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Archive | August, 2017

DPM Update – 2017 Aug – Israel trip

Dear Friends

The God-adventures continue

In a few weeks, Deb and I will be joining some of our fellow God-adventurers Dave and Ann Clark, to make a trip to Israel for about 3 weeks, starting Sept 26 through Oct 17. This happens over the dates of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). There will be thousands of Christians and Messianic Jews in Jerusalem at that time. We have many friends in Jerusalem and no doubt we’ll attend some of the Christian/Messianic Jewish meetings, but that is not the primary reason for our trip.

The Lord has quite unexpectedly put the orthodox and ultra-orthodox Jews on our heart and in our path. It’s not something that had even been in our thinking. But through a on-line video series… and then through some rather impressive God signs, we’ve become quite confident in our unusual mission.

We had no idea of the level of poverty and strain some of the Jewish sects experience in the pursuit of the religious endeavors. Literally, there are hundreds of thousands who seriously struggle for the basic needs of life. A 5-part video entitled: Haredi: The Ultra-orthodox society in Israel communicates the philosophical ambitions and the practical struggles they face as they wrestle with religion versus the basics of life. To some, the issue seems easy to solve… (like, husbands should just stop their intensive studying of the Torah and get a job) but to those who are gripped in this philosophical view, their intensely ‘devout’ lifestyle creates huge impositions for their families.

Give value and bless with open-hands

Obviously, our mission will not be to proselytize, but rather to give love and value… and offer an open hand of help to some of the hurting families. After all, through Abraham, we are ‘brothers’. And since all humans have amazing worth, we feel compelled to come alongside and support them in whatever ways God opens up to us. That briefly described objective may seem a little ambiguous, but we’re quite familiar with God-adventures with this type of M.O. Past testimonies from His invites for us to “come see”… coupled with our current confirmations, has given us much faith that we’re on the right path.

Recently Debbie and I were in Los Angeles and just ‘per chance’ we met Fred & Wendy Wu who are taking a group to Jerusalem at the SAME TIME that we are going. They have the SAME objectives… in fact, they’ve been cultivating relationships with the orthodox Jews for several years. This year will be the first year that they are doing some JOINT meetings… and we’re invited to participate publically and in the rabbi’s homes. This surprise development just happened to ‘pop up’ AFTER our mission and dates were already established. We expect many more of these divine appointments will happen all along our way.

More recently we met a couple times with orthodox rabbi A.J. Kushner, in Canton, OH, who candidly shared the needs, the hurdles, the impossibilities, and the culture… all issues that we need to be aware of as we put our feet on the ground in Israel. It was a very productive time of learning how to interact with that religious culture.

Even though we’re quite certain that we’re on a God-appointed mission, we still feel like: “Man plans his way but God orders his steps.” (Prov 16:9) In other words, we’re confident of some big picture goals, but we still need the leading of the Lord regarding connections, directions, timings, daily schedules, etc.

So we’re inviting you to hold us in prayer and let us know as the Lord gives you impressions or connections… or any other innovative ideas. For Dave & Ann and Debbie & I, our mission is to impart love and value. That will undoubtedly involve giving money, practical gifts, acts of service and kindness… eating with them in their homes and identifying with their families, their passions and their struggles. We also believe we’ll be in some hospitals and orphanages. In the process, when the impact of genuine love manifests in the form of tears and true friendship, we’re confident that all of our hearts will enlarge as we see the God-love-factor break through boundaries of religion and culture.

St Francis of Assisi said, “Preach always, and if necessary, use words.” We will be exploring all possible ways to show love, and maybe… quite possibly… love will overcome the barriers. After all, didn’t Jesus say, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another.” (Jn 15:35)

There you have it, a brief overview of our big upcoming adventure. Thank you for your care and prayer as our foursome team is on this mission to open our hands with love to melt the barriers, paradigms and mindsets in all of us.

With love,

Mark & Debbie

Dave & Ann Clark