national Messianic Festival of Jewish amazed how quicMy these were grabbed up thing, but a few days later found that for the
Music and Dance. " first time in his life he had a hunger to read by open Jewish people they met. The team ex-
perienced a surprising openness to the Good the Bible! Answering the Call and Beyond
News everywhere they went. Jonathan states Hineini
that he "led more Jewish people to the Lord The vision grew and grew, and by faith Jona-
in those 5 days than in 10 years of ministry Delving into the Scriptures, Jonathan was than ended up renting the largest concert hall
in the U.S.!" Over the next two years, he ied shocked when he first opened the New Tes- in St. Petersburg, the 4000 seat Oktyabrasky
tament and found Abraham, David, and the several more ministry trips to Russia, Belarus Concert Hall, for three nights. The Festi-
and Ukraine. His burden for the Jewish people other Jewish Forefathers he learned of grow- val was held in May of 1993. To everyone's
of this land continued to grow. ing up, in the "book of the Christians." He amazement, over 12,000 packed the hall over
discovered that Jesus Christ was not the" God the three nights, and hundreds more had On a flight home from one of these
of the Gentiles," but was in fact "Yeshua. (le- to be turned away each night due to lack of
sus' Hebrew name) the Messiah of space. After the performance each
Israel. He discovered that not only ~' ~:~ ~ I7 evening, Jonathan shared his
was Yeshua Jewish, born of Jewish testimony and a simple Gospel
parents in the Jewish homeland of :i, message followed by an altar call.
Israel, but that all His first followers Jonathan and the team were moved 1
were Jews who lived as Jews and never to tears as they watched literally
"converted to Christianity. .... In fact," i:!~ thousands pour down the aisles to
Jonathan recounts, "His entire earthly accept Yeshua as their Messiah and
ministry was dedicated to His own Jew- ~: ~i Savior. Over the three nights, 2350
ish people. He told His Disciples...in ~:~ i follow up cards were collected, and
red letters...to go only to the !3 . half were Jewish! Up to this point,
Lost Sheep of the House of no reports of such large numbers
Israel." He then went back of Jewish people responding to the
to His own Jewish Scriptures Gospel had been recorded since 't 'i
and discovered that Yeshua ~~ the Book of Acts!
was, in fact, the fulfillment After that first festival, a month-
of literally hundreds of Mes- ,i ly fellowship began led by Jona-
sianic prophecies found in than, and in September of 1993 he
the Jewish Prophets. "It was resigned his Rochester congrega-
absolutely life changing," he ~ ! tion, moved to St. Petersburg, and
recalls, "I literally became Jill founded the Messianic Jewish Cen-
a new person in the months , ter. Soon, over 300 people were at-
that followed." Z~ tending their meeting every week.
Jonathan was 20 years old at this As the work in Russia developed,
time, majoring in Business Admin- '1 he had formed a new ministry called
stration, and had one driving goal \] Hear O' Israel Ministries. Following
for his life: to be a millionaire by age the great success of the St. Petersburg ?
30. This all changed as he sensed al- Festival, three more festival outreaches
most immediately the call of God on were planned under this new ministry for
his life, and slowly began to answer 1994: Moscow, Minsk and Kiev. In Mos-
that call. He was completely delivered cow, the 18,000 seat Olympic Stadium was
of drugs, and began to pursue formal secured for three nights of concerts. People
training for the ministry. came from all over the world to participate.
ministry trips in 1992, the .... Four years later, after graduating university Intercessory prayer was held 24 hours a day,
Lord spoke to his heart through Matthew with a degree in "Jewish Studies and Early and the team distributed over 3 million fly-
24:14: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall Jewish Christianity," he founded Congrega- ers! Many who came to faith through the St.
be preached in all the world for a witness tion Shema Yisrael, a Messianic Jewish Con- Petersburg Festival were team members in
unto all nations; and then shall the end gregation in Rochester, New York. He served as Moscow. Some 30,000 people, about half Jew-
come." The Lord brought to mind that al- Senior Messianic Rabbi from 1984 to 1993. ish, attended the festival, and an astounding
though thousands of missionaries and evan- 10,000 stood to pray with Jonathan and invite
gelism were now pouring into Russia, only a During his time as leader of Shema Yisrael, Yeshua into their lives. A Messianic Jewish
handful were reaching out to the millions of he led annual tours to Israel. In 1990, fol- Congregation was founded in Moscow with
Jews still living there. He remembers, "Then lowing a tour he led for the MJAA (messianic around 550 attending the first meeting.
I heard Him say very clearly, 'Go back to St. Jewish Alliance of America) he took a small
team to Russia. Still under Communist rule, Petersburg and reach My people.'" That led In 1996, Chira Kaplan came to Kishinev, Mol-
the five member team smuggled in about 200 to a follow-up trip to St. Petersburg where the dova, to document the festival phenomenon.
Lord began to unfold a vision for an "Inter- Bibles and several thousand tracts. They were - Continued on page 17
November/December 2004 Jewish Voice Today 9
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