LANSING, IL – Not many ministries are blessed to have been active for more than 130 years. When Willian E. Blackstone published Jesus Is Coming in 1878, it became the precursor for forming the Chicago Hebrew Mission nine years later.The thrust of the ministry was to help meet the spiritual and physical needs of the growing Russian-Jewish population. They did this by teaching the English language and training the immigrants in job skills while sharing the message of Yeshua in a way they had never heard before.Throughout a century-and-a third, the ministry has had several name changes as the scope of its work has expanded across the United States and around the world. Some may recall the American Messianic Fellowship. Going beyond America’s shores prompted revising the name to AMF International.Today the ministry is named Life in Messiah. The group shares God’s heart for and with Jewish people in the United States, Israel, France, The Netherlands, Canada, Argentina, and Mexico.
Life in Messiah mentors Christians to understand the Jewish roots of our faith and how to introduce the Jewish people to their long-awaited Messiah. Its original mission to the Russian-Jewish population in Chicago continues with the partnership of students from Moody Bible Institute.
Life in Messiah ministries reflect the cultural and spiritual needs of those individual nations and the communities in which Life in Messiah serves.
Many young Israelis backpack in the Andes Mountains. What better place to reach them in Argentina? A guest house offers a safe place for Israelis to stay during their travel adventure. Staff and guests have a platform to build relationships at the guest house or while trekking together through the mountains and streams.
More than half of the nearly 400,000 Jews in Canada live in or around the Bathurst neighborhood of Toronto. Life in Messiah engages with them in a variety of venues, from coffee shops to university campuses.
The rise of anti-Semitism in France makes building relationships with Jewish people doubly-difficult, yet the need is great. Paris is home to the world’s third-largest Jewish population. Building relationships is a priority that must precede discussions of the Messiah with Jewish people, especially in France.
The success of the Life in Messiah ministry may be most clearly understood in the juxtaposition of three sentences from their website.
- “Our field staff members look for every opportunity to share Jesus as Messiah.”
- “Building relationships is important to us—really important.”
- “It’s about getting to know people, building relationships of trust, and loving them as Yeshua loves them.”
Missions Box encourages you to experience Life in Messiah’s evangelism website, In Search of Shalom, where you will discover short, but amazingly powerful, video testimonies of Jewish people who have accepted Jesus as their Messiah through the witness and work of Life in Messiah.
God bless, and shalom.
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Source: Life in Messiah, Official Website