- there are 70 faces to 
Post by alon on Apr 27, 2017 4:25:38 GMT -8
Israeli Messianic youth take a stand for their faith in school
Kehila News Israel Staff Apr 27, 2017
A new and encouraging phenomenon is taking place among Messianic young people in Israel: Israeli students who are believers are openly sharing about their faith in Yeshua at their schools. This sort of boldness seems to have been unprecedented until now.
After years of being suspended between their parents’ beliefs and a mostly secular society, Israeli Messianic youth are defining their identity and growing in confidence. Thanks to them, more Israelis hear the gospel every day.
Israeli law forbids adults from evangelizing minors, but there is no law prohibiting children from sharing their faith. The Kehila News Israel team contacted a few Messianic students who have shared their faith in their class. Here is what they had to say:
Sarit Roitman, 18, Jerusalem
“I wanted to do something more than just believing in my heart, beyond the fact that everyone knows me as a ‘Christian girl’ or ‘the girl with the strange religion.’ Specifically, I wanted to take a significant step in my life for Yeshua, to glorify His name, not just to introduce who ‘Messianic Jews’ are. I really wanted to tell my classmates about Yeshua, and that is what pushed me and gave me the courage, the will and the faith to share in front of the class.
“I and some of my believing friends planned the lecture beforehand in great detail. We started by presenting the faith. We proved, using the prophecies from the Bible, who Yeshua is and how these prophecies are coming true in the New Testament and we concluded with personal testimonies from our lives.
“Truth be told, I did not know how my classmates would respond. It was clear to me that they would respect me as their classmate, but I was afraid that the direction of the lesson would evoke shouting and resistance. To our great surprise, as soon as we began to speak, there was complete silence in the class. They listened with interest and concentration for the whole hour and a half that the teacher had given us for this purpose. We felt full confidence to speak and I have no other explanation for this except that God was with us and He directed our every step. After class there were many questions. My classmates said it was the most interesting lecture they had ever heard. The reactions were absolutely positive and full of respect and for that I simply thank God.”
Daniel Brener, 15, Kfar Saba
“In my class there was a custom in every history lesson that one of the students in the class would talk about an interesting subject. When my turn came, I forgot that I had to plan a lecture in advance, so I spontaneously decided to speak about the Messianic faith. In the lecture I did not declare that I was a Messianic believer, but after a while I decided to speak to the teacher and then slowly began to share about the faith with my classmates. When I shared in class I used a presentation explaining the Messianic faith, as well as some prophecies from the Bible that speak of Yeshua. The reactions of my classmates were very good! Many of my friends asked questions and expressed interest.
“However, when I spoke to them on other occasions about the subject, it seemed that what I had told them so far had entered one ear and left through the other. So I continued to talk about Yeshua at every opportunity and prayed and still pray that God would increase the seeds that were planted in their hearts!”
Miriam Moshe, 18, Eilat
“I started to share my faith when I was in 11th grade. What motivated me to share was the desire to tell about the gospel because it had been given to everyone, and everyone should know it or at least know about it. Knowing that I had only two years to finish my studies made me realize that I had to hurry up and tell about the Messiah, no matter what they thought of me.
“At first, I sent Eitan and Moti’s evangelism video clips and other videos to the class WhatsApp group, and the next day questions arose from my classmates. But there were also quite a few claims and arguments. Most of the responses I received were not pleasant at all, but there were those who came out in my defense and encouraged me not to pay attention to the offending responses and to those who reacted rudely to me.
“Once I even came across an incident that some of the classmates did not want to open one of the videos I sent because they were afraid of seeing the name Yeshua. But they were curious about what the content of the video was so they decided to ask those who were brave enough to open the video and look at it. It was funny to see this happening from the side.”
The boldness of these young people is surely pleasing to the Lord. We eagerly anticipate the good fruit that will grow as a result. Let us remember these students in our prayers as they stand despite the challenges take every opportunity to be witnesses and a light to our faith.
“Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth.”
Psalm 127:4
Posted here with permission.
Note that when they say Messianic, they include Jews who have converted to Dispensationalist Christianity. Still, this is encouraging.
Dan C
Kehila News Israel Staff Apr 27, 2017
A new and encouraging phenomenon is taking place among Messianic young people in Israel: Israeli students who are believers are openly sharing about their faith in Yeshua at their schools. This sort of boldness seems to have been unprecedented until now.
After years of being suspended between their parents’ beliefs and a mostly secular society, Israeli Messianic youth are defining their identity and growing in confidence. Thanks to them, more Israelis hear the gospel every day.
Israeli law forbids adults from evangelizing minors, but there is no law prohibiting children from sharing their faith. The Kehila News Israel team contacted a few Messianic students who have shared their faith in their class. Here is what they had to say:
Sarit Roitman, 18, Jerusalem
“I wanted to do something more than just believing in my heart, beyond the fact that everyone knows me as a ‘Christian girl’ or ‘the girl with the strange religion.’ Specifically, I wanted to take a significant step in my life for Yeshua, to glorify His name, not just to introduce who ‘Messianic Jews’ are. I really wanted to tell my classmates about Yeshua, and that is what pushed me and gave me the courage, the will and the faith to share in front of the class.
“I and some of my believing friends planned the lecture beforehand in great detail. We started by presenting the faith. We proved, using the prophecies from the Bible, who Yeshua is and how these prophecies are coming true in the New Testament and we concluded with personal testimonies from our lives.
“Truth be told, I did not know how my classmates would respond. It was clear to me that they would respect me as their classmate, but I was afraid that the direction of the lesson would evoke shouting and resistance. To our great surprise, as soon as we began to speak, there was complete silence in the class. They listened with interest and concentration for the whole hour and a half that the teacher had given us for this purpose. We felt full confidence to speak and I have no other explanation for this except that God was with us and He directed our every step. After class there were many questions. My classmates said it was the most interesting lecture they had ever heard. The reactions were absolutely positive and full of respect and for that I simply thank God.”
Daniel Brener, 15, Kfar Saba
“In my class there was a custom in every history lesson that one of the students in the class would talk about an interesting subject. When my turn came, I forgot that I had to plan a lecture in advance, so I spontaneously decided to speak about the Messianic faith. In the lecture I did not declare that I was a Messianic believer, but after a while I decided to speak to the teacher and then slowly began to share about the faith with my classmates. When I shared in class I used a presentation explaining the Messianic faith, as well as some prophecies from the Bible that speak of Yeshua. The reactions of my classmates were very good! Many of my friends asked questions and expressed interest.
“However, when I spoke to them on other occasions about the subject, it seemed that what I had told them so far had entered one ear and left through the other. So I continued to talk about Yeshua at every opportunity and prayed and still pray that God would increase the seeds that were planted in their hearts!”
Miriam Moshe, 18, Eilat
“I started to share my faith when I was in 11th grade. What motivated me to share was the desire to tell about the gospel because it had been given to everyone, and everyone should know it or at least know about it. Knowing that I had only two years to finish my studies made me realize that I had to hurry up and tell about the Messiah, no matter what they thought of me.
“At first, I sent Eitan and Moti’s evangelism video clips and other videos to the class WhatsApp group, and the next day questions arose from my classmates. But there were also quite a few claims and arguments. Most of the responses I received were not pleasant at all, but there were those who came out in my defense and encouraged me not to pay attention to the offending responses and to those who reacted rudely to me.
“Once I even came across an incident that some of the classmates did not want to open one of the videos I sent because they were afraid of seeing the name Yeshua. But they were curious about what the content of the video was so they decided to ask those who were brave enough to open the video and look at it. It was funny to see this happening from the side.”
The boldness of these young people is surely pleasing to the Lord. We eagerly anticipate the good fruit that will grow as a result. Let us remember these students in our prayers as they stand despite the challenges take every opportunity to be witnesses and a light to our faith.
“Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth.”
Psalm 127:4
Posted here with permission.
Note that when they say Messianic, they include Jews who have converted to Dispensationalist Christianity. Still, this is encouraging.
Dan C
