July 2023 – Multiplication

Multiplication. This is the fastest way to reach the largest number. And this is the strategy Jesus taught us to use in ministry.

The mission statement of Chosen People Ministries is (1) to pray for, evangelize, disciple, and serve Jewish people everywhere and (2) to help fellow believers do the same. 

When starting out as missionaries, our ministry initially looked like the first half of the mission statement: ministering one-on-one with individuals. As time went on and we gained more experience, our personal ministry shifted to include more and more of the second half of the mission statement: to mobilize others into missions with us. This is multiplication – and this is what Host Israelis is all about!

Carissa and I spent our first years sharing the Gospel with individuals – and we loved it! We love hospitality and we love staying up way too late talking with Israelis about Jesus. But we can only reach a limited number of Israelis by ourselves. If we are serious about reaching Israel with the Gospel, then we need to be serious about multiplication.

God has given us an incredible opportunity to reach 50,000+ Israeli backpackers every year with the Gospel. And the only way to reach all these Israelis is to mobilize thousands of hosts scattered all around the world.

While Carissa and I pray for and dream of the day when we get to host Israelis in our home again, we are excited now for the opportunity to make this massive investment into recruiting and training hosts; which, God willing, will yield extraordinary compounding returns for years to come!

In May we had our first monthly Host Israelis gathering, and 14 hosts joined on Zoom! After 3 long years of developing this network with our co-workers, our team is finally growing every week with new hosts. These monthly gatherings are an incredibly encouraging time to connect with hosts, equip them for this ministry of multiplication, and pray for the salvation of Israel.

Please pray for our hosts as they prepare to host their first Israeli guests, and pray that God would raise up many more hosts to join our growing network.

Thank you so much for being on our team! We appreciate your prayers for us, and we could not do this without you. How can we be praying for you?

Love,

BJ, Carissa, Ari and Aviya