Shalom Friends!

Major new happenings in Arad & Israel! Praise the Lord for mobs! Remember Eitan? (he slashed our tires and painted our vehicles). Well, he has been doing a few other annoying things, too. He showed up last Friday when our friend, Rebekah, and I (Lura) set up books & Bibles on the steps in the center of town. In fact he called the police on us and then called his orthodox “friends”. They called us a lot of not-so-nice names and told us to get out of town, and then one of the rabbis grabbed all our New Testaments. I asked him politely to put them down and just take one if he really wanted one. He refused so I told him they were holy books. We pray he doesn’t destroy them! The crowd that gathered around became polarized and began arguing with one another if we should be allowed to give away books. Most of them did not know there were believers in Arad and were surprised to find that out. All in all, it was a traumatic but wonderful experience because the knowledge of Y’shua is in the forefront now!

Now the city is trying to decide if we should be allowed to pass out books at all. They are stalling us and hoping we will go away.(see note at bottom of page) So we wrote a letter to the newspaper – they refused to print it this week, but gave us a promise to think about it for next week’s issue. Rebekah pointed out that if a sect of the orthodox Jews is allowed to put up posters of their messiah who died in Brooklyn (Rabbi M. Schneerson), then we should be allowed to pass out books about our Messiah who was born in Bethlehem and died and rose again in Jerusalem!

Eitan was also responsible for the numerous harassing phone calls. He apparently posted a notice in a yeshiva (religious school) in Tel Aviv with our name, number and address and wrote that it would be a good deed to harass us. We had the numbers traced to two public phones in the yeshiva and called their office. The head of the yeshiva investigated the problem and was very polite and helpful in getting to the root of it. So, no more phone calls for the present time – Praise the Lord! Eitan has been passing out anti-missionary literature and dumped a lot of it on our sidewalk in front of our house. We are praying for his eyes to be open, then he can help us pass out the good stuff!

Please keep praying! The Lord is doing some fantastic things here! Another Jewish girl has come to the Lord – pray for her – the rabbis are already trying to talk her out of it!

Eddie, Rebekah and I went to Ashdod to visit a group of Ethiopian teenagers who are activists on behalf of their people. Eddie had a lot of good things to share with them from his own experience and it was very exciting to see how responsive they were. They are feeling unwanted here in Israel and attributed it to racism, Eddie reminded them that many people are praying for them and that ransom was paid to get them out of Ethiopia and into Israel. He shared what true racism is and that it is economic problems they are facing – not racism. We will be going back next week to see them again. They also want him to speak to their group again in the near future. He told them we are believers in Y’shua as our Messiah, so they know who we are.

What an opportunity!!! There is a chance we can rent a shop in the market area for about $300./month plus utilities. This would be a place where chess players can come, believers could fellowship with one another and we would be able to display our Bibles, books and literature ALL THE TIME! The only thing holding us back is the money to do it. In fact, we are at a crucial point in Arad and the funds seem to have dried up for projects and for our daily support. We need help!

The bank account is empty. We want to go forward, not back, so please pray for a breakthrough here! We were so excited to see this shop, and it has covered space to put tables outside – we wanted to go sign the papers right then, but we are waiting for God’s perfect timing! When will we know it? When the money is in the bank.

We have a talent show outreach scheduled for the end of this month at Mohamed’s Bedouin Restaurant – More details in the next letter!

Also in January we are planning an immersion service for the new believers in the Jordan River (Brrrr – chilly). We need to rent a bus for the congregation to do this.

Another exciting thing that is happening is my sister, Susan, is coming for 6 months. She will be here to watch our house, doggie, and kitty while we come to the States in the end of March (Pray!). We should be available in the Pennsylvania area during the month of April to speak in your church. Contact us! lura_eddie@hotmail.com

If you would like to use Paypal to send funds, please click on the Donation button. Otherwise, please use snail mail to send your checks to the Ronks, PA address. Regardless, PLEASE PRAY FOR US! Thank You!

The Lord bless you!!! We are so excited about what God is doing here and how He is raising the Name of Y’shua above every name. He is the Exalted One and we are happy to proclaim it! You are helping us do that by your prayers and support!

Love and more Love, Lura and Eddie Beckford, Arad, Israel

Acts 4:29-30 “Now Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Y’shua.”