All we can say now as to our work in Europe is HARVEST, GENERATIONS CONNECTING, DIVINE JUSTICE, INGATHERING AND FAVOR! These words which we have been hearing from many as to 2011 we are already experiencing in Eastern and Western Europe in wonderful new ways.
We have been working with Holocaust survivors for 16 years in Odessa, Ukraine, feeding and clothing them, providing medical aid, helping them with finances for surgery, burial and basic food needs and praying for them. From time to time, they have asked about what we believe and have received Yeshua as Messiah. We regularly celebrated the biblical festivals with them at a banquet with worship, dance and fellowship. Some attend our main congregation regularly and their leader recently gave David a medal as a token of appreciation of our long term efforts with aging members of the Holocaust society. Here's a photo of them celebrating Passover with our leaders.
Out of these efforts, so many holocaust survivors have come to faith they have become a whole new congregation! They have been inviting their children and grand children, and the group of fifty is growing! This is a harvest of a miraculous kind ushering in divine justice on a new level. "They worship the Lord. They have joy and they are dancing," said Sasha who leads the Odessa Messianic congregation we established in 1995. Imagine a Messianic congregation of Holocaust survivors, their children and grand children! Generations preserved by the tri-generational God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Over one million Jews were murdered in Ukraine during the Holocaust. What a testimony to God's divine justice to have the survivors gather now under the arms of the Jewish Messiah and pass on their newly found life and purpose in Yeshua to the next generations. In Proverbs 6:31, the thief has to repay seven fold what he has stolen. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is making the devil repay by bringing the gospel to the Jewish Holocaust remnant and connecting them to the succeeding generations.
In late March, 2011, we will be hosting a Holocaust survivors banquet following a three day leadership retreat in Odessa. This retreat is a fulfillment of 15 years of prayer as a new ingathering is forming. For the first time believers from the Messianic movement in the US and Western Europe are joining together with their counterparts in Eastern Europe to encourage an outpouring of the Spirit visibly seen in the worship, relationships and servants' hearts there. We have just heard that about 20 Messianic believers from Alabama and California are traveling at their own expense to raise up the arms of the humble and effective Messianic movement in Ukraine. We will have time also to directly interact with survivors and orphans at two of the six orphanages we serve in Odessa. We will be returning to Paris by way of Poland including a visit to Auschwitz and Schindler's facory.
To help you visualize our work with orphans in Odessa, here are some photos of those children whom we bring hope to:
Finally, we are experiencing favor unlike we have ever seen as a result of the Biblical approach we take as to blessing the Jewish people and not being ashamed of the Gospel...."to the Jew first." Messianic Rabbi Victor Vilensky, who has started 8 Messianic congregations in Crimea and who oversees 4 other messianic groups in Ukraine, has partnered with a Charismatic union of churches to lead times of repentance at synagogues for the murder of 1 million Jews in Ukraine during the Holocaust. Recently, in western Ukraine, Victor received permission from the local Jewish committee and rabbi to conduct such a service and it deeply impacted the remaining Jews in that area. Interestingly Victor also found a burial place for a member of David's family which I hope to visit in the future. Victor always lets the Jewish people he works with know that he is a Jewish believer in Yeshua and Messianic Jewish rabbi. Yet he has favor wherever he ministers. Victor, a medical doctor, also founded and leads a rehab center in Crimea where many young Jewish addicts have been transformed to the point where they also lead Messianic works there.
As to western Europe, we are preparing for a second IAMCS Messianic conference in Amsterdam during the last weekend in May. This will be a time for training, worship and fellowship. Please pray for the local Dutch leaders who are handling most of the planning of this event. We hope to draw Messianic believers from many western European so we can promote greater unity in this key area of the world. With anti-Semitism growing daily in Europe, our working together more effectively as a Messiasnic movement is an imperative that cannot be ignored. We also are partnering with a church in Paris to host a prophetic meeting with Chuck Pierce on June 4, 2011. Please be in prayer for all of these events as they have a strong spiritual impact on reaching the Jewish people in Europe at "such a time as this."
Thanks so much for your continued prayer for our ministry in Europe, our family, health and finances. We have a specific need to raise an extra $1,500 for the trip to Odessa and Poland. Please consider a special gift for that purpose at this time. Be blessed.
Love and Shalom,
David & Leslye Schneier
If you would like to partner with the Schneiers financially here's how to do it: Please send your check, made payable to Glory of Zion Int’l Ministries, to: The Schneiers c/o Glory of Zion Int’l Ministries PO Box 1601 Denton, TX 76202-1601 (Please include a note with your check that it is “For the Schneiers.” (Your gifts are tax deductible). If you would like to make a credit card donation, go to www.glory-of-zion.org, click on "Donate" on the left side of the home page, fill in your credit card info on the "Send a Donation" page, in the "Put Toward" section click on "Designated Gift" and in the "Enter Recipient" section fill in "The Schneiers." This last step will insure that your gift goes to our ministry. You can indicate in the comment section if your gift is one-time or to be charged monthly on the date you provide. |
