JERUSALEM UPDATE, October 24, 2012

I thought I had better get an update out on my last conversation by phone with our friend who is the founder of H.O.B. CITY OF JESUS MINISTRY in Jerusalem.  I have been working on a couple other blogs that got me bogged down a bit and decided to slip this in ahead of the others.

I got a call from a very tired sounding friend last Friday morning.  He was cheerful though and wanted to give me the latest news of his previous days’ experiences as he went over the border.

This week he had gone over the border into Syria once again.  I don’t suppose there are many places in Syria these days that are very peaceful, but it seems that God has chosen to send him into some of the very worst areas.  Week after week I hear of the harrowing experiences, many of them where it took an absolute miracle for him to have survived. 

In his last week’s incursion over the border our pastor friend from Jerusalem was with a number of the new believers.  As they were together and walking towards their destination, there was an assassination attempt made.  They had been found out and ended up having to run for their lives.  As they were running, it appears that six of them had gotten caught.  The others fell into a deep hole that was about 16′ or so deep.  They had to wait until the next morning to get out of the hole.  Our friend injured one of his feet, but it was not broken.  The other men that fell in with him apparently had broken leg bones.  The other men that had gotten caught were murdered.

I tell you this story for two reasons.  One of them being, that we really need to pray for the ministry of H.O.B.  This is very, very serious business.  The area is brutal beyond belief!  This man has been putting his life on the line for many years now, as have those that volunteer to work with him.  Many have been killed while sharing the love of God with the people in Jordan, Iraq, and Syria.

As I spoke with R*****, although tired and obviously quite sad over the loss of life again, he was elated with the multitudes that once again have been reached with the Greatest Story Ever Told, and there are many more believers as a result.  This is something to praise and thank God for.

The other reason I am anxious to get this update out is because as has been the case all along, there is a great need for Bibles.  The Muslim extremists use machine guns and swords, but God’s weapon is His Word.  The love story in the Bible is the only thing that can change a person that has been raised only to hate and kill.  Allah is not a god!  This is a demon that masquerades as a god.  The Muslim people are losing all hope because they know if it is not the infidels that are being killed, the Muslim belief system allows them to kill each other for most any concocted reason that can be manufactured.  The love of God changes the blood lust into a love so deep that they are more than willing to sacrifice their own lives in order for others to hear the good news.

I am going to cut this update short but I do want to throw this in before I close.  I got a very interesting e-mail from a man that lives in the southeastern part of the US.  He just got back from Jerusalem a few days ago and had the most amazing story to tell!  I won’t go into detail with this post, because it is not my story and I do not have the right to tell it.  Nor will I give his name or location other than saying he lives in the southeast. I will share this though.  He was in Jerusalem and had an opportunity to be there and participate in a tour.  On a free day, he prayed and asked that the Lord would allow him to become part of what He was doing in Israel and to find someone that really was serving Him, if there were any.  As he was walking down the street, he had a man pull up next to him and start talking with him.  This man began telling him about his pastor, and then the story develops from there…

Without going all the details of the rest of the story, I will just share this.  The man he met was the same man that we met.  Both he and my wife and I had been led to the same man in this huge city of Jerusalem.  This Arab man that pulled up ended up taking him to meet R*****.  As he met with him, he had the chance to pray with him and could only say that the only way to describe the experience was that the Spirit of God came into that room in a very physical way and touch him.  This is the experience I have had dozens of times now when I have prayed over the phone with our pastor friend in Jerusalem.  He and his ministry is as real as it comes.

Since getting back, he has exchanged e-mails several times with another man at H.O.B., whom I have also had e-mails from.  This man gave him a few more details of what had happened in the assassination attempt.  Apparently, all six of those that were caught were beheaded.  Folks, this is more than just a life and death situation.  These folks are going into eternity–either to their reward in the Kingdom of Heaven, or to everlasting destruction.  THIS is why we invest our money that could be spent in some other way! I must repeat what God told me at the very beginning when we came  back from Jerusalem at the end of March and started helping get these Bibles purchased.  God said that He would see to it that EVERY SINGLE Bible would bear MUCH fruit!  I hope you caught how big that is!

To this point, there have been well over 20,000 that have been reached.  In fact, so many that one Bible has to be shared by 60 or more people.  That might give a good indication of what God meant when He said, “much fruit”.  There are somewhere around five thousand Bibles that have been distributed so far, but the need is huge.

I will close this post, but do want to thank all of you who have contributed, and those that have prayed!  Please continue as time is very, very short now!  There is a heavenly door that is going to close in a very short time now.  Whatever you want to do that has eternal value attached to it, do it today.  We do not have any guarantee of tomorrow, not a one of us do.

For any donations, please use this address:

H.O.B. CITY OF JESUS MINISTRY, 3206 SW 45th St., Redmond, OR 97756

God Bless You All, and Keep Looking Up!

Jake