Yesterday was the day of Pentecost. The Jewish tradition in the day of Pentecost is to eat cheeses and good food and bring some-kind of first fruit. In the Israeli Kibbutzim the celebration is big with music and dancing and baskets of fruit and vegetables are brought and dedicated. One of the customs in Pentecost is an all-night study of Torah and the Word of God in general. We had a nice celebration every year since the 1970’s. This year it was a bit shorter than most years because of the little children. We have several families with toddlers and some with very young babies so we kept the celebration to three hours. We also have every year a cheese cake competition and this year there were five competitors. The prize was a very nice toaster and the sister who won the prize made a cheese cake with apricots from her own garden. There were two lessons presented about Pentecost one by a young leader and the other by me. We also read the whole book of Ruth and it was again a joy to read in one sitting all four chapters of Ruth in public. Things look totally different when you read the whole book in one sitting and in public. You suddenly notice things that you have heard and read many times but never paid sufficient attention to the text. We had almost a house full on the eve of Pentecost and prayer was led in several languages and the reading was also done in Hebrew, English, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, and some other languages too. This was a kind of play acting of the Acts 2 scenario but without the miracles of speaking in one language and every foreigner hearing in his own language.

I find it so strange that Christians are so interested in the giving of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost but they don’t celebrate the Feast of Pentecost in any Biblical form. Halleluiah Holy Spirit, but we celebrate Santa and the reindeers rather than give first fruit of our lives to the Lord. “We” put up a tree and decorate it just like Jeremiah chapter 10:1-5. If we believe in the restoration of the New Testament, First Century Church, what ought we to celebrate? Ought we celebrate the same holidays and feasts that the New Testament Disciples of Yeshua celebrated in the New Testament or those holidays that the church in Rome and Constantinople adopted in order to replace Israel and to replace the Biblical Feasts that the early Disciples of Yeshua celebrated according to the Word of God? Please pray and think about this and remember I don’t want to or intend to Judaize anyone, but our faith should be consistent with our declarations. If we want a restored church let us work to restore it. If we are happy with the man-made traditions created in the third, fourth, and fifth centuries let us all become Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox and be happy with it. There are only two roads, one that leads to Rome and one that leads back to the New Testament Church and the center is Jerusalem. You need to pray about this and see where your commitments are stationed, in Rome or in Jerusalem. When you find your answer you should make your commitment and be connected to one of these historical centers Rome or Jerusalem. Ask yourself to which were the Apostles connected and what was their life style reflecting and then make your choice.

We had a meeting with our builders and architect and project manager, and there is major progress, if you can call it that when you are taking the building apart. There is no longer a roof on the building and several of the walls are taken apart. The big and the bad news is that the Orthodox Jews are mounting a campaign against the building. They have gone through the neighborhood and tried to have people sign a petition for an attempt to get a court order to stop the building. They even called and threatened the contractor and warned him not to work with us. It is just a nasty action that is based only on religious prejudice and hate and I don’t believe that the court in Israel will fall into this kind of trap. I have full confidence in the Israeli court system and justice to be based on civil rights and justice based on democracy and equality of all minority groups both racially and religiously. However, you need to pray that God’s people will not act like those who persecuted them in Europe for so many hundreds of years. You need to pray that the legal system in Israel will not sink so low as to allow a small minority to dictate on the basis of discrimination and hate and prevent us from our normal democratic basic human rights. You need to pray that we get the necessary funds to pay for the construction of this building so that we can have a Synagogue for the Disciples of Yeshua in our eternal Capital City of Jerusalem. You need to pray and bless our builders and architects and the shop owners in the neighborhood who refused to sign such a petition against us. We don’t know who signed the petition against us, but we do know that most of our immediate neighbors did not sign such a petition. We all pray with full confidence in the Goodness of God to His children and in the future of Israel and “Tikkun Olam,” the redemption of the whole World. We stand on these truths and we did not compromise on these self-evident values of human rights and we ask you to stand with us until the end.

The issues that we are dealing with and what we represent are not at all religious issues; they are existential for us and for all of Israel. Our live in the Land of Israel are dependent only on God‘s mercy and faithfulness. According to His Words in the Torah if we as a nation don’t learn to be fair and righteous and take care to love each other and even the stranger among us, this land will vomit us out as it has already happened more than one time. We pray that God will have mercy on us and give our leaders, both secular and religious, a clear revelation of the full Torah and how we as a nation and as a state ought to treat each other and love each other encouraging all to do God’s Will, have faith and keep His commandments. This is our prayer for Israel and for all.

We continue to pray for our sick brothers and sisters. Today I am just going to list them by name and ask you to mention these names as you pray for healing, strength, and wellness: Ruby, Liz, Tim Tucker, Shoko, Tomoko, Paulo, Sadako, Udi, Ahuva, Leah, Ilana, Marcia, Miriam, Anna, Anna-Majia, Sato-Marja, David S., Zvi, Zvi and Sara, Lilian and Eddy, Sarit, Rose, Merav, and for Danah and Noaam.

We ask you to continue to pray for the situation in Syria. The suffering of innocent people there is just totally outrageous, and the dragging of feet by Europe and the West is just beyond understanding. God can act in the ways that He only knows how to act in order to stop this carnage in Syria. Pray!

We have increased the number of people who are receiving the cards for purchasing food by 26 more families. Several of these new families are survivors of the Nazi – Holocaust and others are immigrants from the former Soviet Union. We appreciate your prayers and your support for this very important humanitarian project that blesses the poor of Jerusalem.

The Radio programs are continuing and new programs are being recorded every week. I am still doing the book of Jeremiah on the Radio in Hebrew and those of you who know Hebrew can find these teachings on Netivyah’s web page: www.netivyah.org

I will cut this letter short and wish all of you who pray for us and support the Lord’s work in Israel.

Keep Jerusalem and us in your daily prayer, Please!

Joseph Shulam

By Joseph Shulam

Today is Jerusalem day in Israel. Jerusalem day is a memorial day and a celebration day for the Eternal City of Jerusalem. This day was set by the Israel government 40 years ago when 16,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted from the Sudan Desert in one night to Israel. These Ethiopian Jews walked more than 600 Miles on foot and along the way the faced hunger, and thirst, and bandits and terrorists. Four thousand men, women, old people, and children died along the 600 Miles track and 16,000 survived and arrived by air to Israel. However, in Ethiopia these people knew nothing about Israel all they knew was Jerusalem. For them Jerusalem was all of Israel. I can relate to this very well from my own family. My family was not religious and knew nothing about the Bible, but when my family landed south of the City of Haifa and was put in a kind of temporary tent camp my father went to the leader of the transport and asked him, “When are we getting to Israel?” The answer that he received was, “You are in the land of Israel. You are in Pardes-Hannah.” My father answered, no only Jerusalem is what I know to be the land of Israel.” The next question was, “How can I go to Jerusalem?” - The captain said, “The only way to get to Jerusalem these days is with the Arabs and we are at war with them now.” My father said, “Where can I find the Arabs?” - “In the village about 4 Kilometers from here” – was the answer that the captain gave my father. By the next morning there was an Arab truck was waiting outside the tent camp and four families loaded to go to Jerusalem. So, today is Jerusalem day. Thousands of youth marched through the streets of Jerusalem with flags. There was songs and dancing Israeli dances and outpouring of joy, happiness, and a whole lot of positive vision and excitement. The songs that the youth were singing were all out of the Word of God. There were songs about Jerusalem, and about our reliance on the grace of God, and songs asking God to renew in us His Spirit, and songs of salvation and asking for the Messiah to come quick. There is nothing like this in the whole world and no church in the world will experience the excitement and joy of the Israeli youth and the deep sincere expectation for salvation and redemption and the return of the captives from the diaspora. This was truly a holiday in Jerusalem, but the only down part is that all the streets around our office were closed from noon to car traffic. We could only leave the office and go home near to 19:00 hours, but that too was a joy, the Joy of Jerusalem. Read Isaiah 66 and pray for Jerusalem and for us as God’s witnesses in this city.

The Christian Churches have worked overtime since the second century to cut themselves off from Jerusalem and the Jewish people. They sanctified the most pagan of church leaders like Chrysostom and Augustine and they moved the geographical center of Christianity first to Constantinople and than to Rome. Jerusalem was just about forgotten and totally spiritualized or may be better to say made into an ancient myth. Today thousands of Jewish youth and I even saw some Arabs rejoicing in Jerusalem and dancing side by side with the Jewish youth. It is so clear that God is working in Jerusalem. He is also working everywhere else around the world but Jerusalem is still very special and the city of the Great King. Read Psalm 48 and rejoice with us and with all of Israel. Remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and to pray for Netivyah.

The building is going on in fact now it is the taking apart of the old building. Stone by stone is being taken apart. The whole building is now ours we have purchased the two shops. We are paying for these shops and we are in need of your prayers and your support to make up the funds that were used to pay for the shops. We are praying for another 600,000 dollars. The reason that the 500,000 has become now 600,000 is because the dollar has just dropped so much and it is continuing to drop against the Israeli Shekel. I realize that in every Jerusalem prayer letter I am speaking about the building and the financial need. I know that this building project is God’s will because it is a part of the spiritual restoration of the faith in Yeshua for the city of Jerusalem. In the second Temple Period, i.e. the New Testament time, there was no Baptist Church, no Presbyterian Church, no Pentecostal Church, no Catholic Church, or Greek Orthodox Church . . . etc. There was a group of Jewish followers of Yeshua going daily to the temple in Jerusalem to pray and to worship. When the Apostle Paul was traveling in the Greco-Roman World visiting such cities as Ephesus, Antioch, and Thessalonica, Paul visited the Synagogue on Sabbath and was received as a Teacher of the Torah being asked to read from the Torah and explain. Paul went to the Synagogue in every city he visited as it says; “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” (Acts 17:1-3) Just take a concordance and see how many times the word Synagogue appears in the Scriptures of the New Testament. You will find out that in the four Gospels the word Synagogue appears 43 times. The Word Church appears in the four Gospels only 2 times. In the whole New Testament the word Synagogue appears 67 times and the word church 107 times, but most in the letters of the Apostle Paul. The reason I am writing this is because the Disciples of Yeshua in Israel have mostly imported the form and many times the substance of the Western denomination. Netivyah has the vision from the very beginning to be like the first disciples of Yeshua in Jerusalem. We want to believe like them, and do what they did, and worship in Synagogue style like the Apostles did in Jerusalem and Paul did in Asia Minor and Greece. The reason is simple – we are returning home physically after 2000 years of diaspora and we want the nation of Israel to also return home spiritually also. This is the reason we are building the first Synagogue of Disciples of Yeshua in Jerusalem. Netivyah was the first in Israel to have self-owned building, the first to celebrate the Biblical Holidays, the first to have all Jewish and local Israeli leadership, the first not to belong to any denomination or even a non-denominational denomination. The witness of Netivyah for the people of Israel is that we have made Yeshua our Lord and our Teacher and our Savior, but have never stopped being faithful to our heritage or given up on our identity as Jews. I think that this is something that every one who wants to see Israel saved and Yeshua return has to identify with and bless. Please pray for us!

The situation in the Middle East is becoming more complicated. The bombing of Syrian military installations and storage of sophisticated Russian and Iranian missiles has opened a new potential front on our North-Eastern Boarder with Syria. We are praying for the situation in Syria to be contained and the carnage to stop. The official figure that is quoted for how many died in Syria since the beginning of this civil war there is 70,000 people. The figure that is stated by the opposition in Syria is closer to 85,000 dead. The least we can do from any place in the world is to pray for the victims of aggression in Syria and for the good Lord to deliver that nation from both the Assad family and from the extreme Jihadists. For Egypt we need to pray that the promises of democracy and freedom from Tyranny. Especially we need to pray for the Christian Minority in Egypt and Syria. There have been hundreds of Christians killed, burned, and churches set on fire in these countries and the world is keeping quite. We can and we must scream to heaven for God to intervene and resolve and deliver the Christian minorities in these Arab countries and provide them with freedom of religion and freedom to build and rebuild their church buildings. In Egypt they have not been any new Church buildings or Synagogues built for more than 50 years. Prayer is powerful and it is much more powerful when we pray for people and needs that are not close to us or pray for our own benefit and good. So, use the power that God has given into your hands – pray!

Pray for our sick brothers and sisters and friends. Please keep praying for Eddy who has pancreatic cancer. Lilian Eddy’s wife also needs our prayers. They are a young family of faithful brothers and they have suffered much in the last few years. God’s grace will bring them a blessing and we pray for healing for Eddy. Ruby continues to suffer illness and pain. Pray for Ahuva she is 90 years old and we must find a nursing home for her very soon. Ahuva is a pioneer who has inspired thousands of people in Finland to love Israel and to commit to the salvation of Israel. She is one of the founders of Netivyah Bible Istruction Ministry and now she and we all need God’s blessing to find a place for Ahuva that will be proper and nice and just right for her. We pray for the healing and strength for Ilana, Miriam, Leah, Sarit, Sarah and Zvi, Marcia my wife, and David S., and David K., Udi who is battling cancer, and others who need special touch from God’s healing hands. We continue to pray for Tim Tucker, and Paulo, and Liz our dear sister in Georgia.

I received a special request to pray for Rose a small child with some serious health problems. Her family is not committed to faith in Yeshua but has asked for prayer for this very sick little child.

The distribution of the cards for purchasing food continues. The interesting thing is that the population of those who are in need and who come to get the cards has changed dramatically. We had a couple of years ago mainly older generation Russian immigrants who were either single moms or pensioners. Now we have many Ethiopian immigrants that have come recently from Ethiopia and need help with money for food. We have increased the number of people who are receiving the coupons and specifically requested holocaust survivors. We are increasing again with 10 new families of people who are going to receive the food coupons. I know that the good work that Yuda is doing with the food program is giving us a good name in this city and the social workers of city hall in Jerusalem all know that we not only giving food but we are giving honor and respect and moral support to these people who are most needy.

God bless and you reward you for all the good works that you are doing and please keep us in your prayer. We will have new YouTube programs next week. Go to YouTube and type Joseph Shulam or Netivyah and you will find something interesting and inspiring.

Joseph Shulam

This prayer list is going to be very short. Marcia and I have just returned from a very short vacation in Paris, France. We received free tickets from El-Al from mileage that was going to be lost if not used immediately. It was nice to be in Paris for three days. Most of the time we were with a wonderful couple. The man of this couple is a great Chef who cooked in the only exclusive gastronomic Kosher Restaurant in Paris. Last year this Chef came to Israel to cook our Passover dinner. The good news is that all around the world there are many people who are leaving the denominational churches and looking for truth, looking for Biblical teaching that is plain and simple from God’s Word. In Paris there are several such families and in London there are more than a few people who are in the same status, both Jews and non-Jews are looking for fellowship around the Word of God not around the Denominations and their churches. In fact in this last week I have received letters from such far away places like Madagascar, Paris, India, Western Africa, United States, Brazil, Peru, and South Africa. People are no longer accepting and receiving from their churches healthy and biblical teaching, and they are looking with hunger for biblical simplicity and straightforward practical life style teaching. What is interesting is that Israel is at the heart and center of this kind of quite revival and search for the Restoration of the First Century Church. I think that all Christians ought to pray for such a restoration and for such a quite revival for the disciples of Yeshua around the world.

Please rise up special prayer for Grace. Grace is a very special and dear sister who has gone through cancer a year ago and has come out of it in remission. Now Grace ahs some very strong stomach pain that is not defined or diagnosed yet. We need to pray for Grace and pray that the Lord will quickly bring her relief from pain and healing.

Pray for Lilian and her family and especially for Eddy. Eddy has pancreatic cancer. He is a young man with a family and children. He is a faithful who is one of the pillars of the Jewish Disciples of Yeshua in Toronto. Lilian is also a hero as a wife, mother, and a faithful Disciple of Yeshua. Lift this family and beg God for healing and a miracle for Eddy.

I heard from Ruby that she continues to suffer with a cruel collection of illness and pain. Please lift up Ruby in your prayers.

Pray for Ahuva our dear sister. We are trying to find her a nursing home in Jerusalem. It is not so simple or so cheap. Ahuva is a real true pioneer who has inspired thousands of people in Finland to love Israel and to commit to the salvation of Israel. She is one of the founders of Netivyah Bible Istruction Ministry and now she and we all need God’s blessing to find a place for Ahuva that will be proper and nice and just right for her.

We pray for the healing and strength for Ilana, Miriam, Leah, Sarit, Sarah and Zvi, Marcia my wife, and David S., and David K., Udi who is battling cancer, and others who need special touch from God’s healing hands.

In keep praying for Tim Tucker, Paulo, and all the other people that you know who are sick and need healing.

Keep praying for our building. The building process is in progress and in every step of the way we need God’s help and the finances to go through the next stage. It is all by the power of God’s miracle power and for the witness of God and His grace in Jerusalem.

Syria is should be in our daily prayer several times per day. The picture there is totally unclear. Every side is there is not telling the truth about what is happening and no one knows who is killing whom and how many have already died. Some say 90,000 dead, and other say already the number is well over 100,000 dead on both sides. The World does now know what to do about the situation in Syria and the citizens keep being killed without any hope for an end to this slaughter of citizens by both sides. This civil war is also a part of what is falsely called “The Arab Spring.” If this what is happening in Syria, and Egypt, and what happened in Libya and Tunisia, is “spring” I would hate to see what the winter would look like. The world is witnessing a very major change in the geopolitical power structure of the Middle East and the whole Western Civilization. Pray for the citizens of Syria and the other Arab countries because the changes that are going to be occurring are not going to be pro-democracy but they are going to be pro-radical Islam, more abuse of women in the Arab world, more hate for Christians and Jews, more militant jihadist terrorism. Pray and ask for Divine intervention to stop the carnage and the fall of the radical Islamic leadership of these Arab countries and the raise of democratic powers.

Keep praying for the hungry people of Jerusalem, and for the building project and the finances for the building and for the feeding program. God bless you all and bless everything good that you do!

Joseph Shulam