June 2002
Shalom, friends -
This summer is has been a good time to catch our breath. We hope you have a little time to reflect with us on what we have been doing, and hear about our summer plans.
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Update on Jonathan Miles, Light to the Nations
Many of you were able to hear our guest speaker, Jonathan Miles, a few weeks ago. He had a really powerful story to tell about what God is doing in the Middle East through his ministry, Light to the Nations. (Now called Shevet Achim.) He works to help Palestinian infants with heart defects get life-saving surgery in Israel. He spoke in several churches and to student groups in our area, and at the second En-Gedi Fellowship Dinner.
Jonathan's
ministry did remarkable things even when he was here! Early that week
he told middle schoolers at Zeeland Christian about a situation that
was going on even as he was speaking to them: a baby with a profoundly
deformed heart needed immediate surgery but was stuck at a border crossing
in Gaza, not able to get into Israel. He asked the kids if they would
pray with him about that situation. They did, and later he called the
Israeli Defense Force to ask them to allow to the baby to enter. The
baby finally was able to get to the hospital and have surgery, but the
doctors said 
that
it was a true miracle that he lived to that point because his blood
oxygen was barely detectable - he was practically dead when he arrived!
But they were able to operate and save the child. So even when he was
here, we witnessed God's powerful work going on through his ministry,
and even our prayers helped.
En-Gedi has been teaching about how Jesus as a rabbi wanted to raise
up disciples to serve Him and be like Him. The power of discipleship
is illustrated in a story from Jonathan Miles' life:
When he lived in Gaza, he only rarely met
people who were hostile to him as an American Christian.
But
one day when he was waiting to pick up a child, a fearsome-looking man
verbally assaulted him for several minutes about his presence in Gaza.
(The man was a member of a terrorist organization, and was even being
recruited to be a suicide bomber.) Finally the man asked him what he
was doing there, and he told him about his work and that he was meeting
a family with a child who needed surgery. Immediatly the man's demeanor
changed! He actually said, "Oh! Well, if there is anything I can
do to help, let me know!" Jonathan contacted him, and he did help
them! They have since become close friends, and he has become more and
more interested in Christ.
That is the power of one obedient disciple - by his example he could reach a would-be murderer, and turn him around to where he considers following Jesus.
Jonathan has more need for prayer even now - he was not able to return to Israel after visiting us because his visa had been withdrawn. This has been happening to many foreign residents who are being asked to leave the country. His wife and 5 of his children are in Jerusalem, but he isn't able to go back to be with them. He is working with some lawyers to appeal it now. Please pray for him.
If you would like to get a monthly email update from his ministry, email him at jonathan@shevet.org. En-Gedi is working on making an audio tape available from his time here. We will announce when it is available.
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Recording
system wanted!
We have been wanting to make audio tapes available from all of the excellent speakers we are hosting, but it is often a problem to get professional-quality sound recordings for reproduction. We have a couple talks from Jonathan Miles, but we missed our chance to make others of his available because they weren't recorded well. We are now trying to raise the $3,500 quoted for a good quality, portable amplification and recording system. Let us know if you want to help with that.
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En-Gedi Events Coming Up
We are staying busy this summer and also preparing for next fall and spring. We are going to give a presentation on "Everyday Life in Jesus' Time" for a VBS evening at Georgetown Christian Reformed Church on July 24th. (There are several good links on the [Links][Children] page if you are looking for Vacation Bible School resources.)
We
will be teaching a 7 week series at Christ Memorial Reformed Church
next winter on "Walking with our Rabbi Jesus" for the Wednesday
morning WOW Women's Bible study. See our calendar for events at churches
near you that you might like to attend. We are available if you would
like to have a presentation for your church or other group.
We are traveling to conferences to study and to interact with presenters
to learn more about who to invite here. Last week we went to the Advanced
Haverim School with Dwight Pryor on the topic of Paul. (This
week's Read Thru the Bible article was based on what we learned.)
We are working on plans to have Dwight here again next spring.
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Living Water for Uganda
We
told you recently that we are working to provide a "Living Water"
purification unit for Mukono, Uganda. This area is the home of Rev.
Titus Baraka, who has been studying at Western Seminary here in Holland
this year. Many of you have heard his outstanding preaching. He is a
powerful evangelist in Uganda and all over Africa.
In Titus' village, the only water source
is a contaminated river over a mile a way, and women draw water from
there by hand. The contaminated water is responsible for an enormous
amount of disease from waterborne illnesses. We are familiar with a
ministry who makes water purification systems that are extremely effective
at purifying water and are simple and cheap to maintain. 
For
$7000 + $2000 for shipping, we can bring a unit over there that will
purify 10,000 gallons a day, enough for thousands of people in that
village.
We thank you very much for your generosity - we have raised about half
of the money so far. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation
toward this project, you can do so through our
Online Resource Center Living Water Project using your credit card,
or you can mail a check specifying "Living Water System" to:
En-Gedi Resource Center
P.O. Box 1707
Holland, MI 49422-1707
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A Note from our Executive Director: Please be praying that
the Lord will open doors for us as we contact Private Foundations that
have hearts for supporting Christian ministries. If you have a connection
to such a Foundation or if you could help us make any appointments with
reviewing committees, we would greatly appreciate knowing about them.
Please email Bruce at okkema@egrc.net
or call 616-748-1022 x 101.
Thank you for continuing to keep us in 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.