Now over 40 years since the last chapter, we can still say how very blessed we have been; that God has always been faithful in meeting our needs as a ministry and as a family. As in the beginning, we have never passed a collection plate, hinted at our needs, solicited meetings, materials, equipment, etc. The Lord Himself is our only paymaster (Philippians 4:19). He has used many and varied sources. He blessed us too, whenHe also called our daughter, Rachél, into Jewish missionary work. At the age of nine she felt called toher own(Jewish)people. Therefore, after attending Biola Bible College, she returned home tofull-time work in our ministry. We have had the joy of seeing over 200 Jewish people come to accept their Messiah, as well as over 300 Gentiles come to the Lord, since our ministry began.
Having been many years since our study of the Hebrew language in the ulpan in Israel, Mike felt he wanted to refresh and improve his Hebrew. He learned of a Rabbi who had given up his congregation, and was now teaching Hebrew. Maurice was originally from Morocco, and migrated to Israel as a young man. There he was ordained as a Rabbi, and fought in three of Israel’s wars, including her War of Independence. Later he came to America, and after leading a congregation in Corona, California, ended up in Riverside, near us. Mike asked him if he would be willing to teach him Hebrew, letting him know he was a Hebrew Christian. He answered, “Why not? I teach other Christians.” During their study each week, Mike would ask Maurice to help him translate various Messianic prophecies. When studying Isaiah 53, Maurice said, “I can see why the Christians believe this speaks of Jesus.” Mike in return asked, “Of whom do you say it speaks?” to which he replied, “I don’t know.” A short time later Maurice informed Mike that he could no longer refute the Scriptures. He was ready to accept Jesus as his Messiah and Savior. Several months later he accompanied us on a tour to Israel, where he took his first communion at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem. As we visited many of the holy sites he was amazed, telling us that the many years he had lived there he never knew these places existed. Following this special time, he involved himself in our mission, helping to win his own people to the Lord.
A part of our hearts has always been in Israel. It has been our joy to take five tour groups to Israel between 1978 and 1993. Experiencing the land brings the Bible to life for everyone that goes. As we always strove to make them evangelistictours, to share the good news of the Messiah, Y’shua, Jesus, we spoke one-on-one with many Israelis and gave out tracts where and when possible. One of our greatest blessings was the privilege of leading a proprietor of one of the souvenir shops to his Messiah. In sharing with him he told of a dream he had had in which he was standing with Jesus on one side of him and an angel on the other. Then they took him by the hands and together they went up. He didn’t know what the dream meant. We told him that we believed the Lord sent us to tell him, and explained about the rapture. We told him that Messiah Jesus came first to be a sacrifice for our sins, went back to Heaven and would return to bring peace and righteousness to this world through the nation of Israel. But before He did there would be seven years of tribulation culminating in the War of Armageddon. However, before the tribulation, He would take His people, those who had invited Him into their lives as Messiah and Savior, out of this world. When we asked him if he had ever invited Jesus into his life, he replied, “No.” When asked if he wanted to, he answered, “Why not?” We then lead him in a prayer of acceptance. Miraculously, no one came into his shop all this time. Later, when we returned, the shop was full of customers! Subsequent contacts with him have assured us that his salvation is real.
For over fifty years, God has faithfully brought in the finances to continue the weekly evangelistic radio broadcasts which have aired in various areas in Southern California. One Saturday evening a Jewish woman whom we had not as yet met fell asleep listening to the San Bernardino station on which our program was carried. Joanne had grown up in Long Beach during World War II. Her parents, fearing that persecution might come also to the Jews in America told her not to let anyone know that she was Jewish. They even sent her to a Catholic school. She fell in love with the Jesus she learned about, but her parents told her He was only for the Gentiles, and she could not believe in Him. After a life of many troubles and heartaches she ended up in San Bernardino. Having fallen asleep with the radio on, she awakened to hear Mike speaking in Hebrew as well as English. It brought back memories of her early Jewish childhood. The message from the Old Testament Prophecies proving Jesus is messiah were a revelation to her. When Mike said that Jesus was for everyone, Jews and Gentiles alike, she thought, “Then I can have Him too!” A few days later she walked for two hours to get to our fellowship meeting in order to tell us that she had received her Messiah when Mike had given a prayer of invitation at the close of the broadcast.
Many Jewish hearts have been touched through the years, but the broadcasts also have been an outreach to the Gentile. One American Indian also came to accept our Lord through listening to Mike’s broadcasts. He now preaches on the streets and wherever he can, and has led many Jews and Gentiles to salvation. Through him a man received Mike’s testimony tract, “From a Hopeless End to an Endless Hope.” Through reading it, he came to accept his Messiah and Savior. A few short months later he was whisked into the arms of Y’shua (Jesus) through an automobile accident! God’s timing is perfect.
We rejoice in how God has used our book, Thy People Shall Be My People, through the years of our ministry. Many (Jews and Gentiles)have written or called to tell us how spiritually helped they have been through the reading of God’s faithfulness in our lives and in our ministry. Frieda, Cuba-born, American citizen and her Jewish American husband, whom Mike helped come to their Messiah and Savior, was able to share our Spanish version of our book with her Cuban sister who came to visit her here in America. We are pleased to report her sister came to faith in Jesus, also and took the book back with her to share with other family members. We pray it will bear much fruit wherever it is read. Now on its’ 5th printing, and also as available as an e-book via our website, God is opening doors to use it around our corner and around our world; Cuba being just one location.
Recently a German lady, while staying at a guesthouse in Israel, was given our book by her husband who found it in the guesthouse library. Knowing her love for the Book of Ruth, he thought she wouldenjoy it. Being so moved spiritually by it, she wanted to be in contact with us and through the Lord’s direction, was able to find us via our then newly established website. Currently, she and her husband are leaders of a house church in Germany and are open to the Lord’s developing of a Jewish outreach along with others whom the Lord has been bringing together for His purposes.
It blesses us to know, that even after we are called home in Rapture, our website will continue on for at least a time, preaching the truth to those left behind. With that in mind we are currently uploading a wealth of information geared toward the non-believing Jew to come to understand the fulfillment of his Jewish faith in embracing Y’shua, Jesus, as his Messiah and Savior. We encourage youto visit our website at: also and to help us by passing along the address especially to your Jewish friends. May God use it to bring many to faith in Him. “So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17). We must work while it is yet day!
The years have passed and our family has grown to include four grandchildren. It is our blessing to know we will spend eternity together with them as each has come to know the Lord personally. What a comfort this is as I must share with you the home-going of my beloved Boaz in November of 2004. Yet, even now the ministry is still blessed by his touch as his voice still rings out the truth of the gospel from a Jewish perspective each week on our radio broadcasts via previously recorded tapes. “…he being dead yet speaketh” (Hebrews 11:4)Other messages Mike wrote, along with his testimony tract, (“From a Hopeless End to an Endless Hope”) are still given out to lost Jewish souls and Mike’s impact is clear throughout our website, too.
The Lord has enabled Rachél and me to carry on our ministry. We miss Mike very much butrejoice that one day, soonwe hope, we will be reunited before the throne of Messiah’s glory in Heaven. Until that grand day, we are busy with presenting the truth of the gospel to the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel among us with regular monthly outreaches, special Chanukah outreaches, Passover Seders, andnumerous teaching opportunities where we present “Judaism and Jewish Christianity” among other topics, etc. Critical to the work, also, is our Friday night prayer meetings, targeted specifically “to the Jew first, but also to the Gentile.” (Romans 1:16)
We long for the day when the Deliverer will come out of Zion, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob (Romans 11:26), when they will look upon Him whom they have pierced (Zechariah 12:10), and realize that “neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). We stand convinced that the day of Israel’s redemption is near at hand. “Oh Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.” (Jeremiah 31:7b) “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” (Romans 10:1)
… Even as our hearts long for the return of Israel’s Messiah to rule and reign in righteousness and peace, we feel it a great privilege to serve Him until we are called home. Faithful is He who called us, who also will do it. To God be the glory!