January 2005

Shalom Friends -

May the beginning of a New Year remind you to ask the Lord what he might like you to change in the coming year to better serve him, and live the life he gave you to its very best.

En-Gedi's Fourth Anniversary!

On January 1, 2005 we will be celebrating our 4th anniversary as a ministry. Praise the Lord! And thank you for all your prayers and support! After four years of ministry, it really feels like we are finding our place and learning how to focus on our unique offerings. At times it has been quite difficult, and we really have appreciated all of you who have stood with us, surrounded us, and supported us. It is a very uncertain adventure to start a ministry in tough economic times, but the Lord has been faithful at every turn. As we begin our fifth year of serving the Lord as En-Gedi, we continue to value your feedback, ideas and prayers. Please feel free to contact us any time!

Last month we announced another Fellowship Dinner for December 10th, but quickly realized that it was a conflict for many. We have now shifted our date to Thursday, January 13th. Once again, we hope you who live in the area can join us for an evening of food and fellowship. Along with our sharing our homemade dishes in a wonderful feast, Bruce Okkema, our Executive Director, will give a multimedia presentation called:

Seeing God's Faithfulness in Africa

In October 2004, Bruce Okkema went to Uganda and Kenya to bring physical and spiritual "Living Water", by working on projects to help with the great need for clean water there, and by telling ministers about En-Gedi. Bruce will share some stories of God’s miraculous intervention and describe scenes from African life out of Bible times. And, he will share his photography of exotic wildlife and tell about his new friendships among traditional Masai tribesmen. All will enjoy hearing about how he nearly started a war among the Masai, and then was later adopted as a "brother" to a Masai elder as a result. (You can read Bruce Okkema's remarkable daily reports and his director's article about his trip to Uganda and Kenya at these links.

Once again, our dinner is offered at no cost and will be potluck-style - free-will donations will help with expenses. We just ask you to bring a dish to share - we will provide tableware and beverages. We also ask that you RSVP by email or phone (616) 355-2200 and give each of the names of those planning to come. Location: Zeeland Community Center, 14 S Church St., Zeeland, MI. See link for map.

Update on Listening to the Language of the Bible

After just four months, we have sold just under 2000 copies our first book, Listening to the Language of the Bible. The feedback we have heard has been very positive, with requests for another book soon! We are now receiving more requests to speak about it at churches, and are busy with that in the coming weeks. Currently, study groups at Brookside Church in Grand Rapids, Pillar Church in Holland, Michigan, and Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California are studying the book using the study questions available on this site. We are working to making the rest available as soon as possible. We also have reports that a pastor in Hong Kong is using it, and has sold over 100 to his classes. And, a teacher at Western Michigan Christian High School in Muskegon is using it for devotions for his Spanish class. If you have stories of how you are studying with it, we would love to hear about it!

New Relationship with Special Ministries

When Bruce went to Kenya, he spent much of his time working together with a ministry in Nairobi based in Zeeland, MI called Special Ministries. The founder, Marylin Newman, has built seven "Hope Centers" at various sites around Kenya in the past 20 years, which consist of a church, a school and a clinic. They bring education and medical help, while sharing the gospel with the people of the area.

Their ministry has been needing more office space, so will be renting space at Eagle Design & Technology in Zeeland, where En-Gedi's offices are also located. We hope to build a strong friendship by becoming "neighbors". En-Gedi has a great interest in understanding the Bible in its native Eastern, Jewish context, which makes much more sense to Africans than it does to people from a Western, European background. And we know God calls us to not just know the correct facts about the Jewishness of our Messiah Jesus, but to serve him by providing for human needs. There is a good fit between what each ministry can provide the other, so we welcome greater friendship with Special Ministries, and will be praying about how the Lord will use En-Gedi in Africa in the coming years. (Those of you who come to our Fellowship Dinner will have a chance to meet “Momma” Newman there.)

Laptops Needed for Africa

Access to sound biblical educational resources is difficult for pastors and teachers in developing countries in Africa. Our ministry would like to be able to make our material available to them via the Internet, but very few pastors, particularly in Uganda and Kenya, have their own computers, so they have to spend the time and money to travel to Internet café’s for access. Imagine how often you would do this if you had a hungry family to feed on top of that? Right now we have specifically 3 pastors in this situation.

If you have been thinking about upgrading, and have a used laptop 2 years old or less in good running condition, or if you would like to donate a new one, we can give you a receipt for your gift-in-kind and you can claim the tax deduction. But more than that, your gift will make a huge difference on the African continent. The pastors there have such a zeal for the Lord that as we equip them with good educational resources, the gospel will spread like wildfire! We could share many personal emotional experiences of what such a gift means to them.  Can you imagine getting a gift of a computer that would cost the equivalent of a year’s worth of wages? We will be able to connect you with the person receiving your computer, and you can correspond with them by email if you wish. You will surely meet them one day, either in this world or in the world to come! The computers need to be good laptops so that they will last a long time without the need for service (availability of which is very limited). Please spread the word and be praying about this.

Other News: Top Five Archaeological Stories of 2004

Those of you with an interest in archaeology will enjoy reading this month's BiblePlaces Newsletter from www.BiblePlaces.com. The topic is "Top Five Biblical Archaeological Stories of 2004", and includes the discovery of the Pool of Siloam, and putative findings of Cana and the Cave of John the Baptist. The author, Todd Bolen, is a professor of Archaeology in Israel who gives a well-informed opinion on the likelihood that each discovery is the real thing. His organization has produced sets of beautiful, high-resolution digital photos of Israel that are highly recommended for pastors and teachers of Bible - see http://www.bibleplaces.com for more.

2004 Website Statistics

Our website continues to grow in popularity and discovery. We continue to hear very encouraging emails from students of the Bible ranging from stay-at-home moms to pastors. (If you get a chance, please read the Pastor's Feedback page.) We now have subscribers in 27 countries around the world and from nearly every state in the US. Very soon we will pass the 39,000 hit mark, with more than 14,600 of those from 2004.

We hope you are taking advantage of the devotionals from the Hebraic perspective found in our Water From the Rock section. The Water From the Rock link is the first one on our home page. These articles make great sermon or lesson ideas for pastors and teachers, and there are now more than 200 of them – all free to use! (Click on the [All Articles] link at the bottom of that section if you haven’t discovered the comprehensive index yet.) They are also being translated into Chinese and Filipino, which you can find at www.diakonia-hk.net.

             (see En-Gedi calendar for more events and details)

• Jan. 9 – (Sun) Listening to the Bible through Jesus’ Ears, Brookside Church, 3600 Kalamazoo SE, Grand Rapids, MI, 10:30 AM

• Jan. 13 – (Thurs) En-Gedi Fellowship Dinner - Seeing God's Faithfulness in Africa (slides and stories from Bruce Okkema), Zeeland Community Center, Zeeland, MI, 6:30 PM

• Jan. 16 – (Sun) Listening to the Bible through Jesus’ Ears, Fellowship Church, 407 Perry Ave, Big Rapids, MI, 11 - 12 AM

(Pastors - plan ahead for the following):

• November 14 - 18, 2005 (Mon - Fri) Haverim School of Discipleship for Pastors with Dwight A. Pryor, President of the Center for Judaic-Christian Studies - Prince Conference Center, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI

Thank you for your continued prayers, as En-Gedi daily works to bring living water to your study of the scriptures.

And Finally...

As the year comes to a close and you are considering your year-end giving, please consider En-Gedi's unique ministry that is very dependent on your gifts. A gift postmarked before January 1, 2005 can still be claimed in your charitable giving for 2004. You can make a gift online with your credit card as well. If you would like to set up a regular monthly donation as a withdrawal from your checking account or credit card, just let us know. These help so much! Please contact us by email (egrc@egrc.net) or call 616-355-2200 and we can arrange for an automatic deduction. We are so glad for your interest in our ministry - we pray that in 2005, we will be an even greater help to you.

Warmest blessings from snowy Michigan -

Lois Tverberg & Bruce Okkema
Directors, En-Gedi Resource Center