This year a young Jewish man came to faith through members of our church youth group. He is now involved with a strong college campus ministry in a Midwestern state. He is the only believer in his family. I was able to introduce him to other Jewish believers before he left for college. I recently got a call from a pastor who said that his daughter had invited her Jewish friend to attend his church’s youth retreat. She accepted and is now reading Stan Telchin’s Betrayed. Such stories reach my ears from many areas of North America.

These young Jewish people seeking truth and coming to faith in their Messiah Jesus not only encourages me that we have such training happening among people of all ages in our churches in sharing the Gospel with their Jewish colleagues and friends, but that this work is multiplied through many believers throughout our land. I am grateful for the good books and videos and study material that has been published to help these new believers along in their walk and to be discipled. I am thankful for campus ministries that have Jewish believers among their leaders working with non-Jewish believers who are disciplining these new believers. I am grateful for the many mission agencies and messianic congregations that reach out to fellow Jews for the sake of the Gospel in North America.

2003 LCJE-NA Conference
Last February in Dallas, Texas (amidst the ice storm that hit during our conference – you may remember the photos in the May 2003 Bulletin!), the theme was “Go Tell my Brethren.” Alan Butterworth wrote a detailed and enthusiastic report in that issue of the Bulletin recounting the talks that covered media reports for the year, ways to reach Generation X, the role that Messianic congregations play in reaching unbelieving Jewish people with the Good News of Yeshua, and a study on mixed marriages in America. We received copies of the new video “Joined Together?” with testimonies of such mixed marriage couples who had found their oneness in Messiah. So, in spite of the cold weather, the fellowship at the 2003 conference was very warm.

International Conference 2003
Ironically, we North Americans found warmer weather in Helsinki, Finland at the 7th International LCJE Conference in August! Over 30 North American members attended this every-four-year worldwide network. I represented North America on LCJE’s International Coordinating Committee there. Derek Leman, pastor of Hope of David Congregation, Atlanta, was elected as a new member onto the ICC, and Robert Specter and I humbly accepted our re-election as LCJE officers for North America for the next 4 years. Please do hold our ministries and us in prayer.

Looking ahead to 2004 conference
If you missed Dallas, don’t despair! Meet us all in Toronto April 26-27, 2004. This will be the 21st LCJE-NA conference but the first to be held in the beautiful country of Canada. Major ministries in Toronto are supporting this conference and have already welcomed us warmly and offered practical help. The theme for the 21st North America LCJE conference is “Training for Jewish Evangelism.” Speakers will include Don Meecha, Richard Ganz, Susan Perlman, Mitch Glaser, Daniel Nessim, Karol Joseph, Al Runge, Rich Robinson, and others. A Toronto Messianic congregation will lead worship each morning.

And to LCJE-NA 2005
Looking ahead, the membership agreed on March 7-9, 2005 in San Francisco, California as our conference date and place for next year. Please get these dates into your calendar. Again, we ask your prayers that all the plans will go smoothly and that the Holy Spirit will breathe His creativity into our hearts as we prepare for the 2005 conference.

Website Update
Sean Osborne continues as our Webmaster. Our server space has been expanded so that we have been able to add the Digital Jewish Missions History Project developed by Rich Robinson (see November 2003 Bulletin for details) to the growing LCJE site. Our newest agency member, CJF Ministries headquartered in San Antonio, Texas now has a link from our LCJE site. Take a look to learn about this expanding ministry especially if you are not familiar with their work among Jewish people worldwide. The article published in the November Bulletin by CJFM president, Dr. Gary Hedrick, can be found on the website. Check www.lcje.net often and encourage others to do the same. All membership information is there, so encourage friends to join LCJE this convenient way.

MAC Meeting
In October I represented LCJE-NA at the Mission America Coalition meeting in New York. Since the meeting dates coincided with Yom Kippur, there were not many in Jewish ministry who could attend, but there were several booths representing Jewish work, such as Jews for Jesus. We continue our good fellowship with our MAC friends through these annual meetings. Next year’s MAC meeting will be in San Diego, California on November 3-5. I encourage those on the West Coast to plan to attend and bring displays of your ministries.

LCWE 2004
North America will be represented at the LCWE-sponsored “2004 Forum for World Evangelization” to be held in Pattaya, Thailand in September as part of the Jewish evangelism issue group #31. Pray for the small group that will be representing Jewish evangelism to the larger church at this important conference.

Personal
At the end of 2003 I was acceptance as a “candidate” for the Doctor of Ministry degree at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, Ambridge, PA. By the time you read this Bulletin, I should have completed my last required classes and begun writing my thesis on Jewish evangelism training. More prayers needed!

LCJE-NA secretary Robert Specter’s Rock of Israel team will be in Pittsburgh, PA (our home area) summer of 2004 for Jewish outreach, and Jews for Jesus’ Behold Your God campaign is scheduled in our city for September 2005. Already prayer teams have been formed, and we will be working hard training laborers for this harvest field. The Jewish community of Pittsburgh can be characterized as atypical of American Jewish populations in that it remains quite orthodox and very close knit as a community. Pray for outreach in our city and the cities across North America.

Conclusion
As you can see from this report, it has been a busy, exciting year of activity for Jewish ministry here in North America. We look forward to having fellowship with our Canadian friends in April at our conference. We pray for the news of Yeshua to reach across this large continent through the missions, the churches and the messianic congregations that labor to make the Name of Jesus known to His own people “according to the flesh.” We in North America send our greetings and promise of prayer, and the hand of warm fellowship to all of you. Jesus is Lord!