During the past several years, there has been a lot of immigration of Jewish people from around the world who are returning to Israel as a fulfillment of prophecy. These people are coming from different backgrounds and cultures, and while Hope for Israel's main goal is to reach out to the local Israelis who were born in the Land, we must also reach out to the Jewish people who are returning to the Land. Kehilat Even Israel, led by Victor and Julia Blum, is a congregation in Jerusalem that reaches out to the Russian and Israeli communities. They are a ministry that Hope for Israel recently began supporting on a monthly basis. Following is an update from the Blum family regarding their ministry:
Dear brethren and friends, our blessings, best regards and Shalom Aleichem (Peace be upon you) from Jerusalem!
We are blessed to report on the many wonderful things happening within "Kehilat Even Israel".
In the first five months of 2005 we have five new believers: Natali, Galina, Yuri, Alexander, Lidia. Most of these new believers come from a really difficult background, where circumstances are far from being easy. Please pray for all of them. Traditionally, at the end of Pesach (Passover) we immerse new believers. This time we immersed seven of them: three from our congregation and four from Ashdod (a city in southern Israel). We saw a sign from above when two round rainbows appeared in the skies.
Please pray that the Lord will never take away the "spirit of grace and supplication" from our congregation, and that He will continue to bring new people and save them here, disciple them and work through them for His own glory! We thank God for our faithful and maturing ministers (eight couples, 20 people altogether). We feel more and more God's desire to speak not only to individuals, but also much more to the body of servants. We all continue to work hard on the development of new ministries as well as on the spiritual renewal of existing ministries. One new ministry (under the leadership of Paula), helping "fresh" believers and "unreached old ones" to make spiritual breakthroughs with the careful and caring assistance of personal mentors, has already brought much good fruit. Please pray that this promising ministry will not suffer, as Paula will be gone for fourteen months, but will grow instead. Another great ministry is that of thanksgiving and adoration under the leadership of our deaconess Nonna. Another wonderful addition to our team is Pastor Pauli from Finland, who faithfully stands with us in youth ministry and in Hebrew worship.
We hope these exciting developments within our congregation will encourage you to keep running the race and to be faithful in your calling as believers. We thank you for your support and ask that you continue to pray for us.
In Yeshua's wonderful love,
Victor and Julia Blum
"Kehilat Even Israel"
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