Shocking, Humbling, Amazing: a Night with the Homeless in Tel Aviv
by Tamar Afriat
One of the best feelings in the world is to be snug in your warm bed on a cold winter night with the sound of the wind howling outside. It is one of those things we tend to take for granted: a clean, warm bed, a hot shower, a warm meal. Recently, I had the occasion to see up close and personal what it looks like not to have a bed, a roof over your head, or warm clothes on a cold winter night, and it was shocking, humbling, and amazing.
This past month our team joined associate pastor Moti Cohen at Feed Tel Aviv, the weekly outreach to the homeless in south Tel Aviv, in order to help out with a special project. We had received a generous donation for our Feed Tel Aviv outreach with which we purchased warm winter gear for the homeless (hats, socks, neck warmers, blankets and high quality sleeping bags). In the cold winter months, being able to stay warm becomes critical for people living on the streets.
After preparing and serving the warm meals at the facility, we all grabbed bags of the winter gear and sleeping bags and followed Moti out into the dark streets and alleyways of south Tel Aviv where many homeless spend their nights. At one time, Moti only served food out of the soup kitchen facility until he realized that many of the drug addicts are so weak and sick that they cannot walk the several blocks to get to the facility. So, knowing the streets, parks, and alleyways where the drug addicts spend the night, Moti started taking the meals to them. It was to those places we went to hand out the warm winter gear.
It is one thing to serve the homeless out of a bright, clean soup kitchen which is soaked in prayer and worship on a regular basis. It is another thing altogether to go out onto the streets where homeless drug addicts are huddled together to get through the cold night. This area of the old central bus station in Tel Aviv is considered the worst area for homelessness, drugs and prostitution in Israel and is just a couple block away from brand new multi-million dollar high rises and high-end businesses .
For some of us, it was our first time out on the streets with Moti, and it was shocking, humbling, and amazing.
Shocking: seeing people huddling together under makeshift tarps of rags and cardboard boxes, shooting up heroine or smoking “nice guy”, a cheap and horribly addictive street drug—anything to numb the pain of who knows what trauma they have experienced.
Humbling: to serve with some truly amazing people who have a special gift to get on level with the homeless, in the trash, with the rats, and give them love and respect, and to share the love of God with them. Whoever is willing, we connect with drug rehab facilities.
Amazing: Some just wanted prayer, like the man in this picture. It was a powerful moment for all of us.
As much as this ministry is an outreach to the neediest of the needy, the people on whom our society has given up, it is also an essential learning experience for us. To put it in the words of our friend, Anat, who runs a ministry with her husband, Ishai, reaching out to the women enslaved in the sex industry in this area: “This is what Jesus would be doing if he would came here today. He would find the Samaritan woman right here. He would find Mary Magdalene right here. He wouldn’t go to our churches, I’m sorry to say, but He would come right here to the homeless and the needy.”
When we minister to these precious people, we touch something important in the Lord’s heart : humbling ourselves to be open to and to serve those who are in the most desperate need of His love. That is indeed what He did for us. I imagine that those dark, cold, trashy, rat-infested streets where the homeless drug addicts are trying to numb their pain in whatever way they can is not a far cry of how the world felt to Yeshua when emptied Himself of His glory to come down to earth to serve and save us.
“I imagine that those dark, cold, trashy, rat-infested streets where the homeless drug addicts are trying to numb their pain in whatever way they can is not a far cry of how the world felt to Yeshua when emptied Himself of His glory to come down to earth to serve and save us.”
We want to thank you for supporting this ministry. Because of your help, we are able to continue this important work of reaching out to the poorest of the poor in our city. Thank you!
Exposure
By Gil Afriat
The Bible is clear that God will judge the earth in the end times and that His judgments begin with His household (1 Peter 4:17). Judgement is a word that makes most cringe, but in God’s economy, judgment is an act of grace to remove the things in and around us that hinder His love. In the beginning of the pandemic last year, I felt one of the things that God was doing through this global shaking was to wake up sleeping believers and to cause complacent non-believers to seek Him. I still believe that continues to be an essential part of God’s plan through this pandemic. Throughout the trials and difficulties of the covid crisis, we have seen believers growing in spiritual maturity and committment in our congregation. We have also seen an unprecedented number of Israelis reaching out to us online seeking information about Yeshua. Praise God!
God is now taking things to a deeper level: as this pandemic crisis continues, causing turmoil in the physical, emotional, economic and political realms worldwide, God’s judgement has been exposing weakness and darkness in the corporate Body of Messiah so that we can repent, be sanctified and become the spotless Bride He is calling us to be. The goal is glorious, but the process is painful.
Heart Exposure
One of the great shakings of this pandemic has been political instability around the world as governments struggle to deal with the challenges of the pandemic, particularly in democratic countries. In the United States, the 2020 presidential elections were possibly the most contentious, divisive elections in that nation’s history, and people around the world closely followed the tumultuous unfolding of the elections and their fallout. On November 8th, just five days after the election, Ron Cantor, our friend and elder at Tiferet Yeshua, publicly shared a word about the election on his Facebook page: Ron felt the Lord speak to him that the election would go to democratic candidate Joe Biden largely because of the idolatry on the part of many believers toward Donald Trump. (You can read Ron’s full word here). In response, Ron received a barrage of vicious attacks from professing Christians, some even cursing him and telling him to go to hell. At that time, Ron was the only public voice not prophesying a victory for Trump, which is what all the public platform prophets were doing.
On January 7th, Jeremiah Johnson, one of those voices which had been prophesying victory for Donald Trump, posted a public apology for inaccurately prophesying a second Trump term (You can read Johnson’s apology here). Though he expected a backlash, Johnson said he never could have imagined the attack that came his way in response. On his Facebook page Johnson shared the following:
“Over the last 72 hours, I have received multiple death threats and thousands upon thousands of emails from Christians saying the nastiest and most vulgar things I have ever heard toward my family and ministry. I have been labeled a coward, sellout, a traitor to the Holy Spirit, and cussed out at least 500 times. We have lost ministry partners every hour and counting.” (for the full post)
I share these stories only to highlight the exposure the Lord is causing to these things in all of us. We asked a family member of ours living in the US how things felt there after all the turmoil and violence surrounding the elections, and he said one verse has been going though his mind a lot recently: the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24:12) I firmly believe that God is calling all of us to take a long hard look at ourselves instead of pointing the finger at others, and to look at where our hearts, thoughts, and speech are reflecting the world’s values rather than God’s, whether it be in our daily lives or how we express ourselves on social media. Where have we allowed our love to grow cold?
Another end-time warning from Matthew is 24:10-11 God has put on my heart during this season:
“And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.”
This verse talks about brothers in the faith betraying one another and hating one another. No, I do not think that what we have seen in this last season is the full end-time fulfillment of this verse. However, seeing brothers in the faith hatefully attacking each other over perceived “loyalty” to a political leader or to the “words of the prophets” is troubling and should be a wake-up call to us all.
The Love Litmus Test
The Word of God is clear about the standard:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
~John 13:34-35
But what about Matthew 22:39 where Yeshua already stated that to love our neighbor as ourselves is the second great command? Actually, Yeshua’s command to His disciples in John 13 is different because He is setting a new standard for love: His selfless and sacrificial love is the standard. For the perfect list of the qualities of Yeshua’s love, we should study 1 Corinthians 13. We should make it our litmus test!
It may seem like an impossible task, and it is if we try to do it in our own strength. We can succeed to love others the way He loves us only if we receive, comprehend and experience God’s unending love for us and His unending grace for our mistakes and failures. When we internalize that, His kind of love will naturally flow out of us. And we will show love to more than our brothers and sisters in the faith; we will love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. (Matthew 5:44) That is real spiritual warfare!
I have hope and faith God is doing something great in His Body in this season, that God is cleansing us from the ways of the world, and that we will see the Bride rising up in love and holiness to be a witness to a world that is growing darker and more confused by the day.
A Special New Years on the Street
by Moti Cohen
Happy New Year dear friends! I would like to share an update with you about our weekly outreach Feed Tel Aviv. Yesterday was New Year’s Eve and, because my wife has a Russian background, I know that this holiday (called Novi Gode) is a very festive and nostalgic time for those who come from the former Soviet Union. Russian Jewish immigrants in Israel celebrate this holiday with certain foods, and I decided that after our regular meal distribution to serve one of the staples of the traditional “Novi Gode” food that every Russian associates with the holiday: smoked salmon served on white bread with lots of butter. The Russian speakers in the area of our outreach (drug addicts and women enslaved in the sex industry) were excited and touched by the special holiday food. Some of them, with tears in their eyes, said that it was the loveliest surprise they could have had. They were touched that I, with my Moroccan Jewish background, would care enough to do something special for them. This very simple dish that we served created a special atmosphere, smiles and even laughter which is extremely rare for people who live a daily existence of so much suffering. Praise God!
This year our congregation received a generous donation from believers in South Korea which has allowed us, among other things, to purchase winter gear for the homeless which arrived this week. So, on New Year’s Eve we were able to hand out blankets, sleeping bags, warm socks, hats and gloves to the people living on the street who suffer greatly during the winter months. We give all the glory to the Lord, and we would like to thank our friends for their generosity: your support is enabling us to continue serving in our calling as a congregation to shine the light of Yeshua here in His homeland Israel!
We pray that God would bless you abundantly in 2021 with the blessing He has promised for those who love and stand with His people Israel!
2020: An Unprecedented Year for Tiferet Yeshua (not in the way you think)
At the end of 2019 we published an article about looking ahead to 2020:
“The path before us may seem clear, but we might be continuing on it without listening for direction from Him: He may be calling us off the ‘main highway’ to something we never imagined.”
Little did we know how much we would be going off the main highway in 2020 into something we could never have imagined!
In 2019, we had just finished our major sanctuary renovation and were getting ready to install livestream technology. When Israel went into total lockdown in March, we had been meeting in our newly renovated sanctuary for about six months. As of the writing of this article, we are in another strict lockdown, and our new sanctuary has sat empty and almost completely unused for the majority of 2020.
THE BUILDING NOT MADE BY HANDS
How does a congregation survive without being able to physically congregate? Like many other congregations around the world, Tiferet Yeshua went online when the pandemic hit. Despite the many challenges we faced through this pandemic, we can say that, by God’s amazing grace, Tiferet Yeshua has continued to thrive and even grow—becoming more God’s building (1 Cor. 3:9). Beyond that, this year we have experienced financial breakthrough and expansion of our ministry here in Israel.
THE AMAZING YEAR OF 2020 FOR TIFERET YESHUA
The end of 2020 is the first time that we are not finishing out the year barely above budget red line —this is a huge breakthrough! We feel God’s hand on us through this crisis, supplying and encouraging us to continue forward and prepare for bigger things to come. We even found ourselves in the amazing position of being able to bless those in need more than ever and to help other congregations and ministries here in Israel because of generous international support.
- Covid Crisis Help – we were able to provide financial support to families and individuals in our congregation who suffered economic loss because of the covid-19 crisis.
- Special grants – We were able to give special financial grants to widows, single mothers, and orphans who suffered disproportionately from the economic crisis
- Mercy Ministries Support – in addition to being able to continue funding our own Feed Tel Aviv outreach ministry, we were able to support other fantastic ministries of Messianic believers in Israel such as: The Red Carpet (an outreach for women enslaved in the sex industry in south Tel Aviv), The Drug Rehabilitation Center in Netanya, and Adullam Outreach Center in Jerusalem.
- Homeless Winter Outreach – we were able to address the immediate challenges the homeless face during the winter months by providing jackets, thermoses, hats and gloves, sleeping bags, and warm winter clothes.
- Covid Grocery Outreach – during Israel’s first and second lockdowns, we provided over one hundred weekly food packages to those in need within our congregation and to people in the community at large. We also brought weekly groceries to single mothers in our congregation.
- Congregations in Need – we were able to give support to a couple congregations in need, one Ethiopian congregation in particular which offers a place of worship for the many undocumented workers and refugees from Africa living in Tel Aviv.
- Little Hearts Preschool – we were able to give a grant to an amazing little preschool in Jerusalem, one of the only Messianic Jewish preschools in Israel!
MEDIA EXPANSION
This year became the year of online outreach all over the world, making our ability to livestream an important asset! In 2020, Israelis found themselves in home quarantine and spending lots of time online while looking for answers to the questions the pandemic has caused many people to ask. This year we were able to hire a professional to redesign our Hebrew website and YouTube channel to improve our online media outreach. Additionally, we invested in critical technology for our livestream and hired a professional soundman.
OUTREACH AND DISCIPLESHIP
In March this year Kosta joined our team in order to focus on outreach and discipleship. Kosta has led street outreach during which he and his team have had many conversations with open and seeking Israelis, handed out many Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian New Testaments and booklets with Old Testament messianic prophesies. He has also been investing in keeping in contact with people who are interested in learning more about faith in Yeshua, in discipleship of new believers, and staying in touch with new congregation members. In short, Kosta has been an enormous asset to our team!
AN ENORMOUS THANK YOU
Despite and through the pressures of this challenging year, God is doing amazing things, and we cannot thank all our supporters enough for standing with us and supporting us. God is always faithful, and He always provides for our needs in surprising ways; but this year, He went out of His way to surprise and bless us through the love and generosity of the international family we are honored and blessed to have. May the Lord bless you with knowing Him more intimately this coming year and leading you into the surprises HE has for you in 2021!
Shining His Light on the Streets of Tel Aviv
Our Lord Yeshua is the light of the Word (John 1:1), and He calls us to be like Him—to shine His light in the darkness of the world. Each year when Hanukkah comes around, it is getting darker and colder – the perfect time to focus on being a light. When so many in the world are experiencing a dark and difficult time due to the stresses and challenges of the covid-19 pandemic, being a light is all the more important.
“Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they set it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5: 15-16
Closure of Restaurants, Hotels and Reception Halls due to Covid-19 has Surprising Effect on the Needy
Each month, we prepare 1,400 hot meals for the poor and needy in Tel Aviv. In addition to our weekly outreach in south Tel Aviv, we have also started providing meals for four other humanitarian outreaches in the area of south Tel Aviv. Before the covid-19 outbreak, restaurants, hotels, and receptions halls provided soup kitchens and halfway houses with all their leftovers. Because of the covid-19 restrictions in Israel, restaurants, reception halls and most hotels are closed, meaning that, in addition to many people being out of work, humanitarian outreaches have lost their source for meals. The outreaches I spoke to had looked into the option of ordering catered food, but the prices were astronomical. God put it on our hearts at Feed Tel Aviv to help other outreaches to the poor that have lost their meal source by increasing the number of hot meals we make each week.
Making Hanukkah Special, Even on the Street
This week during Hanukkah, we wanted to bring some joy in our street food outreach, and, along with the warm meals, we handed out dozens of Hanukkah doughnuts. As you can see in these pictures, there were quite a few children who came to take the doughnuts we were handing out. The fact that there are children in the streets here is a new phenomenon: the soup kitchen facility from where we serve food is located in an area of brothels, hard core drugs, crime and violence. Until recently, we never saw children hanging around this area. The children we have been seeing here recently are the children of migrant workers, the majority of whom were employed in restaurants, hotels, and reception halls which have been completely closed for the last several months due to the covid-19 restrictions. They have no money and, because they are undocumented workers, no access to the State’s social safety net. As a result, they are sending their children out onto the streets to beg, which is the last resort of truly desperate parents. I have been noticing how their mothers arrive with them to the public park nearby and from there they send them out to try to find food.
Thanks to your ongoing support of this outreach ministry, we are able to respond to the immediate needs of the weakest sectors in society here in Tel Aviv which are suffering the most from covid-19. Thank you for helping us shine the light of God here in Israel!
Paid for in Blood
There was a man who firmly believed that access to the Word of God was the only way to bring about real personal and societal change, especially for the poor and disenfranchised. Where he lived there were no Bibles available in his native language, and he was willing to risk everything to get them into people’s hands. His name was Jan Hus, and he was burned at the stake in 1415 for translating the Bible in the Czech language. During Jan’s day, Bibles were only available in Latin, Greek and Hebrew and were the monopoly of the tiniest fraction of the population—church clergy and academics. Back then, making Bibles available to non-elites was a bloody business, and many were brutally executed by religious authorities for attempting to translate any part of the Bible. For the next couple hundred years following Jan’s murder, many brave and deeply committed men paid with their lives for attempting to get Bibles into the hands of everyday people in their own language.
“If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause the boy who drives the plow to know more of the Scripture than the pope does.”
~William Tyndale, burned at the stake in 1536 for translating the Bible into English
Why was there such great resistance to the translation of the Bible, beyond the fact of the clergy wanting to retain its hegemony on power? The answer is this: the Word of God is powerful, and when a believer starts reading the Word daily with the aim of getting to know God, the kingdom of darkness trembles.
Knowing God without reading His Word: Impossible
Five hundred years after those first brave men began risking life and limb to get Bibles translated and into the hands of everyone, the majority of people in the world have the Bible available to them. In the West (including Israel), we not only have multiple versions of the Bible in our native language, we have easy and instant (thanks to smartphones) access to it. According to the American Bible Society, the average American household has 3 Bibles.
With such easy access, one might naturally conclude that there would be very high Bible literacy rates. Sadly, the opposite is true. According to a study by LifeWay Research, over 40% of church attenders in the US read their Bibles only occasionally, once or twice a month, and only 45 % say they read their Bibles more than once a week. If the Word of God is our daily spiritual bread, those statistics mean that two thirds of all believers are spiritually starving. Considering the love, devotion and faith it took those men over five-hundred years ago to risk their lives to give everyone the right to access the Bible, it is heart-breaking to realize how few of us make use of that precious right.
Spiritual Malnutrition
As a pastor, it doesn’t take long to notice the effects of spiritual malnutrition from not reading the Word. We make it a habit to ask people who are seeking council for persistent difficulties in their lives whether they regularly read the Word, and we have discovered that a high percentage of them do not. And they tend to have an anemic prayer life as well.
The only way to experience real change emotionally is to grow spiritually. The only way to grow spiritually is getting to know God. The only way to get to know God is spending time in His Word and in His presence through prayer each day. Period. There are no short-cuts in any relationships, and that includes the incredible relationship with God that we are privilidged to have.
Taste and See!
It can be a real challenge finding the time for prayer and meditation on the Word with busy schedules and the noisy distractions in everyday life. As believers we have access to every kind of worship or the latest message from our favorite preachers, and it is easy to put on worship or listen to a good sermon or teaching while cleaning or cooking or driving to work. However, hearing about Him is not the same as spending time with Him. When all we do is “hear about Him” from others, we will not know Him or His voice. Because this one step is so absolutely integral for believers to start growing, maturing and fulfilling their destinies in God, and because it makes us absolutely dangerous for the kingdom of darkness, the devil spends extra time trying to throw distractions at us to keep us from carving out that time each day.
Here’s a little secret: when you sincerely pray God’s will, He always comes through. If you want it with all your heart, and you ask Him for help, and you don’t give up, even when you’ve fallen off the wagon for a few days or a week, He will give you the grace to push through the initial challenge of making His Word and prayer a daily part of your life. When you do, you are in for a great surprise: spiritual hunger increases when you start feeding it on the Word and the sweetness of His presence. Before you know it, you will miss Him if you skip a day, that’s how satisfying His presence is. Soon enough you will discover the wonderful, constant journey onward and upward in Your relationship with the Creator of the Universe!
If you don’t spend time daily with the Lord in prayer and reading His Word, I want to challenge you to take God at His Word, to taste and see how good He is! Then share your experience with us.
by Tamar Afriat
Responding to Need during the Covid 19 Crisis in Israel
When Israel went into its first covid lockdown in the beginning of March, we started hearing about people in need who had lost jobs or income due to the crisis. There were others who were unable to get out to get groceries themselves because of being in a high-risk health group. We decided as a congregation to reach out to help those in the community around us: we asked our congregation members to recommend people they knew were in need, and each week we filled grocery bags for families with enough essentials to help get them through the week. Now that Israel is the first country in the world to go into a second lockdown, our team is back to brining groceries to families in need.
When we first started our outreach in March, we were bringing groceries to around twelve families. But each week, we were hearing of more families in need. In the end, we were providing weekly groceries to twenty-three families. Most of the recipients were non-believers, and all of them expressed sincere gratitude that a community of Messianic Jews wanted to bless them. Abbey, one of Tiferet Yeshua’s members, suggested one of her coworkers for our outreach, a Muslim woman whose family was experiencing financial difficulties because of the lockdown. Associate Pastor Moti Cohen delivered the groceries to Abbey’s coworker who asked him what organization was supporting this outreach. When she understood that it was a congregation of Jewish believers in Yeshua that just wanted to bless her, a Muslim woman, her eyes filled with tears.
Miriam, a woman in our congregation who works with the Israeli pro-life organization, B’ad Chaim, recommended several single mothers for our grocery outreach. These were women whom Miriam had counseled through their decision to keep their babies and supported through their pregnancies. Because the corona lockdown closed all childcare facilities for over two months, forcing parents to stay at home to care for their children, these young mothers had fallen on hard times.
Every week during the lockdown we brought them groceries and diapers. It was so special for Miriam to see these babies whose lives she had a part in bringing into the world, and it was an honor for us to be able to encourage and bless these single mothers who had so bravely chosen life for their children.
When we first started our outreach, we posted pictures of the teams of volunteers shopping and preparing the grocery bags on Tiferet Yeshua’s Hebrew Facebook page in order to share with our congregation members that the congregation was still active despite the lockdown. A single mother of a child with special needs saw our post on Facebook and sent us a message asking if she could be included in our grocery outreach because she also had to be quarantined at home caring for her child.
The second covid lockdown is proving to be a difficult and trying period for everyone here in Israel, especially those who were hit hard by the first lockdown. But, it has been such a blessing for us to be able to help and support those in need around us during that time, to bring the groceries to their homes personally, to let them know that they are not alone, and to see how the love of our Messiah Yeshua in action touches and encourages them.
We would not be able to maintain our giving fund without the help from our friends around the world! Your support allows us to address immediate needs in our community as they arise, like those that are coming to our attention during the ongoing covid crisis. Thank you!
An Ancient Sukkot Tradition – The Joy of Drawing Water
“Therefore with joy you will draw water From the wells of salvation.” (Isaiah 12:3)
In the second temple period, a water libation ceremony during Sukkot had developed which had become tradition by the time of Yeshua. In this ceremony, the priests would draw water from the Pool of Siloam each morning during Sukkot and then carry it up to the Temple on the pilgrim road with festive blasts of the shofar. In the evening, the priests would pour the water onto the alter in a great joyous event. According to the Talmud: “He who has not seen the rejoicing at the Place of the Water-Drawing has never seen rejoicing in his life.”
Yeshua’s John 7 Declaration on Sukkot
Naturally Yeshua would have been in Jerusalem celebrating the feast of Sukkot since it is one of the three biblically mandated pilgrimage feast during which the men of Israel are commanded to celebrate the holiday in the Temple in Jerusalem. John 7 describes Yeshua being in Jerusalem on this holiday during which He made a powerful prophetic declaration. In light of the “The Joy of Drawing Water” priestly tradition, it is stirring to imagine Yeshua making this declaration at the height of the celebrations at the end of the feast:
“On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’” (John 7:37-38)
When the priests were joyously pouring out water on the alter, Yeshua prophesized that He would pour out the Holy Spirit on those who believe in Him, and the Spirit would become rivers of living water flowing in them. God commanded us to be joyful on the feast of Sukkot three separate times, and Yeshua is the joy of our salvation! He paid the price of our sin, cleansed us, and baptizes us with the Holy Spirit who becomes rivers of living water in us –a revelation He made on Sukkot.
Yeshua is returning to establish His kingdom here on earth from Jerusalem, an event which Sukkot points to:
And in that day it shall be
That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem,
Half of them toward the eastern sea
And half of them toward the western sea;
In both summer and winter it shall occur.
And the Lord shall be King over all the earth.
In that day it shall be—
“The Lord is one,”
And His name one. (Zechariah 14:8-9)
Hallelujah! May the Lord fill you with joy of His Spirit this week of Sukkot and the hope for the ultimate joy of His kingdom literally coming to the earth in the future.
Feed Tel Aviv Street Stories – A Surprising Holy Spirit Moment
by Moti Cohen
Each week we are on the streets in south Tel Aviv, handing out food and ministering to the poorest of the poor in our nation – drug addicts, those enslaved in the sex industry, and those who have fallen on hard times. Now that Israel is in its second national quarantine and the country’s whole economy is shut down again, people who were in a hard place to begin with are in dire straits. That is why our mercy outreach in these times is so critical.
Each week I encounter people whose stories would break your heart. Each week God touches someone in an amazing way. There is one story I would like to share about a man I met on the street who shares my name: Moti. My experience with Moti deeply impacted me and the volunteers who were there serving with me.
Last Thursday we started our weekly food distribution as usual: covid-usual, that is, which means we cannot be in our soup kitchen facility and instead walk the streets handing out sandwiches and drinks where the addicts end up.
I approached a thin man who was sitting against a building who looked exhausted. I asked him if he wanted something to eat. “Yes,” he replied. “I haven’t eaten in two days.”
TY Pastor Moti Cohen praying for Moti whom he met on the street in Tel Aviv
I gave him two sandwiches and sat with him while he ate. I asked him his name, and he said, “Moti.” I told him that is my name too and asked him how he is doing.
“If you want to know the truth,” he told me, “I don’t want to live anymore. In fact, I have been asking God to just take me.”
Moti shared with me his story, which, sadly, is the story I have heard from so many who end up on the streets: He had a job, a home, a family, and then he became addicted to drugs. In the clutches of his addiction, he lost everything: his job, his home, all his money. All his possessions. And his family too.
“My family tried to help me. But then I would steal from them to be able to buy more drugs,” he sighed. “I lost everything. Now I’m on the street, and I just want God to take me.”
“So, if you want God to take your life,” I asked him, “why don’t you give your life to God?” I started to share with Moti the message of the gospel when he stopped me: “I’ve heard it before. I know all about Yeshua,” he told me. Somewhat skeptical, I asked him, “Okay, tell me what you know.”
Moti started telling me that the Hebrew prophets spoke of the suffering servant Messiah who would come and give his life for the people, that Yeshua came as the Messiah, lived a perfect righteous life, was crucified and rose again, and that His blood is the atonement for our sins.
He absolutely knew the gospel! I asked him if he wanted to pray and give his life to Yeshua. Moti said yes, but when I asked him to pray after me, he said, “No, I need to pray from my heart.”
At that moment, Moti closed his eyes and started praying: he cried out to God, thanking Him for forgiveness through Yeshua, asking Yeshua to come into his life. I and those who were with me felt the presence of the Holy Spirit as he prayed. It was one of the most powerful moments I have ever experienced in all my years serving on the streets. Moti gave his life to Yeshua there on the street.
We prayed for him, gave him the contact information of drug rehabilitation centers run by believers and encouraged him to go. Please keep Moti in prayer!
During this time that Israel is again in the midst of a health and economic crisis, the situation of the poor and needy is getting worse, and there are many who need our help. Your support enables us to continue being there for them. Thank you!
Covid Street Outreach – Experienced Evangelists Surprised
Many in Israel are feeling anxious, uncertain and isolated right now because of the covid-19 crisis: the question is, are they more or less open to the gospel as a result? Since coming out of our covid lockdown in the end of May here in Israel, we felt the Lord calling us back out onto the streets to witness. God put it on the heart of Kosta, who recently joined our ministry team, to lead a weekly street outreach in Tel Aviv. As a congregation, we encourage a lifestyle of witnessing to friends, families, coworkers and people we come across in our everyday lives. However, there is a special calling and anointing for evangelists who go out onto the streets to share the gospel.
Kosta and David engaging people on the street in conversations about God and Israel’s Messiah
This week Kosta and David, one of Tiferet Yeshua’s most faithful evangelists, hit the streets of Tel Aviv: with them they had New Testaments and Who is the Messiah of Israel? booklets which detail all the Old Testament prophesies about the Messiah. Both Kosta and David have much experience witnessing on the street, and they were both surprised by people’s reactions to them.
More than ever before, people are open to discussing God and the Messiah of Israel. Kosta and David handed out fifteen prophecy booklets, and five people were willing to take New Testaments – which is amazing. Jewish people have ingrained in them that it is forbidden to even touch the New Testament because it is perceived as an anti-Semitic, Christian book. When we witness to people, we share with them that it is a Jewish book, written by Jews, and that is has the gospel of life which was intended to the Jews first and then to the whole world. More and more Jews are willing to find out for themselves whether this forbidden book, the New Testament, is a Jewish book or not.
The last person Kosta and David talked to left a strong impression on them: he was a young man who had grown up in an orthodox family but had become secular. He told David and Kosta: “You are Messianic Jews? I have been following your teachings and videos! Just yesterday I was watching a teaching by Messianic Jews online.” This man took a New Testament and the booklet with the prophetic messianic scriptures. God is moving and people are open to the gospel like never before. Please pray for us! Just as the Apostle Paul requested prayer to be able to effectively preach the gospel, we need your prayers as well:
“Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel… Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” Ephesians 6:19-20
“Brothers and sisters, pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s message will spread quickly. Pray that others will honor it just as you did.” 2 Thessalonians 3:1