Because we want every Jewish person to know that God’s plan for them includes Jesus the Messiah, we have developed a long-term ministry journey toward reaching the Lost Tribes of Israel with this Good News.
Showing Jesus’ love by meeting physical needs is a significant part of Jewish Voice’s work, but it’s only a portion of an eight-step ministry model to reach the Lost Tribes of Israel with the Gospel. Jewish Voice is committed to long-term ministry in the areas we serve. Coming alongside indigenous Messianic congregations, we help establish lasting fruit and foster thriving locally-led congregations of Messianic Jewish Believers.
The first step is learning about communities claiming Jewish origins.
1. Learn of a Community
Jewish people live all over the world, and we want to reach them all. Members of the Lost Tribes of Israel live in remote, sometimes isolated villages in surprising places, and more and more are becoming known. We learn about them through our own research, or communities may contact us directly. Some communities reach out to a Messianic Jewish congregation we partner with in their country, or another ministry may contact us with a discovery they’ve made. In these ways, we have learned about potential Jewish communities in South Africa, India, Central Asia, the remote Pacific Islands and beyond.
2. Explore and Validate
Second, we research, inquire, and meet with community leaders to establish relationships with leaders and learn their oral history, traditions, religious practices and other factors. These help us verify the validity of their claim to be from the Lost Tribes of Israel. Once we validate their claim, we engage with the community in the next step.
3. Discover a Critical Need
It’s often difficult for someone to focus on their spiritual needs if they live with desperate physical needs. Once we’ve confirmed an unreached people group’s Jewish heritage, we continue conversations with village elders and other indigenous Messianic Jewish congregational leaders to discover the most pressing needs. From there, we create a plan to meet that need.
4. Meet the Need
The most critical need could be anything from clean water to medical care and more. We serve all who come to us, Jewish or non-Jewish, but what brings us there is the Jewish community.
We conduct week-long Medical Outreaches, provide clean drinking water through portable family and community-sized water filters, dig wells and more. The greatest, most compassionate gift we can give is the Good News. Jewish Voice Outreaches meet vital physical needs, people see God’s love for them and their hearts open to hear about Jesus the Messiah. Alongside the practical aid, we bring a Spiritual Care Ministry that enables people to receive prayer and hear the Gospel. Many people have prayed to accept Jesus as the Messiah through these Outreaches.
5. Plant a Local Faith Community
Each Outreach produces the fruit of new Believers who need a place where their faith can grow. For this, we rely on the invaluable help of existing Messianic congregations in the country. These leaders follow up with new Believers and those who told us they wanted to learn more. They sometimes travel far from their own cities to make home visits and lead small Bible study groups toward forming a congregation. We work closely with the leaders of these congregations through every phase of our ministry in their countries.
6. Equip Indigenous Leaders
Together with indigenous congregational leaders, we identify local Believers within these new communities who have leadership potential. We then provide them with training in the Bible, discipleship and leadership so they, in turn, can reach their own Jewish communities and plant additional healthy congregations.
7. Release Indigenous Messianic Jewish Ministry
As leaders mature and congregations grow, they reach out to their communities with a much more significant impact than we, as outsiders, can. Releasing indigenous ministry is always the end goal of cross-cultural congregation planting. Indigenous leaders are best equipped to minister in a nation because they know the people, culture and environment. We continue providing training and financial support to assist them in pursuing national congregational networks and self-sufficiency.
8. Connect
Lastly, as an indigenous ministry is released into independence, our role is to connect them with the larger worldwide Messianic Jewish and Gentile believing body, helping them take their place as essential members of the unified body of Messiah.
You can see that Jewish Voice has a long-term vision for ministry to the Lost Tribes of Israel. We are so grateful to provide humanitarian relief for communities in need, but we can’t stop there. We recognize that the most vital matter is making Yeshua (Jesus) known and giving Jewish people the opportunity to accept Him. And we will go to the ends of the Earth to find the unreached Jewish communities with this life-giving news that the Messiah they’ve waited for has come.
