I wanted to write to you a quick note to update you on the new
adventures of congregation Sha’ar Hashamayim. We have been a busy
little congregation this winter with many outreaches to our community.
God has opened up so many wonderful doors it is so hard to pick and
choose just a few to report on. So, I will start with the most recent
and work my way backwards. I will end when my fingers get tired of
typing, so that your eyes won’t go blurry.
A few weeks ago we hosted our annual Passover Seder. What a time we had
singing, rejoicing, praising, eating, and most important commemorating
this wonderful holiday of God’s great salvation not just for the Jew
but for all mankind.
150 people showed up to our filled to capacity hall. Of that crowd we
had 5 unsaved Jewish people who heard the message of hope in Yeshua the
Passover lamb. I hate to boast but my congregation put this event on
and the cooperation and work that was done was absolutely the best I
have ever seen in the almost 7 years we have existed as a congregation.
I was so proud of them. As we say in Yiddish I was qvelling. For the
first time ever we not only paid for the event we actually had a
surplus. If you missed it you missed an event of great joy. Come join
us next year if you can.
We have hosted a number of outreaches to our community each of which
has
brought with it a mixed response. We are using the local libraries
to host lectures. The first one was a lecture on whether a Jew could
believe in Jesus and still be a Jew. The second was “Understanding the
Israeli Palestinian conflict from a Biblical and Historical
perspective”. Both of these lectures were well attended with a good
representation of believers and non believes both Jew and Gentile.
We have received a lot of good press from the local paper. For some
reason one of the editors Seth Jacobs a young Jewish man has taken to
us and keeps doing articles about our congregation and the events we
do. He has given us top billing above the Lubavitch Jewish community
and their events. Please pray for their Rabbi, Mendel Gurkow, I think
he has pulled out some of the hair in his head since we have met.
We have hosted a number of events for the local clergy in our
congregation. This means I have sent out invitations to every church
and Synagogue in the local area. Believe me there are a lot of
Synagogues close to us. Not only do they know we are alive and well
they have been conspiring to shut us down. Isn’t that cool?
Now, I know that sounds a bit juvenile but as long as we are around and
active in the community we keep alive the issue of the Messiahship of
Yeshua for the Jew
and that is cool. Yeshua said in John,
Joh 9:4 "We must work the works of H
im who sent Me as long as it is
day; night is coming when no one can work.
We are approaching the time in our history when night is about to fall
and the work will be hindered so we must be busy about the masters
business while it is still light. This why we do all that we do it is
incumbent upon us not to waist any time.
This now brings me to the point of this letter. We are planning another
very large outreach to our community and I am approaching you so that
you might come and be a part of it. Last year we hosted an event called
the One New Man conference. It was a tremendous success yet there were
still bumps and glitches. We have worked out most of the glitches for
this year and now we are working on the bumps.
The premise for this event is to host a Messianic conference in the
heart of Sharon MA. Sharon as some of you know has the largest
percentage of Jewish population in the country, %72. We have rented a
conference center in town and we are moving full steam ahead. On the
dates of Sept 4th through the 6th we will have our second annual One
New Man Festival. This will be our attempt to reach out to Sharon MA
with the truth of their Jewish Messiah. I do believe there will be
opposition but we are not only up to it we welcome it. We are
determined to keep the Messaihship of Yeshua an acti
ve issue alive in
our community.
What is your20part in this whole thing, come and join us. I am including
all the info in a PDF attachment that can be opened up Adobe reader. So
read it get back to us and come and join us. If you know any one you
can foreword this note on to that would greatly appreciated. If you can
print and post this flyer in your congregation we would be most
grateful. The more the merrier. If you get this email more than once I
am sorry for the inconvenience. I’m just not that good when it comes to
secretarial work.
One more thing I would like to add, the congregation has been presented
with a great ministry opportunity. The local Christian radio station
out of Boston WEZE has asked us to seriously consider doing a one hour
weekly radio program. This would be aired on Saturday after the
Shabbat. The format would be Messianic in nature. It would be called,
One New Mensch. We would make it a call in as well. Believe it or not,
one of the local kosher restaurants said we could broadcast out of
their place.
This is a very exciting opportunity as it would give us a chance to
share with the local churches the Jewish roots of the faith and also
reach out to our local Jewish community. Can you imagine Jewish people
walking into this restaurant and hearing this live broadcast of a
Messianic radio show? It could be only a great success or a live brawl
on the air.
I have prayed about this a long and hard and I believe if God wants it to
happen then it will. This again is where you come in. To put this
program on we need $200.00 a week. This really is a great price. I do
not want to ask for support on the air. I just don’t believe this is
what God wants us to do. So, I come to you. Folks I have known for some
time. I need 32 people who are willing to $25.00 a month faithfully and
on time. If I get the support I know that it is a go, if not then we
move on to the next open door. I am not going to beg anyone for this.
God is going to make it happen or it won’t fly. Please pray about it
and get back to me as soon as you can. If you are so moved to help in
this new ministry opportunity email me and I will get back to you with
the details.
Don’t forget to check out the flyer in PDF form for the One New Man
Festival and come join us for that as well.
Thanks for your time as always we are honored to have you as our family.
Shalom uvracha b’Yeshua.
Peace and blessings in Yeshua
Rabbi Henry