Marcia is at home after the surgery and she is recovering slowly. She is still suffering the normal degree of pain after a knee replacement surgery and of course the diabetic situation is going crazy under the stress of the pain, but praise the Lord we are coping. We have a wonderful congregation and several women from the congregation have come and stayed with Marcia when I had to go out and do things in town. In an urban setting it is always more difficult to serve each other in times of need but even though our congregation is spread from one end of Jerusalem to the other end women managed to come and help. The normal situation in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood is that there are many synagogues and the synagogues are normally within walking distance for all their members who live in the neighborhood. Each synagogue is like an urban village, a community, that has much more in common between it's members than just once or twice per week worship session. In fact the synagogues were much more like a community center where activities connected to the community were held in them and not only worship. There are several families in our congregation in Jerusalem that wish for such a community center where we could live in the same neighborhood and be within walking distance from the synagogue building. The only time that I have ever experienced such a fellowship was when I was in Dasher, Georgia in Georgia Christian School, that was a community. Dasher was almost 100% populated by members of the same congregation and people could easily walk to the church building and when someone was sick people scrambled to help and bring meals and help in any way that was needed. For me, a Jewish boy from Jerusalem, Dasher and Georgia Christian School was the perfect place to be initiated into the United States of America because Dasher was actually not exactely a part of the greater United States of America it was much more an island of Christians who were in America but not of America. Now in Jerusalem with a congregation of people from different backgrounds, Israeli Jews, and French, Americans, German, Mexicans, Columbians, Dutch, Russians, Finnish, from Kurdistan, Siberia, Ethiopia, Japan, and Korea, - we are almost the United Nations in one congregation of Jewish Disciples of Yeshua. With all of this “Balagan” we still manage to be a community and to help each other in times of need. I really do believe that this is a demonstration of the power of God in a true and visible way. Of course there is a lot of room for improvement and we all want to improve and do better, but if I look at the half full cup it is a miracle and the work of the Holy Spirit. Many that visit our congregation after they have visited other places say that our congregation is the warmest and the most welcoming and definitely the most Jewish in style and culture. We ask for your prayers for our congregation because we are as a congregation and together with Netivyah facing the Israeli Supreme Court hearing in October. There are some very big political forces that don't like us in this city and that don't want to see us exist here and present a Jewish alternative with Yeshua who is our Lord, teacher, Rabbi and Savior. We need your prayers so that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, will bring justice and righteousness for all of Israel's citizens and especially for the Jewish Disciples of Yeshua in the land of Israel.

We need your prayers for the restoration of the Hidden Jews of Portugal back into the fold and to the land of Israel. The preparation for the conference in December is entering high gear and the expenses are growing and the challenges are also growing. Please pray for the conference to be a success and for good news for those hidden Jews to be hear around the whole world and influence all the right people and right governments to open the doors to these people. It is a big project with big expectations and big potential and big challenges. For this reason we need big prayer commitments from all of you our dear friends, brothers, supporters.

Please continue to pray for our sick members and friends in Israel and around the world. In Jerusalem please pray for Marcia to recover and be relieved from pain quickly. Please pray for Sara and Zvi our elderly couple who needs comfort and strength. Please pray for our dear Sister Ahuva who is getting old and frail and can't hear and needs some one from Finland to come and care for her. I say from Finland because of language issues. Please pray for our dear sister Ilana who is also past 80 years old and has problems in her ears. Please pray for Sarit who has difficulties with walking. Please pray for Ruby who suffers from chronic pain. Please pray for Paulo who is a young man who is suffering from emotional issues. Please pray for Danah my daughter and for Noaam my grand-daughter.

Kol HaYeshua is also in need of your prayers. We have some interesting responses to Kol HaYeshua but at the same time we will have a challenge of have one half hour less to broadcast starting October this year.

The Humanitarian work of Netivyah distributing food for the poor of Jerusalem seems to be growing all the time and actually every day there are elderly Russian people coming to our office asking to register and receive food from Netivyah. It is really an amazing phenomenon in Israel that so many people who are intelligent and well- bred fall into poverty and need basic needs like food. Israel has brought so many immigrants who are elderly and who are not able to learn the language well and are too old to get a job. These are the majority of the people who come to get food from Netivyah. I don't know the exact number of people that receive food from Netivyah, but I do know that the Lord is gracious and He is using you and me to feed these people who need food.

Please pray for the the Orthodox Jewish community in Israel. It seems like racial wars between Sephardi Jews and Ashkenazi Jews are raging again. In the city of Emmanuel in Samaria the Ashkenazis don't want Sephardi Jewish girls to attend the same school. I just can't believe that the Sephardi Politicians are not outraged by this behavior. The Supreme Court of Israel has sentenced 28 families to jail for two weeks for discriminating or not sending their children to school. If Israel allows such racial discrimination to go unchecked it will create a tremendous tragedy for the future of Israel. I suppose that our prayers to God can intercede for this nation and for the peace of this nation. Please don't stop praying for Israel. There is so much problems that Israel has now. The world is turning against Israel believing the lies of the Islamic Terrorists and Turkey and others who were supposed to be friends. God is the only one who can really help Israel and it is His help that we really need.

God bless all of you who bless the seed of Abraham! This is God's promise for all.

Joseph Shulam