GOOD WORKS PREPARED BEFOREHAND!

"Manny" lives in our condo community and Michael has formed a friendship with him, speaking to Manny about our glorious hope while Manny has offered to teach Michael billiards. The other night Michael asked Manny if he would come to the debate in Delray Beach next week. During the conversation, Manny told Michael, "You know my son Stan believes like you do. He's Jewish but believes in Jesus, too." Manny was glad to then give Michael his son's phone number. (Turns out that Stan attends the same church as we do!) When Stan was told about the debate, he said he'd call his father and ask -- but wasn't too sure his father would ever agree to it. About two hours after Michael's initial phone conversation with Stan, he called back and in an amazed voice he reported "He'll come! He says he'll come." What a delight it is to serve our Lord. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

13 DAYS AND COUNTING TO THE GREAT DEBATE

EVERY GIFTED ARTISAN...

"...every gifted artisan in whom the Lord has put wisdom and understanding, to know how to do all manner of work. . . every gifted artisan in whose heart the LORD had put wisdom, everyone whose heart was stirred, to come and do the work." Exodus 36:1-2




















Above you can see the beautiful work Sandi Powell did for us. This is the "jacket" of the program to be handed out at the 9/8/09 Debate and below that is the inside of the program.




Tomorrow we will be meeting with approximately 25 people who have volunteered to help with this event, everything from handing out these beautiful programs to seating people, to collecting the surveys which are on the last panel of the program. These surveys are most important as they will enable us to follow up with any and all interested in "Who Is Jesus." Volunteers will be helping with many other needs associated with this outreach. Their help is invaluable. At our next debate we hope to offer such opportunities to short-term missionaries for those who support this ministry.

HANNAH MAY -- A TREASURE!

What you are viewing on your computer screen, if it were not for Hannah May of East River Ministries, you'd be looking at a blank screen! How precious she is to us and we know to so many others. The Lord brought us together about four years ago when we first began raising the support needed to come to our mission field. When we answer His call and say "Lord, here I am, send me," oh what sweet surprises He has in store for us! Hannah has in the last week spent a good deal of her valuable time in helping us with our blog. Please check out her blog, eastriverministries.blogspot.com -- you'll be blessed to see all the Lord is doing through her. Thank you, Hannah!

17 DAYS AND COUNTING TIL THE DEBATE!

This is the poster designed by our good friend (and gifted by our Lord) Sandi Powell. This poster will be displayed in the lobby of the South County Civic Center (see photo below) on September 8, 2009.

And here’s the poster that will be behind our book table for all who will be will be ordering the DVD. Let us know how many you want by emailing us at mfinesilver@comcast.net.

We plan this to be the first of many debates.

August '09 Newsletter

The Mighty Mississippi River
By Michael Finesilver

I’ve seen its width, watched it flow, seen its power. We know, yes, we know it’s God’s handiwork. We had a vision: Have a debate. Ask Dr. Michael Brown (foremost Jewish apologist!). Ask Rabbi Silver. Call it “Who Is Jesus”. Find a 500-seat auditorium. Get many volunteers. Have our church stand with us. Have it videotaped for DVDs. Have newspapers advertise. Have 350+ unsaved Jewish people register to attend. We’ve seen its width, its flow, and God’s power -- and we know His purpose: To proclaim Jesus through this debate to more Jewish hearts at one time than ever before in the Ft. Lauderdale area

Please, please pray that on September 8th, at 7 p.m., the Holy Spirit will anoint Dr. Brown with wisdom and understanding. Pray that God’s military angels will bind Satan’s demons, and that Jesus, the light of the world, would pierce the veil over the heart of His chosen people that they may see and hear and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior. Also pray for follow up with those whose hearts are touched by God’s Spirit through the surveys we will ask them to hand in at the end of the debate.



James Davis, the religion editor for South Florida’s major newspaper, the Sun-Sentinel, last Sunday featured this event in his Calendar section. Every Sunday the newspaper also features a profile on a “spiritual leader.” We believe as you look at the photo below you will see (as we did) God’s hand in how this page came together.


By the way, I did call Rabbi Newman to invite him and his congregation to the debate. Rabbi Newman it turns out is an “anti-missionary” working closely with Jews for Judaism. When in answer to his question regarding what synagogue my wife and I attended, he learned that I was instead a faithful church-goer, he hung up!


This Thursday by 8 a.m., our phone began to ring and after three people in a row asked to make reservations for the debate, Mimi asked “Would you mind telling us how you learned of this event?” “We read about it on the first page of the local section of the Sun-Sentinel,” she was told. As you can see, this article was written by Lois Solomon. Mimi had emailed Ms. Solomon the details of this event (as she had done with James Davis), but never received word from Ms. Solomon that anything would be printed. Currently we have booked approximately 341 reservations (there is no charge for this event but we are asking people to register), and about 98% of those registering seem to be unbelieving Jewish people, as gleaned from their last names and our conversations with them. As you can see from the way the article was written, it would seem favor was given to Rabbi Silver -- Dr. Brown has many other publications other than the one cited in this article and has many other “credentials.” We believe they are expecting to hear reassurance of why they should continue not to believe, but we have heard Dr. Brown defend our faith in a most convincing yet gentle manner, and we know two things: 1) Our Lord wants this event to take place and He is the One bringing the Jewish people to hear the truth about the Messiah; and 2) we know that “His Word will not come back void.”

Still & Always, One Heart at a Time!
By Mimi Finesilver



This last Monday our Bible Study group celebrated my 61st birthday. Pictured to the left is “Marvin,” who has been attending our Bible Study for quite a while now. You can see that Ingrid, one sister in the Bible study group, is sharing with Marvin, not only the love of Jesus, but with the humility necessary to open his heart. Yes the Debate will be opportunity for 300+ Jewish people to hear our faith defended by a renowned Jewish apologist, but we will never forget it’s still about reaching one heart at a time – sharing God’s message of love – that He loved us so much that He sent the Messiah to suffer and die, that we might be reconciled to him.