You have been praying with us that God would send more workers into the field of Jewish ministry – and God is working!

Curtis is a 21-year-old Theology and Apologetics student at Liberty University. He first became interested in Jewish ministry his freshman year of college while studying Romans 9-11, and learning about God’s plan and promises for the nation of Israel (we LOVE it when people grasp God’s heart for Israel directly from His Word!). Last summer, he visited Israel and saw firsthand the great need for the Jewish ministry God had already begun to lay on his heart. God continues to grow Curtis’ heart for the Jewish people and has given him a strong desire to pursue full-time Jewish ministry!

In October, Curtis met with our friend David Welch to figure out what first step he could take in the direction of Jewish ministry. As he has graciously done before, David immediately connected him with us, and we were thrilled to help get him started. Curtis says, “BJ and Carissa have impacted my heart for Jewish ministry through hosting Shabbat dinners and taking the time to teach me modern Hebrew. The Shabbat meals allow me to come to a better understanding and a greater appreciation of the Jewish culture through experience, which has caused my heart to grow even more for the Jewish people. Learning modern Hebrew has caused my passion and excitement for Jewish ministry to grow as well.”

Curtis plans to find opportunities this coming semester to serve and engage the Jewish community with us in Lynchburg, and plans to be in full-time Jewish ministry in the future. Please pray for Curtis as he finishes his last year here at Liberty, and for God to prepare him for what comes after he graduates in May. Curtis has applied to Chosen People Ministries’ Charles L. Feinberg Center to get his Master of Divinity in Messianic Jewish Studies so that he can be thoroughly equipped for Jewish ministry. Please pray that God will give him clear direction as he pursues these next steps in the direction of Jewish ministry.

We are so thankful to be a part of God moving in the Body of Messiah to take the message of salvation back to the original messengers, and want you to be also encouraged by the integral role you play in this beautiful process! Thank you for your faithfulness to this work that is so dear to God’s heart.

“To the Jew first…” (Romans 1:16), took on a new meaning for us this fall in Lynchburg. The heart and focus of everything we do is ultimately to reach Jewish people with the good news that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and desires a personal relationship with them. It is with that end goal in mind that we hosted the Jewish fall holidays in September, and built a massive sukkah (tabernacle) in our front yard. Because we live in an area with such a small Jewish population, our sukkah was one of only a couple throughout the city, and it stood out more than a little bit. We knew it would prompt questions from our neighbors, and we were not disappointed.

Through the numerous questions, we were able to engage in several spiritual discussions. One such conversation was with Nick, the guy who delivers my (Carissa) specially compounded medications several times a month. We had been praying for opportunities to build a relationship with him, so we were excited when he wanted to know about our sukkah, and we were able to very naturally explain our faith in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. We invited Nick to our Sukkot celebration, and he not only came, but stayed until midnight after everyone else had left to ask BJ question after question about God and His Word. The Holy Spirit is doing a major transformative work in Nick’s life, and he is very close to God. BJ and Nick have begun meeting once a week to do a Bible study together, and Nick is now coming with us to church. Please pray that he will soon make the decision to place his faith in Jesus, and not settle for living a good, moral life without true relationship with God. *Edit since this letter was sent out for snail mail distribution.* Nick has now placed his faith in Jesus’ finished work on the cross for salvation, and continues to grow his faith through Bible studies with BJ, regular church attendance and personal Bible study. We are so excited to welcome this new brother to the family of Messiah, and see God continue to transform his life! 

It is incredible to see how God’s design for the Gospel to go “to the Jew first” is worked out in such a dynamic way. What a cool testimony it is to worship God in the way He designed through the beautiful object lessons about Himself that are found in the biblical feasts. And how wonderful it is to see Him at work as we seek to tell of His glory “to the Jew first,” and to the rest of the neighborhood!

B’shalom Yeshua,

BJ and Carissa Kerstetter

As you prayed diligently for us through our health crisis and move to Virginia the summer of 2017, God was already working out the details of what has come to be a rewarding ministry. One of the crucial details He prearranged was a providential partnership with the sweetest local Messianic couple who have become our dear friends. David and Rachel are Jewish believers with a love for Jesus, a heart for Israel and a remarkable readiness to serve.

Connected by a friend in Chicago the first week we arrived in Lynchburg, we hit it off with David and Rachel immediately, and they have been one of our greatest blessings and valuable connections ever since. They not only make it a priority to attend all of our Shabbat dinners and holiday events, but they also bring a large number of other guests. Because of David’s position as Executive Director at LU Send, Liberty University’s travel and study abroad department, and Rachel’s position at LU Serve, Liberty’s service outreach department, combined with their charismatic personalities and love for others, they are very well connected on campus and abroad. It is hard to say just how beneficial this has been, as they continually use their broad connections to invite interested students to learn more about Israel, Jewish culture and the biblical holy days with us.

David’s love for Israel is deeply personal, enriched by his experiences acquiring Israeli citizenship, serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, and making Israel his home for five years before he moved here. He has made it his mission to send as many Liberty students and staff to Israel as possible, and he and Rachel personally lead several trips there each year. When they return with students newly enamored with the Holy Land, they make sure to invite them to continue the experience with us through our events. It is then our privilege to offer these students opportunities to be involved with short and long term ministries that bless the Jewish people locally and abroad.

Once again, it is undoubtedly the Lord who goes before and enables this work. It is His heart for Israel that motivates ours, and it is He who will do it. Please continue to pray with us that the Lord of the Harvest will send workers to the fields. And thank you always for YOUR own partnership in prayer and support of this work. We are continually thankful for you!

B’shalom Yeshua,

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 this Spring and falling in love with the Jewish people. A couple weeks after this school trip, we invite all the students from that trip to an Israeli Hummus night at our house. Shelby was so excited to come, and remembering that night, she recounts, “BJ and Carissa’s passion for Jewish ministry encouraged me to pursue one of Chosen People Ministries’ short term opportunities.”

Shelby prayed about joining the Shalom Brooklyn team this summer, and God provided everything she needed to go! She spent a full week doing outreach with me and about 60 other staff and volunteers, 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.

Stories like Shelby’s are one reason we are thrilled to be engaged in Liberty’s CSER program this year which allows students to fulfill their community service requirements through partnering with us in Jewish ministry! Please pray with us that God will move fifteen students to invest their twenty community service hours this semester with us into four outreach efforts. We hope to involve several in the work of hosting our Shabbat (Sabbath) dinners and other events. Others may work remotely to assist our New York coworkers on an exciting apologetics project. Still others may assist us in telephone evangelism, following up with the thousands of contacts Chosen People Ministries has made through online campaigns like IfoundShalom (ifoundshalom.com) and Isaiah 53 (isaiah53.com).

We are eager to invest into the lives of each of these students, as well as each person who attends our weekly events. Our semester events kicked off in September with the Fall High Holidays. Each event provides a unique opportunity to educate believers about how Jesus is reflected in the biblical feasts, and yet how blinded our beloved Jewish people are to the light that they themselves hold up for the world. Praise the Lord for such wonderful opportunities – and pray that He would send workers, for the harvest is ready.

Many of you received a letter, two months back, about our continued hope for our future ministry in Brazil. On the day that we typed up that letter, I had an anaphylactic reaction that spiraled into a month long “flare,” which made us re-evaluate everything we had just written. It is clear that my health is not stable enough to move or travel outside the country, but the letter had already been sent. Once again, we have set that dream aside, and refocused our attention – more fully this time – on the growing ministry God has given us here in Virginia. We are so thankful to begin seeing the fruit of our work here, as God moves hearts and sends more workers to minister to the Jewish people.

        You have been an important part of sending several truly godly young believers into short term work already this year. Bible school graduate, Karis, spent several months ministering to Israeli backpackers at the Zula Lodge in New Zealand. She was part of a team that served hundreds of young Israelis, showed them the love of Jesus, and shared the Gospel through individual conversations, weekly Hummus Nights and Shabbat (Sabbath) dinners. Karis is currently planning to go into full time ministry to unreached tribal groups with Ethnos 360, and continues to pray for the salvation of the Jewish people.

        Geoff, graduate of Liberty University, learned about Chosen People Ministries through our table at Liberty’s Global Focus Week. There he was challenged to go on our Outreach Israel trip to spend six weeks of his summer serving and sharing the Gospel with Jewish people in Israel. He is still seeking God’s direction for him as he prepares for full time ministry.

        Wes, current student at Liberty University, has been praying about ministering to the Russian Jewish community for some time now, and began coming to our Shabbat dinners last fall. He is serious about pursuing this work long term, and was excited to learn that Chosen People Ministries offers individualized internship opportunities. He has spent this summer serving alongside Chosen People’s incredible New York staff through accounting and Russian Jewish outreach. He will be spending this fall studying abroad in Russia, and we look forward to having him back at our Shabbat dinners in the spring.

        It blesses us immensely to see how God has orchestrated these and other meetings and impressed a love for His chosen people onto their hearts before we met. We are honored to be one small part of their journey, and want you to know that you too have been a powerful piece of forwarding the Gospel by sending godly men and women to the fields of ministry, which are ripe for harvest. Please pray with us that God will increase the reach of this ministry and send many more workers to take the truth of Jesus back to the original messengers. We thank God always for you!

B’shalom Yeshua,

BJ and Carissa

*Featured Picture: Liberty students, Wes and Shelby, serve alongside BJ at a food distribution center on Chosen People’s Shalom Brooklyn missions trip

You are the difference you are praying to see in the world. Against the pervasive darkness and tragedy we all have witnessed across the globe over this past year, you are an outstretched arm holding forth the all-conquering light and love of God. You are the reminder to Jewish people that there is a God, and that He loves them. Your testimony is the Bible that the world is reading. And your life and love speak God’s Word louder than than the cantor in any synagogue.

Over the last year, one of our primary goals has been to build our partner team and raise the prayer and financial support necessary to carry out this ministry. And praise the Lord – He has done it! By God’s grace, we will enter 2018 stronger with each of you beside us, well equipped to forge ahead to whatever God desires to accomplish through this team. It has been our absolute privilege to sit down with many of you, and talk with many more of you over the phone in the last few months; to get to know the incredible individuals who we are blessed to call our teammates, and see in your hearts a reflection of God’s own.

You are pastors, teachers, missionaries, construction workers, students, stay-at-home moms, nannies, bankers, business men and women, engineers, hair stylists, photographers, artists, authors, doctors, lawyers, baristas, paramedics, nurses, pilots, web developers, salesmen, police officers, military personnel and so much more. You are based in at least twenty-three American states, and at least ten more countries. Some of you are blessed with much and some of you get by with little. You come from all walks of life and have many different political views. Two powerful things unite you: your love for our Messiah Yeshua, and your heart for His people, Israel. And because of those two things, every last one of you is a world changer.

Maybe you have never traveled to the Holy Land or met an Israeli, but the dollars you give to this ministry are hours of your life that you have invested in their eternity. And every time you lift your voice to intercede for Israel before the throne, you take up the shield of faith and wield the sword of the Spirit right alongside us at the front lines of the battle.

As the holidays approach, and we thank God for another year of involving us in His great mission of redemption for Israel and the nations, we want you to know: you are the difference. Your love scales the walls between Jewish people and the message of salvation in Yeshua. And we thank you for it.

B’shalom Yeshua,

BJ and Carissa

Your prayers are making an impact! As always, God went ahead of us in Lynchburg, and once we arrived, it was not long at all before we had connected with many Jewish and Gentile believers who share God’s heart to bless Israel and take the good news of Messiah back to the original messengers!

In our first weeks here, we visited the local synagogue and have since continued to build relationships there. One significant difference between Israeli backpacker outreach and ministry with Jewish Americans is time. While the backpacking culture and hostel setting lends itself to quickly and easily engaging in deep spiritual conversations; simply put, American Jewish culture does not. Our approach in Lynchburg will be slow and steady, with a strong focus on building relationships, earning trust and loving practically in order to display Jesus’ love and open doors for spiritual discussion. Would you please be praying with us for divine appointments, open hearts, and Spirit-led conversations?

By God’s grace, we have also connected with several key people at Liberty University and are excited about several projects in the works to bless the small number of Jewish students on campus, and to educate the student body of the need for Jewish evangelism. In the last month, we distributed Rosh Hashanah goody bags, began work on a Hanukkah party which will be co hosted by Liberty’s Stand With Israel club, and are looking forward to hosting our second group Shabbat dinner in the coming weeks. We are hopeful that these and other events will bless and encourage local Jewish believers, lead the way to sending Liberty students on Chosen People short-term outreaches, and ultimately mobilize many for long term ministry.

September also saw BJ travel with our coworker, Stephen, to Rio de Janeiro for ten days to share plans for the guesthouse with several churches there and meet with a number of local church leaders to build connections and seek potential members for a Chosen People board of directors in Brazil. Their time was so fruitful and you can look forward to an exciting report in next month’s letter!

There are truly many incredible opportunities for Jewish ministry here. We are eager and determined to see God’s will worked out through our weakness. His love for Israel is eternal, and His purpose and promises for her irrevocable. As followers and lovers of God, how can you or I help but want to be some part of the work that is so intimately wrapped up in God’s heart, and for which He has guaranteed success?

B’shalom Yeshua,

BJ, Carissa and Harley

Have you wondered how you can continue to effectively bless the Jewish people when your missionaries have landed smack in the middle of the Bible Belt? We were too. At first glance it seemed to us that the best place for us to stabilize Carissa’s health might be a terrible place to do Jewish ministry. Not a chance!

As you have prayed with us through this unexpected relocation, our loving Father has faithfully guided us through wise counsel, Providential connections and refreshing reminders of our calling. Of course, as believers, our purpose is always the same: to glorify God by knowing Him and making Him known, (Phil. 3:10; Col. 1:16; 1 Pet. 2:9). And as staff with Chosen People Ministries, we are in wholehearted agreement with our mission, “to pray for, evangelize, disciple, and serve Jewish people everywhere and to help fellow believers do the same.”  What you might be surprised to learn, as we were, is that – while it will look a bit different than it does in Rio or Tel Aviv – there are many opportunities to do exactly this in Lynchburg, Virginia.

• Jewish community in Lynchburg Just a mile away from our current home is a small but active synagogue of 70 families. We visited right away and were warmly welcomed. We are excited to build relationships and find ways to serve and love our new neighbors.

• A Remnant Small but mighty is our tiny Messianic mishpocha (or family) in the city of Lynchburg. Besides our family, we have met a number of Jewish believers right here in town, and we are just an hour away from a vibrant Messianic congregation in Roanoke. We can’t wait to see how God might use us to bless and be blessed by this community. (Meet two of our new friends pictured above!)

• Opportunities for Mobilization Home to Liberty University, the world’s largest Christian university, and hundreds of churches, Lynchburg is an incredibly strategic base through which to educate and mobilize young believers and churches to go out into the world “to the Jew first.”

We won’t pretend that this isn’t a challenging adjustment for us, but we are confident that God is never limited by location, or health, or finances, or any other thing! We hope you are as eager as we are to see God’s plan unfold here in Lynchburg. “Thank you” is just never enough to express our appreciation for your prayer and support.

Love,

BJ and Carissa

Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. In four words, five years of careful planning, training and preparations were turned upside down. But not for God. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts,”  says God Almighty, (Isaiah 55:9).

From the trauma and grief of this last year, has emerged a truly miserable condition that only God could foresee and only He can cure. Practically, it means that my throat tightens, I get weak and dizzy upon exposure to any kind of synthetic fragrance or chemicals – which is everywhere and all the time. Suddenly, any number of things can potentially trigger massive headaches, severe anxiety, exhaustion or anaphylactic shock. According to human knowledge, this condition is incurable and can only be maintained through the careful and complex combination of extremely limited diet and a plethora of prescription medications. Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, or MCAS, does not necessarily shorten lifespan, but it makes that lifespan miserable.

We have to learn to live according to a new set of rules, but no one can tell us what the rules are. Only we, with the help of a specialist, can figure out what my triggers are and experiment to find the right medications. It could take 2-5 years to stabilize my body again; but then, “stable” is relative and we’re not sure what it looks like.

For ministry, this means that our plans to move to New Zealand and Brazil have been set aside, at least for now, in favor of staying where we can better create and control a safe environment. This is heartbreaking for us in so many ways, but we trust that God has a plan in it and that He can use us wherever he places us. For now that will be in Lynchburg, Virginia, where we can be with family as we figure all this out.

 
We will continue to work with Chosen People Ministries, and are already encouraged by the number of ministry opportunities we can have in Lynchburg. We will keep you updated, and we continue to deeply appreciate and depend on your prayer and support. Our God is a God of healing and miracles, and we are praying for nothing less.

With love,

BJ and Carissa

Thank you. For all of the ways you have contributed to our ministry preparations over the last couple years – thank you! At long last, BJ has graduated from Moody Bible Institute with a Bachelor’s in Jewish Studies and Biblical Studies. And we have begun the exciting work of building our Partner Team – raising funds and recruiting prayer partners so we will be thoroughly equipped for full time ministry in New Zealand this October. We currently receive about 30% ($1,800/month) of the total funding ($6,000/month) we need in order to focus our full time energy on ministry. With your support, we have worked hard to reach this exciting phase, and we are eager to take these next steps!

But to be frank with you – despite many exciting moments and blessings, the last year has been the hardest we’ve ever known. June marked one year since the home-going of our beloved brother, Levi. It is still very fresh to us, and we continue to deeply grieve our loss. We have also faced a number of new health challenges which have intensely complicated our lives over the past months.

Through it all, we have fallen to our knees before God – more than a few times – to ask if we are truly in His will as we continue down this path. Even in May, as we sold or packed up all of our earthly belongings to ship our lives first to New Zealand and then to Brazil, questions flooded our minds. How will these health issues affect running a guesthouse? Will we raise enough support in time to go to New Zealand? How will we handle the days when the pangs of grief are crippling? Have we lost our minds?

Every item we packed into those boxes was an action of faith. Each 50-some pound case says – “I’m going where God takes me, and I don’t know when I’m coming back.” And to tell you the truth? We don’t have the answers to every one of those questions. But despite the fears that creep in, the immense challenges we face, and the unanswered questions, we really do believe that God is saying, “Go.” He has confirmed it for us again and again. And we are reminded of God’s command to Abraham, “Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you,” (Genesis 12:1) and of His faithfulness in Abraham’s life as God did indeed show him a new home and so poured blessing on him that those blessings are still overflowing to us today. If that isn’t a good reason to follow God in faith, I don’t know what is.