Blessing Israeli Believers February 2019

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