The Jerusalem Prayer List – April 29, 2010

On Thursday last week I was actually on my way from Ukraine to Israel. I did not write the prayer list last week. My time in Ukraine was interesting. Although I had to wait in J.F.K. For many hours before I was able to leave New York City from Kennedy on Ukrainian Airlines. I landed in Kiev, Ukraine, and had to take a flight to Odessa, the scheduled flight was canceled. The next flight was canceled. They said that the next flight would be “tomorrow morning.” I asked the office of Ukrainian Airlines in the terminal if they could guaranty that there will be a flight tomorrow morning and they said that they could not say anything. I asked what should I do. They said, “take a hotel in town and come back tomorrow morning or take a taxi to Odessa. The distance between Kiev and Odessa is 500 kilometers. I took a taxi and fortunately there was a young lady with a child that was also needing to get to Odessa and we shared the taxi and paid together a total of 350 US dollars for the all night ride from Kiev to Odessa. The next morning I started to teach at 9:00 a.m. The class had 16 students, most of them adults who would like to serve God in some context of blessing the Jewish people and sharing the Good News. I actually gave three full days of teaching from 9:00 a.m. till about 9:00 p.m. the subject was Hermeneutics of the New Testament.

With my return home the challenges landed with me. Marcia was in much pain because her knee went out. She really did not feel good during my absence. Today we went to the Orthopedic Surgeon and it looks like Marcia will have a total knee replacement. We have to do it privately because this Surgeon is the best in Jerusalem. We need to do this surgery quickly because we have a summer full of projects and activities. I ask you to pray to our Father in Heaven for Marcia, for the doctors, and for me too.

Please lift up the project in Portugal in your prayers. There are more and more professors from around the world who want to participate in the seminar. There is steam building up for this conference. We have an agreement with a wide coalition of participants that the Anussim (Marrano Jews) need to be repatriated and accepted as Jews without forcing them to convert to Orthodox Judaism. I ask you to pray for this very important and very challenging project that has all the potential to change the very map of Israel both demographically and also spiritually and open the doors for many Jews who have been totally rejected and lost to the Jewish people to return home and bring with them Good News for all of Israel. We already have people from Japan, Korea, Brazil, Germany, Finland, Israel, Portugal, the United States, England, and Hong Kong committed to participate in this conference. Please pray for God to bless and for the cooperation that we have with the city of Castelo de Vide and other Mayors to be fruitful and blessed.

I also ask you to pray for the food distribution of that Netivyah is doing in Jerusalem. I have just learned that the numbers have increased in a dramatic way. We are now feeding over 500 people. We are distributing a total of 5.5 tons of food every month. The majority of the people who come to receive food are older generation Russian Immigrants who have come to Israel in the early and mid 1990's and are living on government social security pension that is not enough to pay bills, eat, and pay for medication. Our help is a blessing to these people and makes their lives just a little easier and just a little happier and just a little more bearable. Today a old lady who was a famous medical doctor in Siberia called the office. She is very old and alone and not well with her health. She has been coming to receive food from Netivyah for several years. We used to carry the food to her home. Now because of budget and time involved we have stopped to drive and carry the food to people's home. This old lady can't come to carry the heavy bags of food that we distribute and she was in tears that she can't come to take the food that she needs for her survival. What can I say to your my dear brothers, this dear old lady will get the food because we are going to ask other people who live in her neighborhood to help her and carry the food to her. When we bless people that are in need and they can't help themselves our faith is actually at work. Our faith in God is not only for the Synagogue and the church building, in fact in these places of worship our faith is least of all expressive and demonstrated. According to Yeshua our faith is best seen when we bless those who can't bless us back and give to those who cannot give us back the same blessing. Let us pray for every one of us to be able to do something for those who are the weakest link in our society.

Dear brothers time is running out and we have to ask you to pray for the following needs of Netivyah:

1. We have to continue to raise funds for our Building program. The Supreme Court of Israel will hear our case in October 2010. Pray that the righteousness of the legal system in Israel and the good judges will judge righteous judgement and that we would win this case and be able to start building immediately. We still need near a million dollars. Please speak to your congregations and churches and ask your leaders to see our web page and learn what we are doing for the Kingdom of God: www.netivyah.org

2. We have been very fortunate to have some wonderful friends in Korea who have made a commitment to help with the needs of the conference in Portugal. However, it seems like we still need help with the organization of this project.

3. The Food distribution program keeps growing and the numbers also mean expenses. We have done all that we can to minimize expenses and also increase the number of people.

4. Kol HaYeshua Radio continues to produce first class programs in Hebrew and both on the internet and also on the radio there are people all around Israel and even in the neighborhood countries that are hearing the Good News in Hebrew. I ask you to pray for those who are hearing Kol HaYeshua.

We have a special request for prayer for Ludmila's son, Vlad – who has some serious illness in his legs. Please pray for Vlad to be helped, healed, and blessed by God.

We also must pray for our elderly who are sick and mostly alone and have some serious physical problem: Ahuva can't hear. Ilana has problems in her inner ear. Leah has problems with Asthma. Sarit has problems with her legs. Miriam had cancer. Zvi is 85 years old and has several health issues. Sara has fallen several times and has broken bones and is also in her 80's. David has a serious illness. Ruby our dear sister from Oklahoma City suffers from chronic and debilitating pain. Paulo in Brazil suffers from besetting emotional problems. June, Marcia's mother suffers from cancer related issues. Deborah our dear sister in Philly has a second bout of breast cancer. She is young and she is full of life and we all join together to pray for hear healing. I also ask you to pray for my family, for Marcia, and for Danah and Noaam who are in California and who need a special dispensation of God's grace and healing.

Netivyah is not especially organized to help disciples of Yeshua in Israel with financial help, but we can't help it because there are so many needs and such suffering and need that we could not just close our eyes to the needs of our brothers. So, we have near 20% of our budget going to help especially and only brothers and sisters who have special needs. Since it is not easy to be a disciple of Yeshua in this land and disciples of Yeshua do have a job and financial disadvantage in Israel. It is harder to function and it is harder at times to find a job and to get a good job is even harder because the minute that some people find out that you are a disciple of Yeshua you immediately can be fired from your job. Well, we have some people who are unemployed in our congregation, and we have some who are new immigrants with many children and find it hard to just make ends meet. We have others who had to sell their car and now they can't come to the congregation and worship and participate with us because they are living far from town. All these needs are such that your prayer can open up windows in Heaven and supply a divine answer and blessing from above to help, comfort, resolve, and provide for the needs of the Jewish disciples of Yeshua in the land of Israel.

Please continue to pray for the salvation of Israel. The salvation of Israel does not mean that they will all suddenly become “Christian” but it does mean that they will all accept the Work of God in Yeshua and restore their relationship with the Almighty One of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and above all accept what God has done through Yeshua for the whole wide World.

Blessings upon you all and healing in every way and every relationship and every need you have in your life.

Joseph Shulam