isaiah 53 leaflet, a Tanakh and the Book of Life pamphlet. We asked her to visit Beth Ariel’s website and to call.
We encountered an 83-year-old Austrian lady with a passion for the Jewish people, who claimed that most of her friends were Jewish! She has Jewish friends who attend synagogues that she enjoys visiting in Austria, South Africa, and the US. She identified as a Catholic but is very open to Protestants. She claims that salvation is available to people of all religions, but we said that’s not what Jesus, Paul, or Peter taught. She denied that was true.
We then asked if she knew where she’d go after death. She hopes it will be Heaven. We replied that Jesus assured the repentant man on the cross next to him that he would be in Paradise that day. The Apostle John wrote his Gospel so that we who believe in Messiah would know that we have eternal life. We invited her to humbly ask God for the Spirit’s help so she would receive the new birth necessary for eternal life. We left her with a gospel tract. She was amazed that it dealt with the exact same topic her parish priest had preached on the previous week — “Who do you say I am?”
We spoke to a couple of elderly Jewish people for a while. The wife lamented not having a personal relationship with their new rabbi because of the separations due to COVID. We spoke of how God desires a personal relationship with us, but that atonement through blood was needed. The husband was shocked to hear someone speak about blood and repeated what many less religious Jews believe, that Scripture is not God’s Word, but simply human commentary based on individual interpretation of legends. Leviticus 17:11 as proof was not good enough for him. The wife accepted our leaflet on Isaiah 53 and the Book of Life pamphlet, but they refused the Bible gift set.
We met a woman who was happy to receive a Book of Life pamphlet and a bookmark of messianic prophecies to look up in her Tanakh at home.
We gave out a total of 30 pamphlets, a few Isaiah 53 leaflets, three sets of Scriptures, and 5 gospel tracts to non-Jews.
Tuesday September 14
Two teams went to shopping areas and gave out in total approximately 135 to 140 Book of Life pamphlets to Jewish people.
Some opposition came from a man who ripped up our tract when we said we believed Yeshua was the Messiah. He told others nearby to throw away their pamphlets, which most did, but one man quietly folded it and put it in his back pocket.
A mail carrier walked past us and quietly said, “Jesus is Lord.” We agreed!
A Hungarian Jewish woman said it was beautiful to see what we were doing, and yet another said that more people should be distributing literature like we were. The latter woman took an Isaiah 53 leaflet, too.
A man in his 80’s said he’d read Isaiah 53 as a teen. We challenged him to carefully re-read it and identify who was being described.
A Sephardic man initially refused our pamphlet and walked away, then turned around and came back to see what we were giving out. We shared quite a bit with S. about atonement and redemption. He eventually took the Isaiah 53 leaflet as well as the whole gift set of Scriptures, which he was excited to receive.
Just as one team was finishing, there was a blackout at the store, which then had to close. We are grateful to have met with customers during the busy period of the day, which usually ends at 1:00PM.