by Donna Diorio
January 10, 2026
Yesterday I put my Israelprayer Summary and Arrows from Zion out. I want to go deeper into the report of one of the ministries in the Mediterranean seaside town of Netanya. I love the cities along the the coastline so much - just my preference for being near the water - but that is not why I want to talk about the Beit Asasph congregation in more depth. More so it is because of their journey over the past years and what the senior leader Evan Thomas just reported this week.
The Israeli ministries have been living through a 'Great Depression' as deep as the stories I have heard about the American Great Depression (1929-39). Their ministry letters mostly sound upbeat, but also there has been a deep sadness of a people who are dragging themselves through extremely depressing circumstances. The kind that of malaise that settles on people experiencing great lack with no end in sight. These are exactly the kinds of depression that most godly people want to keep tucked in so everyone doesn't see it and heap condemnation on them on top of it.
What happened in Israel is that when Covid hit, their government, like the rest of the governments, believed what they were seeing as China pantomimed great disaster befalling them. We should have known it was real because China would have made sure we didn't see their weakness if it had been real. It was all a show to terrorize the world into shutting down everything completely and giving harmful vaccinations to everyone.
When Israel shut down everything there were few who opposed the vaccines and refused to be arm-twisted into taking it. Most obeyed the government, everything came to a halt and Israelis were given one of the worst of the vaccines available. Approximately 5.1 million Israelis took wo doses of the BNT162b2 messenger RNA vaccine (Pfizer–BioNTech) within a year and a quarter after the "pandemic" broke out in January 2020.
I can tell that that the Israeli ministries were already hurting financially before the phony pandemic, but the closure of all public activity was a hard body slam on the body of the Lord in Israel. Yes, they went to Zoom meetings to keep their congregations fed and ministered to, but everything that normally funded the operations of the congregations and ministries came to a full halt. Among their own people few held jobs that kept them earning through the shut down. The need for humanitarian help grew increasingly to congregational members suddenly without incomes.
There was no tourism - one of the great sources of jobs of many in the congregations. Also that dealt a blow to connecting with international Christians who had been coming to Israel to acquaint themselves with the believer ministries and become financial supporters of them. Staffs had to cut. There was no way to pay them. Outreaches had to be cut with little funding to continue at the levels they had been operating in. It can be quite depressing to make these kinds of cuts.
I want to say right here that most of the ministries I have featured in my Israel Prayer lists for the past 25 years, we ALL believe that it is part of the biblical promises of God that in the end times - leading up to them and in them - that God was going to bring a unity and cooperation between the Church and the body of Messiah believers in Israel that would fulfill what Paul spoke in Romans 15:27, "For if the Christians in the nations have been made partakers of the Jews' spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in material things."
What that means is that among Christians, there will be a recognition of the fact that everything we stand in before God in the faith of Jesus, came to us through the Jewish lineage and faith that God developed among that called out and chosen people that He has good plans for all the way to the end. He will do that through the unity of "one new man" that He is creating in Jew and Gentile to be the same sort of beneficial team that a husband and wife are created to be in marriage before God.
Right now, despite the late spiritual hour, we look more like Ezekiel's vision of the valley of Dry Bones. Our bones may be assembled and we may be standing, but a living union together with the Holy Spirit bringing life into our bodies has not taken place!
As for the Jewish people as a whole, they operate under the widely believed proverb that they only people that Jews can count on are other Jews. This is a wall between Christians and Messianic Jews and Christians really have not demonstrated we can be counted on - not as a widespread group. Not every Christian will move into the "one new man" relationship that God sees for Messianic Jews and Christians in the end time - but I tell you, those Christians that refuse to enter into it are jeopardizing themselves. It is going to take us both in the faith of Yeshua/Jesus to do what God wants. This is not a cafeteria choice. It is not optional for our futures.
That is why in one way I thoroughly rejoiced at Evan Thomas' news that after two years they had successfully signed the final documents for their purchase agreement for the Beit Asaph Community Center. You see, when the pandemic began, they made the hard decision to close down their congregational meeting place completely. They judged that they had no ability to hang onto it, continuing to wrack up debt. It was tough because the pandemic would lift at some point, then what would they do?
They planned out the best ways to deal with go forward after the pandemic and then worked their plan. I know of no other congregation in Israel who went about dealing with the rough situation as Beit Asaph did, but I know plenty of congregations in Israel who I have sensed a great depression upon them dealing with the lacks they have been dealing with for years. When does relief come?
Almost as soon as the pandemic closures ended and travel became available again - IF you took the coerced vaccines - then comes the 2023 war because of Islamist hatred. Even more grief, depression, lack, overwhelming of all the Israeli people - including the ministries. If you ever meet ministers who are unaffected by trials like this, that is not super faith, that is not caring. Yes, we hold our peace and continue forward to do the work the Lord has given us, but we are not without the emotions of battering and lack.
What Evan Thomas reported was that since 2023 their Beit Asaph congregation in Netanya of 90 souls has raised the 4.5 million shekels for their congregational Community Center! That is astounding.
Evan writes, "We keep being reminded of God's timing (Kairos) as we live and serve Him in this unique place, Israel. There is no doubt in our minds that this is a 'watershed season' in history. We are reminded of the words from the Apostle's letter to the Romans, chapter 13, verse 11: "And do this, understanding the present time: the hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed."
His citation of "the hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber" is EXACTLY what my changes with my Israelprayer lists are about! I am shutting down the old operation to turn my message into the more demanding message, that it is time to AWAKE and ARISE to the glory of our one new man identity and responsibilities for the coming years.
I want to share with you other things Evan wrote - not everything, but I thought key things he said that Christians need to know. One because I think that both Christians and Messianic Jews in the Diaspora have the idea that 'Ministry is tough all over, why should the Israeli ministries get special treatment in donations?
Let me tell you why: Jews do get saved in the Diaspora, but the promise of God in the end times is that He is regathering Jews back to Israel where He is going to remove the veil so they can see Yeshua/Jesus. Salvation of the Jews is going to be most VISIBLE in Israel - and it is not going to come about because of evangelistic tourism, it is going to be Israeli believers ministering to their own people, discipling them, nurturing them, sending them out in operation of the spiritual gifts and administrations the Holy Spirit gives them. Yeah. Israel is significant and Diaspora Jews and international Christians should AWAKE to that reality, and ARISE to the calling God has for us to support them - in every way!
So Evan wrote, "We knew we must begin the funding process within the congregation, starting with the pastors and their families. The next step was to send out an appeal to the pastors of the local Messianic and Christian Body in Israel. In both cases, the results were exceptional and the level of giving was truly sacrificial! The final step was to reach out to our international community, with whom we have developed deep personal relationships over four decades of ministry. Everyone’s support and generosity have humbled us.
"The two pastors of Beit Asaph have ‘separate yet connected goals’ for the project. Lev’s goal is to provide a permanent home for the Beit Asaph community for the generations to come. Evan’s goal is self-sustainability – to break the financial dependency on the International Christian community for our existence. Both goals resonate deeply with many of our ministry colleagues around the country. We pray this successful completion of this project will provide a valuable example to the Believing community in the Land – to Jewish and Arab Yeshua followers alike! Pray together with us please towards that end!"
Now what broke my heart is that Evan's goal was "self-sustainability – to break the financial dependency on the International Christian community for our existence" and the fact that many of their ministry colleagues in Israel resonated with that.
I'm sure many Christians and Diaspora Messianics are thinking, 'What's wrong with that? That's how we have to operate.'
I'll tell you what's wrong with that, first of all it fails to acknowledge the significantly greater hardships that the Israeli Messianic congregations and ministries face every single day and every single year. It also sounds to me like the Jewish adage, "The only ones we can trust are other Jews." That may be the historical case, but it is NOT the prophetic declaration that God has made over us becoming truly "one new man."
I am thrilled with the great blessing that has come to the Beit Asaph congregation. But I have not given up on seeing God's plan for us to finally enter into the kind of relationship that is best analogized as a marriage between a man and a women. Two differently designed human beings to come together brining their differences into a unity that makes them together a much greater home for offspring to be born into. Each bringing how God designed them as male and female into a unifying covenant that benefits them and all the family born because of their love for one another.
That is the answer to Christians of 'What's in it for us?' Because as more and more Jews come to faith, God is going to bring more and more Gentiles into faith too. In the final witness against all the international hatred of Israel - really hatred of God - there is going to be a huge light set upon the hill of Israeli Jews in the faith of Yeshua/Jesus before the end. That's what's in it for us. . .plus the pleasure of God that we could lay it all down in obedience to His word about it.
Congratulations, Evan. God is with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment