Holding Down the Fort

Dear Friend,

The Lord has been speaking to me from the stories about Balaam in Numbers during my times with Him. I’ve been struck by how the Lord chose an individual whose heart was bent on manipulation as His vehicle. While Balaam piously protested, “Have I now any power of my own to speak anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak” (Numbers 22:38), it is clear from the larger context that he was serving himself, seeking a life of comfort and riches.

He clearly saw the future of Israel and the blessing of the the coming Messiah for all who would chose to bless Israel. But he does not chose to join Israel himself. Nor does he encourage Balak, Moab’s king, to embrace the faith of Israel. Instead, he counsels Moab to seduce Israel into substituting the true God for a false one, joining their nation in a religion bent on sexual promiscuity. (See Numbers 22-25 and 31:16. Also Revelation 2:14.)

How grateful Heidi and I are to serve with other leaders whose hearts are like Moses’. Unlike Balaam, Moses never sought his personal comfort or riches, but rather sought to make the miracle of worshiping the one, true, holy God a reality to a people who seemed to only care where their next meal was coming from. Through Moses the Lord revealed Himself as “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in grace and faithfulness, keeping grace for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin …” (Exodus 34:6-7).

This summer, Shmuel has been out of the country, leaving me to coordinate ministry at Beit Eliyahu while he’s gone. When we joined a little less than twenty years ago, “hold down the fort” meant doing everything – leading the worship service and the music, giving the message while taking care of people’s needs that would arise. But over the years the Lord has raised up capable and faithful leaders, making the task primarily one of insuring that people are aware of who is doing what and facilitating their communication with each other in order that things run smoothly.

Recently I’ve had the special joy to begin basic follow-up with a young man named Gal, who came to faith a couple of months ago. It is exciting to see the joy he exhibits – the joy that often characterizes those whose lives have been changed by the Lord. I’m encouraged to see the eagerness he has to understand the Word and grow in his faith.

But Gal faces a number of challenges. He is a divorced father of two young daughters, the older of whom is autistic. He has been eager to meet in spite of the pressures. Here in Israel it is almost impossible to support a household without two incomes, and Gal needs to support two households – his own as well as providing support to his ex-wife. He’s been working two jobs to make ends meet and last week he began a third one.

As a devoted father, he spends a lot of time caring for his girls who are with him regularly. My concern is that in the midst of all this he would find time to sleep as well as continue devoting time to grow in his faith. Gal grew up in religious Judaism, and he has a lot of questions that need to be answered. Pray especially for Gal that the worries of this world will not grow up and choke out the seedling which has sprung up so that he will be firmly grounded in his faith.

In our last letter I mentioned how faithful Michael has been to pursue a deepening of his relationship with the Lord. We were able to finish up through chapter 7 of Romans before he left Israel for a six-week discipleship course offered for Israeli believers in England. This week he wrote to me:

Everything is excellent, the time here is truly blessed! I have come to some important insights about walking with the Lord. The people here are good and really fun. Besides, I almost know the whole second set of [TMS] verses by heart.

Pray that the Michael will continue to pursue his walk which the Lord and that he will continue to understand the clear teaching of the Word, accepting it with a humble and grateful heart.

Since Heidi and I felt that we needed to be here to oversee things this summer, we made no plans to visit the US. This spring it started becoming clearer that Sasha’s father wants to ask for custody of her. A few weeks ago, he moved into Haifa, a major step toward fulfilling the demands of the social workers in order for him to get custody. The possibility of change sets Sasha back emotionally which is especially seen in her inability to focus on her school work, something which was evident in our end-of-year parent teacher meetings.

Instead of the usual summer activities, Sasha has been at home working on reading books this summer. Being alone is a bit hard for her since she is so social, but she has made significant progress at learning to sit, focus and read. Continue to pray that she will be able to grow in the ability to focus on the tasks before her without worrying about what may happen in the future.

Over the past several months we’ve taken Daniel and Charlotte through pre-marriage counseling and we just returned from their wedding in Norway. We enjoyed time with Daniel’s parents, Shmuel and Bjørg during our visit. Pray for Daniel and Charlotte as they plan to attend Bible school starting this winter.

A couple weeks ago, Heidi broke out with a rash on her neck. At first, we thought it was a couple bug bites, but when it seemed to get worse over the weekend, she made an appointment to see our doctor. It turned out that Heidi has shingles. She was immediately given medication to help. It can be hard for Heidi to slow down and, while she has been tired, she hasn’t been in severe pain. Pray for Heidi to be able to slow down and rest, understand what her body is telling her, and that she will quickly recover from the shingles.

It is such a privilege to have individuals like you taking our concerns before the Father. We are grateful that you stand firmly with us in this ministry and are thankful to Him for your faithful partnership!

Yours in the Messiah,

Philip and Heidi