On Tuesday, Sept. 13th, 2005, Ruti and I ventured into Jerusalem to cash some checks. As we both had been in need of shoes for quite sometime, we thought it might be good to look around and see what we might find. We stopped in this small shoe store on ben Yehudah Street, having seen a pair of brown shoes in the window that might be nice for me. After trying them on and walking some in the store, I felt the left shoe to be pinching the front of my big toe, even though I had room at both ends. I gave them back to the saleswoman, telling her about it.

She asked me about my tzit-tziot (tassels), if they were authorized by the Rabbis. I told her that they weren’t, and that my wife, Ruti, made them for me. She liked that and then asked me why I didn’t wear a kipa and I told her that it wasn’t written in the Bible. Then she asked me if I was a Lubavitch Jew (a Hasidic branch of Judaism). I told her that I wasn’t. I said I  believed that Yeshua from Nazareth was the Messiah. She said, ‘Yeshu?’ And I said, ‘His Name is Yeshua. The Rabbis gave Him another name, Yeshu, which means, ‘May His Name be blotted out!’ (from the Book of Life), but I don’t call Him that.

About a half hour later, after I had told her how Yeshua was what the sacrifices pictured, especially the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, and how this was God’s way to give us His heart and Spirit (Ezk. 36:24-27), as well as to transform us into the Image of His Son (Psalm 2), so we could live with Him forever, a Gentile woman came in. Ruti and I knew from just looking at her that she was a believer. As she came to the counter, the owner, Yael (Yahveh is God!), began to help her, while Miri (short for Miryam), and I continued to speak about Messiah Yeshua. 

The woman, in her late 50’s, was from Holland (the Netherlands). She had come to exchange a pair of shoes that she had bought there the day before. As both Yael and Miri began to search for a possible exchange, Ruti and I introduced ourselves to her. Ruti asked her if she was a believer and she said she was, having served the Lord a few years ago in Yemen, as a mid-wife. She went on to say that some Muslims murdered seven of her colleges but she was able to escape. She had been in Israel now for two years, returning to Holland every three months when her visa expired, only to return again and volunteer to help Israel. 

She realized what she had walked into, and had been praying for Yael, Miri, Ruti and me as I shared Messiah Yeshua with two of His Jewish people. After a good exchange for her shoes was found, I continued to talk, but this time, turning my attention to Yael. I told her that Tayah (the Hebrew name the woman from Holland that she took for herself), loved the Jewish people, because of Messiah Yeshua. Yael said, ‘Really?’ And so I asked Tayah in English if she loved the Jewish people and why? (I had sensed she did so I was able to speak about it even before I asked Tayah.) She said, ‘Yeshua gave me a heart for the Jewish people and I love them dearly.’ ‘Kol haKavod!’ Yael said (a common Israeli expression meaning, ‘Good for you!’, but literally, ‘All the Glory’ [to you], a more fitting expression toward God, for Him to receive the Glory, so I directed it to Yeshua). ‘It’s because of Messiah Yeshua that Tayah’s heart has been changed.’ Tayah nodded in agreement, and then said, ‘Before I came to believe in Yeshua, I loved all people but after, I loved the Jewish people more than my own people.’

I then spoke of how God had placed some ‘pictures’ of Messiah in the Tanach and when we gather them up, they point to Yeshua. Yael didn’t understand about ‘pictures’ in the Hebrew Bible and I said, ‘If I told you I had a son, and that he was ‘so tall,’ and 21 years old, black hair, brown eyes, and that he was studying to be a lawyer, you’d have a certain ‘picture’ of him. Then, if someone came along and tried to tell you that Avram had a son that was 30 years old, and that his hair was red and his eyes green, you’d know that that wasn’t Avram’s son.’ She got the point. 

I went on and before long, an Orthodox Jewish man came in with a kipa and they (Yael and Miri), both pounced on him about things in the Tanach that I had been sharing from the Prophets. He didn’t know. I told them that most religious Jewish men only know the prayers of the synagogue, some of the Torah (Law of Moses), and a little of the Prophets. After about ten minutes, he had to go and parted, me shaking his hand after having given him my card with my phone number and some ‘pictures’ of Messiah on them (cites from the Tanach about Messiah that point to Yeshua).

We must have been in that shoe store about an hour and a half, sharing Messiah Yeshua with those women, whom I’d like to ask your prayers for (Yael and Miri, and also the man, Shimon [Simon: ‘to hear God’]). 

We parted, with some powerful words from the Lord for them about seeking Him to know if Yeshua was their Messiah or not. We also gave them a thirty-page pamphlet on Isaiah 53. We’ll return in a while, after we have sown some Seed in prayer for them, and see where they are at.

We all left and said goodbye to Tayah and wondered what or where to go next. We were beginning to feel a little tired. It was about 4:00 P.M. and we still hadn’t found any shoes (although we had already cashed our checks). I felt if we were going to have shvarma (turkey meat on a spit with spices to make it supposedly taste like lamb), in pita bread, at Moshiko’s (a very small and ‘famous’ falafel and shvarma place on ben Yehudah), we had better have it now, as we were heading away from it to see some other shoe stores. So, we turned around and walked about thirty feet when a tall, young man, whom we would later find out would turn 24 on Friday, stopped me and asked me about my tzit-tziot. He was wearing a kipa and was a Jewish man from England, studying in one of the many Jewish yeshiva’s (religious schools), here in Jerusalem. 

I told him that my wife made them for me and that they didn’t follow the pattern of the Rabis which I thought was magic. He told me that the number of stands and knots was from Gematria and that it wasn’t magic but just the putting of numbers with letters to give them a meaning. I said that ‘one thing led to another’ and that Gematria is usually associated with Kabbalah, which is Jewish witchcraft. He responded about the different levels of Heaven and the different ‘angelic beings’ in Kabbalah and I could see that he understood. 

As I asked him if he knew anything about Messiah, a beggar came up to us and put out his hand for money. Mosheh (Moses), as we would later find out his name, was overweight, and about 40 years old. He was an Arabic man and should have said that his name was Musa, for that is Moses in Arabic. But I imagine that using Mosheh in Jewish Jerusalem would get him more money. Rafael, the Jewish man from England, began to search in his little coin purse. After not finding anything, he showed Mosheh that he didn’t have any money. 

I asked Mosheh if he was hungry. He said that he was. I told him that I’d buy him a shvarma in a few moments. Then I continued to talk with Rafael, knowing that Mosheh was listening too. Rafael is very intelligent, in the world’s eyes, and he would speak of this philosophy or how Rambam didn’t think sacrifice was right, etc. I answered his questions and positions, but only as a good fighter waiting out the punches of his opponent so he can get a few good shots in. Perhaps that’s not the best illustration, but I think you’ll get what I have been led to do with people like Rafael who love to speak endlessly about things that they know, and lead people down paths of spiritual nonsense.

After a few moments, we went to the shvarma place and got Mosheh his meal and drink. He was hungry and appreciative. I asked Rafael if he’d like one and he told us that he had just had a big yogurt. ‘A big yogurt?!’ I questioned. How could that fill anyone up? But he assured us that he wasn’t hungry as he had also had muesli on top of it. (Writing now I realize that as an Orthodox Jew, he would have had to have waited at least a half hour after his yogurt, to have any meat, as Orthodox Jews don’t eat dairy and meat together and have to wait at least four hours after eating meat, to eat any dairy products. But he could have had a falafel or, as you’ll see, we spoke for more than half an hour : )

Mosheh took off to eat his meal (Moshiko’s, an affectionate way of saying Mosheh; Moses, has three bar type stools to the right as you walk in, and outside, on the pedestrian walkway, some tables and chairs, but Mosheh didn’t sit in any of them). Rafael, Ruti and I stepped outside the opening that serves as the entrance to Moshiko’s and continued our conversation. We must have been standing there about 20 minutes when a slender man, about 25, came over to me and asked me for a shekel. Yuliel, with a black hat on that was sort of a cross between a rock star and a cowboy, was a handsome young man. I told him that I couldn’t give him a shekel (about 22 cents), because I didn’t know him and if he’d use it for drugs or drinking alcohol, ‘How could I stand before God if that were the case? Are you hungry?’ He said yes and it looked it. ‘Do you like shvarma?’ He said he did and we stepped inside Moshiko’s again.

By this time, the owner was telling me, ‘Kol haKavod!’, appreciating what Ruti and I were doing in feeding the men. I told him that God was wanting us to be compassionate and merciful to our brothers. He liked that, as well as the Israeli who was eating a shvarma on a stool to my right. The man eating mentioned that all Israel needed to be loving and kind. I agreed.

Yuliel got his meal and drink and sat down on a cement ledge about eight feet away from Rafael, Ruti and me, and we continued to talk about Jewish things and Messiah (whenever I could get it in), just outside Moshiko’s. I looked over at Yuliel and I think he was listening. My heart went out to him. There was just something about him. I think I could see that not only had he, like Mosheh before him, appreciated what Ruti and I had done, but living on the streets, it seems that he had been humbled. He wasn’t out to take my money. He wasn’t in a hurry to go off and eat his meal like Mosheh, although he was eating it. He was just ‘there’. And I wanted to go over and get to know him better and share Messiah with him. If there was anything that I could do over, I would have cut the ‘conversation’ short with Rafael, excusing myself, and sat down on the concrete ledge next to Yuliel (getting a chair for Ruti), and seen what our Lord would have had for us. Instead, I stayed with Rafael. 

After a while, Yuliel left and we were still talking with Rafael. Then Alex came up to us and asked for some money. Word does get around : ) We got him a shvarma and drink too. Ruti leaned over to me and suggested that I give my cards to both the owner and the man who was sitting on the stool. I handed my card to the owner, telling him that he would find out who the Messiah was, if he would read the cites. I turned to the man on the stool and gave him one also, saying that ‘it was because of Messiah, that my heart has been opened to help my brethren.’

It was probably about an hour and a half in all, and we finally parted from Rafael. And as we did, I told him,

‘Rafael, please don’t let your intelligence get in the way of hearing what the God of Israel is saying to you today, through us. Check out the Scripture cites that are listed on the card, and even more importantly, ask Him tonight if Yeshua is the Messiah. And keep on asking Him until you get an answer. God is real, He is here and He will tell you, one way or the other. What I’m bringing you from Him is nothing less than Living Waters.’

He assured us that he would ‘look into’ all this, as one might do with anything new that came across their path. And then we parted.

Well, now I was more tired and hungrier than before but so grateful to Yeshua for all the opportunities He had given us to share Him with others. I said to Ruti, ‘Let’s get some shvarma for ourselves now.’ It was about 5:30 in the afternoon and the sun was getting lower in the sky. When we came out of Moshiko’s with our food, the few tables outside were taken but having lived in Jerusalem from 1995 to 1997, we knew our way around. We turned right just after Moshiko’s, onto another pedestrian walkway and sat down on a circular concrete ledge that had dirt in the middle of it, about 50 yards away. I imagine a tree was supposed to be in the middle where the dirt was but it wasn’t there. Anyway, there were about four circular ledges with some people already using them as chairs, with one left for us. Perfect! We sat down and prayed, thanking the Lord for all the people that we had shared Him with, asking Him to minister to them and bring them into His Kingdom, and also for the food He had provided for us. It tasted very good.

Two minutes later, a dog, a small, cute, rat terrier, white with light brown markings, came around us. I’m not one to give to dogs or cats while I’m eating, and so I told her that I was sorry. But as the Lord would have it, as I lifted up my pita with shvarma into my mouth, a small piece of meat fell out onto the ground under me. ‘Well, it looks like that Lord is also providing for you today,’ as I bent over, picked the piece up and tossed it close to her. And even more than I initially realized. There was some grizzle in both mine and Ruti’s, something that we hardly ever found in Moshiko’s shvarma before, and so we gave it to her. She was happy and so were we. 

I wasn’t halfway through my sandwich though, when a young man, about 19, approached us and asked me for ‘four shekels so I can buy a falafel.’ I said, ‘Sure’, and handing my shvarma to Ruti, I told her I’d be back in a few minutes. On the way to Moshiko’s, he told me that he didn’t have any money at all, and that he just (always) said that so he could get some money to eat. I told him it didn’t matter and that I’d buy him a falafel or shvarma. 

Ruti and I don’t like to give money to people on the street who beg for it, as there are many professional beggars here in Israel and they make a lot of money. We’d rather sense from the Lord whether we should give or not, and how much, and many times we’ll ask if they need food. This way it gives us an opportunity to share Yeshua with them, something we couldn’t do if we just handed them some money. And if we sense from the Lord that they really need money, we’ll take them to a grocery store and let them pick out food for them and their family.

The owner of Moshiko’s and one of his assistants smiled at me as we came in, and after we had ordered Erin a falafel and drink, and they were in process of making the falafel (fried chick peas with spices, put in pita bread along with cut up veggies and humus, etc.), I asked Erin where he came from. ‘ Los Angeles, but I live in Tsafat now’ (a city noted for it’s Kabbalah centers, north of the Sea of Galilee). He told me that just yesterday, he had shaved off his payot (long hair hanging from around the ears that certain Hasidic Jews believe is the mystical parallel for the tzit-tziot). I asked him why he had done that. He said that it just didn’t feel right. I affirmed him in his decision, saying that I thought that the payot made a man look feminine, and that wasn’t right. Erin had been ‘learning’ about Kabbalah and other mystical things in Tsafat. I gave him my card with the picture cites of Messiah on it and told him that this would show him who the true Messiah was. 

Erin was hungry and grateful. After thanking me, we parted and I went back to Ruti and our little friend. The Lord was making this a special day for us. We finished eating and walked to another shoe store. It was after six now. We both saw some shoes we thought might be good for us but one of the two that I wanted, they didn’t have. And the closest size that they had the other one in, was one size too big. I tried it on but not only did my feet slip in them, the heel not ‘catching’ but my right foot felt like there were ‘pinchers’ about mid sole. Like a vice gripping my foot. The boy salesman insisted that I try on a bigger size, to get away from the vice grip, but I told him that if my feet were slipping in these, bigger ones wouldn’t be better.

Meanwhile, Ruti had been waiting to get the ‘left foot’ of the display model, from the girl that worked there. But every time the girl came out of the stock room, it was with a pair of shoes for someone else. We waited. And we waited. Ruti said that we should leave. I said, ‘Let’s wait a little longer.’ Finally, Shani came out with the box for the shoe, but the left shoe was no where to be found! : )  We thanked them both and left. 

Walking on some more, we came to another shoe store. Oh, by the way, the last one, and this shoe store, were athletic shoe stores. We’ve found that a good athletic walking shoe is very supportive and comfortable for the foot. That is, if one can find it. 

As we entered this new store, a black man from Ethiopia, a Jew, came up to us and asked us if he could help us. I told him we were looking for some walking shoes. He directed us over to some that looked more like one could climb a mountain in them, and I told him that we were looking for something a little simpler. He showed me another display on the wall, and as it had a flat, straight sole to it, something I need with my almost flat feet : )  I tried one on, not thinking much about it. But when I began to walk in them, they were very comfortable. 

As we left the store, having bought shoes for me, we thanked Shlomi (an affectionate way of saying Shlomo; Solomon), for all his help, and wished him a good evening. He liked that. We crossed King George Street, and headed for some more athletic shoe stores. Ruti put on a pair of shoes at the next store, that the son of the owner had offered to her. As she walked in them she said that she couldn’t believe how soft and comfortable they felt. And the light brown color, with the pink stripe, went well with her dress. I paid for the shoes and thanked them for their help. On the train back to Tel Aviv, we thanked Yeshua for blessing us with shoes to wear and folks to share Him with. 

It was 9:40 P.M. when we got off the train and looked for a bus to take us back to Ramat Gan. We must have looked unsure about where to go (which we were), when a Jewish man by the name of Ariel passed by and asked us if he could help us. I explained that we weren’t sure where the bus stop to Ramat Gan was, and after giving him the numbers (of different buses to Ramat Gan), he told us that it would be a blessing for him to show us.

We crossed the street and after a number of bus stops (on the same street), we found the bus stop for us. Ariel had been telling us that he had been to the United States and traveled all over it for $300. He bought an Amtrak ticket, good for a month, anywhere in the U.S. and visited one city after another. And then he asked if I knew Rabbi ‘so and so’ in Miami Beach. ‘No,’ I said. How about Rabbi ‘so and so’ in Brooklyn? Again no.

He told us of a time when his visa had run out and he had gone to Montreal, Canada to stay with a great rabbi. Why was he great?

‘Anything the rabbi said happened! After a week in Montreal , I wanted to go back to the U.S. I gave my passport to the immigration man and then he asked if he could see what was in my backpack. I said, ‘Sure.’ He found a prescription with my address from Brooklyn on it and said he wasn’t going to let me back in. I told him that I was sick there, and I gave the address where I was staying at the time. What if you came to Israel ,’ Ariel said to the immigration officer, ‘and you got sick and needed a prescription. Wouldn’t you give your Israeli address to the doctor?’ 

The immigration man responded, ‘You’re very smart but I’m not going to let you in.’ And he didn’t. Ariel went back to the great rabbi and told him his problem. The rabbi said, ‘Go back to the same place tomorrow and they’ll let you in.’ And indeed, Ariel went back, and a (new) immigration man asked, ‘How long do you want to stay in the United States?’ Ariel told him, ‘Just one week.’ The man said, ‘You look like a fine fellow,’ and stamped his passport for six months!

I was impressed but I wasn’t going to dwell on that. I asked Ariel if he knew anything about the Messiah. He said he didn’t know much. I said that with Messiah, we could come to know God, not just ‘about’ God. And I began to speak of what was written in the Tanach about Messiah. It wasn’t long before Ariel said goodbye. Ruti said that when I had begun to speak of Messiah, Ariel sort of changed to, ‘wanting to go as soon as possible’ mode. But I had given him a card too, and told him that he would find out who the Messiah was, as he looked up the Scripture cites.

Please pray for all these people, as our Lord leads you. We desire your prayers for our Work here.