The Chosen People | MARCH 2020 5
God made four promises to the people
of Israel in Exodus 6:6–7:
you out from under the burdens of
While deliverance from Egypt was
accomplished as the waters closed in over
Pharaoh’s armies, God is STILL delivering
and redeeming today. Here are two stories
from our workers in Israel about how the
Lord accomplished this in their lives.
DAVID’S TESTIMONY
My family’s salvation story began in Eastern Europe during World War
II. After Germany’s surrender, my grandfather returned to his homeland,
Latvia, and found that the Nazis had murdered his family. For him, that
skeptical of religion. The communist ideology that was spreading throughout
Russia pulled him even further away from God. He began to work for the
communist newspaper, which allowed him to take home a Bible so he could
develop explanations against it. My father, sixteen at the time, found it and
became convinced of its truth, placing
his faith in Yeshua. He knew no other
believers for a decade after that until
evangelicals started coming to Latvia
to plant churches. My father quickly
connected with them, and then my
mom and grandmother also started
to believe. My grandfather did not
come to faith, but he was astounded
by the believers’ good hearts and
high moral standards.
As a kid, I remember going to
synagogue on Saturdays and church
on Sundays. I felt connected to the
Jewish tradition, but I loved Yeshua
Jewish congregation was birthed in Riga; everything fell into place—the
Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, and the New Testament. It brought to life
what I had always felt inside—that the ancient Jewish traditions and Yeshua
complete one another. Today, I serve at a Messianic congregation in Israel,
and I do not take this privilege of serving our King Messiah for granted.
EFRAIM’S TESTIMONY
I was born into a traditional Jewish home in New York City in 1951. My parents were
Jewish and New Yorker.
In our home, we never talked about Jesus. There were
two kinds of people—Jews (us) and Gentiles (them).
From my perspective, Gentiles were Christians who
worshiped some unfamiliar, pagan hero. I was content
to stay on “my side” of the street, and no Gentiles I
knew were interested in bringing me to “their side” of
the street.
That all changed when I was twenty years old.
I was on an intense spiritual quest that was fastforwarded
by the use of psychedelic drugs, Eastern
religion, and a search for meaning. As I delved into
a brave new world of philosophy and religion, I
realized that I had not looked at the Bible for many
years. My journey back to the Bible renewed my faith in
My slow, methodical journey was interrupted when a friend of mine showed up
unexpectedly at my house in San Francisco. She had been on her own journey as a Jew and
had discovered that Jesus was the Messiah. She shared with me passages from the New
Testament, and I clearly saw that this Jesus was the promised Messiah of Israel. I realized
Jesus was for the Jews and that as a Jew, I could be for Jesus. That was back in September
1970, and I have never looked back.