Australia, Behold Your God!
By Bob Mendelsohn
I'm so pleased to have been associated with LCJE for two decades since All Nations in 1985. And in the interim our family has been involved in Jewish outreach in New York, Washington, and Sydney. It's right for us to talk about the things that work and the things that don't work. We can be motivated and encouraged by the generous move of the Holy Spirit and the responses of our Jewish people.
Some comparisons: the facts
In December 2003 and February/March 2005 Jews for Jesus conducted an evangelistic campaign in each of the two major cities of Australia, Sydney and Melbourne respectively. And we ought to evaluate the success of each campaign critically, all the while rejoicing in what God really did.
In Sydney I was the only Jews for Jesus vocational staff member in Australia at the time. By the time Melbourne rolled around, we had three. Mark Landrum led the campaign in Sydney and I assisted him. He was stationed in the UK at the time and after a successful campaign, Kyle Sutton from the IBJM (Chattanooga) was our chaplain. I functioned as the chaplain in Melbourne as Mark again led the campaign this time with Shlomi Abramov as his 2ic. Shlomi and his wife Miriam work in our Tel Aviv branch. Volunteers came from New Zealand, Singapore, Israel, the US and elsewhere. On BYG Sydney we handed out 144,000 tracts with 32 folks; during BYG Melbourne we handed out 124,000 with the 22 members of the team.
Campaigns and their results are often proclaimed as victories even without numerical qualifications. I find that fuzzy at best and deceptive at worst. We need to quantify and measure so we can truly evaluate. Otherwise we enter into mushy and foggy language that makes everything into something glorious and majestic. When I receive an email where every word is capitalized and every sentence ends in an exclamation mark, it dulls me rather than excites me. So I'm glad to measure ruthlessly.
Jewish response
Probably the most wonderful statistic about the work that we were able to do in Melbourne was that we had double the interest in the Jewish community, specifically in contacts who gave us their details for follow up. In Sydney we had 47 not-yet-believing Jewish people; in Melbourne 94. Now does that mean we worked harder in Jewish areas-I don't think so. There is something that is obvious-God drew the net further and wider. That is also evidenced by the number of decisions for Christ. In Sydney we had 17, including one Jew who has gone on with the Lord and whose daughter is now walking with him. In Melbourne we had 106 decisions of whom 4 are Jews. A wider net, apparently a stronger arm of the Lord.
Prayers aren't useless
Ruth Murdoch is one of our Co-Labourers In Messiah (CLIM) Her heart for Jewish people continues to grow. She is our Prayer Secretary. Without her daily updates, our success would be minimized.
Methods employed
During the campaigns we not only used broadsiding, but also video evangelism. In this we perform 'man on the street' interviews, asking people who they thought Jesus was. It is exciting to the campaigners, and a bit unusual, thus it helps them carry on for the length of the campaign. A good number of Jews and others gave us their details and many prayed right on the streets and on video with us because of this work.
We tried an Israeli night. During BYG Melbourne we collected a handful of Jewish contacts, the Israelis among us were keen to meet with these enquirers. We set aside a night, the chef and crew made a beautiful array of Israeli foods, the candles were glowing…but no Israelis came. This was a failure. Did we advertise it well? Did it just not ring their bell? Time will tell.
"Psalm" Reading is a key component of our ministry efforts in Australia. We wear gypsy looking costumes, carry a card table, a deck of playing cards, a large Bible (Hebrew available also), and a glowing candle. Our goal was to read the Bible with people (usually Psalms 2, 22, 130 or 69). Julie from Guatemala came with her husband to Melbourne. At least two dozen people made commitments to Christ right at the table with Julie.
Summary
Due to some unfortunate incidents, our reports the last two years have apparently not gotten to you. So with this report we 'catch up' with you all. We have conducted other outreaches in the last few years here in Australia as well as globally. And we do other work besides these three-week campaigns. We started a messianic congregation "Beth Messiah", using a church building. We continue preaching in churches and seeing very good results from our new book shop in the heart of the Jewish community in Bondi Junction. But in this brief re-reporting, I hope you catch the pleasure we have from these major events in Australia so that you can feel a part of what God so clearly did. This way we can exalt his name together. And we can anticipate what He will do for His name's sake in the years to come!
Bob Mendelsohn
BobMendo@aol.com