tirsdag den 24. september 2013

Yoel Ben David

Yoel Ben David arbejder for Jews for Jesus. Han og familien er tilbage i Tel Aviv og Immanuelkirken efter nogle år i hhv. USA og England. Han skulle skrive noget til Jews for Jesus' amerikanske nyhedsbrev. Det sendte han til mig, og det har jeg fået lov at lægge herud, siden det handler ikke så lidt om kirken.



My name is Yoel. I live and serve God in our Tel Aviv branch where I train our new missionaries and interns. I would like, if I may, to bring you to my place of ministry for a while... at least a paragraph or two, and show something about my life you might not expect.

Imagine you are walking down Tel Aviv beach toward Jaffa. You should be imagining certain things that are very true. You hear the sound of the waves, and watch families arriving to enjoy the coastline. You should feel the middle-eastern heat... but as the sweat trickles down your face, one thing you don't expect is the sight of an iron cross atop a steeple. Yet there it is off to your left, like a steak at vegetarian barbecue.

'Surely I am back home...', you think to yourself. You look around for large cars and various fast food restaurants. But no. The iron cross is not a vision induced by dehydration. You have not been dreaming.

You are staring at the top of an old church built by a German group of Christians in 1905. You walk to it. As you arrive, the service is beginning. 'But it's Saturday! Are these people confused?' No. The main service is on Shabbat (saturday) morning and the congregation is made up of Israeli believers, fellow Americans, Scandinavians and Africans. As you enter you would see large stain glass windows that light up the church in reds and blues. As you look back you see me in the foyer, my wife Adel and my four children (probably doing something loud).

Yet, next to me you would see something that you would have thought didn't belong in this apparently strange and foreign building. This place of stone walls and stained glass two minutes from a Mediterranean beach front. Yet what you see next to me would be Israeli seekers. Young Israelis wanting to find out more, or older Israelis on a walking tour of historic Jaffa that drop in on Shabbat to see what the building is all about. Yet when they enter they  don’t meet a tour guide with a prepared speech on the history of the building. They meet an Israeli Jews for Jesus missionary with time to sit and talk about why they too, as Jews, could find a home in Jesus.

It was just a few weeks ago that I met a young man called 'Shmuel' in that way. His family comes from Europe and he has found his way to reading and knowing about Jesus but wants to know how to commit his life to him. His first line to me was, 'I want to be baptised'. Since our first meeting at the church, 'Shmuel' and I have met to talk more and I believe that he will soon be a complete member of community in body and in faith.

I praise God for the incredibly un-Israeli way in which our church building stands out in Tel Aviv and how it draws hundreds and thousands of Israelis every year to its doors because it is not quite normal. As a Jews for Jesus missionary, I too stand out with my t-shirt and my message of a crucified Jew dying for the sins of his people and the world. Yet somehow, that is by God's Spirit, people are drawn to the door of Messiah where he waits to welcome them in.

Yoel Ben David