“Your ministry is comendo pelas beiradas,” he said; and then explained, ”This is a Brazilian idiom that means eating around the edges where no one else is eating. I’m very excited about your ministry because it is greatly needed and no one else is doing it.” This is what a church planter and missionary mobilizer in Rio told Stephen and me after we explained to him our vision to reach Israeli backpackers in Rio.

Even if Carissa and I are not be able to move to Brazil next year as planned, we still desire to be as much a part of reaching Israeli backpackers in Rio as possible. For that reason, I joined our teammate, Stephen Arnold, on a trip to Rio back in September to make preparations for the launching of this incredible ministry!

Our short ten days in Rio were such a blessing and encouragement. Almost every Brazilian we spoke with in the local churches has a Jewish friend, neighbor, or co-worker. Many of these believers strongly desire to share the Gospel with their Jewish friends, but don’t know how to begin presenting Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. Some of them even asked us to train them to do this effectively.

We shared our ministry vision with several pastors in the Southern Zone of Rio, where we plan to establish our guesthouse. Each pastor was not only excited to hear our plan, but also eager to be a part of reaching Israelis with the Gospel, and each offered to help us in any way they could. After sharing our ministry vision in one of those churches, several young Brazilians, who speak English very well, came to us and expressed a desire to volunteer at the guesthouse. The pastor of that church wants to connect us with the five largest churches in Rio so that we can train their members in Jewish evangelism and train their youth to volunteer at our guesthouse.

It is clear that God led us to churches in whom He has cultivated a great understanding of His heart for Israel and the Jewish people. God continues to guide and direct us, open doors we never thought to knock on, and connect us with key contacts to accomplish all that needs to be done. This trip was another confirmation that God is not only in this ministry, but that it belongs to Him and it is He who drives it. What a blessing and honor it is that He has chosen to use these Brazilian churches, you – our sending team, and us to accomplish His redemptive plan for Israel.

“The difference between you and me is that you have answers and I do not,” he said. And I wondered if he felt as hopeless as he sounded. It was well after midnight and Carissa, our teammate Niko, our new Israeli friend, Yosef, and I were talking about the questions of life. Who is God? Why does He allow pain? Why is there so much hate and evil in the world? And on everything we had agreed… except on the issue of the messiahship of Yeshua.

But his primary argument was not what you might think. Yosef’s biggest objection to Christianity is how many Christians have killed and persecuted Jewish people throughout the centuries, and even in modern times, in the name of Jesus. “They said they represent Jesus and you say you represent Jesus,” Yosef asked, “how do I know which of you is right?” Sobered by the harsh reality of his words, there was really only one way we could respond. So, Carissa gave him a New Testament in Hebrew and challenged him to read the book of John to find out for himself who Jesus is and what He is really like, and decide for himself which representation of Jesus is true. It’s such a good thing, isn’t it, that the truth about Jesus doesn’t depend on how well we, as Christians, represent him?

This conversation, and many others during our winter outreach, fueled our desire to spend this summer in Israel to continue these friendships and conversations, and equip ourselves to have many more in the future. And after years of dreaming and praying, the day is finally almost here! We fly into Tel Aviv on May 29^th and will spend our first two and a half weeks based in Jerusalem with our wonderful coworker and leader Robin, and a team of other young adults, doing service projects, outreach and touring.

Halfway through June, we will depart from the team and go back to Tel Aviv where we will start an intensive course in Modern Hebrew at Tel Aviv University. We’re so excited to continue this incredible journey of learning culture and language and can’t wait to start reconnecting with the friends we made during our winter outreach in South America.

Please continue praying for our time here – productivity, health (enough sleep!), safety, wisdom, evangelism, and for our personal spiritual lives and our relationship, as we will be in separate rooms and closely sharing space with a team for the first weeks and spending very full and active days with little down time throughout the trip. As always, please pray against spiritual warfare for us and for the team and for our days and steps to be directed by the Lord!

We are so blessed by your continued partnership with this work and look forward to sending our love and updates to you from the Land!