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Casey's Israel Outreach Journal 2009

Saturday, May 9th, 2009

I left home for the airport on Friday morning, May 8 at 5:30am.  Between all the security, flying to NJ, to then depart to Tel Aviv and finally arriving here, it was about 11:00am in Rishon, on Saturday the 9th.  I haven’t slept yet.  But, I really shouldn’t now, because it will mess up my sleep tonight....my eyes feel like gravel.

We are staying at a Ne've Shalom, here in Rishon, a kibbutz kind of place, but with a mixture of all faiths.  We are not allowed to witness to anyone here, or the entire campaign will be thrown out of our housing.  It’s kind of a wild and beautiful location, and just below us is a Bedoin settlement, which has many different types of animals, like sheep, camels, chickens etc.  So, the smells are farmish....and it’s just the wildest atmosphere.  So different from Tel Aviv.

It’s amazing to see old friends.  I cannot believe how amazing it feels to have so many Jewish evangelists in one location, all of one heart and mind....reaching Israel for the Messiah.  It feels yet again as if I have been transported back to the book of Acts.  In many of the areas around our kibbutz type place, it looks almost that ancient.

We have our consecration service tonight, now that most of the missionaries have arrived.  It promises to be an amazing service, despite the fact that we will be in the bomb shelter for it.


Sunday, May 10th, 2009

I slept like a rock last night....if rocks snored loudly and talked in their sleep, anyway.  Apparently I was quite the conversationalist with my roommates, Mayan and Marta last night, all while completely asleep!

Oy.  Our consecration service was amazing last night.  Hearing praise and worship in Hebrew, English, Russian....it's like being in heaven.  We washed each others feet, were prayed over and anointed with oil, and shared communion.  Now we are consecrated and set apart for going forth with the gospel, to the lost sheep of Israel!

I'm doing a quickie training refresher course before I get released into the wild. Off the subject, but this location is really unique.  The flowers I'm seeing are things I have never seen before, and the smells from the camels below us are quite unique as well.  And the roosters....they sure are early risers!!!  They fit their stereotype very well.

I'm about to train, to the melodious refrain of two wild cats fighting or whatnot, right outside the window.  It's actually quite distracting!  :)

Well, our first teams were out on sortie (tract passing outing) and things were rather intense, right off.  One gentleman was kicked and had his glasses snatched off, two ladies were beaten....and then Sergio and Ina were both taken into custody and charged with assault (even though they were the ones assaulted).  This is fairly typical when the police get involved here.  The ultra orthodox are the instigators and they are very good at manipulating the situation into the appearance that somehow the victim is actually the aggressor. Don't get me wrong, those of you who have been with me a long time know my passion for the Hasidim (ultra-orthodox) and remember the trips in Brooklyn to do outreach among them.  I genuinely have an unwavering love and passion to reach them, but here in Israel, they are the ones we have to try to avoid for the most part.  They are the ones who will harm us without hesitation.  They see it as defending their Jewish state.  We will see how we need to maybe adjust things.  It's like you forget, and yet once back here, you remember, how upside down things can be here.

I actually cannot wait to get out there.  Our areas of concentration this campaign will be the Shfelah region which I believe means the coastal plains.  From the balcony where I have been sitting outside training....I can see the Judean hillsides, the coastal plain and the actual valley where Joshua  (Joshua Ch. 10 I believe) fought the battle where he prayed for the sun to stand still and God allowed it!!  In fact, that valley is just below Ne've Shalom, the settlement we are staying in.  I have learned it is actually a settlement and not quite a kibbutz.  The farm animal smells are still extremely heavy in the air.  Which is fine, but takes me by surprise every so often.

Our chapel service was amazing this morning.  It reminds me of the book of Acts ....chapter 4, where the disciples were being persecuted and taken before the Sanhedrin.....upon their release, they went back to their fellow believers, shared their story, and all praised the Lord and prayed intently, not to be allowed to stop or leave, but to preach the gospel all the more boldly and the entire room was shaken by the power of the Holy Spirit.  That was what our chapel service was like today.  We all knew what our fellow missionaries had experienced and yet, we were not deterred, knowing He is our defense and our shield.   Sharing the gospel sometimes comes with a cost.  So far, no one has shied away from the cost.....Jesus help us to hold fast.

Now, to the cities we are concentrating on:  Rishon LeZion (or LeZiyyon):  4th largest city in Israel.....heavy Russian Jewish population.

Ramla/Lude:  Low income area of Arab, Ethiopian, Russian and Israeli ethnicities.  It is the drug and mafia capital of Israel.  It is an incredibly dangerous city, from what I'm told.  However, bear in mind in Acts 9:32, the entire city came to faith at one time, back in the day.  So, there is a spiritual element to still consider about that.  It is Biblical Lydia.

Modi'in:  I have no information yet on this city.

Rehovet:  nothing concrete on this area either

Ashdod and Ashkelon:  Very spiritually dark....Israel never completely possessed this land and the Philistines settled here with much pagan idol worship.  This area is still very dark to this day.

This is later in the day....about 30 minutes before dinner.  I believe 4 different teams were arrested in some form or fashion today!  Oy, we were hoping for a bit less of that, eh???  I've been quite fine because I've been training today all day.  However, after dinner, I will be getting my script for phone calling (I asked for it in Hebrew....cause I like the challenge!) and as of tomorrow, I'm out in the streets myself.  I really am excited/nervous, I have to admit.  I love doing street evangelism, and sometimes it feels like if I can't share the gospel, I might explode.....so, this will be great to get out there with the people.  I just pray for wisdom, discernment, safety and effectiveness!!!  I pray that fear will not become prevalent on the team, but that we will become even more bold and even more courageous and passionate about sharing the gospel.  The same forces of evil in the disciples day that were at work discouraging the spread of the gospel to the Jewish people are still at work today.  But, God.

Sometimes that is all you need to say.  But, God.

During our praise time tonight we got to hear the amazing stories of everyone's day while we were writing postcards.  There were some great stories of triumphs and amazing stories of persecution.  But God, in the midst of the bollygon( large forming mobs/chaos, there were interested people who were wondering if it could be true....this Jesus....could He be who He says he is?


Monday, May 11, 2009

Such a long day.  It’s very late at night, but it’s the first chance I have had to stop all day long.  I have no idea really how anyone else’s teams did today.  I do know that we made some adjustments because of all the opposition yesterday.  We started out with only one team out on banners and street sortie today (tract passing outreach), and they had 4 bodyguards (seriously).  The rest of the missionaries went door to door with Bibles and tracts in apartment buildings.  My team was in Ramla this morning.  Our door to doors there went very well.  This afternoon, we were in Rishon.  What was supposed to be a two hour sortie went on until 8:30pm...without  a break for bathrooms or dinner or anything.

My partner, Dave, and I covered two entire apartment buildings by ourselves.  Wildly enough, I was the Hebrew speaker for our team.  Necessity breeds the impossible becoming possible.  Somehow, we managed to have have 27 successful visits where the gospel got shared and literature actually got distributed!  The rest of our team covered a lot of ground as well.  Then just when we thought we were done, at 5:30pm, we suddenly found out we were the next group to sortie with the body guards!!  So, we went into downtown Rishon and did sweeps up and down the streets, passing out gospel tracts and trying to engage people in conversations about Jesus.  We had ZERO opposition!  Praise the Lord!  We also had one Russian decision for Jesus on the street!!!  We got nine contacts for the follow up team, and passed out several hundred tracts.  Finally we had dinner....I confess my feet and legs were KILLING me by this time(12 hours on the streets and counting....listen to me whining!  I am whining so shrilly on dogs can hear me right now!)  But it was truly an amazing turn-around from yesterday....and my Hebrew grows more and more adept which is another miracle of God!

We came home to find out that our follow-up team had one Hasidic (Ultra-Orthodox) man named Itzak pray to receive the Lord!  He called in from a tract he received yesterday!  He is actually living in Jerusalem, but was in the Shfelah area yesterday and received a tract, which is another miracle in and of itself, because frankly we are a bit reluctant to enter into a dialog with the Hasidim here, as usually they are planning to hit us or throw rocks!  Praise the Lord for His miracles!  The follow up team actually had over 70 phone calls today just from people who received tracts in the past two days and wanted more information!  Isn’t it amazing how the Lord works?  So, blisters and tired achy feet aside....isn’t it all worth it for the Itzak’s of Israel to know their Messiah?  A few punches and formal false assault charges aside....it’s amazing to be a part of something so incredible!

As an aside, we have Jewish missionaries here from all over the globe on our team.  There are people here from Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, United States, Russia, Ethiopia and etc.  The mix of languages and testimonies and stories are all just something incredible to behold.  Together we are sharing the joy and the hardships, and it is all because of our great love for our Jewish brothers and sisters and desire for them to know their Messiah.  I wish I could somehow truly convey the awesome atmosphere here with our little band of warriors.  My roommates are asleep and so should I be....the roosters crow early here....more tomorrow.


May 12, 2009

I know it is the 12th, but I actually have no idea what day of the week it is....they all seem to run together. 

Before I begin about today, I wanted to make something quite clear.  It is not illegal to do evangelism in Israel!  It is illegal to evangelize a minor, which we NEVER do....and it is illegal to litter....those are the main things that one has to think about when passing out tracts.  Now, since we avoid minors, and we always pick up any tracts that get thrown down....we are good to go....except for the false charges of assault that sometimes get made.  However, nobody is sitting in an Israeli jail or anything....charges were made, but counter charges get made as well, and they sort of cancel each other out.  It becomes more of a silly annoyance for the police.  So far, so good.

Now, today our team started our day in Ramla again, doing door to door calling.  It went very well right up until the end.  My teammate Igor and I knocked on this one lady’s door....and she was orthodox.  At that point, all bolygon (chaos/mob potential) broke out, with her screaming so loudly at us that the entire neighborhood could hear her.  Our policy is to disengage and de-escalate the moment someone begins to make chaos....and so, Igor and I politely wished her peace and blessings and removed ourselves from her building.  She followed us outside, still screaming at us.  She ripped up a tract and threw it right in my face.  Now, I am used to being yelled at....spat at....slapped even....so this was not so bad to me.  However then she called the police!  We had to leave for chapel service anyway, so it was kind of funny because we were long gone back to Ne’ve Shalom before the police even showed up for the yelling lady.

The sad thing to me was, for a time, when she went to get her phone, it was quiet briefly and we were headed towards the car.....when this sweet older gentleman sitting at a bus stop wanted to ask about what I had to say.  So, I got to sit with him for a moment....and share Jesus with him.  He took a Bible....he took a tract...and his eyes lit up when I talked about Jesus being his Messiah and his atonement for sin.  He wanted to know more, but again out comes screaming lady making bolygon, now screaming at him too.  He keeps waving her away, saying to stop it, he wants to talk, but she wouldn’t stop and was so crazy, we had to just leave him with the Bible and move on.  My heart can still picture him trying to stand up to her just so he could hear more about Jesus.  And it makes me sad for him.  But God....I have to remember but God.  He is in control and He is a miracle maker....and that precious man can find the truth through the scriptures he now has.  Sometimes, there is not more you can do.  I have to lay him down at Jesus feet and pray for the best.

My stomach has been upset all day.  I think because it is not accustomed to eating salad and olives and pickles for breakfast and is rioting against me!  I have a brief rest time before we go out again this afternoon and evening for more door to door (which could end up a sortie with the body guards again).  It seems one never knows quite for certain what will happen.

All I know for certain is this....Jesus is being made an unavoidable issue here in the Shfelah region.....and for a time, Jewish people are considering His claims to Messiahship.....and that is always a good thing.

It's late again.  Door to doors went exceptionally well in Rishon for our team, again tonight.  Igor and I covered 2 more apartment buildings, door by door.  We had 34 actual visits that resulted in the sharing of the gospel!!  Consider this quite a feat of God, since Hebrew is neither Igor, nor my first language....maybe becoming a 3rd but only if that means I can pray the Hebrew prayer blessings at them....which can only carry me so far....I mean, how often can one bless the Torah, or the bread or the fruit of the vine, eh???  :)  No, I'm getting better and better conversationally....but still.  You get my point.

A couple of the other teams also have police encounters which did not result as well as ours.  Schlomy, our BYG (Behold Your God- name of the campaign) leader for Shfelah had to go rescue some of our missionaries from the police station again, and another team was accosted by Orthodox mobs twice in different locations!  But, everyone is healthy and well and not languishing in prison anywhere so praise God!!!  The bannering team actually had one Pacok (inspector - the litter ticket writing guy) come to them (mind you all they are doing is holding a banner up-no tracts, papers, nothing) but the Pacok had been getting complaints from people and he came to them and said...."It's not that there is anything I can do, but I've been getting calls....how much longer do you think you all will be??" For some reason that makes me laugh.....  Poor Pacok!!!

So, Sergio, the one who got beaten in the back the first day of campaign was again on the team that got surrounded by the mob today and he told the gentlemen (?) that they could do and call whatever and whomever they wanted but ultimately we were still going to be coming out every day telling people about Jesus being the Jewish Messiah, and no matter what, there was not a thing they could do about it.  They couldn't stop us.  We would just keep coming.  Jesus is true and could not be stopped.  That set them back a bit.

All in all, things here are very exciting and change every other minute.  We continue to pray no one is horribly harmed....and we pray for fruit.  Here are the stats, 3 days into campaign:

Tracts out:  12, 500
1050 apartments called on and literature left
373 actual conversations including the gospel from those apartment door to doors
2690 calls made to offer Hebrew NT's
225 unsaved Jewish people have asked for more follow up and agreed to meeting with follow up team and receiving NT's
1 Jewish Decision for Jesus
2 Gentile Decisions for Jesus

This in in three days with just 25 missionaries hitting the streets of the city, and about 5 stewards who tend to all the needs of the missionaries and help with laundry, snacks, errands, airport pickups, and etc.  Eyes will no longer stay open.  Need to sleep.


May 13, 2009

Well....we will start with the praises today.....as we all now come in as teams from the fields saying "we are all alive....we are here and safe".  So, as of tonight, everyone is still alive and well.  The most awesome praise of all is that we had 3 more Jewish people open their hearts to Jesus today!

While this was happening though, our teams were suffering great physical harm, sadly enough.  On my team, our evening sortie started off with a mini bonfire of one of our missionaries gospel tracts, right on the street.....and ended with Steve getting beaten up right in front of the security guards at a mall.  They were refusing to help him, and were trying to not let him get inside the mall for safety!  However, the rest of us on our team immediately had to try to get inside the mall and get Steve into safety and into his cover shirt.  Then, they were after us and we had to walk (we do not run) swiftly to try to get down one level to try to locate our car in the parking garage and escape.  They were hot on our heels.....even had on Hasid in the parking garage in a car looking for us!  We decided, after safely getting out of the sortie, that we needed ice cream to calm our nerves a bit ( I mean, who wouldn't? Seriously!)  We went to another location, and decided, hey, why not, so we took off our cover shirts just to go get the ice cream since there were quite a few people at the ice cream shop.  So, off they went, and in we went and chose our ice cream.  We were simply being visible, not anything else.....and these two gentlemen could not overcome their curiosity.....and they stopped me and asked me about Jesus....how He could be Messiah.....and I got to share the gospel with them.  And, one of them was really interested.  He agreed to meet with the follow up team and wanted to receive a Hebrew New Testament.  So, see, God works all for good.

Now we had had a double sortie, meaning we were in the streets from 3:30 until 8:30.  And during that time, things mostly went well until the end.  Here are some names of the precious Jewish people I got to talk to, and give new testaments to during the sortie:  Selli, Danny, Nadav, Boris, Mortie, Yacov, Ze'ev, Nati, Doron, Abram and Victor.  Steve and I even got to pray with Nadav and he was deeply moved by our time of prayer for him.  These people walked away with the gospel of Jesus and the scriptures to learn more about Him.  It truly doesn't get better than that, yes?

So, on to some of the other teams.  The banner team got rocks thrown at them.  The Lord protected them though, and brought them home safely with nary even a bruise upon them.

Another team was in Rehoveth, where our little bonfire/ beating excitement happened.....they were there in the morning and we were there in the evening.  In the morning, the entire team (even with 4 bodyguards) got pummeled to the ground by Hasidim and then the Yad Lachim showed up (means Hand of or maybe to, the brethren- they are sort of like the mean muscle of the ultra orthodox) Those of you who prayed for us last year will remember our many encounters with the Yad Lachim in Tel Aviv.  Well, we were expecting they would show up sooner or later.  So.  They are now on the scene.  David got kicked repeatedly.  One of the girls on our team began to get assaulted.  We called for the police.  The call for police sort of scared the orthodox guys from coming to her, so she got to her feet, and began just preaching the gospel to the crowd....it was so powerful!  I'm so proud of her!!!  The crowd all began to listen to her, and the gospel was shared and most likely received even better because they had all witnessed the attack and yet, the team was still sharing Jesus and His love for them!  Halleluia!  You just want to shout it out!!!

Tsacki and his team also were attacked, but towards the end of their sortie, so all in all, satan did not prevail in trying to stop us today!  And, again, 3 Jewish people received Jesus today, so, wow, right?  Wow.

Tonight, after everyone safely returned for stories and debriefing and postcards (we write 10 a day to thank people who are praying for us and standing with us on the outreach) we were all so encouraged by the stories of God's sustaining us, and how the gospel was not stopped.  It was kind of funny though because people were sitting with ice packs and poor Igor.... red choke marks on his neck....and nobody was scared away or wanting to stop.  We prayed together for those who saw us, talked to us with interest or with anger, and those who persecuted us....and it was like the Holy Spirit was just sweeping through the room and comforting us all and encouraging us all and lifting our heads.

Granted, we are tired.  And wounded.  Pressed but not crushed.  Persecuted but not abandoned.  Struck down, but not destroyed.  The scriptures come to life....and it is good.  Israel needs Jesus their Messiah.....and we will not be deterred from  bringing Him to them. (I say that now....pray to God He sustains me tomorrow- I am so weak!!!)

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