When I met Emily Crawford on the Outreach Brazil missions trip over winter break, I asked her where she learned about Chosen People Ministries (CPM). To my surprise, she responded, “At your house.”

This is a story of God’s sovereignty. 

Carissa and I work hard to mobilize Christian young adults into Jewish ministry and recruit them for CPM, but God is the one who makes it happen.

The crazy thing is, I don’t even remember meeting Emily before seeing her in Brazil. A few years ago, Emily took a trip to Israel where God gave her a heart for the Jewish people. Afterwards, she just so happened to find FIRM (Fellowship of Israel Related Ministries – whom we partner with in Israel) on Instagram and started following them. 

Emily lives in Tennessee, over 5 hours away from our house. In February of 2019, Emily just so happened to be visiting a friend at Liberty University; which just so happened to be during Global Focus Week; where Kayla, with FIRM, just so happened to be representing at a booth. FIRM just so happened to invite us to join their booth to represent CPM for the week, and we just so happened to host a Shabbat dinner at our house at the end of that week for all the students interested in learning more.

Kayla posted on Instagram about the Shabbat dinner, where Emily just so happened to see it. She showed her friend and they decided to come. That is the largest event we have hosted in our house with more than 55 students attending! That night, Emily heard me talk about CPM and different opportunities to get involved with us. She was so excited! This was an answer to her prayers. She went on CPM’s Outreach Israel that summer and Outreach Brazil the following winter.

Were all of these minor events just a coincidence? Absolutely not! They are a magnificent display of God’s sovereignty – working in all the details to guide Emily and equip her for Jewish ministry. She now plans to get a degree in Jewish studies and join CPM as a student missionary! Praise God! 

Please pray for God’s continued guidance in Emily’s life, and pray that God would send us more people like Emily to mobilize into Jewish ministry.

Thank you for your continued prayer and support for our ministry. Without you, we would not be able to impact the lives of Christian young adults like Emily.

Blessings in Messiah,

BJ, Carissa and Ari