Praise the Lord for sending me to meet with our rabbi! Our meeting was more intense than I thought it would be. Thank God that I sought your prayers! 

Our rabbi is an engaging speaker and a dominant character. It was fun to see my husband squirm like a young boy when the rabbi asked him to share his background. My husband didn’t have good experiences when he was going to Hebrew school for his bar mitzvah. It was cute to see him go back to that place of a nervous young teen conversing with a rabbi. 🙂

Our rabbi is not only a dominant character but also likes to talk a lot. If you are not careful his powerful influence comes in through humor, good story-telling, backed by a deep voice of authority and confidence. It took every ounce of self-control to listen to him without interrupting him or getting upset at his strong statements. It was extremely hard for me to listen to his untruths with my husband agreeing with all that was proceeding out of his mouth. There was also a surreal experience. One point without warning, I couldn’t get air inside my lungs and I thought I was going to pass out. I was starting to panic, and then all of sudden a great wave of peace washed over my body and I became still, calm and able to breath and focus again. It was a very weird experience.

Finally the moment came when I was able to share my personal testimony, my faith and unwavering view of Jesus as the Messiah, my Healer, and my hope of eternal life. I probably had the floor for maybe 7-10 minutes but that’s okay because I know I spoke with great conviction without any doubt or wavering from his long powerful oration. 

I also came out of the meeting knowing two important things about the rabbi that I ask you to pray as well: 

1. My rabbi studied world religion in college and so have read the New Testament cover to cover. There’s thousands of dormant seeds within him. Pray for those words of life to take root in his heart, mind and spirit.

2. Two years ago his youngest son passed away from brain tumor. Though he appears to have done admirably to move on and not be angry and stuck on bitterness or depression, I sense discontent and a window of opportunity opened for hope. We agree and believe that the hope he needs is Jesus Christ. 

I know I was sent to do something very important because looking back I see that the enemy was greatly attacking my home front. There was PTO drama that erupted which as co-president I had to deal with and solve. There was bus drama for my son. There was my parents drama after a long period of peace between them. These attacks only confirm that I struck the iron while it is hot. Yes, the iron is my rabbi and yes, he is hot. We left the meeting respectfully and lovingly. We hugged, kissed and shook hands. The rabbi invited us back to talk to him again and come to his Sunday class that discuss religion and beliefs. Pray for more opportunities for me to speak into him. (Actually I saw him again this morning when my daughter and I went to his mandatory class for bar/bat mitzvah students. Hmm…I wonder if he felt a little awkward too?) 

As for the attacks on my home front, God promises that he will give us two blessings for every trouble (Zechariah 9:12). I believe this promise. So if the enemy turns your table upside down while you were doing the Lord’s work, then it’s kinda like the Lord will clean up your old ‘Ikea’ table and will deliver a new ‘Ethan Allen’ table! 🙂 

A wise lady from my small group said this to us, “In heaven there’s one thing we won’t be doing. And that’s evangelizing.” Wow how true! 

Another wise and artistic lady from my small group had an art exhibit. Her one piece called, ‘River in the Desert’ really stood out to me. God is creating rivers in the desert but who is volunteering to take the water from the river to those parched out in the desert? I pray that we will! 

Thank you so much for praying for my meeting with the rabbi. Please pray for him. God bless you! -From the heart with love. 

Matthew 10:19-20New Living Translation (NLT)
…don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.