Messianic Congregation！

This is right after we came back to Shevet from the mall. Amelie and Hana asked us whether we would like to go to the local messianic congregation. Of course, we would! So, four of us hopped on a Shevet van and drove to Beit Hallel (Beit is house, and Hallel is praise, so it’s house of praise, while Bethlehem=Beit+lehem is house of bread). Some congregations have Shabbat services Friday evenings, while others on Saturday.

Ashdod is a 90% Jewish community with a minimal Arabs and other ethnicity. They do not have to worry about Israeli-Arab conflicts much in this city, but they said Beit Hallel, as a messianic congregation, suffers from stoning and other vandalism by Orthodox Jews. Messianic Jews are Jews who believe in Yeshua (Jesus) as the Messiah (Christ) and could be considered as traitors against Judaism (which they are not because Jesus really came to save the Jews as the kind of Israel). Due to the past incident, they had to move the worship place to more subdued area in the back of the building. I wanted to take more pictures, but photos are not allowed for security reasons.

Beit Hallelink from home page

The　family　sitting　right　behind　us　was　all　very　fluent　in　English　and　we　enjoyed　friendly　conversation. One of the sons was carrying a black box that looks like a portable printer across the body and I was wondering what that might be. I learned that was a machine gun, him being an off-duty IDF (Israeli Defense Force) soldier. He has an obligation to do so even during his time off even in a church. The unbalance between his angel-like sweet smile and the machine gun was stark. This is the reality of this county, I thought.

The worship was in Hebrew, the prayer was in Hebrew, and the message was in Hebrew. The style though was more like that of American churches with casual/modern flavor. It was an interesting contract to what I am used to in Long Beach, where we worship with kippa and head coverings, following Siddur, a Jewish prayer book (new covenant component added), and some men wearing the Tallit (prayer shawl) and Tzitzit (tassels on the undergarment as the long bleeding woman touched). The service here is much more Westernized than that of Long Beach.

外国人は私たち4人だけのようだったけど、同時通訳を用意してくれた。メッセージは、黙示録にある世の終わりを前にし、いかに目を覚まし用意をしておくべきかという内容。「わたしたちMessianic Jew（ユダヤ人クリスチャン）は、同胞イスラエルの兄弟にゴスペルを伝えるためいつも準備をしていなくてはならない、彼らをjealousにさせなくてはならい（「ああ、あの人たちの信じている方は、そんなにすごいのか、自分たちもその平安と力が欲しいじゃないか！」みたいな感じの嫉妬）という話がああった。このローマ人への手紙11章11節は、異邦人信者である私としては、いつもイスラエルの人を思うとき心にある一節だったので、ここでこれを聞いて深い感慨がありました。牧師さんは、現代では世界のあちこちにヘイト（憎しみ）があふれているが、私たちは神のシャローム（平安）をもって人に接したいと話しておられました。

Again, I ask: Did they (Israel) stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.

Romans 11:11

Here in this messianic communities with many immigrants from Russia, there are quite a few families that had been affected holocaust. Our Shevet coworkers, Amilie and Hana, were from Germany and they shared mixed but blessed feelings being there worshiping together with these Jewish believers. The pastor then also shared with us about a guy who he met on the street the other day. He was a Palestinian from Gaza, and the pastor shared the Gospel with him and prayed together to God (unlikely conbination). With all kinds of hate in the world, our Prince of Peace is working on the healing, and we all praised the Lord.