After 6 weeks away in NY, I'm pleased to report that the "Behold Your God" campaign was a massive
success. All the numbers are amazing; the statistics will blow you away. But
remember each number is a person. Each statistic represents numbers of people and
as such we are thankful to God for his love and power in bringing so many into
levels of interest never reached before.
Pass this one... it's awesome to ponder what God did.
JEWS FOR JESUS MAKES AN ALL OUT EFFORT TO REACH NEW YORK JEWS
August 5, 2006
For the month of July, Jews for Jesus was an unavoidable presence in the
greater New York area —the final stop of the organization’s “Behold Your God”
evangelistic campaigns, which covered every city (54 of them) outside of Israel
with a Jewish population of 25,000 or more.
This Grand Final pulled out all the stops, with over 150 staff and volunteers
from around the world conducting nine simultaneous outreaches to all five
boroughs of New York City, as well as Westchester, Northern New Jersey and Long
Island. Three other outreaches took place among the language groups—
Russian-speaking Jews, Israelis, and Yiddish-speaking Chassidim. The Chassidic campaign
included the mailing of Yiddish language DVDs of the life of Jesus to 80,000
Jewish households.
In addition, 450,000 direct mail pieces were sent to Jewish households,
1,800,000 evangelistic pamphlets (broadsides) were distributed, 6,410 enquirers
(3,695 [=57%] of them Jewish) who don’t yet believe in Jesus gave their details
for further ministry, and 502 people prayed to receive Jesus as their Messiah
(241 [=48%] of them Jewish) with our teams.
For those who didn’t receive a pamphlet or a mailer, there were the many
billboards, banners, full-page newspaper ads and subway ads that blanketed the
area. The theme, “Jesus for Jews” was picked up by 13 local and national
television news programs that covered the month-long campaign and a feature article
in every major newspaper including the Jewish press.
“I was asked the question “Who is your PR agent?” by several people who were
amazed at how the subject of Jews believing in Jesus was being discussed
everywhere,” said David Brickner, US executive director of Jews for Jesus. “In
response, I would smile and point upward. We really saw the Lord’s hand in
all of this. Over 700 area churches and individuals were praying for us daily;
thousands of others around the world were getting regular prayer requests and
updates. We have been able to partner with local congregations on the
follow-up and in all this, I believe, God is greatly honored.”
The evangelistic campaign did not escape the disapproval of the leaders of
the major Jewish groups in the city, who called the missionary group, “deceptive.
” But a Jews for Jesus staffer commented, “If they knew what we knew about
Jesus, they would be joining us in the proclamation of the gospel, not
opposing it.”
The Australian staff of Jews for Jesus participated the entire month,
including Bob Mendelsohn, national director, and Mark and Rahel Landrum.
I invite interested bloggers and enquirers to interact with the messages. Shalom!
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