A missionary named Don* tells of a Jewish friend who reasoned with his grandfather that Isaiah 53 had to refer to Jesus. The grandfather replied, “I believe that’s the Messiah, and most of my friends believe that’s the Messiah. But if we actually acted on that, we’d have to become Christians.”
Jewish people, embittered and segregated by centuries of persecution, are among the world’s most difficult to reach people groups. Over the years, practicing Jewish people have found security in separating themselves from Gentiles. The resultant peer pressure adds a secondary layer of difficulty. Some Jewish people show interest in the gospel, but fear paralyzes many from making an internal decision for Christ, much less a public profession of faith. Yet God still longs for His people to find freedom from the Law through their Messiah.
The Jewish Outreach Team (JOT) of North America is a Baptist Mid-Missions ministry reaching God’s treasured people. “We’re out to see them saved,” says Don, “but it’s out of love, not out of pride.” Friendships are the building blocks for all JOT ministries. When Bev joined JOT in 2002, she prayed, “Lord, may the first Jewish person I meet be a kindred spirit.” God answered her prayer with a dear friend, Ruth (name changed). Bev has made many Jewish friends but feels that Ruth is the main reason God called her to this ministry.
God’s concern for His people is so deep and unshakeable that He pursues them tenderly even if they do not respond. Carolyn has worked among Jewish people since 1967. She has labored in many ways but has had very few assurances of a genuine decision from any of her Jewish friends. One woman, much more open than most, said at the end of her life, “Well, maybe I do believe, but I’m just afraid to say so.” Like all our missionaries to Jewish people, Carolyn says, “God gives dear friends, and you can’t give up on them.”
Carolyn’s coworkers, Andy and Sheron, say that the hardest thing in working with Jewish people is that many don’t believe the Scriptures are true. Ministry becomes line upon line, precept upon precept to allow the power of God’s Word to penetrate the veil covering Jewish hearts (2 Corinthians 3:13-16).
And God does remove that veil. An emeritus missionary, Genevieve, comments that it typically takes 14 years of witnessing before a Jewish person comes to Christ. Some of Baptist Mid-Missions’ first missionaries to Jewish people were Manny and Reva, Jewish believers in the Messiah who reached Jewish people in Brazil, those displaced by World War II. Begun in 1951, their ministry in São Paulo, Beit Sar Shalom (House of the Prince of Peace), was named after the New York City ministry in which Manny was saved in 1933. It is now served by Manny and Reva’s children Delores and Dan, along with Dan’s wife Valéria. Beit Sar Shalom has a core group of a dozen born again Jewish people in addition to many Jewish visitors. Also in Brazil, Robert and Jane serve in Beit Chaiyei Shalom (House of the Life of Peace) in Rio de Janeiro. As with our US missionaries, these missionary families faithfully proclaim the gospel as the Apostle Paul did: “to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”
* Because of the sensitive nature of ministry to Jewish people, missionaries’ last names are not given.
This article first appeared in the summer 2011 issue (“Remarkable Mission Fields”) of Baptist Mid-Missions’ Advance magazine.