The end of the summer is probably a busy time of year for you, as it is for us. You should have received our first mailing last week. We stuffed, licked, sorted and mailed over a thousand envelopes, so it was quite an effort. We will be happy to use electronic communication most of the time! We have had many new people ask to be added to our email list recently.

Here are a few things you may be interested to know about:

Where is the En-Gedi Resource Center, anyhow?

This question comes up often in our conversations. Right now we have offices at Eagle Design in Zeeland and in Holland, in my home. Our vision of our ministry has expanded beyond just having a library of materials. Now we see that our ministry will be in three areas - to make resources available on the web, to sponsor study groups and public events, and to establish a lending library with a place for people to study. Up to this point we have been spending our energy on establishing our web site and organizing groups and events, while at the same time we are purchasing resources for a center. With the Lord's help, we plan to open the doors of our library this winter.

En-Gedi Pastors' Breakfast Series

We are currently planning to have a monthly breakfast series for pastors with the goal of exploring the Jewish biblical context and discussing how to share this with congregations. We intend this as a way that pastors can get to know others of similar interest, share ideas, and discuss the implications of the Jewish culture on biblical interpretation and Jesus' teaching. We are planning the following presentations this fall:

September 6, 2001 Come to the Feast! - Celebrating Christ in the Biblical Feast Season, Keith Doornbos - Lead pastor, Providence Christian Reformed Church speaking w/ an introduction to the En-Gedi Resource Center by Lois Tverberg and Bruce Okkema - EGRC Directors

October 18, 2001 Ancient Hospitality and Preaching
Tim Brown - Professor, Western Seminary / Dean of the Chapel, Hope College

November 8, 2001 Learning from Jesus, the Master Teacher
Randall Buth - Professor of Semetic Languages, Hebrew University

The first breakfast will be at the Holiday Inn in Holland from 7:30 - 9 AM. We will be sending out information about this by mail this week, but if you are a pastor or know one who would be interested in coming, please email us at egrc@egrc.net.

Torah Study

Our weekly study of the Torah reading is now in Deuteronomy, and soon we will be starting back in Genesis again. This happens shortly after the Jewish new year. The Jewish people even have a special celebration at this time called Simchat Torah, Rejoicing with the Torah, where they literally dance in the synagog to celebrate the fact that God gave them His word! (Have you ever thought of doing that?) Because of this we are planning to have a Simchat Torah party in the first week of October as we start over studying the scriptures at that time.

For those who haven't heard about our study, we read the weekly portion of the scripture that Jews read all over the world. We stand and read the entire scripture aloud (3 - 4 chapters, usually) and then discuss how Jews and Christians understand it, and how Jesus used it in His ministry. It is amazing what we find! Many have said they are interested in joining us, and a good time will be coming up soon when we start over. Please email me if you are interested and let me know which nights of the week (Monday through Thursday) you could come. We will need to know how many will be involved as we choose where and when to have it this year.

On the Web Site

Our web site has had many more visitors lately! We have also been putting a few new things on it and are working on simplifying navigation. We now have a monthly art exhibit featuring Diane Van Noord's beautiful watercolors of Israel. She is a very talented local artist who is quickly growing in national attention too. The August exhibit is of her "Living Water" painting. We have prints of that available for purchase if you would like to support us in that way. We also have updating the poetry pages and have a beautiful Poetry top page and two new poems. Please think about sharing your poems with us if you are creative. Both the Art exhibit and the Poetry pages are under the Forum button on the Home page.

Come to the Feast! News

Our big event of the fall is the Come to the Feast! event, which we have told you about before in this newsletter. I am including an article at the bottom of this email to share more background. This worship service was originally held at Providence Christian Reformed Church last March, and it really was powerful for me. Pastor Doornbos narrated while in one scene actors portrayed a modern Jewish family observing a seder while an ancient Israelite painted blood on his doorpost, and he explained the imagery of Christ through that and all of the seven Biblical feasts. It was amazing to learn and worship at the same time!

One note - we will be needing to have some folks as walk-ons in first century clothing, so if you would like to be an active participant, please respond by email. I'll send you more information.

Free tickets are now available in several churches and at Baker in Holland and Booksellers on Main. If you would like to get several for your church or for a group of friends, please email or call us.

Please keep praying for us. We really mean that.

May the Lord's face shine upon you --

Lois Tverberg, Director