Shuli was over all day today ( Wednesday, Oct. 21st, 2003), and it was such a blessing for all of us. She came at 11 A.M. and stayed till 6:30 P.M. When she first got to our apartment we could see that she was tired. Her children make many demands upon her and she has not learned yet that they are old enough to cook their own meals and clean up after themselves. They wear her out and use her.

She came with her Hebrew Bible (Old and New Covenants), and I told her that I wanted to put her on a Bible reading plan. I showed her where John, Acts, Romans, Hebrews and Revelation were and asked her to read them. She's already reading Matthew and Deuteronomy with Ruti in 'their time' but I felt that she needed to get an overall picture of Who Yeshua is and what He did for her. Ruti was not able to be with her immediately and so Shuli began to read the assignment on the couch.

At first, when she saw how long John was, she asked me, a little concerned, if I wanted her to read it all today. I told her that I didn't expect her to read it all in one day but that this was what she could be reading when she went to the Bible and that she should be finished with John in about a week or less.

I had been working on a letter in my computer and so I got back to that. A little while later, Shuli asked me a question from John 5. It took us to other parts of the New Covenant and we, by this time Ruti was with us, were off and teaching more about Yeshua. She saw that Yeshua was the One whom we had to come to in order to have Life and that He said He was the Bread of Life that came down from Heaven, much better than the Manna. We saw how He is the Judge at the End of Days and that we are to honor Him as we honor the Father. We had a blessed time in the Word and then it was time for lunch.

As a Jew, the Shema (Deut. 6:4-5), is uppermost in our consciousness and when Yeshua presents Himself as equal with God, this has been a problem for Shuli. But as she has read and as I have explained sonship and nature, she has begun to see it better. Still, your prayers would be helpful.

Ruti made some brown rice, eggs and salad and we also ate some bread and butter. We talked about Yeshua at the table. After the meal we could see that Shuli was tired and we urged her to lay down in the bed. Of course, at first, she didn't want to do that, thinking that she was putting us out, etc. But Ruti insisted and she laid down about 2 P.M. At 5 P.M. when she got up, she looked much better and told us that when she went to lay down, she didn't think that she'd fall asleep at all. We smiled and invited her for dinner which we had just set the table for.

Dinner. What a time. Shuli blessed us with memories of when she was growing up in Israel. The oldest of ten children, her father and mother coming from Morocco when she was just three years old in 1956, she told us of the very, very small house that they lived in, half of which (something like a tiny duplex but not as private), was shared by another family from Argentina. It was hard times with little money for most of Israel and her mother would make sandwiches for them of bread, olive oil and a little sugar sprinkled on it for them to take to school. She said she was embarrassed at lunch as the olive oil would inevitably run out of the sandwich into all that was around it.

She'd walk in the dirt to get to school as there weren't too many roads then, with two brothers on her left hand and two on her right. Many times they didn't get to school on time because of the many children to get ready, and she'd get a slap on the hand from the teacher telling her to be there on time.

In all this Shuli looked back on it with fond memories as she remembered how close she was not only to her younger brothers and sisters but also to the family that 'lived next door.' They only spoke Spanish and Shuli, coming from Morocco, only spoke Arabic and French but eventually, she would learn Spanish and they some Arabic and French (and they'd all learn Hebrew). To this day they are very close to them.

She needed to leave by 6:30 and we invited her back again the next day. She wasn't able to come over the next day but a few days later she came over. We want to teach her as much as we can in the time that God has for us. We don't know how long that will be but there isn't another place in Eilat for her to go and learn about Yeshua in the way that we sense she needs to learn.

We again had a time of learning about Yeshua, praise and before she left, prayer. We ate lunch and during the conversation Shuli expressed wonder and gratitude at how much Ruti and I have been helping her financially. 'You suffer with us' was one of her phrases. She meant that she's seen times where we've given her money for food and we haven't had money for food for ourselves the next day. That meant a lot to her. Not that we didn't have any food but we would have wanted to have gone shopping and we had to wait till it came in.

We are walking 'with her' and she is our family. If we have, we share, to the point that we might not have for ourselves for tomorrow. A small price to pay for our sister to know the love of Messiah Yeshua for her and her family.

Then she spoke saying something about 'who needs my problems?' She went on to explain we have helped her for over a year, not only with food but starting in September, helping her to organize and begin to pay off her debts; a little to this one, a little to that one. She had many debts and wasn't able to pay any of them as what little money she got barely fed her. We sat down one day and listed all the debts and then Ruti and I said that we'd help her pay them off, giving something to all of them, every month.

Her face is so full of gladness and joy now. She told us that she used to be afraid to look in her mailbox as there would be only letters demanding money for unpaid bills. She was afraid to walk on the street as she had borrowed money from friends and acquaintances, and of course, when they would see her, they wanted their money back. But now she is not afraid anymore.

We have helped her with her debts on the condition that she not borrow any more money, period. We are teaching her to trust in Yeshua for her food and everything else. She is learning to live on what God is giving her now. It's not been easy for her, or for us, but it has been a joy to see how she has progressed and changed to accommodate this new financial lifestyle. She's not used to having no money for many days as before, she'd always borrow. But the offset of that is that she is breathing a deep sigh of relief and she can't believe how much we have helped her. And she knows that it is all Yeshua. She has also contrasted us to the Orthodox whom she says helped her, once. After that they didn't come around anymore.

Later, Shuli and Ruti sat and held hands to pray and I stood and placed my hands on her forehead. We prayed for perhaps ten minutes, asking the Lord Yeshua to continue to heal the small mass in her neck (from a thyroid condition, which He has already begun to do), and that the Spirit of Yeshua would give her wisdom and understanding of God's Word and Who Yeshua really is. We also prayed for her children to come to Yeshua and know His Life and Living Waters. And I'm asking you if you'd pray for Shuli also, that Yeshua would heal that thyroid.

As we left off with prayer, Shuli got up to leave and I could see that the effect of the Holy Spirit upon her. She said she felt 'woozy' and I said that it was the Spirit of Yeshua. I told her that the more time we devote to praying, the more powerful the presence of His Spirit will become. She liked that. So did I : )

May His Name be Glorified in Shuli and many other Israelis,

Avram & Ruti