Ministry Update – 2 Aug 2018

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Shalom again!

Randi and I just returned two days ago from our three week ministry trip to Zambia and DRC, the last two weeks of which we had no wifi connection. A very little bit of Rip Van Winkle, and the world hasn’t changed very much. We did get home though to hear that just the day before, an incendiary balloon from Gaza landed on a street not far from Ben-Gurion University and Soroka Medical Center. As the wind blows….

Israel continues to be pressed on every side: God is squeezing her so that His people will repent and return to Him; the nations are both envious and spiteful, and want her undoing; the devil is trying to take as many with him as he can, and blame the God of Israel and the Lord Jesus Christ for their condemnation. Meanwhile, the gospel goes out to all human beings, for whom Yeshua died, taking the blame for our sins and guilt, that we may be forgiven, and receive eternal life with Him! Amazing!! With God, all things are possible!!! Fear Him and give Him glory!!!!

The grace of God was with us through the three weeks. In Zambia it is easier, because there they speak English. In DRC, despite the communication issues, they take good care of us, as in Zambia, doing all they can to protect us from harm of all kinds. The conference theme in Lusaka (Chilanga province; Linda Compound neighborhood) was “The Blessing of Abraham to Africa and The World”. In DRC (in a village called Mulungwishi, about 100 miles from Lubumbashi and a three-hour car ride), that conference theme was “Preparing for The Second Coming of Our King JESUS in Glory, and All Eyes Shall See Him”. The work of the school for orphans and other vulnerable children operated through Pastor Victor Kunda in the poor Linda neighborhood is growing, but they are in need of finishing some construction of classrooms. (Any skilled and willing volunteers among you?) A primary and secondary school in an outlying section of Lubumbashi, directed by the son of Bishop Kalembo Wa Kasongo, our host, is growing. It is named H. Randi Bass School!

The poor are rich in faith, and they sacrificially thank and praise God.  We have much to learn from them who know what it is to suffer and struggle daily with life and living.  When things become really difficult, they will know much better than many of us how to cope and to overcome the hardship.  At the end of the Congolese conference, they even took up a sacrificial offering for the believers in Israel, unknowingly fulfilling what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Gentile believers to do for the believers in Israel.  Their example is exemplary:  they really had very little to give, and the Lord sees how much they had left.  God richly bless them!

In both places, the pastor and bishop have a great love for Israel and the Jewish people, and do all they can to inform their churches and to pray constantly and passionately for the salvation of the Jews and for the nation of Israel. This is all by the Spirit of God over a period of years, even before I met them in 2006 at a reconciliation conference in Zimbabwe (EARP, for those who might be familiar). Some of the believers there, including among the pastors, can not tell you WHERE Israel is located. Some do not have a good working knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures. Some have absolutely no news or information of current events here; but by the Spirit of God He has put into them to pray and to connect with His purpose here! This is the sovereignty and the wisdom of God, and He gives grace to the simple, and abases the proud.

Whenever we go to teach outside, we make it clear that Jesus is the center of things in God’s covenants and purpose: whether we speak of Israel, or of the Body of Messiah (the Church); of current events among the nations and their relevance to us in light of the prophetic outlook to the coming again of the Lord. We also call believers to repentance, as we see that throughout the New Testament epistles and Revelation. We call unbelievers to repentance and to faith in the gospel for their salvation. Israel does not recognize me to send me out as an ambassador; I go as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God, and ask the Lord to help me by the Holy Spirit to be faithful to Him and to His word and plan, to bring all things in Heaven and Earth back under the Father’s governance in Christ/Messiah, to the praise of His glory. (Eph 1:1-14) We want to give hope for eternity that is helpful in our practical life now, promoting holiness in the fear of God, being prepared as a pure and holy Bride for our pure and holy Bridegroom when He should come.  Each nation’s hope is bound up with Israel’s salvation; Israel’s salvation comes through great tribulation which brings the remnant nation to call upon Yeshua/Jesus/Yehovah to save them; the believers are called to evangelize until the end of the age, and to be witnesses of the truth of Messiah being Jesus, and to love His people, even the least of His brethren.

As children of Abraham in the faith, Christian believers are called to be the blessing in their communities and world that God promised would be through Abraham’s seed — even Messiah, and through Him those who believe in Him. Abraham KNEW the true God, who KNEW him so that children of Abraham would also command their children in the way of the one, true, living God, knowing that there is no other God worth the name, and there is no other hope but through Him. Yeshua said that Abraham saw His day, and was glad. Abraham looked for the city built by God, and understood that he was a stranger and a sojourner in this world. He could have turned back, but he pressed onward; and God is not ashamed of those like him to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them/us. (Heb 11:8-16)

Thank-you all for your prayers and loving support and friendship. God is good…all the time.

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