Telling a story

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Originally uploaded by bobmendo

It's only natural to share our thoughts with others. I do that on this blog and in my journal and even via photos, I suppose. As a result, my Flickr site (click here) is really a story-telling exercise. Via photos and text, I tell what I'm thinking, what I'm seeing, what seems to be in the public eye or in the public conversation.

My friend Richard is sharing a story or two with some new folks at the LCJE conference we all attended in Lake Ballaton, Hungary last week. And telling the story is what we are all about.

I shared from the platform the following evening the following stories:

Thank you to the ICC for including Australia in the program this week. 100,000 people registered as Jews in the census last year in Australia. Among the missionaries there and others working for our Jewish people’s salvation, most of our work is ordinary, most of our work is non-spectacular. Our joy and our job is to keep on keeping on no matter what the response. And among the arsenal that God uses to assist us in this regular working are the stories. And among all the stories that have been told in the last few years, these three, from Jews for Jesus staffers, seem to show what God can and does do. May you be encouraged and more confident in the Saviour and in his plans for all people, even as far away as the ‘ends of the earth.’

From Street corner to Special Meeting
By Rahel Landrum

Rahel was passing out gospel tracts in the main business district of Sydney when Estelle met her and responded with “Jesus was a nice Jewish boy,”(2006). Estelle was willing to continue to meet with Rahel to talk about Jesus who claimed to be the Messiah who could give her life and forgiveness of sins. While they met and discussed the Bible, Estelle suggested Rahel should come and talk to her group that meets at the humanist society. Rahel agreed. She had other unsaved Jewish people make similar suggestions regarding secular or other Jewish groups, but nothing had ever eventuated. To her surprise, Rahel got a call from the organizer, asking if she could come and speak to the group. So we got the chance to go and address a group of 14 self-defined atheists and skeptics.

Besides comments of disagreement, we didn’t know what to expect. It turned out to be a very worthwhile meeting. Even before Rahel started to speak, people came to look and buy the books we brought. The original organizer had an emergency in the family and had Fred, another leader of the group moderate the meeting instead. Rahel noticed Fred’s accent and asked him where he was from. Fred told her he was born in Germany but his family fled to Shanghai before WWII. Rahel asked, ‘You’re not Jewish, are you?’ Fred said he was. So Fred, an atheist Jew had to introduce and moderate a meeting where a Jew for Jesus was speaking. Rahel spoke about how we can’t ignore the fact that Jesus is who He says He is, told her testimony of faith, and showed how one can be Jewish and believe in Jesus. We did get what we expected, comments of disagreement but also other, more pleasant ones. One person came after the meeting and said that this was one of the most interesting and liveliest discussions they’ve had. The best response came from John, the most belligerent person who needed to be constantly asked to not interrupt Rahel’s speech. At the end he said, ‘if she believes in the Bible so passionately, maybe I should go back home and start reading it.”

Mark Landrum, Rahel’s husband has another story. He says,

It was a missionary’s dream. An Israeli rang our office wanting to talk about Y'shua. (2006) Gal was his name and he had been reading about Jewish people believing in Jesus during his recent travels in New Zealand. He had stayed with a few Christian people from the HIT (Hosting Israeli Travellers) program who lovingly shared the Gospel with him, gave him Messianic books in English & Hebrew, and showed him ‘The Passion of the Christ’ video. The movie impacted Gal so much that since then he’d rented the video and seen it five more times. After that he decided it was more economical to purchase the video.

The next stop in his travels was Sydney. By the time he got to us and we met with him, he was very close to making a decision to accept Y'shua as his Messiah. It was important for him to meet other Jewish people and, particularly an Israeli like Rahel, who believed in Jesus. Several days later, Gal prayed to accept Jesus as his Messiah and became a new creation in Him.

His baptism two weeks later was seriously eventful. One of Mark’s former neighbours, who is Jewish and not so happy about our faith, was present at the public beach where we had the event. When he found out Gal was also Jewish, he tried to interfere, hoping to stop the baptism. Upon getting out of the water, Gal had the opportunity to give an account of his faith and public commitment to follow Jesus. As our neighbour, Jonathan approached him, Gal’s words were: ‘Now that I believe in Jesus, I feel more Jewish than ever before.” Since then Gal’s growing in the faith tremendously .

Gal just finished serving on the JFJ Summer campaign this July in New York City. How good is that! Who knows what is next for this 25 year old new Jewish believer.

Of course, I have a story too.

London to Launceston to Lordship from Bob Mendelsohn

Peter is 57 and came to Tasmania, Australia, from the suburbs of London about 30 years ago. He was very committed to his Jewish family and the religion of the rabbis. He travelled a fair bit and conducted business in Sydney and Melbourne and all over Tasmania. He found pleasure in many things and people, but longed to find a real connection with God. The synagogue was empty; his own life in his own words was 'empty' as well. Peter had done some serious study on religion. He grew up in a very normal Jewish home with lots of questions and fewer answers

He went to hear Billy Graham in London 30 years ago and even went forward at the invitation, but he lived as if nothing occurred that night.

I was out on the streets of the centre of Launceston (2006) and Peter was surprised to meet me handing out Gospel tracts there. I gave him a tract I had written for a big football game that was on the next day. He stopped and read the whole thing. He asked me if I was the author. 'Yes,' I answered.

Seems Peter had visited our website and even watched a segment on the religious affairs TV show, Compass. He was captivated, that he and I should be meeting in such an unlikely location. (I find it very likely). After 20 more minutes of religious 'unpacking' and answering his questions, Peter and I sat down to pray together. 'Jesus, I accept you as my Messiah and Saviour. You died for me and rose to give me new life,' he prayed. How awesome is our God who does all things well.

We continue to meet on the phone several times a month and he’s studying his Bible and meeting up with other believers in a continued walk with Y’shua. Thanks be to God!

Brothers and sisters, other ministries in Australia and New Zealand of the LCJE have stories to tell as well. Thanks for your prayers and thanks for remembering us. Though geographically separate, may God bless us each together that we all may be one. And may we all have a story to tell today and throughout our days. Amen.

What's your story?

doors open or closed

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Originally uploaded by bobmendo

Don’t let him in or keep him in! How do I get in?
By Bob Mendelsohn
August 12, 2007

Indonesia barred the entry of an Australian man connected with the conservative Islamic group Hizb ut-Tarhir (HT) ahead of a large conference today in Jakarta.

Sheikh Ismail Al Wahwah, of the group's Australian branch, was one of at least two international speakers prevented from entering Indonesia ahead of the huge conference in Jakarta today, HT Indonesia's speaker Ismail Yusanto said.

An Immigration spokesman confirmed Wahwah was prevented from entering Indonesia because he did not meet its immigration criteria on Friday.

Banned in several countries but not in Australia, HT or Islamic Liberation Party, is pushing for the creation of a caliphate, a single Islamic state across the Muslim world.

Across the ocean in Los Angeles, weary international passengers were stuck at Los Angeles International Airport for several hours, unable to set foot in the United States after a computer failure prevented customs officials from screening arrivals.

About 6,000 international passengers, both Americans and foreigners, sat in four airport terminals and in 40 planes starting about 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, when the computer system broke down, said Los Angeles World Airports spokesman Paul Haney.

The system contains names of arriving passengers and law enforcement data about them, including arrest warrants, said Mike Fleming, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman.

"That system allows our officers to make decisions on who we can allow to enter the United States," Fleming said. "You just don't know by looking at them."

Back home in Brisbane, Australian Wallabies Lote Tuqiri and Matt Dunning are to be given alcohol counselling and a blanket curfew is set to be imposed on the World Cup squad in the wake of yet another unsavoury early-morning incident involving Australian players.

Tuqiri and Dunning have been cleared by police of any involvement in an assault around 5.20am yesterday on a taxi driver that left the 52-year-old man in a serious condition in hospital.

Seems the boys stayed out at a Brisbane nightclub until it closed around 4am and then continuing to party in Dunning's room at the Sofitel Hotel, where the Wallabies were staying at the end of a boot camp in southeast Queensland.

They might not have breached any team disciplinary rules but the two Waratahs players certainly were guilty of questionable judgment in staying out so late just a month out from their first World Cup match and then in inviting people they didn't know back to Dunning's hotel room.

Getting in, or getting left out. It’s a matter of judgment, isn’t it? Sometimes the customs officials have to make quick decisions about visa nominees and sometimes decisions about keeping someone in take years to process.

One of my beliefs is that God took forever to decide about our forever. He long ago settled the issue and we now live it out. Here’s how it works.

Each of us is stuck in sin and it’s not preventable. Our condition is sometimes mild and sometimes chronic, but it’s always permanent. And God the Eternal had to decide about His eternity and welcoming us or not.

His justice precludes his allowing us in. After all, He is Holy and as such cannot stand in the presence of evil. Yet, He is Loving and as such cannot fathom our eternal separation from Him.

So in the courts of eternity it was decided that Y’shua would enter earth, more quickly and more determinedly than the Space Shuttle and with less hiccups. Y’shua would live here and die here and rise from the dead here.

As a result of Y’shua’s enterprise, the human race could be welcome into Eternity. What a privilege!

All a man or woman or boy or girl has to do is to welcome Y’shua as Lord of his life, and entry to Eternity is available and assured for him. God has open arms for each of His people.

Have you welcomed Y’shua as your messiah and saviour? Have you been born again? It’s not too late for you. Visa and ticket have already been purchased. It’s your choice now. Make a good one!

Guedes

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Originally uploaded by bobmendo

Guedes reports from Rio de Janeiro

“I was handing out flyers about Y'shua on Copacabana Beach when I saw a middle aged man pushing a stroller. I gave him a flyer and after a few minutes I saw that he had turned around and was following me as I walked on the boardwalk. I stopped and as he approached me he said that he was interested in receiving more information.

I asked him what information he was looking for and he said that he was Jewish and wanted to know more about Jesus. I very plainly explained to him, by sharing some Old Testament Scriptures that Jesus, Y´shua was the Jewish Messiah and that he had come and died for our transgressions and that He had risen from the dead.

The man then very quickly replied that he wanted to know that Messiah. I went through the proposal statement a set of theses about what God does with us, how he loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. It's like a marriage proposal, where God is seeking to be united with us.

So it was with tears in his eyes and with a humble heart he prayed to receive Y’shua as his savior. Only the Lord could have brought this Jewish man from Amsterdam, that spoke Portuguese fluently, to Copacabana on a cloudy Tuesday afternoon to hear the Good News of the Gospel.”

Amazing story, no?

Rescue

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Originally uploaded by bobmendo

Rescued (Tulo Tuala, Duke of Ellington Anglicans, Napean riverists, Paedophiles)

Monday 18 June 2007

Sunday was a good day for Tulo Tuala. He and a friend went fishing on Saturday, and spent the night lost and tightly holding on to the sides of their 2.5 metre boat until 9 a.m. when rescue crews saved them.

This all happened off Wellington New Zealand’s Makara coast. The air temps went down to –3 degrees overnight. In the evening on Saturday, some rescue boats passed in the distance, and even though Tuala and friend lit towels soaked in petrol to try to attract their attention, it was to no avail.

When their engine failed as they checked nets in the evening, they were out of mobile phone range and at the mercy of nature. They were found about 25 kilometres off Mana Island at 9am, transferred on to the Mana Coastguard boat Pelorus and brought to shore cold and shocked but happy to be back on land.

Mana Coastguard president Chris Seaton said it was a wet, cold rescue in choppy seas. Senior Constable Andrew Cox, of the maritime police, said the men were found with the help of Vodafone staff, who were able to determine the distance and direction of their mobile phone from the nearest tower.

Meanwhile in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney, two teachers and 12 students from Arndell Anglican College were winched to safety after their path was blocked by rising flood waters in the Megalong Valley on Saturday and they were forced to camp overnight there.

Some police and government officials have criticised them for putting their lives at risk by setting out in bad weather conditions.

John Godard is the principal of the school. He said, "We looked at the meteorological forecasts during the week and we sent detailed route maps both to the police at Katoomba and to the National Parks service. Neither of those groups advised us not to go and so we feel that we had all the preparations made."

Yesterday afternoon another four men were rescued from the Nepean River. They told police they had hung from branches after being swept from their riverbank camping spot.

One was rescued by a civilian boat, and three were retrieved by helicopter, but none sustained serious injuries.

Late tonight police in several countries revealed information about a paedophile ring operating out of the UK. 4 Australians were arrested among many others globally. None of the 41 children were Australians but all of them have been rescued out of such an evil empire.

Rescue is worth all the trauma and searching and anxiety by those who are attempting to help. It seems a human longing, something deep in the psyche of people. We long to be saved from trouble; we long to help others who are in trouble.

Maybe it’s part of our hard-wiring. Maybe we were created by God to help and to be helped. No wonder the Bible says, “Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men; Preserve me from violent men,” (King David in Psalm 140). We ache for Beaconsfield miners to be saved; we long for lost hikers to be found. We celebrate rescue workers in police and fires and hospital assistance.

And all the while God wants to rescue us from our sin and from our shame. What a great God who has given us desire and passion like His to reach out and save people. And thanks be to God who rescued us from our selves. Luke described it well by quoting Jesus who said, “the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” (quoted in chapter 9 verse 56)

Which direction are we going?

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Originally uploaded by bobmendo

There must be 20 signs (although tomorrow I will count them) in the Eastern Distributor, in the tunnel, under the Domain in Sydney's east. Each one is very readable (I shot this whilst travelling at 70 km per hour, so some necessary adjustments had to be made. And every 40 metres, there's another sign. "North/ South" with appropriate indicating arrow.

Now there's really no chance of going the other way, once you are in the tunnel. It's not like they want to offer us choice. It's that we are going south and, well, that's it. So what's the point of the signage? I'll have to ask someone from the Transport ministry, which is something for which a subcommittee will have to be convened, no doubt.

One sign, that might make sense. Two signs, ok, for those who missed the first. But 20 signs?

Can you change directions anyway? Outside the tunnel, there are choices, to be sure. And one of the reasons I do what I do, in telling people about Jesus, is to help them change in His direction. He has signs up in our lives.."One way" and "Yield" and such to help us find Him and to go His way.

But redundancy...that's another matter.

National Day of Thanksgiving

A Thanksgiving thought or two
By Bob Mendelsohn

I was in a rush. The children needed collecting in only thirty minutes. My wife was cold. We had entered the little Chinese restaurant in a hurry and sat quickly. The owner approached us with menus in hand and I told her that 'long soup' would be a great starter, thanks. She nodded.

Four minutes later she came by to take our order. I reiterated the 'long soup' request and she now wrote it down. Oy, I thought, what's wrong with this woman? Didn't I already order this? Doesn't she know my wife needs warming, and that we are in a hurry?

Of course, she didn't know any of this. And she was managing the front section alone. And she did a great job. And within minutes our soup was on the table. Within a minute after that our hot tea was warming our insides and then the mains came very promptly. There was no reason for anxiety about collecting the kids or about thawing out. We ate and were satisfied; the children were fine as well and it all ended well.

I felt badly about my earlier thoughts and made sure I said "thank you" to the owner several times for each visit to our table and at the end at the till. I wondered if she knew of my earlier displeasure. It was hard to tell.
On this National Day of Thanksgiving, it's right to consider what we can truly admit to being thankful for. We can glibly mouth words of thanks for our football club or our parents, for food, etc, but what is it that makes us from the inside say 'thanks?'

"I hate ingratitude more in a man
Than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness,
Or any taint of vice, whose strong corruption
Inhabits our frail blood." (W Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act iii, Scene 4)

What about gratitude for living in a country where it's still legal to believe as we believe and to share what we believe with others? We can conduct religious services in churches and synagogues, in mosques and public theatres if we want! For that I'm very grateful.

The food we have in grocery stores is fresh and bountiful, and we have choice about brands of products. Abundant also are clothiers and labels. We have plenty!

I'm shopping for cars just now, as people have been very generous to us in a recent appeal for a new Jews for Jesus vehicle. And there are choices of vehicles and I don't have to pay 'under the counter' to secure anything in a reasonable time.

We have two sides of every argument in Parliament and although the men and women there seem to misbehave and interrupt each other incessantly, we actually can watch or listen to the proceedings whilst they happen. We can even travel to Canberra and enter the chambers as a visitor and although there is a bit of security through which we have to pass, we can be an observer.

Our media might be biased, but they give us some information about events and personages of note.
We have much freedom in this island country and we ought to shout it from the housetops that we are grateful.

There are seasons of drought and borderline famine and yet God has recently extended favour on us in plentiful rains, even in country towns where it was needed most.

God, are you listening? We are a grateful people.

And it's one thing to be grateful and it's another thing to out loud say "thank you."

Paul was one of the earliest "Jews for Jesus." He had originally been a learned rabbi, even a student of the great Gamaliel. This was one whom God called to follow, and preach about, Jesus.  He wrote much of the Newer Testament and one of my favourite quotes of his came from the letter Paul wrote to the people in Colossae:
"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father." (Colossians 3:15-17)

Paul admonishes his followers to 'be thankful' and then to sing 'with thankfulness' and finally to be 'giving thanks' to God. The attitude comes first (be thankful) and it ends with conversation and praise to the Almighty out loud. Or at least however loud you choose to be. And isn't it wonderful in our country that we can be as loud as we choose to be? And we can shout cheers to our footy boys on the ground or the cricketers on the pitch or even to our God inside the churches and public gathering halls.

I'm glad to be an Australian resident and to give thanks to God on this National Day of Thanksgiving. You have the freedom here to join me as well.

Bob Mendelsohn
National Director
Jews for Jesus
www.jewsforjesus.org.au




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Christian vs Pharisee

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Originally uploaded by bobmendo.

I'm so impressed with this book and these two gentlemen who wrote each other. This is a series of 14 letters from Dr RT Kendall, a famous Christian author and pastor, to Rabbi David Rosen, formerly of Ireland and South Africa. Rosen is a main player in the world of Jewish-Christian dialogue .

Dr R T Kendall retired as Minister of Westminster Chapel in the centre of London in 2001. He originates from America where he was Pastor of a number of churches before moving to the UK. He and his wife Louise now live in Key Largo, Florida.

Rabbi David Rosen is the International Director of Interreligious Affairs of the American Jewish Committee. He was born and educated in Britain, continuing his advanced rabbinic studies in Israel, where he received his ordination (semichah). In addition to military service in the armored corps of the IDF, he served as Chaplain to the forces in Western Sinai.

From 1975 to 1979, he was the Senior Rabbi of the largest Jewish congregation in South Africa and rabbinic judge on the Ecclesiastical Court (Beth Din). He was also founder/chairman of the Inter-Faith Forum, the Council of Jews, Christians and Muslims.

From 1979 to 1985, Rabbi Rosen was Chief Rabbi of Ireland where he founded, together with the Christian Primates of Ireland, the Irish Council of Christians and Jews. He was a member of the Academic Council as well as lecturer at the Irish School of Ecumenics.

He returned to Israel in 1985 to take up the appointment of Dean at the Sapir Center for Jewish Education and Culture in the Old City of Jerusalem and subsequently became Professor of Jewish Studies at the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies.

Having served concurrently as the Anti Defamation League's Director of Interfaith Relations in Israel and as the ADL's co-liaison to the Vatican, in 1997 he was appointed to the position of Director of the ADL Israel office.

Rabbi Rosen is a founder of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel that embraces more than seventy organizations in Israel involved in interfaith relations. He is a member of the Permanent Bilateral Commission of the State of Israel and the Holy See that negotiated the normalization of relations between the two; and he serves as a member of the International Jewish Committee for Inter-Religious Consultations which represents organized World Jewry in its relations with other world religious bodies.

He is President of the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP), the all-encompassing world inter-faith body (incorporating fifteen religions in over fifty countries), and is a charter member of the International Advisory Committee of the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions (CPWR). He is Honorary President of the International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ), the umbrella organization for more than thirty national bodies promoting Christian-Jewish relations. The ICCJ's Abrahamic Forum promotes dialogue between Muslims, Christians and Jews.

Author: R.T. Kendall, David Rosen
Format: Paperback
Published: January 2007
ISBN-10: 0446697346
ISBN-13: 9780446697347
Aussie price: $16 from the Jews for Jesus book shop. See it and order it online if you want at books