I’m very encouraged at the progress our team has made on our Israeli hospitality network. 8 months ago we started over from scratch rebuilding our apps, 6 months ago we started recruiting our first hosts to test the Host Israelis app, and 2 months ago we entered a very important stage asking Israeli friends and believers to test the Planet Zula traveler app. I am excited to report that everything is going well! 

We are continually getting feedback from our hosts and Israeli guests, making improvements to the apps, adding features, and making the system more user friendly. Most importantly, we continue to recruit and train more and more hosts every week! Our goal is to have over 1,000 hosts here in the U.S. (and even more globally), and we currently have about 40 on the map. Please pray that God would continue to provide more great hosts. Specifically, we are praying that God would provide hosts in New York City where a large number of Israelis travel – we currently have no hosts there.

We are getting close to the moment we’ve been waiting for since January 2020: when Israeli pre-believers will use our network to stay with hosts and hear the Gospel. Praise God for the incredible progress we’ve made so far, and pray for a successful launch and positive response from our first Israeli travelers. (Update since writing this letter: we had our first official Israeli guest sign up to use our Planet Zula app! Please pray he and his family would be able to stay with our hosts, have wonderful conversations, and come to know Jesus as their Messiah.)

In April, I had a successful Passover tour – my first time speaking in churches since March 2020! I spoke in 6 churches and small groups about Messiah in the Passover and about our ministry. Praise God that several people from those churches are seriously considering becoming hosts with Host Israelis, God provided several new monthly donors, and we gained a couple dozen new prayer partners! This Fall, God willing, I will fly to Flagstaff, AZ for my Fall speaking tour. Please pray that God would give me great connections and speaking opportunities in Flagstaff and raise up new hosts and prayer and financial partners for our ministry. If you have any connections in Flagstaff, let me know!

Praise God that baby Aviya (4 months old) is healthy and doing amazingly well, and we are getting great sleep! Ari enjoys being a big sister and loves hugging and playing with Aviya. It’s hard to believe that she will be 4 years old in two weeks! We are overjoyed to be a family of 4 and enjoy family hikes and bike rides together in this warm weather.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support for us and for this ministry. How can we pray for you?

Love,
BJ, Carissa, Ari, and Aviya