BIB Admin

And the Lord said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him." Genesis 18:17-19

Blessing Israeli Believers would like to introduce a very special family living here in Israel. They are Gentile believers who have sowed their lives into Israel and are raising up a godly seed of Israeli Gentile believing children-many of them! Though not Jewish, they truly are a family of Israeli Believers with a very special and unique calling here in the Promised Land! Be blessed as you read Ryan's testimony.

I come from a large family, relatively speaking, so never imagined being used by the Lord in the way things ultimately turned out. Having a lot of siblings was nice, but I was also aware of the challenges it presented my parents. I was determined to never be so encumbered, especially after coming over to Israel in my early twenties and living so carefree, with the flexibility to study, volunteer and pretty much do just about whatever I felt was the Lord's calling at that given moment.

It was only after getting married and having our first child that I truly realized just how difficult day-to-day life can be in Israel compared to what I was used to from America. Fortunately, my wife, the daughter of Dutch Christians who had come to the land 30 years before me, had grown up Israeli, and was thus intimately familiar with, and largely unfazed by, the particular trials this country presents.

You'd think given the above perspective I'd have been more vigilant about limiting our number of children. But, next thing I knew, we had been married 15 years and were the parents of no fewer than 6 children, with a seventh on the way. And I can now honestly say that I'd have it no other way. My children are a blessing to me. It's their faces that I long to see at the end of a work day. But I now also realize that they are my ministry, God's calling on my life, or at least part of it.

The Lord has blessed both myself and my wife with careers that we love and that afford us ample opportunities to be witnesses to the nation of Israel. I am a writer and editor for the Messianic-run news agency Israel Today, and Naomi works as a midwife at Jerusalem's largest hospital, Hadassah Ein Kerem. But there needs to be a strong body of believers in this land to anchor it until such a time as God's salvation is fully realized. That's where not shying away from having a healthy number of children and raising them to be God-fearing and righteous members of Israeli society comes in.

But, again, this is easier said than done in a country where salaries almost never meet the cost of living, and both parents have no choice but to work full-time jobs, and then some. But the Lord is faithful. Time and again, we have experienced unexpected blessing at the hands of those obeying the Lord's call to support us and other believers like us in the land at the very moment we needed assistance. That's why ministries like Blessing Israeli Believers are so important. They facilitate the Lord's blessings so that those of us living here and bolstering the body of Messiah in Israel can focus on His callings, rather than on the day-to-day difficulties that the enemy tries to use to slow us down.

Thank you from Efraim & Jeannie, Western Galilee

Shalom in the name of our Messiah Jesus - the Prince of Peace!

We are grateful, thankful and so appreciative of your faithful support of our ministry work here in Israel. Your partnership means so much to us.

We are seeing the Lord use us to minister to the believers around us, and open doors to witness to those we encounter. Please pray that we can continue to be His source of encouragement, teaching and light to those around us who are living without the knowledge of Jesus our Messiah.

In His Name,
Efraim and Jeannie

Dear Blessing Israeli Believers Friends and Partners In The Nations,

Happy New Year and praise King Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) our great Savior and Lord!
We so look forward to His grace and mercy that will overflow from you to our Israeli Believing partners and then to the precious souls here in the Promised Land! Last year was blessed and fruitful and we expectantly look for even more blessings and fruitfulness in this New Year!
In this letter we have an exciting testimony of the love of the gospel going out here in Israel. What special opportunities for the Jewish people, and many others, to hear the love of Abba Father in the good news of Messiah Yeshua!
Also, there is a special thanks to you, our BIB partners, from our Israeli Believing partners in the Golan Heights! This is just the beginning of what we trust will be a powerful Messiah Yeshua honoring year in Israel.

Remember, one of the best ways to bless Israel is to Bless Israeli Believers in Messiah Yeshua!

Dov Schwarz
Co Founder, Blessing Israeli Believers

 

Update from Ariel & Shayla, Haifa
Sometimes, evangelism is an exciting adventure of working together with God to find the lost and help them know their Savior. At other times, evangelism is having your heart broken over and over as you reach out to those in darkness and utter despair. Sometimes, it's a roller coaster of both.

Our team member, Ari G., worked as a journalist for Israel's most prestigious newspaper and its most-watched news channel. When he was caught in the snare of drugs, he thought he had no way out. But he finally was set free and discovered true freedom and meaning in Yeshua - Jesus.

Ari had never thought of himself as an evangelist. When he first joined our team, he worked on creative ideas for videos, writing scripts, and producing videos. One day, as we saw how so many Israelis were contacting us with questions about Yeshua, we asked if he could make phone calls to interested Israelis who left their numbers. He replied that it wasn't for him.

But a few days later after thinking and praying about it, he decided to go for it. We soon heard him even from down the hallway passionately sharing the Gospel with Orthodox Jews!

A similar thing happened when we asked if he could share with Israelis on Facebook - again he wasn't excited about it, but ultimately decided to go for it and has done a great job.

Then we asked him to go out and share the Gospel on the streets with us. And guess what? He felt that he didn't have a gift for that and it seemed like a strange thing to do. But then something quite amazing happened.

We were invited to go pray for a believer who was in the hospital, so Ari, Ahuvyah, and I got in the car to go. Then we found out the man was sleeping so there wasn't a point in coming, but I felt the Lord put it strongly on my heart to go anyway. So we went and started sharing the Gospel with people in the hospital and offering prayer.

We got to share the Gospel with a Muslim family; with Kiril, a young male nurse working there; and with a female officer in the IDF, Nofar, who came to visit her father who had a heart attack.

Ari found himself talking with someone else about how important it is to go out and share the Gospel on the streets, "because when you go out, things happen around you, and things happen inside of you."

I found myself amazed to see Ari's talent at connecting with people, helping them feel at ease, and asking really good questions to get to know them and their worldview (the journalist coming out!), then naturally sharing about God and Yeshua. As he put it afterwards, "Evangelism is just talking with people about life, because Yeshua is true life."

Update from Ezra & Shulamite, Golan Heights

Thank you to Blessings Israeli Believers Through your designated donations we were able to stand in the gap financially to carry Slava through. Slava has not been able to work for the past 2 months due to medical reasons as he waited for surgery. He was told he needed to wait another month, but through everyone's prayers he received his surgery this past Thursday a whole month early!

Happy Hanukkah - The Feast of Lights and Dedication!

This very unique holiday reminds us of the never-ending watchful eye that is upon the Jewish people. Like the LORD kept them then He is keeping Israel today!

Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. Psalm 121:4

May the Temple of the LORD-our hearts, minds, and lives, be fully cleansed and dedicated to our Savior King Yeshua!

May the Light of our Savior burn brightly through our lives!

May the Oil of His Spirit fill us in this very special season!

A Thankful Look Back at 2018!

What a fruitful year has come and gone! The likes of which will only be measurable by eternity! Think of this: Jewish souls, and certainly others as well, are alive and will be in heaven-and you are a part of it! How, you may ask?

Our Abba Father in heaven, our Messiah Yeshua (Jesus), and the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) has called us into His family business-the Kingdom of God! We get to participate in one or any combination of these ways: praying, giving, going as it relates to blessing Israel. Through our Israeli believing partners many of you have been praying for and giving to these end times powerful witnesses. Some of you have even visited Israel.

"I will bless those who bless you..." Genesis 12:3a

Through the witness of these Israeli believers in 2018, Jews and precious others have heard the gospel and been saved! Some of these are Holocaust survivors who have suffered so much in this life yet look forward now to eternity with Elohim our LORD. Oh Hallelujah and thank you for your help and support!

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." Romans 1:16

Babies have been saved from abortion and mothers and their babies are receiving direct and ongoing ministry from born again Israeli believers. This ongoing work we are partnering in together saves and touches lives in Jerusalem, Haifa, Tel Aviv and many other Israeli cities and areas. Thank you for your help and support!

The cost of living in Israel is incredibly high. For example fuel prices in Israel are the third most expensive in the world! Yet, we have this amazing opportunity that many of you are taking, to participate in a ministry that Paul speaks of in the book of Romans. With your help we are helping some of the poor saints in Jerusalem and other parts of Israel! Thank you for your help and support!

For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things. Romans 15:26-27

As we begin a new year may our Father in heaven fill our baskets to continue to Bless Israeli Believers in Messiah Jesus! Remember our Mission Statement: Blessing Israeli Believers exists to uniquely bless and empower Israeli followers of Messiah Yeshua to be the shining light to Israel and the Nations of the world!
Dov Schwarz, Co-Founder - Blessing Israeli Believers

A word of thanks and prayer from two of our BIB Partners:

Ezra & Shulamite, Golan Heights
Praise & Prayer
"I came to Israel as an atheist, but now I have come to know that Jesus is God and the Messiah."

Misha started attending Bible Studies through the Blessing Israeli Believers Program to the Holocaust Survivors.

After receiving Jesus, he read the Bible 2 hours a day before falling into a comma and is presently clinging to life.
Please keep Misha and his wife Ella in your prayers.

Efraim & Jeannie, Western Galilee
Dear Friends,

Shalom - שלום Blessings to you all during this "Season of Lights."

We are so blessed to be in Western Galilee in Nahariyya serving the Lord at Kehila Or Hagalil (Light of Galilee Congregation). We are grateful to have friends like you standing with us in prayer and support. You are rays of the
light shining in this region; an area surrounded by so much
conflict and strife, an area where the Light and Love of
Yeshua is so necessary.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. (Isaiah 9:2)

A Note From Co-Founder Dov Schwarz
Israeli Believers and Their Miraculous End Of This Age Witness!

Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me!
We are for signs and wonders in Israel
From the Lord of hosts,
Who dwells in Mount Zion. Isaiah 8:18

The Lord of Hosts means that Messiah Yeshua is the Military Leader of the armies of heaven. One of His designated battle strategies is to raise up His followers at the end of this age who follow Him against all odds. They are walking, talking sign-posts and uniquely cause Israel to defy the laws of nature (wonders)!

You see, so many people acknowledge how Israel defies all the overwhelming military, numerical, political, and historical odds against them. That is why David Ben Gurion, who was not necessarily religious said "In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles." Also, at West Point Military Academy as they study and teach military doctrine, they study past wars to implement winning strategies. While they learn from great military strategists and battles, they refuse to consider the wars won by modern Israel.

Do you know why? It is because there is no practical or conventional military reason that Israel has not been wiped out by their enemies in these wars! Their victories are simply not replicable by human planning! Yet, the Bible tells us the conduit through which Messiah Yeshua provides these and other miracles in Israel:

And as Isaiah said before:
"Unless the Lord of Sabaoth (Hosts) had left us a seed,
We would have become like Sodom,
And we would have been made like Gomorrah." Romans 9:29

The same Lord of Hosts Isaiah spoke of is the Lord Yeshua who has raised up a seed of righteousness-about 30,000 (thirty thousand) Israeli Believers out of about 6,000,000 (six million) unbelieving Israeli Jewish people. Through this seed of the righteousness of Messiah Yeshua signs and wonders are taking place in Israel today. They shout to the earth's inhabitants that judgment is coming as Israel's, and the Nation's, Judge and King is about to return. So remember, one of the best ways to bless Israel is to Bless Israeli Believers in Messiah Yeshua!

Update from Ariel & Shayla, Haifa Israel:
Our largest street outreach so far, and many breakthroughs!

After inviting pastors and evangelists from all across Haifa to a joint breakfast in order to encourage more unity in evangelism, we saw quite a few respond by coming and sending people to this outreach. During one of the three outreaches, we had over 60 believers come to share the Gospel and pray - far more than we've had for any street outreach event so far! There was beautiful unity between Jews, Arabs, and other believers from many backgrounds.

We passed out lemonade, coffee, and balloon animals, did face- painting and portraits, and had music playing, and explained, "It's all for free - just like God's love." We also had a "Wall of Gratitude" where we invited people to write down something they're grateful for. All this opened up hundreds of conversations where we got to share about Yeshua and the Gospel.

We saw Itzik, a man we'd shared the Gospel with about a year ago, but who was very hard-hearted and proud. But this time as he saw us showing God's love together, he was much more open.

He said that he puts on Tefillin (also called phylacteries; the black leather boxes with Scripture inside worn by Orthodox Jews during prayers). He claimed that it is like putting on part of God's clothing and said he feels a connection with God and feels good during those 15 minutes every day. Kamal and I were speaking with him, and Kamal said, "I feel that way every day, all day! And you know what? I used to be Muslim...." He then shared his testimony of going from emptiness and drugs to abundant life in Yeshua.

I then added, "You know what part of God's clothing you really need? It's called a 'robe of righteousness'" [see Isaiah 61:10]. I then explained in depth how we can obtain Yeshua's righteousness because He lived a perfect life and then took all our sins upon Him and offers us His righteousness if we will repent and believe in Him.

He was amazed by Kamal's testimony and deeply touched by the message of the Gospel, and was almost in tears as he said, "Wow, that's really beautiful...that's really beautiful."

With much appreciation and love in Yeshua, Ariel and Shayla and the Team