February, 2002 News Letter

February, 2002

Shalom Haverim! (friends) --

On Valentine's Day, the melting snow and warmer temperatures make us think spring is coming soon! We are preparing for a lot of things, and I'll try to briefly update you on them here.

En-Gedi Fellowship Dinner

We are very happy for all of you who will be joining us next Tuesday night (Feb. 19) at Zeeland Christian School. (Note - that isn't Zeeland Highschool. It is at 334 W Central in Zeeland. map ) We are looking forward to sharing dinner with you and telling you about what we are working on right now. We especially look forward to meeting who we haven't had much contact with face to face.

Passover Seders

We are starting to receive information about Seder meals that are being held around the area. We want to encourage you to celebrate this connection with our biblical history, both when Jesus celebrated it with the disciples, and when God rescued our ancestors out of Egypt many years ago! We will be adding them to our calendar as we learn of them. Right now we have information for three events, at Temple Emmanuel (a Reform Jewish Synagogue), Bentheim Reformed Church and at Christ Memorial Reformed Church. See the Calendar on our website for details on each one. If you know of others that are open to the public, please contact us.

Shabbat Dinner with Dwight & Keren Pryor

We are still working on plans for our weekend with Dwight A. Pryor, President of the Center for Judaic-Christian Studies on April 11-13. Dwight is a man of outstanding wisdom and depth who is invited to speak all over the world. We are honored and excited to have him. He will be speaking at our Pastor's Breakfast on Thursday April 11, and having a day-long seminar on Saturday, April 13. (see below)

Dwight Pryor Biographical Information

We now have something to add to your plans for the weekend: We will have a lovely, traditional Shabbat (Sabbath) dinner with Dwight and his wife Keren on Friday, April 12th at 6:30 PM at Christ Memorial Church. If you have never experienced this tradition, you are in for a great treat! The Jewish Shabbat starts at sundown on Friday each week, and this is a wonderful family time. The mother lights candles and blesses God for the bread and wine, and the family sings songs, and the parents pray blessings for each other and all of their children. Dwight and Keren will explain some of the rich spiritual beauty of this tradition. We are asking $25/person, or $40/couple for the dinner. It will be a formal, worshipful evening, so please dress appropriately. We would like to extend a special invitation to join us to those of you who are interested in becoming En-Gedi's "family" by becoming a Member of En-Gedi - see below.

Held from 9:30 AM - 4 PM at Christ Memorial Reformed Church,
595 Graafschap Rd, Holland, MI 49423
Map to Christ Memorial Church

The fee for the day-long session: $50/person, $85/couple.
Proceeds will go to support Dwight's ministry and travel expenses.
Refreshments will be provided. Seating is limited, so sign up soon.
Email egrc@egrc.net to register - please give your name, address and phone.

(Note - the sessions are filling quickly and it will be difficult to collect money at the dinner and seminar, so we need to have registration and payment in advance. Please send a check or register at our our online resource center.)

We know that many of our friends are interested in becoming more involved in the events we are sponsoring, being connected into study groups, and spending more time with authors of this material that makes the Bible come alive. At the same time, En-Gedi needs to pay ministry expenses, and with your continuing support, we will also be able to open a physical center and publish materials to enrich your study of God's word. We are now inviting you to become a Member of En-Gedi. We are asking you to commit to a minimum of $10/month or $120 annually to receive the following benefits:

• Our Quarterly Newsletter by mail - with special articles, personal updates,
calendar of upcoming events
• Discounts on En-Gedi's books, tapes and many resources for sale
• Invitations to special sessions with visiting authors and presenters
• Invitations to participate in online Bible study groups from a Hebraic
cultural perspective
• Help configuring your computer for the internet to access our online
resources (if desired)
• Access to our growing lending collection containing teaching illustrations and
study materials such as: a high priest costume, ancient net anchors, a prayer
shawl, a shofar, nard, frankincense & myrrh; an audio tape library, collections
of issues of Jerusalem Perspective, BAR and other journals, a digital image
library with 5000+ photographs of biblical settings, and many books (when
our physical center is established)
• Opportunity to donate online or with automatic electronic monthly
withdrawals on your credit card.

Note: As a thank you for those of you who join in the next two months, we are inviting you to come to the Shabbat Dinner with Dwight and Karen Pryor and asking $15/person or $25/couple. We intend in the future to have sessions for Members of En-Gedi to spend more time with our invited presenters as a small group, but for this time we can say thank you by asking you to contribute a little less towards the evening's expenses.

If you visit our website, you will see that we are putting many new things up every week. A major project has been to establish a secure center where you can order resources using a credit card. We have books, audio tape sets, artwork, digital image collections and maps available, and you can donate online as well. Please check it out!

This is what is going on in our world. I hope that you will be praying for us as we become more and more active, and needing discernment for our decisions everyday. We also ask for you to pray for the Lord to help us responsibly handle the Word of God and honor Him in all of our plans.

The En-Gedi Resource Center is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is solely dependent on your tax-deductible contributions. We very much appreciate your support.