Inspiration is a very dominant force in our society. We use this word, “inspiration” for motivate. We motivate and we are motivated and the motivation that we motivate people or in religious language we “inspire” them is so very important. On my last trip to the Far East the first place that I served in Korea this time was a small church in the woods right on the edge of the big city of Seoul. I was driven there just right from the Inchone Airport after a long flight from Tel-Aviv direct to Seoul. As the car drove near the church there were many children with Israeli flags waving and singing in Hebrew and blessing God and Israel and me personally. It was truly a grand reception staged to honor Yeshua and Israel. I was only a representative of Yeshua and Israel to these sweet and very dedicated Korean Disciples of Yeshua. The children were all dressed in white suites with red bow-ties and that included the two and three year old boys and the girls were also in white but without bow-ties but had a red sash. The reception was grand and the services were also full of zeal and well prepared worship. However the thing that motivated me and even inspired me was that at one point I was handed a big manila envelope. The envelope was heavy it had 50,000 dollars in cash. “It is for the building” I was told. After the service and my teaching I heard that the whole congregation, constituting mainly of young families with little children, made a vow to fast from eating lunches for 40 days and the money that they saved was collected for Netivyah to enable us to build when we get the license. These wonderful young families actually did not eat lunches for 40 days and put the money that they saved toward a small group of of Jewish Disciples of Yeshua building a building for humanitarian work and for a place of teaching and worshiping the God of Israel and His Messiah. I could not take this kind of money with me so they were going to bring it to Jerusalem personally, but today we received these funds by bank transfer. It is such an inspiration to see young families with little children sacrifice and dedicate and care and fast from lunches so that we can build a better place for our congregation and for our the Lord’s ministry in Jerusalem. When I saw the little children in that congregation singing in Hebrew and praising the God of Israel and Yeshua the Messiah I wished that every Jew in the world and especially those Orthodox Jews from Mea Shearim in Jerusalem could see and be inspired like I am by these non-Jews, Koreans, who love the God of Israel so much and want to drink and breath the Word of God and do what is right and obedient and pleasing to Him. I understand that this kind of love and zeal for God and for Yeshua and for Israel is exactly what the Apostle Paul meant in Romans chapter 11 when he wrote that the Gentiles are supposed to provoke Israel to jealousy. I know that I wrote some of these things in an earlier “Jerusalem Prayer List” but now that these funds have been transferred I am thinking of how this small, very small in Korean terms, congregation has inspired me and motivated me to do better and sacrifice more for my faith and for preparing for the return of our Lord.

We don't need big churches or synagogues. We don't need fancy buildings or sophisticated equipment what we really need is to inspire one another. We don't need to wait for a bolt of lightning to hit us so that we can light up with inspiration. We need people who are very dedicated and very much servants at heart to serve the Body of the Messiah with zeal and a spirit of sacrifice that was the hallmark of the Disciples of Yeshua in the past. This little church with a few young families and a loving leadership is an inspiration, it is just simple inspiration to do better and to say “We can!” We all carry some infection and infect one another with every thing from the Swine Flue to Athlete's foot – why not work harder at motivating and inspiring and if you wish infecting one another to do better in our lives and to sacrifice more and bless others with even the little that we have so that God can be pleased and bless His children.

The little old lady in the KIBI seminar in Seoul was also an inspiration. She gave the first 1000 dollars toward the building fund and she inspired others to give the same. Now there is a brother who is poor but he contributed 10 dollars toward the building in Jerusalem. He also wrote a e-mail letter to several thousand people and asked them to each contribute 100 dollars or even 10 dollars so that when enough people give a little each the Lord will make up the rest from those who have and can give much more. Yes, it is an inspiration that we inspire each other and motivates us all to do better and to stretch a little more and remember what it is all about – being like the Lord! Like the song of Hannah Szenes who wrote:
Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.
Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart.
Blessed is the heart with strength to stop its beating for honor's sake.
Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.

You need to pray with me that we can all be such a match that is consumed in kindling a flame! Yeshua died and was consumed but the fire that He kindled is still burning the chaff and dross of mankind and purifying lives and restoring souls back to the heart of their maker. We are His Disciples and we can inspire and motivate and move people to do better by what we ourselves do! Or, my dear brothers, we can do the opposite and inspire and move and motivate people to do bad, evil, and be selfish spiritual terrorists or totally apathetic vegetables gardened on this world's soil in planters made of ticky tacky and well decorated empty churches. Inspire! Motivate! Move it!

Next week Marcia and I will embark on a long trip to the United States for a few days and than to Brazil. We need your prayers for good health and for safe travel. Now days that Osama Ben Laden and his Islamic fascists have taken all to fun out of traveling by air and it is tedious and unpleasant to go through airports we ask you to pray for us on this trip and beg God for our safe and pleasant travel.

The conference in Portugal is progressing well. We are gathering steam with some of the very top scholars and personalities dealing with the issue of the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal. We ask you to please continue to pray for us and for this conference because it s of great importance to the Jewish people in Israel and in the world and I believe that it is also so very important to Christians. Christians need to clear the evil that was perpetrated in the name of Jesus against Jews for so many hundreds of years and Jews need to accept and welcome their long lost brothers and sisters who were converted by force into the Catholic church. We need you to pray for this conference and also help with some of the cost of organizing it and putting it together. I estimate that it would cost Netivyah at least 30,000 dollars to get this conference going and pay for speakers to arrive there from Brazil and other parts of the world and pay for the facilities and advertisements.

Please pray for several families among our friends and brothers in Israel who have fallen into great financial needs. Normally we don't ask for such help, but we have several people in our circles that need a bit of help from their friends. We have helped in the past and we want to continue to help these Jewish brothers and sisters with a little moral and spiritual and financial support.

Our dear sister Sara has fallen again and this time she has fallen inside the house and broken her upper arm. Well, for someone who is above 80 years old a fall is always very serious! Please keep Sara and Zvi in your prayers.

There are so many of our older generation that need your prayers and we list them every week and hope that you say something to our Heavenly Father about these wonderful strong Disciples of Yeshua who have lived rich and wonderful lives of faith in Israel; Ahuva, Leah, Ilana, Miriam, and Sarit. In Finland we keep lifting up our dear sister Tellervo and our dear brother Dr. Tim Tucker. In Brazil we lift up Paulo who is a wonderful young man with some serious problems that God can resolve in a flash.

We report that our dear sister Kimie Muraoka has gone to be with the Lord. We are sad and we are going to miss our dear sister and her smile and kindness, but we know that she is now in a place where there is no pain or suffering. We pray for brother D. Muraoka and bless him with strength and good health and many years of service in God's Kingdom.

At our congregation in Jerusalem we are doing some interesting changes on Sunday afternoon. We are going to start a much more serious study of God's Word and our sitting will be around tables and so will also breaking of bread will be done around the tables. It might seem to you as a minor change, but for us this is a big change and it will make a difference in the depth of study and participating in our services. Please keep us in your prayers.

Keep praying for the salvation of all of Israel! It will happen. God's Word does not come back void and His promises stand forever. Join us to work toward these goals and see the Messiah come soon.

Blessings to all of you,

Joseph Shulam