WEEKLY Arrows from Zion 5/22/2013

Arrows from Zion
Serving the Body of Messiah in Israel since August 2001 
& Strategically Aimed for the Lord’s Harvest in Israel

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or make check to Donna Diorio PO Box 111302 Carrollton TX 75006
I do not have tax exempt status.

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Priority Prayer Focus

"Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the LORD God of Israel. For I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither will any man covet your land when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year."  
Exodus 34:23-24

The Messianic Israelis gathered with their families and the family of Yeshua at Yad HaShmonah for the annual Feast Day of Shauvuot.  Although the skies over the Messianic moshav were overcast it remained comfortable and dry while the rains blessedly poured out all around Israel.  Thank God for His rain, and faithful promises to His own.

Contact information for all the ministries is included inside the Weekly Summary.

Arrows from Zion

Strategically Aimed for the Lord’s Harvest in Israel

Each year at Shavuot, the Messianic families from all over Israel come up to Jerusalem for a day together in celebration before the LORD.  Almost everywhere else, people would consider rain about the worst thing that could happen on a picnic day like the one the Israeli Messianics enjoyed at Yad HaShmonah, but for Israelis, rain is always reason to rejoice.

David Lazarus of Beit Immanuel offers a great description of the Shavuot gathering including the unexpected blessing of rain:  “As the dawn broke on the early morning hours of the day of Festival the heavens opened up and poured down abundant "latter rains" over the entire country. Accompanied by roaring thunder and hair-raising lighting, Israel experienced one of the best spring storms in her modern history adding even more waters to the rising Sea of Galilee.

“Groups from Beer Sheva in the Negev and the northern Galilee called organizers earlier to find out if the annual Messianic Festival in the Judean Mountains had been cancelled. ‘No way,’ they were told. "If ever there was a joyful time to go up to Jerusalem it is right now." Over 2000 believers made their way up to the yearly festival and the blessings of abundant rains over the nation added an extra portion of joy to all.”

“For thousands of years Israelis have made this annual journey up to Jerusalem for Shavuot. It has always been and continues to be a unique and special time of bonding for the whole family. . . . the Messianic Jews of Israel also came bearing a wide variety of their gifts to honor their Lord and Messiah Yeshua. . . . The annual Gathering organized by the Messianic Jewish Alliance of Israel includes an open-air fair of local Messianic ministries, arts and crafts. Throughout the day folks walked among the many stalls to learn about recent activities and offerings from the local believers.”   Read more inside the Weekly Summary 

This week Howard Bass who pastors the main congregation in Beer Sheva counts a few of the things that are unique to their congregation in the city, not the least of which are that they are the “only Beer Sheva congregation with intentional relationships with Palestinian Arab believers; and the” only Beer Sheva congregation fully engaged with wider Body of Messiah in Israel from different streams.”   

In the normal scheme of things, when believers visit the Holy Land, Beer Sheva and Negev desert is not generally a stopping point either to see the biblical sites (outside of Masada) nor to visit with the local believers.  This is a shame on both counts, for one thing, as Howard points out in his explanation about their congregation serving as a “half way house” for many, God Himself came to Beer Sheva twice! 

First He appeared once to visit with Abraham regarding Sodom’s destruction and also met there with Elijah after the prophet fled in fear from Jezebel.   I encourage you to open the attached Weekly Summary and get to know the Yeshua’s Inheritance congregation in Beer Sheva.  They need believers who will stand by them as much as the many ministries of Jerusalem do.

From the Tiberias Peniel Fellowship (Face of God) Daniel and Shirya Yahav are heavily involved in building up the young families which this congregation has plenty of! Some 58% of their 500 members are under the age of 30.  Their Shabbat school which has 45 volunteer teachers and helpers are ministering to about 160 children.  For the past few years Shirya has been developing and writing 3 years worth of curriculum for Messianic Shabbat school for three different age groups of children, and it is offered to all the fellowships of Israel to use.  The lessons are all original, in Hebrew and strictly based on both the Old and New Testaments taking in consideration of the “full biblical context, the land of the Bible, the Biblical feasts and Biblical customs.”  

“During the last few months Daniel has been teaching a course on Building & Enriching Your Marriage to 3 different target groups. One in our fellowship building for all who are interested, one in a rehabilitation center which we support, and one to a group of pastors that he is meeting with regularly.” Pray for the LORD’s blessing on this work and the building up the congregational families on every level.

One prayer request the Yahav’s note is for the Messianic IDF soldiers: “Pray for protection on our soldiers, and especially for the believers. Pray for supernatural wisdom to fulfill their tasks & duties. Pray also for the salvation of many from among those who hate us all around us. Pray for the salvation of many Syrians, Egyptians, Lebanese, Iranian and those who live in Gaza & the West Bank.  Pray also for protection on the whole nation of Israel from all the threats that are being made literally from all directions!” 

Also for their need for a larger meeting place as they are overflowing in the current premises.  Negotiations for a promising place broke down recently over an unexpected asking price of $5 million. They ask pray for God’s guidance and opening the right door for them to pass through at the right time.

Kobi and Shani Ferguson of Yeshua’s Israel are in the midst of traveling so this article is fresh on their minds:  The Top 20 Questions People Ask Us About Israel.  Bet your question is here too.  They write, “We never get bored of seeing peoples’ faces light as they finally feel able to wrap their minds around the topic of Israel on a spiritual, political and practical level.”

Ruth Nessim in Nahariya – 8 miles from the Lebanon border – notes the increased unease of Israelis over the northern border, with Hezballah seeking to assist Syrian Bashir Assad and other rebels seeking to finish him off.  Up for grabs are the chemical weapons (some perhaps from Saddam’s missing WMD?). Israeli jets have gone into action to destroy the weaponry, and Israelis on the northern border or understandably concerned, but as Ruth says, life goes on in spite of the tensions.

Ruth got a great compliment from her Arab plumber who attended a Christian school in his childhood, comparing her with the two Mennonite teachers he had that he believed had the love of God in their hearts for the Moslem children.  He told her, “and you have the same love and peace in your heart, and I can look into your eyes because they tell the truth, and because you are properly dressed, I can sit and talk to you without averting my eyes, as I do with so many women!”  Isn’t this what it is about? That people we meet in everyday life can see the love of God in our hearts while we are just being ourselves?

Ruth asks for prayers over the situation in Syria:  “Many innocents are being killed in massacres of men, women and children, by fellow Moslems, because they are not Shiites or not Sunnis! Many are left homeless and destitute.  Pray for Israel’s precarious situation as both Syrian rebels and Iran are preparing to eliminate Israel, and for Israelis and Moslems to receive God’s salvation.”  She also asks prayer for two longtime and aged friends, survivors of the Holocaust, to receive Yeshua.

Cookie, who is the principal of the Makor HaTikvah Messianic Day School in Jerusalem thanks everyone for their prayers in the court situation they have encountered when applying for official licensing of the school.  She asks further prayers be made “for the school to obtain the needed documents within the set period.  And continue to PRAY for the school to be able to open its doors next year.”

Our friend Ann at Revive Israel Ministries in Jerusalem writes a report Welby, Gumbel, and Schonborn on an interview conducted by Nicky Gumbel is the Vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton Church in London and leader of the hugely successful "Alpha" program.  Quoting Christoph Schonborn is the Archbishop of Vienna, one of the most influential Cardinals at the Vatican, 

"The deepest wound in the body of Christ is the wound between Israel and the Gentiles.  We are called now to ask the Lord to heal this wound by intense prayer that the time of the Gentiles be accomplished so that Israel may enjoy full salvation.  It is only through the cross that this can be achieved."  Schonborn said  of Gumbel and Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the official head of the Anglican Church, “Nicky, I was impressed by what you and Justin Welby said about your fathers - both German Jewish fathers. I also have some Jewish background. We all three have Jewish blood.”  

Ann noted:  The fact that Welby, Gumbel, and Schonburn are all leaders of European Christianity, are devout believers in Yeshua, and have Jewish background, is a sign for our times. Let us pray for the full revelation of God's mystery about the relationship between Israel and the nations, Jew and Gentile, through Yeshua, who Himself is both Head of the Church (Ephesians 1:20-22) and the King of Israel (John 12:12-13).

On a similar note, we urge you to open the attached Weekly Summary to read Arni Klein’s article The Roots of the Orphan Spirit.  Over the past few years many have been ministered to as individuals suffering from an orphan spirit, but Arni notes there is a corporate level at the root:  “the Church’s separation from the roots of our faith has left as orphans caused us to realize that this of necessity would affect the Body at a corporate level. . . . There is a mindset in which we look to receive of this commonwealth so as to then have it as our own apart from an ongoing connection with the children of Israel. “  

Ron Cantor writes about his recent preaching in Rome:  “As I prepared to minister I felt a tinge of fear. After spending the past two years working on Identity Theft, which had me researching the history of the Roman Catholic Church, I knew that I was not supposed to simply preach a normal message. I had to address the sins of Rome. In fact, I felt quite strongly that I was to preach to “Rome” from Romans 11.”

Please note the attitude of these last two reports: This is not a Jonah style begrudging reluctance toward Rome, but a posture of redemptive expectation.  This is the high calling to be repairers of the breach.  Let’s pray for more to prepare their own hearts to minister in this same redemptive spirit.

Urgent HEALING Needs: Life and Death is in the power of the tongue

Please keep in prayer the Israeli believers who are fighting for their lives or other urgent health needs: 

Please pray for Daniel Meyuseff who had to undergo surgery this week due to an intense infection. He is back home recovering, although doctors have not closed the incision because the infection is still dangerous. Please pray for the wife of Ariel Ben David, who leads an Eilat Congregation, and also for his worship leader, both of whom were recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Please continue to pray for Neriyah Arabov, a Chosen People minister in Bat Yam who needs a kidney transplant. He has a donor, but due to some compatibility issues, Neriyah is undergoing treatments now that they hope will remove the compatibility issues.  Pray for the treatments to be successful.   Guy Cohen in Acco reports that the congregant he requested urgent prayer for has been found to have 2 more tumors, one in the lung and one in the uterus. Please pray for this lady and her family, as she just had a tumor removed from her brain.   Please continue to intercede for Katya Morrison at Tents of Mercy recovering from bone marrow transplant for Acute Myeloid Leukemia and a second round of chemo following the transplant; Tom in the Galilee is believing for victory over cancer in Carmel.  Pray for Ami Ortiz for ongoing issues from the bomb blast – and that he would win the appeal for government recognition that he is a terror victim.  It would mean benefits for the continuing surgeries and legal expenses; Ariel of Succat Hallel; Elise Levine suffering from mysterious and debilitating leg pain for over a year.  Pray for Kay Wilson still suffering from PTSD after surviving a stabbing terrorism attack that her friend did not survive.   Keep Baby Netaley’s full recovery in your prayers.

Update for Katya Morrison:  In about a week Katya Morrison will go back to the doctor to check on her progress and receive some more of my brother’s cells. She thanks you for your prayers and could use our prayers for her immune system to be built up.  If anyone would like to receive health prayer updates for Katya, please email mosheandkatya@gmail.com

Update from Guy Cohen for Elena:  Please continue to pray for Elena and her daughter Marina.  Prayer that Elena will not suffer from side effects of the radiation treatments and other medication. Also for Marina as she attends to all the necessary paperwork, translating for her mother, work and her grandmother who lives with them.

Inside the attachment of the

Weekly Summary of Prayer Requests from Israeli Ministries

Arrows from Zion can be shared freely.  Just copy and paste this email into a Word document to make it easy to print.  However, we ask the Weekly Summaries not be forwarded or information republished without consent of the specific ministries. The Weekly Summary is by subscription only, write arrowsfromzion@gmail.com or donna@d10r10.com

Teaching Articles

Roots of the Orphan Spirit

by Arni Klein of Emmaus Way

We have already written about connecting with ICF (International Christian Fellowship) in Munich.  As planned, I spent a day sharing with the main leaders on the topics of Israel and intimacy with God.  By the end of the day the Lord had confirmed the word with signs, visions, and Scripture.  The founding pastor said that without connection to their Hebrew roots, they are as orphans.  What an amazing and perceptive statement.  

In recent years we have often heard the term “orphan spirit” used to describe a spiritual malady afflicting many in the Body of Messiah.  Some wonderful seminars and ministries have been raised up to help individuals overcome this and come to the knowledge of Father’s love and care for His children.  Hearing the comment (noted above) from our friend at ICF about how the Church’s separation from the roots of our faith has left as orphans caused us to realize that this of necessity would affect the Body at a corporate level.

     Read more inside the attached Weekly Summary

Israeli Ministries on Tours

BOOKING meetings now (See open dates)  

Inside the attached Weekly Summary are itineraries and open dates for David & Josie Silver of Out of Zion Ministries; Eitan  Shishkoff  of Ohalai Rachamim; Evan Levine of HaTikva Project; and Carolyn & Richard Hyde of Heart of God Ministries

The Israeli Messianic Marketplace  Feature of the Week

Out of the Corner of My Eye

Tall tales and short stories of intriguing irony from a park bench at the edge of the galaxy

A new book of short stories by Moshe Morrison |  I’ve been writing sermons, Bible studies, articles, poems and Purim plays for over 40 years. However, it has only been recently that I have begun writing short stories. What do I write about? The foibles and foolishness of man and the sovereignty and wisdom of God. But be forewarned, these are not standard fare. I have some of Rod Serling’s (creator of the Twilight Zone) DNA as well as being influenced by Mad magazine and numerous other strange sources. Mix it all together with a Biblical world-view and, well, just buy the book; you’ll see!

Donna Diorio 
 arrowsfromzion@gmail.com or donna@d10r10.com
 
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If you appreciate the efforts of this ministry to share both the  challenges and the great things God is doing among the Israeli indigenous ministries, please pray about making a financial gift donation.  Make donations payable to the order of Donna Diorio and mail to:
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I do not have tax exempt status.