Still hammering

Well, here we are nearing the end of the Bronx/Westchester BYG campaign. I’ve been suffering through a stomach bug the last couple of days, which has made it a little tougher. Last time I posted, I talked about us “hammering at the lock” … we’re still at it. We have had some success, though. Through God’s power, we can feel the spiritual barriers starting to crack here in Westchester county and we’re exulting. I thought that those of you reading this blog might like to know a little about our victories. I want preface this by saying that numbers in and of themselves mean nothing; with that said, I’m going to throw out some numbers as a marker of of our efforts and/or success in proclaiming the Gospel this July.

Pieces of literature distributed (one piece at a time!): over 50,000
Doors knocked on: over 800
Phone calls made: over 6,000
Jewish people who requested more information: 47
Gentile people who requested more information: 215
Jewish people who prayed to receive Jesus: 3
Gentile people who prayed to receive Jesus: 5

The general feeling on our campaign right now is that God is rewarding our faithfulness with fruit. Last night we did a film showing of Survivor Stories in the Bronx. Afterwards, a Holocaust survivor named Steve approached Amer Olson, our campaign leader, and prayed a sinner’s prayer with him! We are rejoicing today that Steve is in the Kingdom of God!

It’s hard to believe that Kat and I will be heading back to LA in a few short days. To be honest, as much as we want to be headed home, we’re also not looking forward to it, because we know that it is almost inevitably going to lead to another round of illness for Kat. Please keep us both in prayer as we finish up campaign and then head back.

Hammering at the lock

I’m writing this to you from White Plains, NY. Kathleen and I have been here for the past week, serving on one of the nine campaigns that make up the finale of Jews for Jesus’s Behold Your God . We are part of the Bronx/Westchester County campaign. I’ve been serving as a campaigner and Kat has been serving behind the scenes as a steward.

The entire worldwide staff of Jews for Jesus is here in the greater metropolitan area of New York City. That means some 200 full-time missionaries, plus Jewish believers who have volunteered for the campaigns, plus gentile volunteers like my wife who are serving behind the scenes. We gathered on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on July 2 for a consecration service, during which we washed each other’s feet. Later in the service, the chaplains for each campaign anointed with oil every single participant in the work this July. It was an amazing evening, in which we delighted in the presence of God’s Spirit.

Here in Westchester County, the first week of the campaign has been a time of shaking things down. Jews for Jesus has never made incursions into the Jewish community of this area, so a lot of what we are doing is a bit … experimental. Although we’ve engaged in the hallmark of most Jews for Jesus evangelistic campaigns by doing sorties (tract passing expeditions), we’ve done far more in the way of knocking door-to-door and calling Jewish households. We have two free film showings at the White Plains Public Library, and an art exhibition at the end of the month at the Westchester County Center. We’re displaying works by Marc Chagall, a Jewish artist who used the image of Jesus in much of his work. You can find out the schedule of events here. Hopefully, we are going to see curious Jewish people show up at these events

The response to our presence here has not been overly dramatic, but we are beginning to get the sense that the Jewish community is starting to notice us. Interested Jewish people are talking to us. One of our leaders, long-time Jews for Jesus staff member Jhan Moskowitz, has compared what we’re doing to trying to break open a padlock with a hammer. You keep hammering away at it, and each blow seems to have no effect at all. Then you hit it with the hammer again, and it springs wide open. Our prayer is that as we stay faithful by doing the work (being spiritual hammers, as it were), the padlocks on the hearts of those in the Jewish community here will being to spring wide open.