July 2002

Shalom, friends -

When the cicadas fill the air with humming, you know it is really summer. They are found in Israel too, so Jesus probably heard them as well. I hope your summer is also humming with relaxation, laughter and time with family. We are enjoying the days we have to prepare for the fall. Here is our montly update for you: ________________________________________________________

Presentation Report: Everyday Life in Jesus' Time

Last week En-Gedi was invited to give a presentation for a Vacation Bible School night at Georgetown Christian Reformed Church in Jenison, MI. They were having a "Bibletimes Marketplace" for the kids, so we provided the experience for the parents. We gave a talk on what daily life was like for Jesus, and our take-home message was that in Jesus' culture, faith was interwoven with living every moment of the day. Because they would start each day with prayer, Bruce showed how tefilin (phylacteries) are put on for prayer in order to follow Deuteronomy 6:5 literally ("Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your forehead"). Lois talked about first century education, home life, farming, and shepherding, and Bruce described their fishing techniques, sharing En-Gedi's anchors and net weights from the Sea of Galilee.

We began and concluded with the Shema, just as they begin and end every day with the Shema. These are the scriptures the Jews have used as a "pledge of allegiance" for thousands of years. (You can read the full text of the Shema by clicking on this link.)

During our preparations, we discovered several articles and websites with information about everyday life in Bible times. We have added the articles in a section under [Articles] [Topical Articles] and some links under [Links][Archaeology]. We are available to give seminars like this for other churches who are interested.

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Guest Presenters this Fall:

We are very excited about two speakers that will be giving seminars for En-Gedi this fall. In September we will be hosting Dr. Steven Notley, Professor of Biblical Studies at Nyack College in New York. Dr. Notley has written extensively about the first century Jewish context of the gospels and is one of the most respected scholars in the field. He was the chairman of the department of New Testament Studies at the Jerusalem University College for several years and has led many study trips in Israel, Greece and Turkey. Many of his articles are available at jerusalemperspective.com .

Schedule of Steven Notley Events:       
Place: Zeeland Community Center

In November we will be hosting
David Bivin, editor of Jerusalem Perspective, a journal of research on the Jewish context of the gospels. David is a well-known author and scholar in this area. He is also author of several books including Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus, a study of the Jewish and Hebraic background to the teaching of Jesus. David Bivin is founder and director of Jerusalem Perspective, an independent Christian ministry in Jerusalem, Israel. After 12 years of publishing the journal in print form, it is now entirely online at jerusalemperspective.com.

Schedule of David Bivin Events:       
Place: Zeeland Community Center

We will post more information for both seminars as it becomes available. Please keep checking regularly for updates.

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Classes Next Fall and Winter

En-Gedi will be teaching some classes next fall and winter through Christ Memorial Reformed Church in Holland that will be open to the general public. In the fall, Lois and Bruce will be co-teaching a 12 week series on the Old Testament as Jesus read it. It will be an overview, with an emphasis on the texts that were foundational for Jesus' ministry. We will teach it from a Hebraic perspective, looking at it within its culture. If we want to understand Jesus, we need to understand His Bible. The class will be Wednesday nights at Christ Memorial Church.

During January and February we will be teaching a 7-week series for the Women of the Word (WOW) Wednesday morning Bible study. It is called Walk after Me: To Be a Disciple of Rabbi Yeshua, and it will focus on applying Jesus' teachings to our lives by understanding His cultural context. More details will be coming soon on both series, and we will put up information as it develops.

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Pastor's Update

A major goal of ours has been to serve pastors. Right now about 80 pastors have requested to be included on the En-Gedi mailing list. We recently asked for some feedback from them on our activities, and got many responses. If you would like to read their comments, look on the menu under [For Pastors] [Pastor's Feedback].

Right now we are working on finishing the schedule for pastors' breakfasts for the 2002 - 2003 year. We will be holding them this year in the Zeeland Community Center. We will be publishing much more information about that in our next newsletter, but right now here are the current plans:

We will soon be updating the section [For Pastors] on our website with information about this year's seminars. We will also be sending out details by email and by mail, if you know of a pastor or seminarian who would like to be included, please let us know.

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Living Water for Uganda

We are happy to announce having successfully raised the funds for the Living Water Unit for Mukono, Uganda!

You may have heard this story before: In the last year we have gotten to know Rev. Titus Baraka, a gifted pastor/evangelist from Uganda. His village, like many in Africa, suffers from much disease that comes from a contaminated water supply, since the only water source is hand-drawn water from a river over a mile away. About a year ago, we were also put in contact with a ministry called Water Missions International (www.watermissions.org), who share with us the theme of "Living Water" for their ministry. They manufacture and install water purification systems in third world countries. "Coincidentally", WMI has decided to target Uganda this year for 10 water purification units. These filtration systems are compact and simple to maintain, and generate amazingly pure water from very contaminated sources. Each one can purify 10,000 gallons of water a day, easily enough for a village.

Thanks to your generosity, we have raised the funds necessary to ship one unit to Mukono, Uganda. We will keep you posted on the progress of the shipping and installation of this system -- scheduled to leave the U.S. in September for installation sometime in January. Thank you for your help - please be praying that the installation will be blessed richly by the Lord!

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Finally, we are happy to report that we have recently received a generous gift from the Cook Charitable Foundation. We thank them sincerely, and if you know anyone associated with that organization, please express our appreciation to them as well. We ask for your continued prayers and suggestions as we seek to gain support for His ministry.

Thank you for your prayers as we serve the Lord together.

Shalom -

Lois Tverberg, Director
Bruce Okkema, Executive Director

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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.