I have never been so aware of the acceleration of the seasons and timings, like I have been since this past Rosh Hashanah. Everywhere I turn, it’s as if dreams and visions that I have carried for a long time are suddenly coming to fruition in ways I could have never thought possible even just a few months ago.
Nowhere am I more struck by the speed of change than in our journey with the Jewish people. I remember very well the early days when the Lord gave us the visions for national repentance and to bring the survivors of the St Louis to Canada. As we began tentatively reaching out to connect with Jewish community, we were met with skepticism, suspicion, guarded hearts and a myriad of questions about our motives.
Not that I could blame the Jewish people at all, given the centuries of painful memories of the atrocities that they have suffered “in the name of Christ”. As one Jewish leader said to me recently, “you have to understand our problems with the Arabs are relatively new when compared to thousands of years of being persecuted as “Christ killers” by the church.” It was a sober reminder of the depth and breadth of the wounds that we, in our blindness and ignorance, have inflicted on the Jewish people.
As we faced what seemed to be insurmountable wounds of the past, the Lord encouraged us to simply walk with the transparency of open hearts, loving the Jewish people unconditionally and without expectation. As we ventured, I was astounded at the men and women of great faith and courage I have met in the Jewish community, visionary forerunners who were willing to reach beyond the hurts of the past to take the hand of friendship we offered to them. I think of Herbert Karliner and Robbie Waisman, both Holocaust survivors, who were instrumental in rallying the survivors of the St Louis to the come to Ottawa in November 2000. I think of the former Israeli ambassador to Canada, Haim Divon, who flew early in the morning to Toronto just to greet our team as we left for Israel on the Journey of Hope. I think of Shimon Fogel, the head of the Canada Israel Committee, who came to a leadership meeting in Ottawa and shared with us the story of the 2 Brothers.
I had the privilege to meet even more such forerunners on last month’s Canada Israel Together Tour. Members of the Knesset Shai Hermesh and Robert Ilatov, as well as the director of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus, Josh Reinstein, came from Israel to travel with a team of Christian leaders to 5 cities: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Vancouver. Though we were only together for 5 days, as Shai kept reminding us, every hour together felt like a day as our hearts connected not only during our meetings but as we spent hours traveling together, laughing, eating, sharing stories of our lives.
In every city we had the pleasure of coming together with the Christian and Jewish communities as we ate and fellowshipped together over a meal. The MKs were honoured by gifts from the First Nations community and the Church and they were given a wonderful glimpse of the unique multicultural mosaic that is Canada through beautiful dance and choral presentations by groups from diverse ethnic communities such as the Chinese, Filipino, Trinidadian and French Canadian (Quebecois).
The government of Canada, as represented by MP Jeff Watson in the East and MP James Lunney in the West, welcomed the MKS and shared of Canada’s “unshakeable commitment” to Israel both now and in the future. In return, MKs Shai and Robert abandoned the formality of political protocol and written speeches and spoke from their hearts. They shared their gratitude for the overwhelming love and acceptance they felt from the Christians inCanada and of their hope of a better world for our children, one Jews and Christians will walk together hand in hand.
We were also blessed to meet many wonderful members of the Canadian Jewish community. In Montreal Rabbi Steinmetz hosted a dinner for our team and Jewish leaders in his synagogue. In Vancouver, Rabbi Yossif Wosk blessed the meal touching us deeply when he shared, “We are here as God intended it to be. We are here as the first man and woman in the garden of long ago, created as one family, as one dream in God’s image, conscious spirit and earthen flesh combined according to the Creator’s will.
Tonight we say thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Tonight we with the psalmist, the sweet singer of Israel declare, “Behold how good and how pleasant it is when we as friends dwell together.”
(To experience more about the tour through our video gallery, please go to http://www.watchmen.org/CIT2009/videos.asp)
When we first shared about the Canada-Israel Together Tour our prayer was that this simple act of meeting together would be a meaningful step in seeing walls of division melted and greater understanding and friendship come between our two communities. As always God did exceedingly abundantly more than we could ask of imagine, infinitely beyond our wildest thoughts, hopes or dreams.
At the end of our meeting in Ottawa, I asked Rabbi Bulka to pronounce a blessing over us. I thought he would share a traditional blessing but instead he surprised us all with a powerful exhortation.
“What you have become tonight,” he said, “what you have been, what we hope you will continue to be are ambassadors of love, carrying the message of love, love of Israel, love of Canada, love of life, love of all human beings, to every single nook and cranny of this great country. And let it overflow to the rest of the world. And let the waters of love extinguish the flames of hate.”
I really believe what Rabbi Bulka shared is a charge from the Lord for us in this season. And I want to share with you some practical next steps the Lord has opened for us to walk in as we seek to further strengthen the bonds of love between the Christian and Jewish community.
At the end of last year, I received the great privilege of being appointed by the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, to an advisory committee for a special program that the government created in 2006 to provide funding for educational and commemorative projects to different ethnic communities in Canadawho were hurt by racist immigration policies in Canada’s history. One of these groups was the Jewish people and one of the focuses for this program was the St Louis.
Through my work on this committee I became involved on another steering committee for a Conference on the St Louis that will take place next week in Toronto. This conference is part of a wider strategy by the federal government to position Canada as a member nation in an International Task Force dedicated to Holocaust Commemoration and Education. The conference will be attended by hundreds of Jewish and governmental leaders, from Canada and internationally.
Through discussion with the conference organizers, we have arranged for a copy of the Embrace DVD to be given to each of the delegates as our gift from Watchmen. We feel the time has come for the Jewish community and political leaders to know and understand what the Lord has done and is continuing to do through the Church to bring healing and wholeness to our nation.
This really was one of the outcomes of the tour as the Israeli MKs challenged us as to why this story of our journey (we showed them the Embrace on their first day in Canada as a way of preparing them for the tour) is not known in Israel. In this they echoed what I have been hearing from the many Jewish leaders I have been meeting in Canada. It seems the time is ripe now for us to share the story and over the next months, we will be seeking the Lord to know what are the exact next steps He has for us to walk with the Jewish community both here and in Israel. But in the meantime, as a practical preparation, one of the things we felt it is important that we do, is begin to work on producing the Embrace DVD with Hebrew subtitles.
If you would like to help us either in providing DVDs for the conference next week (the cost for producing the Embrace DVD is about $20) or in the process of translating and producing the Embrace in Hebrew, details for how you can sow into these initiatives are found at the bottom of this email.
Thank you for your faithful heart to walk in this journey to see Canada healed and released into our destiny as a healer to Israel and all the nations.
All my love
David
You may sow into providing the Embrace DVDs to Jewish and political leaders and translating it into Hebrew, in one of three ways
1) by credit card. Use our secure server at https://watchmen.org/donation.asp Simply choose “Canada Israel Together” as your “giving option”.
2) by phone. Call our office at 250-807-2851 from Tuesday to Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Pacific Time)
3) By mail. Send you cheque or money order, along with a note directing your giving, to:
Watchmen for the Nations
PO Box 23125
Kelowna, BC
V1X 7K7
