Encouragements in Jewish evangelism

I am encouraged by so many good news stories coming from the world of Jewish evangelism.

In my role as the International Coordinator of the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism, I have the privilege of interacting with evangelistic organisations and missionaries to Jewish people from all over the world and hearing all the good that the Lord is doing right now among Jewish people.

But I am also the CEO of International Mission to Jewish People. And as such, I am personally acquainted with the faithful work of all our missionaries. God is at work!

In our mission, we run public outreach events in Jewish communities all over the world, especially over the summer months. For instance, this summer we are doing these in Budapest, Paris, Rio and London, while last summer we were in Melbourne and Sydney.

Our missionaries work with local churches and volunteers to hand out gospel postcards, stand at gospel book tables, sing Good News songs in town squares, put on gospel enquiry events in local centres, and more. We always pray that the Lord would be preparing Jewish hearts to receive Him, and He never disappoints. In fact with the massive outbreak of antisemitism in the world, Jewish people are responding to that pressure with spiritual questions and faith.

Last summer on our outreach in Sydney and Melbourne, while antisemitic marches were taking place and acts of hatred against the local Jewish community were raging, we saw God bring two Jewish people to faith in Jesus on our outreach.

One of those was Eva, a Holocaust survivor and friend of a local minister who wanted to introduce her to two of our missionaries from Israel, Misha and Aviel. They came to invite her to an evangelistic event they were putting on that evening. Eva was interested in the Israelis, but at the door exclaimed, “I am 91 and tired! I won’t be able to come, so come in tell me what you will say at your meeting!”

They came in and shared the gospel, speaking about sin, Jesus, the need for repentance and how Jesus has come to save His people. “Wow!” Eva exclaimed. “My carer Sasha tells me these same things about Jesus, but he is a Gentile. I never met a Jewish person who believes in Jesus before.”

At that very moment the phone rang, and it was Sasha who was calling to check on Eva. You can imagine the excitement in the room as Sasha endorsed their message. Eva was convicted and by the end of the visit she had repented and professed faith in Jesus. Praise God!

Eva’s life was deeply impacted by her carer, Sasha, and her pastor friend. They lived the love of God before her and provoked her to jealousy and faith in Jesus.

On our outreach in Paris this summer, our team found foot traffic to be slow and people were not stopping to talk, so they prayed. Just as they said “Amen,” a Jewish man named Gabriel was standing in front of the “Shalom Board” (a board we use with sticky notes where people can answer the question “How can we achieve peace in the world?”)

Our missionary, Aurel, began to speak with Gabriel, who mumbled something about Israel but was unintelligible. Then Gabriel explained that he was struggling with the hatred being aimed at Jewish people. He shared that his nieces had been called “dirty Jews” at school, and he was deeply troubled and hurt by this.

As Aurel listened, showing kindness and consideration, Gabriel began crying. Aurel comforted him with a hug and reassured him that he would be praying for him and his nieces. This made Gabriel burst into tears again. The Good News was shared with Gabriel through word and through deed.

If I had the space I could write so many more stories of Jewish people the Lord has on a journey toward saving faith like Gabriel, and those who are coming to faith and being discipled into the church like Eva. God is saving Jewish people! I’m so encouraged, and I hope you are too.

While there is plenty of news to be concerned about in the world, plenty to drive us to anxiety, my faith and confidence is continually renewed by what the Lord is doing through those who remain a faithful witness to God’s lost Jewish sheep.

My prayer is that we can all be encouraged and renew our commitment to the power of God to salvation as demonstrated in the gospel proclaimed to both Jewish people and the rest of the world. Jesus saves!