2002 was a year that brought my husband Bruce and I close to “the nations.” From January 7 until February 16 we were on a 40-day around-the-world mission trip beginning in Jerusalem. We continued from Israel to India to Singapore to Sydney to Hawaii and back to our home near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Everywhere we were able to take the message of “to the Jew first” and to ask for prayer for His Jewish people. In Israel we took a group of African church leaders who had come for the first time to see the Land of the Bible and to receive a burden to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” and the salvation of the Jewish people worldwide. It was the official opening of Alexander College at Christ Church, named for the first Protestant bishop in Jerusalem, Michael Solomon Alexander, a Jew who came to Jesus.

 In India, I gave ten lectures on biblical and modern Israel to a group of 85 Bible college students at a school in the center of that vast sub-continent. Their director had been with us in Israel and underlined the biblical message to these evangelists-in-training, “to the Jew first.”

In Singapore we were invited by the Anglican bishop to meet with all of his clergy of the diocese and share. They asked our prayers as they take the gospel to the Muslims of Southeast Asia.  The leaders in Sydney met us with the same open heart and desire to pray for the salvation of the Jewish people. Bob Mendelsohn of Jews for Jesus in Australia toured us around the Bondi beach area of Sydney where much of their evangelism is done.

On our return to the USA, we prepared for the LCJE-NA conference. This year, the nations again were involved – one continent we had not visited, South America, was part of the North America conference for the first time. Rabbi Yosef Koelner, LCJE-Latin America, had asked that the two Americas meeting together. Our meeting site in Orlando, Florida was the perfect place for this historic combined conference.

Many of you read the excellent reviews of that March 11-13 conference in the May 2002  (Issue No. 68) of The Bulletin written by Barrie Cae Mallin (NA) and Peter Citelli (LA).  Peter described the conference as with the Spanish word Crispas, meaning “sparks.” I cannot think of a better word for this 2002 conference!  Latino-beat praise and worship songs literally vibrated against the partition that divided the side-by-side meeting rooms in the hotel conference area. This “wall” was very permeable however and besides the plenary sessions for prayer and speakers, participants moved freely from side to side.

With the moving of the Holy Spirit throughout Latin America and particularly with the awakening going on among the Jews on that vast continent, we were encouraged to pray for the leaders and the work there among His People.

This year, Philip Jenkins’ seminal book The Next Christendom (and a follow-up cover story in The Atlantic Monthly by Jenkins in October) has made an impact. In the article Jenkins states: “Christians are facing a shrinking population in the liberal West. During the past half-century the critical centers of the Christian world have moved decisively to Africa, to Latin America, and to Asia.”

In the light of this data I have come to understand better the Lord’s direction in this last year to take Bruce and me “to the nations” and to open the door for LCJE-NA and LCJE-LA to come together for the first time in a shared conference. We have understood more clearly that the Lord is always doing “a new thing” in our day and that our thinking as missiologists and as evangelists to the Jewish people must take into account these movement of the Holy Spirit in our day.

Sean and Cindy Osborne (www.LocalTechSupport.com) became our new webmasters in 2002, redesigning and expanding the possibilities for the LCJE website. I encourage you to log on at www.lcje.net. There is much information there about all upcoming events, especially about the International LCJE conference in Helsinki this summer.

Along with the facelift and new content, the site was moved to a Unix server. This gives us a lot of flexibility and some new features. These include a private message board, as well as mailing lists that allow a number of users to carry on multi-level discussion through their email. For more information on setting up a private mailing list or message board through www.lcje.net, members may contact webmaster@lcje.net.

Trips to Dallas

Jim Sibley invited me to share in a day in Dallas when he brought the Southern Baptist evangelists to the Jews together for a conference in April. Jim gave a moving message that evening at the famous First Baptist Church, Dallas, where our 2003 conference will be held.

            October 23-27, I represented LCJE at the Mission America Coalition annual meeting in Dallas. LCJE’s part in these conferences, which strategize for world evangelization, is important to keep the vision for Jewish evangelism before this leadership group. Tuvya Zaretsky attended the biennial meetings of MAC in July in Jackson, Mississippi.

Since 9-11-01, nothing has been the same – except the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who never changes but is always doing a new thing! Our prayer is that as we move forward in LCJE-NA that we will be alert to follow His lead as Russian Jews crowd into south Brooklyn, Israeli Jews move into America’s suburbs, and as American Jews marry more gentiles than other Jews. May we be faithful to His call to take Messiah to his people in this day!

Theresa Newell
lcjena@comcast.net