Do you ever wonder how we got started in Jewish ministry and ended up working with Chosen People Ministries (CPM)?

In November 2012, only four months after we got married, Carissa and I attended a Messianic retreat. There God burdened our hearts for the Jewish people and gave us a passion for Israeli backpackers, but we had no idea what to do next. Jewish ministry was completely foreign to us.

At the retreat, we made friends with Jewish believers from Chicago. They invited us for Shabbat dinners, so we started making the two-hour drive from Wisconsin every other week. That is where we first met Shmueli (Stephen Arnold), who told us his vision to start a guesthouse ministry in Brazil to reach Israeli backpackers. This was too perfect – I grew up in Brazil and we want to reach Israeli backpackers with the Gospel! We prayed about it and decided to partner with Shmueli.

As we were deciding which missions organization to join, CPM stood out to us for several reasons. We constantly met CPM missionaries at events, conferences, and congregations we attended. They were very friendly, doctrinally solid, and encouraging to us as we sought God’s direction.

Probably the deciding factor for us was that CPM is a very entrepreneurial organization. They leave it up to the missionary to decide where to go and what ministry to do – as long as it lines up with CPM’s mission statement. This is a great fit for us, because we have a specific passion and vision that others are not doing. 

Since joining CPM in 2014, we have been continually impressed with the leadership who have guided and mentored us, encouraged us in difficult times, and exhorted us to take care of family above ministry. We are inspired by the rich 125-year history of Chosen People Ministries and the incredible work they are doing in 18 countries around the world. We are excited to be a part of the vision going forward: to focus on reaching Israelis, to utilize digital evangelism, and to invest in a new generation of young adults to expand missions to the Jewish people.

We could not be happier with the organization we chose, and we are so grateful to have you partnering with us in the Gospel. Thank you for your continued prayers and support, our ministry would not be possible without you.

Blessings in Messiah and Happy New Year,

BJ, Carissa, and Ari

You have been praying for years that God would allow Carissa and me to reach Israeli backpackers in Brazil with the Gospel. As most of you know, because of Carissa’s health, we have not been able to move overseas. But God has bigger plans. When He closes a door, sometimes instead of opening a window, God opens a two-car-garage door.

Rather than moving us down to Brazil to help run one guesthouse, God has given us a new vision: to recruit and train more missionaries to run a network of Christian guesthouse ministries across all of South America to reach exponentially more Israeli backpackers with the Gospel than we would have been able to reach on our own.

In order to recruit Christain young adults to reach Israeli backpackers, I am working to set up and lead short term mission trips to backpack alongside Israelis and volunteer in already established Christian guesthouses in South America. Not only are these trips an effective way to share the Gospel with Israelis; they are also an opportunity for others to catch the vision for this ministry, and want to do it long term.

Outreach Brazil is a three-week trip, December 21st – January 8th, for Christians, ages 18-30, to share the Gospel with Israelis while exploring the beautiful sites in Rio de Janeiro. The team will hike with Israelis in the world’s largest urban rainforest, host backpacker Shabbat dinners, and have conversations about the Jewish Messiah at the foot of the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer.

As of the writing of this letter, I will be leading Outreach Brazil with our coworkers Robin, Shmueli, and Jenna. However, this is contingent on Carissa’s health remaining stable, and her ability to take care of Ari without me. While we are so thankful to report that our beautiful girl is overall healthy and growing well, she has had a number of challenges from severe colic to nursing trouble. Please pray that Ari quickly outgrows these challenges and is an easy baby for Carissa while I’m gone. As always, continue to pray for Carissa’s complete healing. Pray also for Outreach Brazil, that Israelis will be open and receptive to the Gospel, for team safety and unity, and that God will move some to continue this ministry long term.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support, we appreciate your partnership with us in the Gospel.

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year,

BJ, Carissa, and Ari

On a Sunday in April 1992, God used a Messiah in the Passover presentation to bring my boss, Dennis Karp, to salvation. You can watch his full story at ifoundshalom.com.

Dennis went to the Passover Seder to prove them wrong – that Jesus is not the Messiah. But instead he ended up finding the answers to all the questions he had been asking about religion for many years. He found Messiah in the Hebrew scriptures. He found Shalom.

I am passionate about missions! I believe that every follower of Jesus should be a part of the great commission in some way or another. Everyone should be making disciples for Jesus. 

More specifically I am passionate about making Jewish disciples. And I love teaching other believers how to effectively share the gospel with their Jewish friends.

One of the most powerful tools we have in sharing the gospel with our Jewish friends is the Jewish holidays. Each of the biblical feasts point to Messiah, and I know so many Jewish believers today that came to faith through an explanation of Messiah in one of the Jewish holidays.

Unfortunately, many Christians do not know much about these appointed times that God ordained, and therefore cannot use these powerful evangelistic tools to share their faith with their Jewish friends. Imagine the impact the body of Messiah could have to “make Israel jealous” if each of us had a better understanding and appreciation of these holidays.

Because of this need, I have the privilege to teach a six-week class at our church of 1,900 people beginning October 30th! Please pray that God would use this class to stir hearts for His chosen people, that many believers would be equipped to share the gospel with their Jewish friends, and as a result that many would come to faith in Jesus.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support, this would not be possible without you.

With love in Messiah,

BJ, Carissa, and Ari

You might remember Nick from our December prayer letter. At our Sukkot event, I stayed up past midnight sharing the Gospel with Nick because he had so many questions. After months of Bible study with me and attending church with us, Nick came to faith in Jesus! He continues to faithfully attend church and is sharing his faith with his unbelieving family.

That story is cool enough, but I need to share some back story: hours before we invited Nick to our Sukkot event, I was seriously struggling.

September 27th I broke down in tears. “God, what are you doing?” Carissa has several debilitating chronic illnesses, we are in debt with medical bills, and our grand plans for reaching Israeli backpackers in Brazil have been derailed. “This is not at all what I wanted.”

As I started praying through my tears and frustration, God brought to mind a passage we had just studied in church: Philippians 1:12 ”Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel”

Paul was in prison in Rome, but God used those terrible circumstances to further the gospel by giving Paul access to the praetorian guard and Roman authorities. 

God reminded me that the purpose of life is not to be healthy and wealthy. The purpose of my life is to glorify God and to make disciples of all nations. This is a hard lesson, but I yielded, “OK God, if Carissa has to be sick and we have to be in debt for ‘the greater progress of the Gospel’, then so be it. I submit to your plan for our lives.”

A few hours later, Nick, our pharmacy delivery driver, came to our door with Carissa’s medications. He saw the sukkah (tabernacle) in our front yard and asked about it. Carissa invited him to come to our Sukkot event, which was the next day. And the rest is history.

If Carissa was healthy and we weren’t paying for expensive medications, we never would have met Nick, and Nick would not know Jesus. The addition of another brother to our heavenly family is worth a lifetime of sickness and debt. Jesus is worth it all, and God’s plan is best.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support, we could not do this without you.

With love in Messiah,

BJ, Carissa, and Ari

Today I got an unexpected phone call from our Israeli friend, Tom, who wanted to congratulate us on our baby girl. Carissa and I met Tom on Christmas day 2015 at the Shelter on the Lake where we were serving and sharing the Gospel with backpackers from Israel and around the world. It is our favorite Christmas memory to date, and it has been our dream ever since to spend future Christmases just like that one. I can’t imagine a more perfect way to celebrate the birth of our Messiah than to share the story of that first Christmas with the nation to which Jesus first came.

The three weeks we spent in Bariloche were transformational.

• I got to teach my very first Bible lesson for unbelieving Israelis… on Christmas day!
• We saw that hiking, rock climbing, and camping are strategic opportunities for sharing the Gospel 
• We gained experience applying what we learned in Bible school 
• We stayed up till 2 or 3am many nights with Israelis engaged in spiritual conversation

We had heard incredible stories of how effective Israeli backpacker ministry is, but until we experienced it ourselves it was hard to imagine. Now we’re hooked. We want to spend the rest of our lives staying up till 3am to share the Gospel with Israelis. But that wouldn’t be enough. A ministry this strategic and dynamic merits far more resources and manpower than it’s been given so far – which is why we are recruiting and mobilizing students into Jewish ministry. 

Over the past year and a half God has enabled us to mobilize 16 students into short-term Jewish ministry and 1 student into long-term Jewish ministry! Pray that God would send many more into the field of Jewish ministry.

Before ending the conversation today, Carissa asked Tom how we could be praying for him. His surprise reminded me of the powerful testimony of prayer, and the unique privilege we have as believers to talk with the sovereign God of the universe.

Thank you for your partnership with us in prayer. Please continue to pray with us for Tom’s salvation, and the salvation of the nation of Israel.

B’shalom Yeshua,

BJ and Carissa

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“I am one of the counseling students who came to the Jewish Shabbat that you held at your house a while ago! Thank you both so much for the time you took to help our project. We are really hoping to educate our class about the Jewish people and their culture as accurately as possible… to reduce stereotypes and bring awareness to avoid micro-aggressions in the realm of counseling.”

“My name is Nate. I am a student, and I recently attended a Chosen People Ministries event in Lynchburg, VA. It really opened my eyes to see Israel not just as a place where Jesus lived, but also as an unengaged country with lots of lost people.”

While the continued growth of attendance to our Shabbat dinners has been tremendously encouraging (one event this semester brought over 50 students – our house was so packed they were eating dinner on our stairs!) they are truly the means to an end. Presenting Jewish ministry through traditional cultural experiences, family environment and home cooked meals, enables us to forge personal connections with students who will take the ideas and perspectives they have learned in college into countless career paths and communities around the world. Our first and foremost goal is to send God-appointed workers into full-time ministry to the Jewish people, but perhaps it is no less essential to be a part of shaping the minds and hearts of individuals who we pray will carry God’s heart for the Jewish people into the fields of politics, business, medicine, counseling, education, and church ministries. Because of your partnership in this ministry, their testimonies may have untold impact on the community around them; and wherever God takes them, they most likely will meet Jewish people with whom they will have opportunities to share the love and good news of our Jewish Messiah.

We concluded the Spring semester with a full Passover banquet at our church attended by dozens of Liberty students who got to learn biblical truths that are not only deeply faith-enriching, but also provide powerful tools for sharing the Gospel with Jewish people. While students are away for the summer, we will focus our energy on becoming new parents to our sweet baby girl, building connections with professors at Liberty, and continuing our fundraising efforts.

Thank you for the integral part you play in making this ministry possible! We thank God for you.

B’shalom Yeshua,
BJ and Carissa

You’re never too young to be a good ambassador of Jesus to the Jewish people; you’re never too old to be a better one.

A mentor recently asked me, “BJ, what makes you mad? What breaks your heart, and what are you doing to make a difference?”

I thought for a while, then answered, “What makes me mad is that 90% of missionaries are going to people groups who are already reached with the gospel. The Jewish people are unreached and yet very few missionaries are going to them. What breaks my heart is that 15 million Jewish people are dying without hearing that the Messiah their God promised 6,000 years ago has already come, but they’re still waiting for Him because no one has told them about Jesus. I am making a difference by committing all my time to recruiting new full-time workers to go to the Jewish people.”

The answers to these questions were an important step in helping me realize the importance of the work we’re doing right now, and helping us focus our vision so that we can do our work more effectively.

Carissa and I are now more focused than ever on this goal: to recruit 5 students from Liberty University into long term Jewish ministry by May 1st, 2021. While 5 may not seem an impressive number in the grand scope of missions, it is a significant goal in the field of Jewish ministry, into which so few commit their lives. As we look back on the previous school year, we are blown away at what God has accomplished: we praise God that He has allowed us to recruit 16 students into short term Jewish ministry, and already 1 student into long term Jewish ministry! This would not have been possible without your help. We can’t emphasize enough how integral your role is in this work.

Having just returned from spending time with many of you in the Midwest, we are encouraged that you are faithfully praying that God’s heart for the Jewish people will be realized in our lifetime. As you pray for our work with college students, we also pray that God will move in you to reach your Jewish friends, coworkers and neighbors. God is so clearly bringing His people back into their homeland, (Ezekiel 37), but there is a beautiful advantage for the Jewish people who remain scattered across the globe. That is, the Church does not have far to go to reach them with the love of our Messiah. Perhaps you need only to cross the street or visit the office next to yours. You’re never too young to be a good ambassador of Jesus to the Jewish people; you’re never too old to be a better one.

Because you are a crucial partner of our ministry, we believe it is important for us to keep you up to date on our finances and needs – both ministry and personal. It has been on our minds for a while now to update you on how the Lord is graciously providing for us, our current fundraising goals, and some important clarifications on how donations are processed. God is so good to us, and while we are still far from fully funded, we have always had a roof over our heads and food on our table – enough to host our growing Shabbat dinners!

Our ultimate fundraising goal is $9,800 per month. This goal has been set by our ministry leadership, and factors in administrative and overhead fees paid to Chosen People Ministries, a percentage dedicated specifically to our ministry expenses, the increased cost of living in a big city in the future, and salary for BJ working full time and Carissa working part time. If you would like to see a more specific breakdown of where your donation goes or have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Our average monthly support is currently $3,600; and we receive $3,000 of that as salary each month – regardless of fluctuations in donations month to month. After taxes, this is not nearly enough to cover our monthly expenses, or pay off medical debt. In addition, we are in need of a new car (with working AC) before the arrival of our Baby Girl and Virginia’s summer heat. Carissa’s health suffered without AC last summer, and another summer with this car is not an option.

In the past when we have shared prayer requests about medical needs or car trouble, several of you have generously made donations above your monthly support. We have been so blessed and encouraged by those gifts, but feel it is important to clarify to you that such donations made through Chosen People Ministries bless our ministry fund, but do not change the salary that we receive month to month. For an increase in our salary amount, the Ministry will need to see a consistent increase in giving to our fund over a period of time. If you would like further clarification on this, we are always happy to talk with you over phone or email and answer any questions.

It is still our intention and prayer to move from Lynchburg to somewhere with a larger Jewish population – whether that be Rio de Janeiro or New York. Until God gives us our next step, we will continue to focus on mobilizing students and believers into Jewish ministry, stabilizing Carissa’s health and working towards full funding. We appreciate your faithful prayers and partnership with us as we pursue God’s will in all of these things.

Shalom friends!

For those of you who haven’t heard, we are happy to report that Baby Girl Kerstetter is growing healthy and strong, and on track for her due date of June 22. Carissa’s health has remained stable so far through pregnancy, and ministry is going smoothly.

In December, I had the privilege of joining four of our awesome coworkers in representing Chosen People Ministries at Urbana – one of the largest Christian student missions conferences in the world, with over 10,000 participants and over 250 missions organizations and seminaries! What an incredible opportunity it was for us to alert missions-minded youth to the urgent need for Jewish ministry.

While – unsurprisingly – most students we talked with had never considered or even heard of the need for Jewish ministry, there was one young man from Trinidad and Tobago who strongly feels God calling him into Jewish ministry, and didn’t know where to begin. He was surprised and excited to find an organization at Urbana dedicated to Jewish ministry. Kedell is currently a Junior studying Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University. As he was reading through Romans 9-11 and studying Daniel last year, he came to a new understanding of God’s desire for the Jewish people to come back to him and the role the Gentile church has in accomplishing this. Kedell says, “BJ encouraged me to pursue Jewish ministry and to let the Lord lead my every step, especially in this crucial place in my life of being a Junior and wondering what happens after graduation.”

He is seriously considering going on the Outreach Israel trip in 2020 to serve unbelievers in Israel, and also wants to join the Shalom Brooklyn team to reach the Jewish community in New York. Deeply burdened by the great need for Jewish ministry, Kedell says, “God still loves His Chosen People and we as Christians need to recognize that, and go preach the good news to them.” Please pray that God will guide Kedell in decisions for missions and internships, and give him boldness and courage as he pursues on-campus evangelism and leads Bible studies with new believers this semester.

We hope stories like Kedell’s encourage you with the impact your partnership has on Jewish people globally. It is an incredible joy to be used of God as He moves to reach His beloved people with the truth of their Messiah. Our continued prayer in both our mobilization and evangelistic efforts, is that God will guide us to Spirit-prepared hearts who are seeking Him and His will in their lives. As Paul said, “So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth,” (1 Corinthians 3:7).

With Love in Messiah,

BJ and Carissa

Shelby is a 20-year-old Theology and Apologetics major at Liberty University. She first became interested in Jewish ministry after going to Israel on a school trip and falling in love with the Jewish people. She met BJ and Carissa at a Shabbat dinner they hosted at their house. Shelby says, “The Kerstetters’ passion for Jewish ministry encouraged me to pursue one of Chosen People Ministries’ short term opportunities.”

Shelby spent a full week doing outreach as part of the Shalom Brooklyn team this summer, and learned so much about Jewish culture in Brooklyn. This experience gave her more confidence in sharing the Gospel with others, and she now believes God is calling her into Jewish ministry! Shelby says, “Jewish ministry is of utmost importance. Missions begin and end with the Jewish people. Yeshua desire His people to be sought after in order that they may truly know who their risen Messiah is.” Please pray for direction in God’s calling upon Shelby’s life, and daily obedience to His will.