We are prayerfully expecting the Lord to do wonders during our first Medical Outreach of 2020 in Enewari, Ethiopia. We chose to minister in this area of the Amhara Region because 75 percent of Enewari’s population is Jewish. The Messianic congregation of Addis Ababa, three hours away, is already engaged in this area, laboring for kingdom impact. Last year, several JVMI team members visited Enewari with leaders from the Addis congregation. Together they stood on a vacant lot. Recently, our team saw on that same piece of ground a beautiful new school that the Addis congregation had built for this rural area. The Lord is working!

Please pray with us that they can acquire the land adjacent to the school for a congregational building so worship meetings can begin. We are also asking the Lord for this Enewari Outreach to bring many people to faith in Yeshua (Jesus), people who can one day worship in the new building.

Will you join us in interceding for the Enewari Outreach, day by day, as well as for the 3-day LifeStraw® Outreach in another region afterward? Daily prayer points are below, and you can sign up here for a time slot to pray from home. Please pray for:

Wednesday, February 26–Wednesday, March 4 • Isaiah 45:2–4

• Smooth, timely completion of pre-Outreach set-up
• Good working relationships with staff from the local clinic and area officials before and during the Outreach
• God’s favor, intervention and anointing in opening the hearts of the community
• Wisdom and creativity in how to reach this area with the Good News

Thursday, March 5 • Psalm 32:7–8

• Our Outreach Partners as they pack, leave home and begin their travels
• Safety, protection and health while traveling and during the Outreach
• Smooth flight connections and all luggage to arrive safely with our partners

Friday, March 6 • Psalm 16:5–8

• The breaking, in Jesus’ name, of any spiritual resistance or opposition in the Enewari region

• Easy adjustments to new food, accommodations, culture and time zone
• Strong unity and fellowship during the Erev Shabbat dinner at the hotel and continuing all week

Saturday, March 7 • John 14:26

• Safe travel to the campsite, involving several hours on dirt roads
• An engaging time during the “Messianic 101” teaching today and Sunday’s training of the Spiritual Care team
• Discernment in hiring local workers to labor faithfully in partnership with Jewish Voice
• Accurate, effective communication that includes strong unity and precise understanding between our team and interpreters

Sunday, March 8 • Philippians 1:3–6

• God’s guidance during the orientation for medical professionals and the final phases of Clinic set-up
• A great start to the week of ministry as the Clinic opens Sunday for a half-day
• Tremendous favor with the community as we bring Yeshua’s love to the people of Enewari through loving kindness, medical care, sharing the Good News and prayer

Monday, March 9 • Mark 16:20

• Any local officials visiting the Outreach event to be blessed and ministered to themselves
• An outpouring of God’s grace that leads to miracles, signs and wonders
• The Lord to use every aspect of worship, prayer, love and ministry to shift the spiritual atmosphere in Enewari and expand the kingdom of light

Tuesday, March 10 • Romans 10:14–15

• Stamina and anointing for the Spiritual Care team to minister effectively to many all week
• Renewal in God’s presence during the Ethiopian-style worship time Wednesday night
• The daily, early morning worship and prayer gathering to take place without interference, resulting in focus and strength

Wednesday, March 11 • John 4:13–15

• The Lord’s guidance, favor and direction for team members visiting nearby villages to proclaim the Good News of Jesus and distribute LifeStraw® water filters
• Deep unity with the congregational leaders from Addis Ababa with whom we are partnering
• Many people each day to be open to the Good News and receive Jesus the Messiah

Thursday, March 12 • Ephesians 3:20

• Energy for the team and staff members to finish the week well
• The Lord to multiply efficiency and each person’s efforts among this relatively small Outreach team
• A good night’s rest and effective strategies for Friday as we end the Enewari Outreach Clinic

Friday, March 13 • 1 Corinthians 14:33

• A smooth and orderly Clinic-closing this morning and safety as the departments pack up
• Evidence that the Lord helped us do more than we are able, ministering to more than we thought possible
• Safe travel back to Addis Ababa and a refreshing, restful Erev Shabbat meal together

Saturday, March 14 • Matthew 25:23

• Each participant to experience the Lord’s “Well done, good and faithful servant”
• The Lord to continue sharing His heart for Ethiopia with our Outreach Partners as they enjoy time in the city
• The testimony meeting Saturday – that God’s glory and faithfulness will be proclaimed

Sunday, March 15 • Isaiah 52:7

• Journeying mercies as our Outreach Partners travel home
• Rest for team members – some of whom are staying longer – and the Addis Ababa congregation leaders who have served alongside us all week
• God’s guidance and effectiveness as the congregation leaders follow up on interest cards from the Outreach and continue their ministry to people in the Enewari area

Monday, March 16 • Psalm 91

• Safety, energy, protection and health for the few remaining JVMI team members flying to the Somali Region of Ethiopia and then traveling on rough roads today
• Wisdom and discernment in this mostly Muslim region, which also includes a Jewish population
• The Holy Spirit’s continued guidance in everything we do here (and everywhere we go)

Tuesday, March 17 • Galatians 6:9

• Good relationships with the local medical providers, authorities, and community members
• Enough LifeStraws® to bless each person who comes, giving them clean water in the name of the One who is Living Water
• This effort to open people’s hearts to the goodness of God through Jesus

Wednesday, March 18 • 2 Corinthians 2:15

• Safety for our team members traveling back to Addis Ababa and then all the way home
• Recuperation for each team member who, at this point, has ministered internationally for weeks
• The fragrance of Yeshua and the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit to continue to flow and bear fruit in both regions long after we leave

Let’s Pray:

Lord, we are so privileged to go where we go and do what we do, all at Your request and empowering. And all for Your glory! May these two regions, by these two different types of Outreaches, be saturated with the love of Messiah Jesus through the compassion, good deeds and Good News given in His name. May Your kingdom expand and Your body be built up as people receive care, and their lives are changed. In Yeshua’s name, Amen.

Got two minutes?

Well, OK, 2:20. Still, that’s all it takes for you to discover who Jewish Voice is and what we’re all about.

With the short video below, you’ll get a concise look at the vision, mission and programs of Jewish Voice Ministries International (JVMI). Exciting footage from our various avenues of ministry will give you a feel for the difference that people just like you are making around the world through their partnership with Jewish Voice Ministries.

Jewish Voice’s vision is to transform lives and see all Israel saved. Our mission is to proclaim the Gospel to the Jew first, grow the Messianic Jewish community, and engage the Church concerning Israel and the Jewish people. Jewish Voice carries out this mission through the many facets described in the video.

Watch, Save and Share

Watch the video below to get a glimpse into the ministry of Jewish Voice.

Save the video link in your web browser favorites so you can easily show the JVMI video to others who you think might be interested.

Share it by providing the link to others and on your social media channels to spread the word about the work God is doing through people partnering with JVMI. Share it: 

To help you raise support for going on a Jewish Voice Outreach

Include a link to the video in your fundraising letters to help family and friends understand what you’ll be doing. Or, show the video in a presentation to your congregation.

With your pastor or other congregational leaders

They may be interested in having a JVMI speaker visit to expand on the Jewish roots of the New Testament or conduct a Passover Seder and explain its correlations to Jesus.

With the missions committee of your church or congregation

They might be looking for a ministry to support or want to get a group together to go on a Jewish Voice Outreach.

With a Bible study or homegroup

Some Bible study or homegroups like to “adopt a ministry” to sponsor.

We’re Jewish Voice Ministries International. It’s nice to meet you!

Did you pray for our Festival in Poland during December? If so, you were part of something unique and significant!

A key church leader there told us, through tears, “You must understand. This has never happened before in Poland.” To his knowledge, never in Polish history had thousands of people – many of them Jewish – come together and heard the Gospel presented in a Jewish context by a Jewish Believer in Jesus.

That is the event you were praying for, and we are so grateful for your participation in the Festival through intercession. We want to share with you some praises regarding the experience in Warsaw and what we saw the Lord do there. We’ll also include some prayer requests that came out of this historic event.

Let’s praise the Lord together:

• Our team in Poland agreed – this was one of the smoothest Festivals ever
• There was incredible unity among the team members: staff, Outreach Partners and Polish partners
• Team worship times throughout the week were full of the presence of the Lord with hearts focused on Him, which fueled the extensive intercession that took place there for the Festival
• As our volunteers went throughout the city sharing the Good News and inviting people to the Festival performances, they experienced divine appointments and shone the light of Messiah wherever they went
• The Friday and Saturday Festival performances were full – 2,500 people each night
• Sunday, we held an additional service where 1,000 people gathered because they wanted to hear more
• Altogether, 6,000 people heard a clear and passionate presentation of the Good News of salvation through Yeshua (Jesus), given by Jonathan Bernis. They listened attentively and had the opportunity to receive personal prayer at the end
• There was confirmation, over and over, that the Lord is doing something special in this season in Warsaw and Poland and that this was exactly the “right time” for Jewish Voice to be there with this type of event
• We were strongly impressed that the Lord really wanted to use the Festival to bring revelation to the Believers in Poland regarding His covenantal love for the Jewish people. He is showing the Jewish people His redemptive plans and purposes for them, and He is revealing to the Gentile Church how to join Him in those plans.

Here are some prayer requests that flowed from our time in Poland. Please pray for:

• Believers there to awaken to God’s heart for the Jewish people and become engaged in reaching out to them with the love of Yeshua
• The Lord to continue to fan the flames of unity between Jewish people and Gentiles in Poland, where there is good soil and a unique timing for fruitful Kingdom cooperation
• New vision and excitement for the congregation we partnered with, now that they have experienced firsthand taking the Good News to the Jewish people
• Encouragement and strength for the couple leading a small Messianic fellowship within this large congregation as they seek to shepherd the Festival’s fruit
• The Gentile Church and Jewish Believers in Warsaw to unite as never before and be a beacon of light to the nation and all of Europe

Her name is Eldana. It means “knowledge of God.” She’s 3 years old — a precious child.

As a member of Ethiopia’s ancient Gefat community, she’s a tiny, fragile member of a group descended from one of the “Lost Tribes of Israel” that has for centuries practiced distinctively Jewish customs and traditions.

To God and Eldana’s family, the worth of her life and health is beyond calculation. But in truth, all it takes is $15, just pennies a day, to help save the life of a child like Eldana.

You see, Eldana is thirsty. And the relentless equatorial sun regularly drives her to the mudhole at the edge of her village. This is her family’s primary water source.

But the water is not safe to drink. So Eldana must decide if she’s thirsty enough to dip her little plastic cup into the reddish-brown liquid and then drink it.

At just 3 years of age, she knows the water smells bad. What she doesn't know is that it’s teeming with bacteria which can make her desperately sick — and may very well leave her blind, or even kill her.

She dips. She hesitates, eyeing the murky water in her cup. She drinks. Thirst wins. It always does. No child should ever have to make this choice.

Even so, this heartbreaking scene plays out day after day, with child after child, among people of the “Lost Tribes of Israel” in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and other African nations.

And that’s why I’m writing you today.

We made a promise to the Gefat people that we would help them — to clean up their unsafe water by bringing them as many LifeStraws as possible on our next Medical Outreach there.

So, what’s a LifeStraw?

It’s a remarkable, almost miraculous, personal water filtration device that provides roughly 4,000 liters of clean, life-giving water.

Its beauty is in both its simplicity and its cost: It provides a day’s worth of life-saving water for merely pennies!

Right now, you can deliver a LifeStraw to a child like Eldana or another member of the “Lost Tribes of Israel” for only $15. And $75 will provide a Family LifeStraw — enough clean drinking water for a family of five for three years!

The best news is, this blessing of purified water is delivered along with the Good News about the Messiah who described Himself as “Living Water”!

Will you provide a LifeStraw to at least one person in desperate need by sending the most generous, compassion-filled gift you can right now?

Why do we mark the anniversaries of horrific days in history? Dates like December 7, June 6 and September 11 mark tragic events that grieve the heart.* Some people may not want to bring the somber past into the present with a day of remembering. Why dwell on it? Why pull from the record books stories of the tragedy and suffering?

We – as a world community, as nations, as individuals – commemorate for several reasons:

• To help ensure such things do not happen again
• To remember those who died and not allow the value of their lives to be forgotten
• To honor those who survived, thank them for their bravery and pray for them

We at Jewish Voice remember the Holocaust on three distinct occasions each year. In late spring, we commemorate Israel’s national Yom HaShoah, honoring those who died in or survived the Holocaust. In November, we mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht, a devasting pogrom that unleashed Hitler to forge ahead with his “Final Solution” to eradicate “the Jewish problem.” And in January, we highlight International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is observed on January 27, remembering the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp. This year marks 75 years since the day that the traumatized and near-starved prisoners who remained in Auschwitz were freed.

During World War II, Germany herded between 1.3 and 1.5 million people, most of them Jewish, to Auschwitz and its subcamps. Of those, approximately 1.1 million were killed. Others were kept alive as forced labor doing the gruesome work that followed the mass murders.

A split-second decision

Paula Lebovics was part of a group of children that the infamous Dr. Joseph Mengele brought into a room at Auschwitz one day in January 1945. He had them stand in a circle around him, and he seemed to talk kindly to them. He said he knew that all of them had family they wanted to reunite with, and it could be arranged for them. “Come forward if you want to reconnect with your family.”

Paula stepped forward. Immediately, a younger girl that had attached herself to Paula stepped up beside her. In a mere second, Paula’s mind swam with warnings: How do they know where my family is? What if when I give information about my family, I put them in jeopardy? This could be a bad thing.

Paula instantly stepped back. She begged the little girl, who had taken to doing whatever Paula did, to return to the outer circle. But she refused. Later in the month, when Paula and the other prisoners of Auschwitz were liberated, right outside the camp, they found the bodies of those children who stepped forward that day. They had all been shot.

Pulled from the line, and saved

Miriam Ziegler was a young girl at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. In January 1945, as Russian troops advanced on Auschwitz, German soldiers abandoned the camps. When the prisoners were sure they were alone in the compound, Miriam and other able children walked to the main Auschwitz camp and broke into storerooms of food and clothing. They returned with all they could bring to the sick and elderly, including Miriam’s grandmother. The prisoners put on layers of clothing underneath their striped uniforms to fend off the frigid winter temperatures.

Three days later, a few Germans returned and told the prisoners, “Whoever is able, line up, and we will walk you to safety.” Miriam believed it and got in line. But her great-aunt pulled Miriam and her cousin out, explaining that if they were required to walk for help, they might as well stay put. “And fortunately, we did,” Miriam said, “because, on the way, they shot every single person.” Thousands died in what became known as “Death Marches.”

The next day, the Russians came, and then the Americans. Miriam and the other prisoners were free.

Why remember?

Why do we remember the sober days of historical events? With the Holocaust, we remember because we live in a world that still practices the same hatred and illogical anti-Semitism that led to the murder of 6 million Jewish people. We remember because we must never forget, even though it is a painful recollection. To forget would dishonor those who suffered unfathomable cruelties. To let the Holocaust fade away with complacency would situate the world for the setting ablaze of anti-Semitism’s ongoing flickering flame. As we see more and more violence perpetrated on Jewish people around the world, we must not forget the far and horrid distance to which such hatred can go.

We remember because we need to resolve, “Never again!”

Miriam Ziegler told her story to The USC Shoah Foundation as part of a video record of Holocaust testimonies.

Paula Lebovics told her story to The USC Shoah Foundation as part of a video record of Holocaust testimonies.

*June 6 is D-Day, when in 1944, Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, suffering a devastating loss of lives while gaining access to the continent of Europe and eventually marching on to free Europe from Nazi Germany. 

December 7 is Pearl Harbor Day, commemorating the lives lost when the Japanese enacted a surprise attack on a U.S. Naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1941.

On September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorists hijacked commercial airplanes and flew them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania, killing and injuring thousands of Americans.