Tag Archives: Brazil

February 2017: Detour to New Zealand

More Jewish followers of Jesus live in Israel today than any other time in history. At the time of Pentecost (Shavuot) there were only 3,000 Jewish believers in the Land. Today, there are 30,000.

Though, God allowed a partial hardening of Jewish hearts, He promised that there would always be a remnant of Jewish people who are faithful to Him, (Romans 11:1-4). Our work – your work – is not in vain. Jewish people will continue to come to faith in Yeshua our Messiah. That’s a promise.

It encouraged our hearts to see this enduring truth fulfilled again in our own generation at Muchan, Chosen People Ministry’s international conference for Messianic young adults. Young Jewish and Gentile believers from across the globe gathered together to fellowship, look into Scripture, be challenged, and worship God together.

While there, we got to connect face-to-face with our ministry partner and friend, Stephen (Shmueli) Arnold, and hear more detail on his recent trip to Rio de Janeiro. There are many preparations to make before we move there as a team, as planned, in 2018. So, we are thankful for the ways that God has gone before us and for the groundwork Shmueli has laid to begin establishing a Brazilian board of directors for Chosen People Ministries, Brazil. God willing, this will be a step into further outreach to the Jewish community in Brazil.

After our Hebrew course in Tel Aviv and return to the States in March, our primary goal for this year will be growing our partnership team and raising 100% of our required monthly donations by October 2017, before we travel to New Zealand for our team’s first full backpacker season of ministry together. The three of us plan to work together at Zula Lodge, an extension of Chosen People Ministries, in New Zealand from November 2017 – April 2018. BJ and I look forward to finally working full time directly with Israeli outreach, as well as gaining experience and mentorship and further team bonding with Shmueli before we pioneer a new work together in Brazil.

As always, we covet your prayers for each piece of this extensive process, and are endlessly grateful for your faithful support each step of the way. We are not exagerating when we say, we could not do this without you.

Love in Yeshua,

BJ & Carissa

Kerstetter Chronicles: November 2016 Location Reveal

Towering 2,300 feet above the largest urban jungle in the world looms one of South America’s most beloved icons. Israelis call him “Yeshu.” Literally translated, it is an acronym meaning “may His name be blotted out forever.” Some know what they’re saying. But many don’t even know that isn’t his real name. We cringe when we hear it, and gently inform them that his mother would have called him “Yeshu-a,” (which literally means “salvation”).

But of the more than 10,000 Israelis who backpack through South America each year, about one-third will visit the city, and many of those will make the journey up the mountain to see the iconic statue, regardless of how they might feel about the man himself.

What an incredible opportunity it could be to make that journey up that mountain with them, don’t you think? To pose to them the question, “Did you know that Yeshua is Jewish?” Or, perhaps, “Did you know that Yeshua kept Torah and taught in the synagogues?” Imagine the conversations we might have!

After months of discussion, consideration and prayer as a team, and with the leadership of Chosen People Ministries, it is with great excitement that we would like to announce to you, that we have every intention of having those incredible conversations on that iconic mountain! Because we have decided that, God willing, we will be opening our guesthouse in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!

Not only is Rio host to thousands of Israeli backpackers, it is also home to a vibrant community of between 20 and 30,000 Jewish Brazilians. With a Jewish Community Center, numerous synagogues, kosher restaurants and a small, vibrant congregation of Jewish believers, we will have many opportunities to interact with Jewish community both during busy backpacker seasons and off seasons.

We are eager to see what God has planned for our future in Rio; but while you might remember that it has been our goal to open the work in Brazil in 2017, we believe God is asking us to wait another year. Not everything is settled yet, so check our next letters to find out the crazy amazing plans in the works for 2017! Brazil or somewhere else?! We can’t wait to tell you! In the meantime, we’re soaking up every bit of studies and preparing ourselves as much as we can for the intense and exciting road ahead. We are so thankful you’re walking it with us!

Love,

BJ & Carissa

 

 

When it Looks Like Your Missionaries Are on Vacation

It must have crossed your mind. If I were you, and I saw our Facebook posts of perfect sandy beaches, gorgeous mountain hikes and laughing groups of friends, I’d be thinking it. “Am I paying for my missionaries to go on vacation or do missions work?”

We sure wouldn’t blame you for asking. Maybe you’re more gracious than I am, because you haven’t asked. But if you in any way support our work, here’s what you should know about backpacker ministry and why it’s actually important that it looks like we’re on vacation.

Backpackers are tourists. So, if you want to hang out with backpackers, you have to do touristy things. Like go rock climbing or hang out on Brazil’s most beautiful beaches. That’s where the backpackers go, so that’s where we go to talk to them.

Backpacker ministry is living the dream. YES we will go to amazing places and do amazing things with amazing people. YES this means we will get to do what we love much of the time. YES we count ourselves ridiculously blessed. But please believe me when I say… backpacker ministry definitely doesn’t feel like vacation most of the time.

Ministry is hard work no matter where you do it. True, we’re hanging out on breath-taking mountain tops in Patagonia and sipping coconut water on Copacabana, but while we’re in those places, we’re doing much more than enjoying the view. We’re constantly on the lookout to make new friends, actively scouring the area for Israeli shoes (yes, shoes) and conversations in Hebrew. Once we connect with a couple of Israelis or other backpackers, we are working hard to build up that connection and find any way we can to naturally and strategically turn the conversation to spiritual things. This may be the coolest thing we can imagine doing, but it’s anything but easy.

We are not “missionaries.” Yes, that may be the best way to describe what we do on Sunday morning when we share in your church, but when we leave that church building, we avoid the “M” word like the plague. For us to be able to connect with these backpackers, it is absolutely critical that we present the right image to them.

So, when we volunteered at the Shelter on the Lake, we were simply that – volunteers – and part of a team who is passionate about showing God’s love to travellers. To anyone who asked, we said that BJ is studying Intercultural Studies at a college in Chicago and we were on winter break and wanted to visit our friends at the Shelter and do some backpacking in the Andes. We also freely told our new friends that I’m a Jewish follower of Jesus and we both love to talk about our God – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – and celebrate the Jewish heritage of our faith. 100% true story. Just a critically different way of explaining it. And our public Facebook posts must reflect that story.

When we tell people that we want to open a guest house like the Shelter on the Lake, we tell them honestly that it is our passion to bless and serve travelers and show them the love of God and Jesus, His Son.
Pouring into other people – spiritually, mentally and emotionally – is an incredible and exhausting ride. I can’t think of anything I would rather do than this. It is crazy rewarding and uplifting to show the love of Jesus to people who often have only known hurt in His name, and to share with them things about their history, their Scriptures and their God that they often have never heard before. But pouring your soul out like that is exhausting. And it takes consistent committed time alone to rest and be refilled from God’s Word to keep going each day, even if you are going to the beach…

This is Backpacker Ministry

It is the looks on their faces. The picture in their eyes. The future they might have, the person they might be, the fire that might explode from that bright, sparkly glimpse of understanding I see as we talk.

It is walking through the room and hearing bits of Spanish, French, German, Hebrew, and Mandarin as voices chatter and laugh, weaving easily and smoothly from crazy travel tales into Messianic prophecies.

It is not knowing how to answer every question and argument and knowing that the Holy Spirit isn’t limited to the power of a finely-tuned apologetic argument.

It is watching a team of believers from different countries and different backgrounds set aside differences and personal interests to further a singular, eternal goal, and supernaturally function as one body to love and serve a hurting world.

It is seeing guests soften under the warmth of that love and service offered in the name of Yeshua – whose name has long brought them images of hurt and not hope because too often throughout history it has been brandished as a weapon and used to hurt, destroy and divide, rather than nurture, heal and restore.

It is blistered feet, sunburned shoulders and grinning faces after a day of hiking or climbing the crags and pressing deep into conversations about why God allows suffering and how we can know true shalom from God’s Word.

It is the openness of a community of travelers who have already softened their minds and hearts to new experiences, different worldviews and changed perspectives – with the deeply seated hope that maybe somewhere along the way they’ll find an answer that fits all the questions.

It is a simmering pot of soup on the table and the exhausted volunteer in the corner who doesn’t clock out at the end of the day and gives more than anybody really knows, and then gives some more. Because it’s worth it. Jesus is worth it.

It is the tearful, expectant prayers of the team in the back room for every soul that steps through the door and the grace to point them to their Savior.

It is the brothers and sisters around the world interceding for those souls before the Father and praying grace and strength and victory for the feet on the ground.

It is the Spirit of God directing the steps of each traveler and preparing each heart and empowering each word of truth shared.

This is the Shelter on the Lake.

This is backpacker ministry.

This is our heart.

Kerstetter Chronicles: October 2015

Imagine you’re standing in line at your favorite café. Through small talk with the college aged guy next to you, you mention that you believe in Jesus. His eagerness surprises you, “I’ve heard of you, Jesus-followers, but never met one! Would you tell me what you believe?”

“I’d love to,” you reply. Drink now in hand, you walk to a nearby table, and watch your new acquaintance invite several friends to join you. Astonished, you end up spending hours answering their eager questions about your faith in Jesus.

Hard to imagine such an incredible opportunity! But this is what happened when our friend, on a short-term outreach to Israeli backpackers in India, met some Israelis in a café, and introduced herself as a Jewish believer in Jesus. Curious to know how a person can believe in Jesus and still be Jewish, they talked with her for hours.

We believe you desire to make the greatest impact for the Lord with the resources you have.  What if you could personally impact eternity for the price of a visit to your favorite café? If every person receiving this letter contributes just $5 more per month for the next four months, the sum would cover the remaining 50% needed for our winter outreach trip. For the price of a latte, you can be the reason an Israeli learns about Jesus.

This December, Lord willing, we will do three weeks of evangelistic outreach to Israelis and gain invaluable experience in hostel ministry in Argentina. Then we will fly to Brazil to visit potential locations for our hostel. This trip is a vital step forward! Please pray for full funding before our departure, and that God will show us the perfect location for this ministry.

Meanwhile, we continue training at Moody Bible Institute. Praise God, this school year is fully covered by scholarships! We are also so thankful that we’ve each seen some improvement in our health. Please continue prayer for full healing and strength.

Through generous commitments over the summer, we have reached 17% of monthly support. Please pray as we work to raise our support to 100% ($6,000/month), required before we can begin ministry in Brazil. Donations now fund our training, outreach trips and ministry work in Chicago.

We so appreciate the essential role you play in this work, and are continually encouraged by the body and love of Christ so beautifully manifested through your faithfulness!

With love,

BJ and Carissa Kerstetter

Kerstetter Chronices: September 2015

God has used many things – people, conversations, Scripture – to challenge us to Brazil to reach Israeli backpackers with the Gospel. But it is personal testimonies from Israelis, and friends who have been privileged to share the good news of Messiah with them, that tug at our heart strings and drive us forward – testimonies like this one from *Tamar, an Israeli who stayed at hostel, Shelter on the Lake, in Argentina.

This is what she had to say after her stay there,

 “Israel does not talk about Jesus, I don’t know nothing about him before I come to the house… The first week I was there, Brooks told a story after dinner Friday, and something touched me. I felt I wanted to know more. I spoke that night with people about Jesus for many hours, and after this I start to read about him. I feel something different about me. I feel like I’m reborn. I believe on him, and I pray to him. I know him, I learned from him so much, I love his life and what he said. Love, appreciate and respect. I believe it very much. After I left, I talked with many people about him. All the people in the house changed me, hard to find good people who give so much and ask for nothing in return.”

As the prophet Isaiah wrote, “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities,” (Isaiah 53:11b). Because of Israel’s cultural hostility toward Jesus, Tamar had never before had the chance to learn who Jesus really is. But God prepared her heart and directed her steps to the Shelter on the Lake, where she could listen and ask questions freely, in an open and understanding context. Through the incredible ministry of the Shelter on the Lake, Tamar now knows the truth about Jesus and has a personal relationship with Him!

This December, we will have the great privilege of volunteering for three weeks at the Shelter, where we pray we will have many opportunities to talk with Israelis like Tamar, as well as learn firsthand as much as we can about running a hostel and through it, reaching Israelis with the love and light of our Messiah Jesus.

Please pray for us as we continue to prepare for this work and raise funds for this vital training trip. As always, we are so grateful for your love and support!

In His Grace & Peace,

BJ and Carissa Kerstetter

*Name changed to respect privacy

Kerstetter Chronicles: August 2015

Friendly faces crowded the apartment, all talking and laughing as they waited to light the Sabbath candles and have dinner. When we walked in, we knew only our host and hostess. But when we drove away at the end of the evening, we had the distinct impression that God had just led us to our “ministry soul mate.” And it seems we were right!

His name is Stephen Arnold, but many of his friends call him by his Hebrew name, Shmueli. On that winter night in 2012, when our new friend, Vlad, excitedly pulled Shmueli across the room to introduce us, it quickly became clear that this was no chance encounter! Shmueli had just moved to Chicago from North Carolina and prayed that God would send him ministry partners to go to Brazil and open a hostel ministry for Israelis. We knew that God had called us to Jewish ministry, and we dreamed of working with Israeli backpackers, but were praying that God would give us clear direction. We never expected that God would combine BJ’s upbringing in and love for Brazil with my Jewish heritage and heart for Israel to uniquely equip us for such a strategic ministry. But here was a man, with a love for Brazil and passion for Jewish evangelism offering us a dream we didn’t know we had.

Now, almost 3 years later, it is becoming a reality. Friend, we eagerly covet your prayers as we step forward into this new work. As missionaries with Chosen People Ministries, our team of three is working to establish a hostel in Brazil in 2017, to share the gospel of Jesus with the thousands of Israelis that backpack through South America every year. And much needs to be done before then!

Thank you for praying for our summer fundraising project. As we near the end of our travels, we praise God for His provision and for all of the gracious friends and family who have supported and loved on us. Please continue to pray for our full funding by January 2017; our Fall Semester at Moody Bible Institute, beginning on August 24th; and our continued healing from Lyme disease.

Praying continually for an overflow of God’s joy and peace in your life,

BJ and Carissa Kerstetter

Kerstetter Chronicles: March & April

“Ilu natan, natan lanu. Natan lanu et ha Shabbat. Natan lanu et ha Shabbat. Dai-a-nu. Dai-dai-anu. Dai-dai-anu. Dai-dai-anu. Dai-anu! Dai-anu!”

Grins broke across each face around the table as the familiar Hebrew words, sung out in unison, filled the room and affirmed in our hearts the eternal truth, “It really would have been enough.” If God had brought us out of slavery in Egypt and had not split the sea for us; If He had only split the sea for us, but had not brought us through on dry ground; If He had only brought us through on dry ground, but had not provided us manna in the desert for forty years; If He had only fed us with manna, but had not given us the Sabbath. It would have been enough! But God has done so much more for us.

“Dai-anu!” the song finished, and the voices seemed to fade into the memory of songs sung in Passovers gone by. As the head of the house began to explain each element of the Passover service, I thought to myself, “There must be thousands of Jewish people across the world singing this song tonight and praising God for His miraculous provision for Israel. God has done so much for us!” And I ached inside as I thought for the thousandth time, “If only they could see just how much He has done for us. If only they could believe that Jesus is the Messiah that God promised.” And for the thousandth time, God spoke to my heart, “I have not forsaken them. I will open their eyes and they will know that Yeshua is the One they have been waiting for.” And again a passion was ignited in my heart. “We must tell them. We must share the truth that Yeshua is the promised Messiah.”

Will you partner with us, as we continue our ministry preparations and find opportunities here in Chicago to share the truth of Messiah with Jewish people? Your prayer and financial partnership are crucial as we continue studies at Moody Bible Institute and prepare to begin full time work with Chosen People Ministries reaching Israeli backpackers in Brazil in the year 2017. 

Please be praying with us:

  • Praise – A Jewish man from our executive Passover outreach downtown prayed to receive the Lord this week!
  • Praise – Carissa’s health has continued to improve since treatment in January. Please pray that both BJ and she will soon make complete recoveries.
  • Praise – God has provided $600 for BJ to get the same Lyme treatment in May. Please pray that He will provide the remaining $2,000 needed.
  • Praise – We have received commitments of monthly support totaling $345/month. Please pray as we develop a partnership team with the goal of reaching Chosen People Ministry’s requirement of full support, $6,000/month, by January 2017.
  • Praise – our ministry partner, Stephen (Shmueli) Arnold, just returned from a productive survey trip to Brazil. He has identified three possible locations for our hostel ministry. Please pray that God will give us clear direction as we consider these options.

Finally, please pray for us as we make plans to travel this summer. We are now scheduling dates to speak in churches and present our ministry. If you are interested in partnering with us, or know of someone who would be, please email us! We would love to share our ministry vision with you personally or with your Bible study or small group.

Thank you for your continued prayer and support of us. May God use your connection to this work to richly bless you.

“I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.”

Romans 11:11

Love,

BJ and Carissa Kerstetter

If you would like to partner with us financially donate to our account with Chosen People Ministries at chosenpeople.com/donation *Please be sure to write “BJ Kerstetter” in the space marked special designation. If you would like to contribute toward BJ’s Lyme treatment, school bill or other expenses, click the button below: