The many congregations we either help support or partner with are on our hearts at this time. Two members of our Congregation and Leadership Development team were scheduled to make congregational visits in Africa in May. As you might guess, their visits had to be canceled this year due to COVID-19.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed today, especially as we look at the news coming out of Israel, I encourage you to ask the Lord for strength and peace. Pray strength and peace for yourself, your family, friends, neighbors, region, and an extra measure for Israel and the Jewish people. God will hear you.

“Likewise know that wisdom is sweet to your soul. If you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off” Proverbs 24:14 (TLV) I am focusing us on wisdom because with all that is going on in our world today, wisdom is something we can all use more of, don’t you agree.

The statement below is from Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, an affiliate organization of Jewish Voice. Our organization agrees with the statement made below, and adopts it as our stance.

Long ago, if you asked a Jewish mystic about tikkun olam, he might tell you stories – beautiful stories of an inverted tree, suspended between heaven and earth, its roots drawing God’s goodness like sap that flows through the trunk and into the branches that stretch into our world.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” Acts 1:8 (NIV) Last week was Shavuot/Pentecost – a time of celebration and a time to reflect on our faith.

For the past nine weeks, as the coronavirus upended the world with fear, stay-at-home mandates, financial loss and isolation, we’ve turned to Scripture for the hope we each need to endure rough times.

For Believers, Shavuot is also a celebration of God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, poured out on early Believers on the Shavuot after Yeshua’s death and resurrection (Acts 2).

Shavuot marks the end of a season of anticipation. It is a harvest festival and one of three pilgrimage feasts of the Jewish year. For such holidays, each physically able, adult Jewish male was to travel to Jerusalem to present his offering. Today, Shavuot is a time of celebrating the gift of the Torah. Many Jewish people stay up all night reading it with family and friends. When Shavuot morning dawns, they pray together and read the Ten Commandments.

This year, we experienced a Passover like never before. The whole world was behind closed doors, praying for protection from a “plague.” As a result, Believers have been connecting globally through technology to worship, pray, seek the Lord and declare the Lord’s blessing over their cities and nations.