Dear Friends, 

We thought you would enjoy the following story of a modern day Exodus.

Safe in the promised land

I met Hyman one evening in Tel Aviv about 15 year ago. Alone, sitting
on a park bench he explained how he had run away from Egypt because of the violence. "I just always thought that Israel would be a safe place for me," he told me. But now he was not sure what to do.

Hyman was a refugee. He was without country, family or friends. He had been forced to forfeit his Egyptian citizenship when he escaped, but Israel would not give him citizenship fearing that he might be a secret agent. He had been picked up and put in jail a number of times on the streets of Tel Aviv just because he had no official status in the country. Somehow by God's grace they always let him go.

Hope in the Holy Land

I invited Hyman to join us at Beit Immanuel where he quickly became a beloved part of our Messianic community. He found a job as an apprentice at a new by carpentry shop and soon became a master carpenter. But Hyman's real dream, the one thing that he had hoped God would answer, was to one day find a wife and begin a new family and life in the land of Israel he had come to love.

Last year Hyman met Sena, a lovely Christian Arab women and school teacher in a Hebrew language Israeli high school. The two were married and moved into a small apartment near Beit Immanuel.

Then to great joy and celebration, Hyman and Sena brought their brand new baby boy John to the congregation this Shabbat to dedicate him to the Lord.

The story of Hyman and now Sena and John has been such an encouragement to all of us that we thought that you would also be encouraged to hear this wonderful story. The fact is that God still does those things that can seem impossible, illogical and out of the question to us, but when we trust Him all things are possible.