// FEBRUARY APPEAL //
From the rising of the sun to its setting...
Help Jewish people meet Jesus this summer
I am excited to tell you about our plans for a large summer outreach, preaching the gospel to four Jewish communities from June to August this year. I want to invite you to help make a difference with these outreaches through your prayers and giving.
The prophet Malachi wrote, ‘From the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations.’ (Malachi 1:11a) and as an international mission to Jewish people, we are concerned for the many lost and hurting Jewish people that need Jesus. We want the Lord’s name to be great among the nations, especially where Jewish people live.
Taking this verse to heart – from the rising of the sun to its setting – this summer we will be bringing the Good News of Jesus to four different cities.
Budapest, Rio, Paris and London!
We are planning large evangelistic outreaches in four key cities where we already work – Budapest, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, and London – each home to huge Jewish communities in desperate need of salvation through Jesus.
These large-scale outreaches are critical. They help our local missionaries build meaningful, gospel connections with Jewish unbelievers. They also lay a foundation for ongoing long-term gospel sharing and disciple-making relationships with the Jewish people we meet.
These outreaches also help recruit local volunteers for ongoing outreach and establish solid partnerships with local congregations. This model of outreach enables evangelistic work to keep on growing.
Based on all we saw last summer in Australia, where two Jewish people came to a saving faith in Jesus and much deeper working relationships with local congregations were established, we are very excited to see all God will do this summer through the outreaches.
You play a crucial role in these outreaches through your prayers and gifts. You can help make the Lord’s name great among the Jewish communities and cities where we will be proclaiming the Good News.
We cannot do this on our own – but together with you, we can make sure that Jewish people in Budapest, Rio, Paris and London have the greatest possibility of hearing the gospel and being saved. The cost to cover all four outreaches is significant.
As we look ahead to the summer, let me tell you why we are going to these cities and why your help is so urgently needed…
Please help Feri (pictured), Bogi, and the Budapest team share the Good News with Jewish people this summer
Bringing the Good News to Budapest
It was a great encouragement to welcome Feri Kozma, husband of Bogi, back as a full-time missionary recently. This important development has extended our reach of daily missionary work in Budapest. Having Feri and Bogi working together full-time is enabling us to better reach the 85,000 strong Jewish community in the city far more efficiently. We are excited about how this will make a stronger impact on the outreach this summer!
Feri and Bogi have timed our outreach to coincide with Shavuot (Pentecost) so there will many Jewish people in the city seeking free Jewish events to attend, along with many Jewish tourists. Ironically, despite a very long track record of antisemitism, Hungary is currently one of the safest places for Jewish people, so we are planning for increased numbers there.
Feri and Bogi – alongside their Hungarian-speaking volunteers – will be holding three evangelistic events in June, each aimed at a different age group spanning the generations. Before that, they will be on the streets, engaging Jewish people with the gospel and inviting them to these events.
At a past Budapest outreach the team met Susanna, a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor who had lost her entire family by the time the war ended. Despite her frailty and being wheelchair bound, at an evangelistic event in a park, Susanna heard the gospel, repented and began following Jesus. Bogi began regularly visiting to disciple Susanna, right up until the elderly Holocaust survivor went to be with her Saviour.
This summer in Budapest, there will be many Jewish people – just like Susanna – who desperately need to hear the Good News of Jesus.
Reaching out in Rio
Our teams – made up of our missionaries and local native-speaking Christian volunteers – will engage Jewish people through street evangelism and visits to Jewish neighbourhoods and homes. This will include special evangelistic events so that Jewish people have many opportunities to hear more about Jesus.
In Rio de Janeiro, missionary Sergio Danon (pictured right) is blessed to have assembled a large team of local Portuguese-speaking Christians from previous outreaches to help him share the Good News.
Home to a vibrant Jewish community totalling around 31,000, the team will be in Rio reaching out in Jewish neighbourhoods and districts, singing Hebrew songs while distributing gospel leaflets. Unlike elsewhere, thankfully it won’t be summer in Brazil during the outreach, meaning there will be agreeable weather and, as a result, many more Jewish people on the streets. With your help, our Rio team will be there, ready to make God’s name great!
Over the years, these outreaches have helped find new contacts for Sergio. A volunteer from last year’s outreach met Levi, a older Jewish man. When Sergio arranged to meet him after the outreach he recognised him as a worker from the synagogue near where he used to live. Sergio would buy Challah (plaited Jewish bread) from Levi for his Friday night service. When Sergio met him, Levi was distraught - he had nearly died in a car crash and was grieving over losing his twin brother a year ago. Levi is incredibly lonely but Sergio is alongside him bringing comfort and the gospel message, at a time in his life when he most needs it.
Our teams will engage with many more like Levi through this and the other summer outreaches.
Your help is needed so Jewish Brazilians can meet Jesus this summer
Your gift will help Aurel and the team
reach Jewish Parisians and tourists this summer
Proclaiming the gospel in Paris
Seven years ago, missionary Aurel worked alone in Paris. Today, he has a team with whom he conducts regular outreach, in partnership with two other Jewish missions.
In January, the team opened the ‘Shalom Café’ in the centre of the city – a safe space for Jewish people to drink coffee and talk about Jesus. The area is an ideal spot for the outreach and is regularly full of Jewish Parisians and Israeli tourists.
Paris is the sixth largest Jewish population in the world and home to almost 300,000 Jewish people. Many Parisians are away in July and August however, so June is the perfect month to reach out. Aurel and the team will be hitting the streets with gospel literature, written to resonate with Jewish people at this critical time.
To give you an idea of the ongoing impact of these outreaches on Aurel’s ministry, during a previous outreach, he met a Jewish woman named Karen. She was open to the gospel, happy to talk about Jesus, and wanted to hear Jewish believers’ testimonies. She later invited Aurel to a synagogue event. Aurel went and by the end of the evening had six more new Jewish contacts, including the rabbi of the synagogue who invited him back!
The first large outreach Aurel organised back in 2016 laid a solid ministry foundation for the following years. On that first outreach Aurel met a group of Holocaust survivors and began witnessing to them on a weekly basis. It was a joy to see one survivor, Ilan, profess faith in Jesus a few years ago, before his health started declining. Aurel was heartbroken when Ilan passed away recently but is comforted knowing Ilan is now with his Saviour. Aurel continues to witness to Ilan’s daughter and the group of Holocaust survivors, including Ilan’s best friend Harry, a former professing atheist who is now very open to Jesus.
As we reach out in Paris again this summer, we trust the Lord will put many more Jewish people, like Ilan, in our path and save them.
Sharing Jesus’ love with London
Following the three outreaches, we will be running the Summer School of Jewish Evangelism in London this August. This training will lead to evangelistic outreach on the streets and doors of the Jewish neighbourhoods of London, home to nearly 150,00 Jewish people.
It was wonderful to teach at past summer schools and meet keen students who were eager to go out on the streets to evangelise Jewish people after their training. Many travelled from the other end of the world for the opportunity to share Jesus with Jewish Londoners. The London training and outreach has, over the years, been an important way to recruit future missionaries for our work as some of our staff, like Ida Tam, were past participants. This makes the London outreach crucial.
To encourage you, let me tell you about Yvette, who came to faith during our London outreach a few years back. Ida has been discipling her and taking her to church since then. When challenged by her Jewish neighbour over being Jewish and going to church, Yvette responded, ‘I may not have any family but I have Jesus and going to church brings me joy.’
Yvette is why these outreaches are so important…
Please help our large team share the gospel with Jewish people in London this summer
Your help is needed now to make sure Jewish people in these four cities meet Jesus this summer
Over the years, we have seen the positive impact outreaches like these have on our evangelistic work. But we have had to adapt to today’s changing climate. The events of October 7 drastically changed the way we reach out, with many Jewish people going into hiding as events unfolded. Despite this, we held very successful outreaches last year. Hundreds of Jewish people heard the gospel as we approached them with understanding, empathy and the love of Jesus, including two Jewish people who professed faith during the Australia outreach last summer.
We want to build on the success of last year’s outreaches and have further adapted our strategy by location, so that we can witness even more effectively. We have refined our outreaches – making them as cost-effective as possible. We have eliminated long flights as well as accommodation costs by recruiting local volunteers. But there is still a large financial need that we must address in order to share Jesus in these four cities this summer.
While costs have been reduced, we still have to cover Bibles, gospel literature, outreach and follow-up materials, local travel costs, venue hire, as well as food for the volunteers in the different cities. All I ask is that you please pray we will be able to meet these costs.
As you can see from the above stories, Jewish people often come to faith in Jesus as a result of these outreaches. This presents us with an urgent need to preach the gospel and our teams want to be there to share Jesus this summer. Please help reach Jewish people in these four major cities as, together, we make Jesus known and God’s name great among the nations. Your partnership and prayers are vital to the success of these outreaches.
However, if you do want to send a special gift so Jewish people can be saved and discipled this summer, please call us on 01865 887830 or click the button below…
