Tag Archives: Tel Aviv University

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

January 2017: Muchan [Ready]

Happy New Year to you and love from Prague! We’ve started 2017 off at full speed here at Chosen People Ministries’ Muchan conference and our calendar is packed into 2018! Every month this year is full of plans, from Hebrew studies in Tel Aviv to an exciting outreach destination for Fall 2017 (that we’re going to keep you guessing about just a little longer). Perhaps our most exciting plans this year are the ones we want to make with you!

After we complete our Hebrew program and return to the States in March, our priority for 2017 is growing and connecting with our incredible team of prayer warriors and financial partners (we love you!). This means that from May into September we will be crisscrossing the nation to catch up with you over coffee, update you on all you have enabled us to do thus far, share our heart for Israel and ministry vision with your Bible study or small group and pray together about how we can be a part of God’s great rescue mission for a lost and broken world.

Even as we return to the classroom and Hebrew grammar books this month, we are praying about how God will grow our partner team this summer. If you share our heart to reach young Israelis with the love of Yeshua, would you join us in advocating for this exciting opportunity to love on them in real and tangible ways? Perhaps you have friends who love Israel or share our heart for Jewish ministry, or maybe your Bible study has been praying about how to be a part of the Great Commission. Please email us if you are interested in hosting a ministry presentation or would like to sit down with us and talk about how you can join our team as a financial partner. It is only by the generous donations and fervent prayers of dedicated partners, such as you, that we can do this vital work. We are already setting dates on our calendar, so let us know soon if you want to put us on yours!

And please continue in prayer for us as we dive back into intensive language studies and stretch our brains and energy to their limits. We are so thankful for you and hope you will be overwhelmed by the Peace and Joy of our Messiah as we trust Him with each day and moment of this new year.

Love in Yeshua,

BJ and Carissa

Kerstetter Chronicles: Your Holiday “Done” List

That time of year has come again! With crisp air and frosted mornings come puffy winter layers and your holiday to-do list. So, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all that you have already done!

Together, we have accomplished a lot this year! Because of you Israelis have heard the Gospel. Because of your prayers, encouragement, service and financial support, the name of Jesus has been proclaimed and the Christmas story shared.

Together with you, we shared the Gospel of Messiah at the Shelter on the Lake in Argentina, prayerfully selected Rio de Janeiro as our future ministry location, led Passover Seders and taught about God’s heart for the Jewish people in numerous churches, served Holocaust survivors, foster children, Russian believers, and elderly immigrants in Israel.

Because of you, we had powerful Gospel conversations with Tali, Binyamin, Idan, Yosef, Dov and many others. Because you took action, they heard that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. And when we suffered the tragic loss of our brother, Levi, and our Israel outreach was cut short, your prayers, service and outpouring of love encouraged – and continue to encourage us- through our heartbreak.

As we continue our journey through this intense grief and look to the next year with mingled pain and joy, we are more thankful than ever for your place on this team. It is harder than ever to make plans or share them with you, with this heavy reminder so fresh in our minds that God alone knows what the days ahead will hold. But, with complete trust that our lives and futures are secure in His hands, we continue to make plans and move forward.

God willing, we will welcome 2017 in Prague at Muchan – Chosen People Ministry’s international conference – looking into God’s Word with great speakers, connecting with Messianic young adults, forging valuable connections, sharing our heart and vision for reaching Israeli backpackers with new friends, and looking for potential workers to join us in the ministry! Following Muchan, we will return to the Hebrew studies we started in Tel Aviv. And when we return to the States in March, we begin the exciting work of growing our partnership team – raising funds and recruiting prayer warriors to enable us to take the next step in Fall 2017 (to be announced soon).

So, as you celebrate the birth of our Messiah this Christmas season, please continue to pray for our travels, studies, health and family; but most of all please remember Yeshua’s heart for his people and continue to pray with us for their salvation.

With love and grateful hearts,

BJ and Carissa

Kerstetter Chronicles: April 2016

Six wise and experienced leaders sat around the table. They listened eagerly to our testimonies and our passion to share the Gospel with our beloved Jewish people. They smiled with understanding as we described the steps that God laid out before us to lead us here. They said it’s clear we have been called. And they hired us to do our dream job.

After more than a year of serious consideration and prayer, while BJ has worked as a student missionary with Chosen People Ministries, he has been offered and has accepted the role of full-fledged missionary. The position is contingent on his finishing school, so he will continue to work in ministry part-time as he completes his studies at Moody Bible Institute.

Also, as a crucial part of our training, we will spend most of this summer in Israel! We will join a short-term team with Chosen People for several weeks of outreach and humanitarian aid work, based in Jerusalem, folloOutreach Israelwed by four weeks of intensive Modern Hebrew study at Tel Aviv University. During this time we will also try to reconnect with Israeli friends we made in South America. Please pray that God will be working in their hearts before we see them next, and also for the funding needed for this trip. We need to raise $2,500 outside of our Chosen People ministry fund to be able to pay for Hebrew studies and some travel expenses.

Besides our exciting transition with Chosen People, this last month has been filled with outreach and learning opportunities. We celebrated Purim by distributing gift bags of treats and literature to Israelis who work kiosks in the Chicagoland malls. Through that we were able to have some really good conversations. This is a challenging group to connect with, so please pray for follow up opportunities with them.

Also, that week BJ did a wonderful job leading Passover Seders at four churches. And I had the pleasure of leading a Passover Seder for the children at our church here in Chicago! But since Passover is actually in April this year, we are looking forward to celebrating it some more in the coming weeks!

It is an incredible honor to represent you in sharing the Good News of Messiah with Jewish people, and educating the Church about the rich Jewish roots of our faith.

Thank you for the vital part you play in it all!

BJ and Carissa Kerstetter