00:00:03
Speaker 1: And it's been on our prayer list for a very, very long time. And we are praying that God would show us his direction for his ministry. And we're trusting him. And we just can't wait to see what he's going to do.
00:00:23
Speaker 2: What is an audacious prayer? Okay, for the last 20 years of the Joshua Fund, since we founded this ministry, we have tried not just to pray. That's important. Prayer is important. But how can we follow those who've taught us and mentored us and discipled us and modeled for us crazy prayer, big prayer, audacious prayer? That's what we call it, audacious prayer. What is it and what Are we as a team at the Joshua Fund praying for that's crazy? Essentially what it is is that it's a prayer that couldn't possibly be answered. Nobody's going to say, oh, Joel and Lynn and our guest, the executive director of the Joshua Fund, Kelly Drury, oh, clearly it's their leadership, their insights, their wisdom, their connection. No, we want to pray for things that are so crazy that if God just chooses to do them to advance his kingdom, everyone will give the glory to God. Hi, this is Joel Rosenberg. Welcome to the Joshua Fund's podcast, Inside the Epicenter. So happy to do this podcast with my dear wife, Lynn. We are the co-founders of the Joshua Fund, and Inside the Epicenter is one of the educational projects that we do to help people learn and pray and give and go. We'll talk about giving and going later in the program. But we want to share three of the craziest prayers that we're praying right now. We're at the 20-year anniversary, as we say, and this is the last episode in this wonderful, fun series that we've been doing of the origin story. How did the Joshua Fund come about? What lessons have we learned? Who have been some of the key people in the ministry over these 20 years? What have they seen and heard and what has God been doing. And we want Kelly Drury, our executive director today, to be part of that because she's been with us for, I think, four years now. And as we pray about what is God going to do in the future, she's a key part of that. So we want to get into that. I will, unfortunately, I just have to say up front, unfortunately, I'm only able to stay for the first half of the program because We've got a ministry call at the top of the hour. And just the way the timing of this work isn't allowing me to stay for the whole thing. So we better dive right in. Lynn, great to see you. And I'm excited about getting into these audacious prayers. We're going to deal with how do you share the good news and make disciples in Israel and in Gaza and in Iran. Those are three of the dearest things on our hearts. So Lynn, how would you like to start?
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Speaker 3: Well, I want to start by welcoming Kelly Drury, who you've already mentioned. Kelly's our executive director. And like you said, she's been with the staff for the last four years. And so welcome, Kelly. Thanks for joining us. Kelly has really a huge heart for caring for our staff. She is also a very strategic thinker and she is a woman of faith that likes to pray audacious prayers. So we are kindred spirits in so many ways. And Kelly, So we're excited today. You know, as we kind of wrap up, we've been doing this series and celebrating God's faithfulness over the last 20 years. And so this is sort of our final episode in that series, because we want to not just talk about what God has already done, but what we are trusting Him for and what we're seeing coming in the future. What are the things that we're excited about? And so.
00:03:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's start.
00:03:45
Speaker 3: Since you've got to go, Joel, at half the hour, would you just share with us a little bit about one of the audacious prayers? You like to talk about a special corridor from Tehran to Tel Aviv. What do you mean when you're praying about that?
00:03:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, the corridor of... geographic space between Tel Aviv, Israel's main financial and commercial capital on the Mediterranean Sea, all the way to Tehran, this is the most volatile and violent corridor in the Middle East in the last number of years, right? This is where we've seen ballistic missiles and fighter jets and just terrible war and pain and drama and darkness. And yet... At the far end of that corridor in Iran, God is pouring out his Holy Spirit more than any other country in the entire Muslim world, certainly not in this region. God's doing a great work in Indonesia. That's in Far East Asia. But in the Arab or Persian Muslim Middle East, no place is seeing God pouring out his Spirit more than Iran. And so– From the beginning of the Joshua Fund, we were focused on the five neighboring Arab countries plus the Palestinians that are not a sovereign nation state but a suffering and struggling people. But we weren't focused on Iran except in general prayer. But over the last year, the board has said unanimously we need to be engaged in Iran, and I'm glad. So we want to be helping ministries anywhere between Israel and Iran, between Tel Aviv and Tehran. to preach the gospel, right? These are people who don't know the good news that you can be saved and free from sin and death and the darkness through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus, not the, As portrayed in the Koran, who is the Messiah, but not the Savior, a prophet, but not God. No, we're talking about the Jesus of the Bible.
00:05:49
Speaker 1: Right.
00:05:49
Speaker 2: And so we have begun funding different ministries. And we've we've focused on some of that on the on the podcast, including the satellite broadcasting ministry of Dr. Hormoz Shariat, whom I call the Billy Graham of Iran. And I was just with them a couple months ago when you and I were both got to be there praying, strategizing, seeing how Joshua Fund can help that ministry be more effective. But just very briefly, so I got to be on the live satellite television program, one of them, as I had a chance to preach the gospel and teach Bible prophecy about Iran, the future of Iran, Into Iran.
00:06:33
Speaker 1: Right.
00:06:33
Speaker 2: And that satellite broadcast goes right over the heads of the mullahs, right over the heads of the secret police, right over the heads of of the government structures, right into the hearts and the satellite dishes and then into the homes and into the hearts of Iranians who are seeking. Hey, I think I'm on the wrong team. The brutality, the violence, the wickedness of this regime is horrible. But I believe there's a God and I believe, you know, so if I'm on the wrong team, what is the right team? And so that's just been exciting to see. We've been also meeting with Iranians who've come out of Islam, come to faith in Christ from different ministries as well, as we keep looking for what's the best way and what are various ways that we can fund Islam. I don't know if there's time to share just one testimony maybe of a Muslim in Iran who's come to Christ. I'll give the example of when we were with Hormoz. He shared that he's got this daily show that Joshua Fund finances, and he gives the news of the day. He shares scriptures, but he also takes live call-ins from Tehran. I mean, Kelly, I remember you and Lynn and I, when we first thought, wow, well, yeah, that's something we would love to support. So somebody called in and he said, you know, I came to faith in Jesus out of a Muslim background from a number of years ago by watching your show. And as I've been growing and I've been trying to share my faith in Jesus with everybody in my family, but I've been very much resisted. I'm the only believer in my family. And then he said that his uncle had gotten super hostile and said, if you talk to me about Jesus Christ one more time, I'm going to turn you into the secret police. I'm going to watch them drag you out of your house and then hang you in the center of Tehran and I'll be cheering your death. So, of course, yeah, he took a step back, obviously, and just started praying for he'd already planted seeds. But, Lord, would you change my uncle's heart? What was astonishing was that that a few months later, the uncle called his nephew and and the nephew then later relayed to Hormoz on this live phone call. Hey, as this war has unfolded, I'm really struggling. And I think I might be wrong. I think you might be right. Could we get together and talk about Jesus and who he really is? And in time, this nephew was able to lead his uncle to the Lord. That's an amazing thing. And God doesn't need the Joshua Fund to be part of it, but he's called the Joshua Fund to be part of it. And it's one of these audacious prayers when the board started saying, maybe we should not just bless Israel and her neighbors. Maybe we should be blessing Israel and her enemies, Iran being the number one. I'm so glad that we've made this decision and that the three of us were unified in sharing that idea with the board. Because we're seeing fruit. And it's just a great moment. I think there's so much more that God is planning to do. And last point, I'm praying that, you know, as we pray about the Tel Aviv to Tehran corridor, I want the Holy Spirit to be coming from the east, coming from Iran and say, Oh, Lord, thank you that you're here. pouring out your spirit. And millions of Iranians are leaving Islam and coming to faith in Jesus Christ as their savior, as God in Iran. But, you know, could the spirit move our way and bring more Syrians and Jordanians and Lebanese and Palestinians and Israelis into the kingdom also?
00:10:19
Speaker 1: So I'm excited.
00:10:21
Speaker 2: But that is our big, crazy, audacious prayer. And we're just starting to see fruit from it.
00:10:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, amen. It is exciting. And when you think of Iran, it's so, you think of them as an enemy, like you just said. We know that Jesus told us that we're supposed to love our neighbors, but he did tell us to love our enemies. And we had Henry Allen on our last podcast talking about, why do we have a heart for the neighbors? Why do we pray for the Muslim world? And one of the other things that he taught us in our early years of the Joshua Fund was that where there's darkness and a wall of satanic opposition and spiritual darkness, there are always cracks in that wall. And the light of God is always coming through. And we need to live with that hope and with that trust that God is doing something, that God cannot be stopped. His plans cannot be thwarted. And so we need to act with boldness and pray with boldness So that's exciting to think about. You know, here we are sitting in Jerusalem and we've been living under the missiles and the coming in from Iran. And yet we know the people of Iran are just as imprisoned as others. You know, they're just as tortured by their own leaders. And so we have such a great heart for the Iranian people. I know we share that, all three of us.
00:11:42
Speaker 2: And if I can use that as a transition, Lynn, you know, having a heart to pray for God to just do so much more in Iran is wonderful. It's easier, I will say. It's a big, audacious, crazy prayer, but it's easier when you already see the spirit moving. In Gaza, we are not seeing the spirit moving. We're just seeing pain and suffering. And that's why, Kelly, I'm so grateful for your heart for prayer today. on every front. I mean, we're not even on a meeting together and you're like, let's just stop there. Let's pray for that one. And even if we're going to pray at the beginning and the end, you love to stop us and pray. And I'm grateful. Your heart is orphans in Gaza all God all people Palestinians in Gaza but orphans and right now we for years the last three and a half years Lynn and I have traveled and met with so many Arab ministry leaders and we say do you do you see how God's going to go reach the people of Gaza and they're like we don't we don't we don't like so many nobody does but you have a heart particularly for widows and orphans would you just talk about what is the crazy prayer that you're.
00:12:46
Speaker 1: Praying Thank you, Joel.
00:12:49
Speaker 2: I will.
00:12:49
Speaker 1: But let's start with how we got here, how God laid this on all three of our hearts. You know, we had this wonderful ministry time with one of our ministry partners and we had dinner. And he shared about 14,000 orphans in Gaza. And I mean, it just felt like a Mic Drop moment for all three of us. And the Lord just impressed on my heart right then and there how we needed to pray for the orphans in Gaza. You know, all three of us have sat through sessions where we have seen really horrible things that have happened in Israel through the terrorist groups in Gaza. And yet here are these innocent people, in my viewpoint, women and children that are just there. And I just felt that. I just felt that so deeply. so deeply at that time and then we met with other ministry partners and found out there were many more orphans and if you just think of gaza and you see pictures of it and it just it looks like a lunar landscape it just looks so decimated and destroyed then you think about these children how can that not be on your heart and so um joel and lynn uh you know We prayed and the audacious prayer there is to consider a Gaza aid center. And the meaningful part about that for me is what an opportunity and a place to minister to women and children in great need. I know we're going to share some scripture later, but scripture really calls that out too. And we just want to provide love and care to the suffering widows and orphans. And if the numbers of the orphans go down, we need to take that to mean that some have died. And if the number goes up, we need to take that as more suffering is occurring. And how do we come and support them? And Lynn had some really good touch points too. So I'll just ask her to share a little bit more about Gaza here. But we have an opportunity to pray to really for a Gaza aid center where we can come and support and provide humanitarian aid and care Amen.
00:15:07
Speaker 2: Actually, let's hold that thought then. Yes, let's go to the break. And when we come back, I want. Yes, I hope you two will continue that conversation. I know you will. I don't just hope it. And then also a conversation about a really exciting dream that's been on Lynn's heart, mine as well. But but it's been sort of cooking in Lynn's heart since we knew each other in college. A ministry training and discipleship center here in Israel. That's a dream that's a bold, crazy, audacious prayer that's like 40 years in the making. And, you know, sometimes God puts something on our hearts and he says, keep praying and don't give up. But I'm not going to do that tomorrow, but just keep praying. And so that's something I'm looking forward to you two guys sharing as well. I apologize for having to go to do this other ministry call, but I'm grateful that we have a team, this executive leadership team, myself as the president, Lynn as the vice president, Kelly as the executive director. We work really well together, and I'm so grateful for how God is leading in this season of the Joshua Fund, and I'm excited where he's going to lead us in the future as So thank you. And everyone, hold on. Don't go away. We have to go take a commercial break, but we'll be right back. They'll be right back. Lynn and Kelly will be right back in just a moment, right here on Inside the Epicenter.
00:16:36
Speaker 3: Our passage from today is Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20, otherwise known as the Great Commission. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, Jesus says, I, Jesus, am with you always, even to the end of the age. Would you join us in praying for these audacious prayers that we have shared today? Pray with us about the corridor between Tel Aviv and Tehran, that God would be mightily pouring out His Spirit in Tehran and to all the Iranian people. even the enemies, even the most hardened enemies, that God would appear to them in visions and dreams, and that they would come to know Him, and that the Holy Spirit would be poured out all the way across that highway down to Tel Aviv. Would you also join us in praying for Gaza, that God would break through the darkness, that there would be new opportunities, new open doors for the Joshua Fund and other believers to and churches to come alongside and to bring hope and life into the people of Gaza. In particular, will you pray for the orphans and the widows? And finally, would you pray for us as we dream and pursue a ministry center, the Willow House here in Israel, as we raise the funds to do that, that you would pray with us that God would make it a reality. Thank you so much. Welcome back to this episode of Inside the Epicenter. We have been wrapping up our series on the 28th anniversary of the Joshua Fund. We're so excited to have been looking back about what God has done in the last 20 years and talking to some of the people that came on that journey along the way. Today, as we wrap up, we want to talk about the future. We're talking about audacious prayers. And I'm here with Kelly Drury, our executive director. It's such a joy to talk with you on the podcast today. And right before the break, Kelly was sharing about her heart for Gaza. You know, on October 7th, we know it was such a turning point, really, in the history of Israel. But it was a turning point in the history of Gaza as well. The devastation that Hamas and the leadership there brought upon themselves has been devastating. Really, really hard to understand. overemphasize or to explain. And so we know that people living there, especially these orphans that Kelly was describing, that we heard about from many different ministry partners and the numbers kept growing, is something that we want to pray that God would intervene, that He would intervene into the darkness that is Gaza. You know, there's very few Christians left in Gaza. We know that if they had a chance to leave, most of the Christians have left over the years, even before October 7th. But since October 7th, many more have left. So we're talking about handfuls of believers left in a whole region that's just in a place of real darkness. So Kelly, it is audacious to pray that God could use us in some small way to reach into Gaza, isn't it?
00:20:02
Speaker 4: It is.
00:20:03
Speaker 1: But God laid that on our hearts, all three of us, all together. in such a strong way. And it's an incredible blessing and opportunity to have these audacious prayers, to pray and to see what doors has God opening and what pathway does he have for TJF. And that's what we really want to know. We want to hear from him and we want to know what it is that we're supposed to do and what is his strategy. And you've got some great strategies on that, on that side.
00:20:33
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know about strategies, but definitely, you know, asking the Lord, what are the gifts, what are the loaves and fishes He's put into our hands? So we know, and we've talked about on the podcast before, you know, just the heart for humanitarian aid that began right at the very beginning of the Joshua Fund. We've been part of being able to mobilize the churches, the believers, to serve their own communities, the needy in their own communities. And so we're really asking the Is there a way, Lord, for us to do that in Gaza? Is there a way for us to have a food distribution, basic medicine and water, but a place that becomes a small oasis, a place of light and hope where people can come and feel safe and cared for, where we could perhaps have some helping kids with homework or helping kids with learning to read you know, maybe doing something like play therapy. We have wonderful partners here in Israel and around the world who have a lot of experience when we're talking about places that have gone through war, places that have gone through terror and trauma. And so we've really been blessed to learn about what are some ways that you can come alongside. Right now in Gaza, it's like a I would say it's like life support. That's what they need. They need basic food, water, place to lay your head, safety. And so, yeah, just asking the Lord, can we be a part of bringing that to these children, to their mothers is amazing.
00:22:06
Speaker 1: I think too. And I think we've heard this many times before. And our dear friend Henry has shared this. Sometimes you cannot hear the gospel if you're starving and you have these great needs. And so it is an incredible opportunity to quiet that noise. And who wants to see starving children and who wants to see starving widows?
00:22:29
Speaker 4: Nobody.
00:22:29
Speaker 1: I mean, your heart has to ache and hurt for that and want to help.
00:22:36
Speaker 4: We do.
00:22:37
Speaker 1: We do.
00:22:38
Speaker 3: And we have that promise from the Lord that He's building His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. It looks so close to the enemy prevailing against the church in Gaza, but we know from God's word that that is not the case, that there is hope there. There are believers there. There are believers coming out of a Muslim background as well as, you know, people that have been raised in the church that are traditional Christians, that are born-again Christians from a traditional Christian background, etc. So, We know that his church is going to survive there. It cannot be thwarted, but it's gotten pretty close at the moment. And so if we can be praying for those believers that are left there to not be hopeless, to not grow weary in well-doing. You know, I think of those scriptures, Kelly, and I'm sure you're a woman that loves God's word as well. You know, when you think of sort of, it's overwhelming, you know, when you look at the numbers and you look at the odds against us, What from God's word inspires you to keep going? Where do you get hope from for these audacious prayers? It's not just a dream in your mind.
00:23:46
Speaker 1: No, where do I get hope from? I get hope from the Lord and I get hope for my daily scripture reading every day. So I can't think of like a specific passage at this point, but I can think of James 1, 27. which says, pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. That's what we want to.
00:24:17
Speaker 4: Do.
00:24:17
Speaker 3: Amen. That's a great verse. Can you give the reference one more time?
00:24:21
Speaker 1: James 1, 27.
00:24:22
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:24:24
Speaker 3: And it's not just widows and orphans, although all through the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, and the Torah, The nation of Israel is judged by how they treat their widows and orphans and the foreigner in their midst. Those are the three main measuring rods that the Lord uses to judge Israel's heart. He would say to them sometimes through the prophets, right, your lips are with me, but your heart is far from me. And one of the ways that God can see our heart is how we care for those needy in our midst. And it is, in God's word, again and again, it's the foreigner among us, the widows and the orphans. And the Lord says, if you've got a cold heart towards them, then you have a cold heart towards me. And so, yeah, just a beautiful command from the book of James. We see from Genesis to Revelation, this is the heart of God. So, yeah. It's a wonderful thing to not grow weary in well-doing, right?
00:25:24
Speaker 1: It's very true. And Lynn, if you remember when we visited some of the kibbutzes that had been attacked by Hamas, you know, here are these people and you go and see their homes and you go and see just these horrible things that have happened. You're visibly seeing it. You're bearing witness. You're seeing this and it's just like, wow. And you're hearing the people say, that this has actually happened to that has survived. And they're saying, we do not hate Gaza. We love peace. So, so many people like to misinterpret different things, but of all the people, people that whose lives have been horrifically impacted for them to say, I do not hate. It's a good encouragement for us to do not hate and define what we are supposed to do. Hearing from the Lord to serve others. Amen.
00:26:16
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:26:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're absolutely right. We've brought so many delegations of pastors and leaders and just regular people, counselors down to those border communities in Israel, those kibbutzim, you know, where the horror really unfolded so strongly. And again and again and again, that has been the message. You know, these were people that loved peace, that believe in peace.
00:26:41
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:26:42
Speaker 3: And they are, you know, we've learned that bitterness is, it really, it just, it poisons your own soul. It poisons your own heart, this kind of hatred and bitterness and revenge. That's not our job. That's God's job. And so our job is to love, to forgive, and to keep bringing the words of hope to people who are trapped and being the hands and feet of Jesus. So I'm so glad that that's something that we all share on the Joshua Fund team, you know, that we have such a wonderful humanitarian aid team here in Israel. And a great network of people over 20 years that have just been faithfully, quietly, without fanfare, just bringing that cup of cold water to a thirsty soul.
00:27:25
Speaker 1: And we've also had the great opportunity to wait on the Lord, to put this before Him and to pray. And we've prayed for a very, very long time for the orphans in Gaza. It's been on our prayer list and our team prays every day. And it's been on our prayer list for a very, very long time. And we are praying that God would show us His direction for His ministry. And we're trusting Him. And we just can't wait to see what He's going to do.
00:27:54
Speaker 2: Amen. Amen.
00:27:56
Speaker 3: Well, let's pivot to our final audacious prayer. Yeah. I think, um, I was thinking about our staff retreats that we had not this year, but last year, Kelly.
00:28:08
Speaker 1: Can you describe a little bit about.
00:28:10
Speaker 3: The blue sky sessions and what we were doing at that retreat?
00:28:15
Speaker 1: Well, one of the things that we did at, um, not our retreat this year, but our retreat last year was we had all of the teams share what their dreams are. And, um, my friend Lynn here, she shared a great dream. Um, one that we knew of, but, um, She shared a great dream. And Lynn, you should share what you told our team and our staff.
00:28:36
Speaker 3: Well, I would love to do that. Yeah, it was such a fun. Joel, I don't know where he heard this term, but blue sky sessions, you know, those kind of moments where you lay on your back, you look at the blue sky and you just say, Lord, you know, what are you, what do you want me to dream about? What have you put in my heart? And so it was fun to go around and have every single member of the staff share that. their blue sky dreams. You know, what's God putting in their hearts? And so the Lord's brought together such a beautiful staff team. And yeah, my blue sky dream was something that we're calling the Willow House. This is a big, audacious prayer. We've never, as the Joshua Fund, we've never owned any property here in Israel. We've rented a warehouse for humanitarian aid. We've rented space for different events. And to host people and such, but we've never had our own place, our own home in Israel. And I have been dreaming since college. So I graduated college in 1990. So it's been, I'm not a math person.
00:29:37
Speaker 2: How many years?
00:29:38
Speaker 3: You know, it's been 36 years. So I've been dreaming about that God would give a place in Israel where it would be like a spiritual home, a spiritual welcoming place for young people, for people from abroad, from people from Israel, where they could come and get their questions answered about God, about God's word, about prophecy, about God's heart for Israel and her neighbors. You know, we have a message that unfortunately is all too rare. Teaching that God has a heart, not just for one, not just for the other, but for all people, right? Jesus came and said that he came to die for the whole world, that God so loved the whole world. And so this both and that we always talk about, you know, in the Joshua Fund is actually a rather rare message in the Christian world. And so to be able to have a center where we can disciple people, we can have these deep conversations, where we can have creative events, where we can host people from abroad, where we can host everyone from political leaders to Christian leaders to young Israelis who just want to come have a great meal with us and talk about Jesus, talk about the Bible. This has been a dream of mine that we'd have such a creative center. center in Israel. And so, yeah, I got to share that with the staff.
00:31:01
Speaker 2: And with our board.
00:31:02
Speaker 3: And the board has unanimously said, let's go for it. You know, in Arabic, we say yala, like it means, or in Hebrew, it's kadima, forward, let's do it, let's go. And that was just the overall sense from the board and from the staff, which was, of course, super exciting for me to have that affirmed.
00:31:21
Speaker 1: One of the reasons I think it's super exciting for you is one of the things the Lord's given you is hospitality. And you love to have people over and feed them and play games with them and have fun. And you have such a heart to host the women and children at your church and in other ways. And you haven't done that just recently. You've done that for a long time. And the heart to have a place that we can absolutely maximize for so many ways has been so communicated clearly to you. You know, you want ministries to be able to use the property. You want people to come and learn at the property. You want for people to come and rest at the property. You want, you know, the key things that you really want. And from what I've heard from you strategically is discipleship, evangelism. You know, you want to learn all those things and have a center where that can happen. And I think it's an amazing dream. And I'm excited to be praying for this. And our blue sky sessions have been fun, but I really feel like... staff together in a beautiful way, just to really hear what was on their hearts and to really share.
00:32:29
Speaker 2: And I love it.
00:32:32
Speaker 1: You know, let's have people come to know the Lord. Let's have people deepen their faith and let's have people learn how to disciple, be discipled and evangelize. Let's do it.
00:32:41
Speaker 2: Exciting. Absolutely.
00:32:43
Speaker 3: Everyone in Israel that I mentioned this, this idea to, they get so excited about it because, you know, here in Israel, there are very few places where, that the believers have as their own place to host people. There's a camp, an amazing camp. There's an amazing kibbutz, like a mashav, where there's an inn.
00:33:02
Speaker 2: And there's a few little.
00:33:02
Speaker 3: Guest houses here and there. But to have a place that we can bless the body of Messiah, both Arab believers and Jewish believers in Jesus, and people from around the world where we can host counseling sessions and You know, we've talked a lot about the need for Christian counseling over the past three years has just skyrocketed. And so what an amazing thing. We could do parent conferences and counseling conferences about how to help our children get through these traumatic times. You know, we can have music. I want it to really reach the next generation. This is one of my great passions. When we talk about discipleship, we want to reach the next generation with God's word. And what God's Word says about Israel and about the neighboring countries and about the Great Commission and refocus and re-energize the next generation about these things. And I feel like what they would respond best to is good food, music, nature, you know, that's what, and just community, real authentic community. And that's my vision for the Willow House. Just to share a verse, the verse why we are going to call it the Willow House comes out of Isaiah 44, which is, Isaiah is my favorite book of the Bible. And I love it because it's so real about the difficult times we go through, but it's also so filled with hope about what God's going to do, what he's doing and what he's going to do. And this verse from chapter 44, it's verses one to four. But now hear, O Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen, thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant. There's been so much fear in the last three years, but God's word says, Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. That's like a love name for Jerusalem. For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. I, the Lord, I will pour my spirit upon your offspring and my blessing on your descendants, and they shall spring up among the grass. like willows by flowing streams. And what an amazing promise from the Lord. He's going to refresh His people. He's going to comfort His people. He's going to bring new life to those who don't know Him yet. And this is the heart and the excitement. I could talk all day about the Willow House, but I will stop because we do need to wrap up pretty soon. But You know, Kelly, do you have any just last thoughts as we kind of wrap up about where you see us going in the next 20 years? You know, as the executive director, you've come in at such a strategic moment to see us kind of become an adolescent or young adult ministry, let's say. So, yeah, what are some closing thoughts you might have?
00:35:55
Speaker 1: Some closing thoughts I have are how key discipleship is. Um, you know, that has come through really as a strong, a strong component and a strong thread about all the different things that we have a heart to do in the next years and beyond. We do not know how many years we have. Um, you know, we don't only God knows. And so, you know, I would say, uh, one thing I want to share is on these topics, it does feel to me like our strategy needs to be, um, now focused, you know? I don't want to build a ministry center. I want to buy one that's already met so that we can start getting the messaging out that God has laid on our hearts. And I think all of us want to see awakening everywhere and recognition everywhere. We want to see that. And I think that one of the blessings that we have, no surprise from you here, Lynn, for me to say this, but One of the blessings that we have is an incredible staff. And when we get a new staff member, their skill sets and their abilities are such a blessing.
00:37:07
Speaker 4: And you know that you know that you know that the Lord has put them on this team and that it is a great joy and great fun to work together to see what God is doing.
00:37:19
Speaker 1: And we often say this is not our ministry. This is his ministry. We want to do in the next 20 years what He has called us to do. And Joel and Lynn have a heart to do that too, because this is His ministry. And so let's see what He has, and then let's do it.
00:37:38
Speaker 4: Amen.
00:37:39
Speaker 3: And I think, you know, you've shared with me before, Kelly, just like you just mentioned, we don't know how long we have. There is a sense of urgency. We see prophetically, we see things that God has said are going to happen in the end times right before His return happening. If you think of it as a chessboard, pieces are in motion, major pieces. And we've talked about a lot of those things on this podcast. But prophecy is not for just contemplating and thinking, wow, it's fascinating and trying to interpret the news. God does tell us that we should be wise and that we should understand our times. But for a purpose, First of all, that we would purify ourselves and pray for the church's purity, that we'll be ready to meet the Lord, but also that we purify our purposes and our focus, that the Lord is coming back. We want as many people to be in heaven with us as possible. And so this is, you know, everything else can fall aside, but we need to keep our vision on what God's called us to do, what our part is in the Great Commission in reaching the and making disciples of all nations. And of course, especially our calling is here in the epicenter. So, uh, yeah, I love that you have shared before just about that urgency. We don't want to build a ministry center. We want to get going, you know, yalla. We want to do it.
00:38:59
Speaker 2: Let's do it.
00:39:01
Speaker 1: And, um, Lynn, your heart for this is, um, it's so fun to hear and it's so in you and, um, it's a, it's a great blessing and it's been a lot of fun. And, um, I just want to share that we have a lot of fun in our calls. And we have a lot of fun as we work together because we want to see what God wants to do. And then we want to see what our part is. So it's just fun. And so for the next 20 years, we're going to do it. We're going to do these things and we're going to. do it.
00:39:30
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:39:31
Speaker 3: As many days as the Lord gives us, we're going to keep going, keep walking forward in those good works that He's prepared ahead of time.
00:39:37
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:39:37
Speaker 3: And you're so right. There is joy. There's joy that comes in God's salvation and in walking in the plans He has for us. And being unified, this is where we see such joy and fun and laughter. So it's important to keep playing, to keep playing in this life, because there's enough darkness in this world that we don't need to be one more Eeyore, but we can laugh and have joy because we have that eternal perspective. I love that from Proverbs 31, one of my favorite verses about that Proverbs 31 woman, which is really, I think, a personification of wisdom more than a unreachable goal for women. But, you know, it says that she laughs at the future. She laughs at the future. There's not a fear. We can look forward and know God's got the future in his hands and we're his children. And in the end, Satan and this world can't take anything from us. God is with us and he's got us. So, It's a good place to end, I think, as we've talked about these three of, we have many audacious prayers. I think we have about two pages, three pages.
00:40:40
Speaker 2: What is it, Kelly?
00:40:41
Speaker 3: We just were praying over them.
00:40:43
Speaker 1: Five pages of audacious prayers.
00:40:46
Speaker 3: So yeah, in our last retreat that we just had last month, Kelly led us through a great session of just praying around tables with all the staff, praying through these audacious prayers, and we continue to do so, of course. But we've talked today about just the heart to reach Iran, to see God break that Islamic stronghold that is there, holding those people in darkness. This is an audacious prayer.
00:41:11
Speaker 4: We need.
00:41:11
Speaker 3: We need God to break the back of the spirit of Islam. And, you know, Henry taught us in the last episode that a lot of that comes from prayer and fasting and just being faithful to keep broadcasting the good news in as many ways as we can. So we talked about that. We talked about the heart for the needy, the heart for the orphans and the widows and the women of Gaza, Lord, and asking for a breakthrough there, that God would raise up people to really bring light and life to those people. And then we just talked about the Willow House and our dream of having this discipleship center in the land. So we hope you'll join us with these audacious prayers, our audience. And we also hope that you'll continue to listen in the future. And thank you. Thank you for joining us. Remember, we say our hope and our desire is that you will learn and that your learning about what God's doing will cause you to pray and to fast and to get others to pray and.
00:42:09
Speaker 2: And that you'll give.
00:42:10
Speaker 3: We always appreciate when you want to join us in this effort. We have so many needs. They've multiplied so many opportunities. You know, every need is an opportunity to bring the love of Jesus to a soul, to a heart, and to a family.
00:42:25
Speaker 2: To a nation.
00:42:26
Speaker 3: So we especially would love if you'd consider becoming an Epicenter ally. That's a monthly giver. When you can commit to giving on a monthly basis, we know that you're with us for the long haul. We can plan our budgets. We can plan how much we can give to various ministries. And we have that stability. That's such a blessing. So we hope that you'll consider giving gifts. You could give gifts towards all these audacious prayers. We would love that. And then we want you to come, come to Israel. Remember, we've got a tour coming up at the end of March into early April. You can go to joshuafund.com and learn all about how to give and learn all about how to come on our Epicenter tour. And the Yeah, thank you for joining us on this podcast. Kelly, thank you for your service to our staff, to the Lord, to this ministry, which is His ministry, as you said. And yeah, it's been a blessing to have this conversation. We hope that you'll join us next time on Inside the Epicenter. But for now, Shalom from Jerusalem.
00:43:34
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 1: And it's been on our prayer list for a very, very long time. And we are praying that God would show us his direction for his ministry. And we're trusting him. And we just can't wait to see what he's going to do.
00:00:23
Speaker 2: What is an audacious prayer? Okay, for the last 20 years of the Joshua Fund, since we founded this ministry, we have tried not just to pray. That's important. Prayer is important. But how can we follow those who've taught us and mentored us and discipled us and modeled for us crazy prayer, big prayer, audacious prayer? That's what we call it, audacious prayer. What is it and what Are we as a team at the Joshua Fund praying for that's crazy? Essentially what it is is that it's a prayer that couldn't possibly be answered. Nobody's going to say, oh, Joel and Lynn and our guest, the executive director of the Joshua Fund, Kelly Drury, oh, clearly it's their leadership, their insights, their wisdom, their connection. No, we want to pray for things that are so crazy that if God just chooses to do them to advance his kingdom, everyone will give the glory to God. Hi, this is Joel Rosenberg. Welcome to the Joshua Fund's podcast, Inside the Epicenter. So happy to do this podcast with my dear wife, Lynn. We are the co-founders of the Joshua Fund, and Inside the Epicenter is one of the educational projects that we do to help people learn and pray and give and go. We'll talk about giving and going later in the program. But we want to share three of the craziest prayers that we're praying right now. We're at the 20-year anniversary, as we say, and this is the last episode in this wonderful, fun series that we've been doing of the origin story. How did the Joshua Fund come about? What lessons have we learned? Who have been some of the key people in the ministry over these 20 years? What have they seen and heard and what has God been doing. And we want Kelly Drury, our executive director today, to be part of that because she's been with us for, I think, four years now. And as we pray about what is God going to do in the future, she's a key part of that. So we want to get into that. I will, unfortunately, I just have to say up front, unfortunately, I'm only able to stay for the first half of the program because We've got a ministry call at the top of the hour. And just the way the timing of this work isn't allowing me to stay for the whole thing. So we better dive right in. Lynn, great to see you. And I'm excited about getting into these audacious prayers. We're going to deal with how do you share the good news and make disciples in Israel and in Gaza and in Iran. Those are three of the dearest things on our hearts. So Lynn, how would you like to start?
00:02:56
Speaker 3: Well, I want to start by welcoming Kelly Drury, who you've already mentioned. Kelly's our executive director. And like you said, she's been with the staff for the last four years. And so welcome, Kelly. Thanks for joining us. Kelly has really a huge heart for caring for our staff. She is also a very strategic thinker and she is a woman of faith that likes to pray audacious prayers. So we are kindred spirits in so many ways. And Kelly, So we're excited today. You know, as we kind of wrap up, we've been doing this series and celebrating God's faithfulness over the last 20 years. And so this is sort of our final episode in that series, because we want to not just talk about what God has already done, but what we are trusting Him for and what we're seeing coming in the future. What are the things that we're excited about? And so.
00:03:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's start.
00:03:45
Speaker 3: Since you've got to go, Joel, at half the hour, would you just share with us a little bit about one of the audacious prayers? You like to talk about a special corridor from Tehran to Tel Aviv. What do you mean when you're praying about that?
00:03:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, the corridor of... geographic space between Tel Aviv, Israel's main financial and commercial capital on the Mediterranean Sea, all the way to Tehran, this is the most volatile and violent corridor in the Middle East in the last number of years, right? This is where we've seen ballistic missiles and fighter jets and just terrible war and pain and drama and darkness. And yet... At the far end of that corridor in Iran, God is pouring out his Holy Spirit more than any other country in the entire Muslim world, certainly not in this region. God's doing a great work in Indonesia. That's in Far East Asia. But in the Arab or Persian Muslim Middle East, no place is seeing God pouring out his Spirit more than Iran. And so– From the beginning of the Joshua Fund, we were focused on the five neighboring Arab countries plus the Palestinians that are not a sovereign nation state but a suffering and struggling people. But we weren't focused on Iran except in general prayer. But over the last year, the board has said unanimously we need to be engaged in Iran, and I'm glad. So we want to be helping ministries anywhere between Israel and Iran, between Tel Aviv and Tehran. to preach the gospel, right? These are people who don't know the good news that you can be saved and free from sin and death and the darkness through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus, not the, As portrayed in the Koran, who is the Messiah, but not the Savior, a prophet, but not God. No, we're talking about the Jesus of the Bible.
00:05:49
Speaker 1: Right.
00:05:49
Speaker 2: And so we have begun funding different ministries. And we've we've focused on some of that on the on the podcast, including the satellite broadcasting ministry of Dr. Hormoz Shariat, whom I call the Billy Graham of Iran. And I was just with them a couple months ago when you and I were both got to be there praying, strategizing, seeing how Joshua Fund can help that ministry be more effective. But just very briefly, so I got to be on the live satellite television program, one of them, as I had a chance to preach the gospel and teach Bible prophecy about Iran, the future of Iran, Into Iran.
00:06:33
Speaker 1: Right.
00:06:33
Speaker 2: And that satellite broadcast goes right over the heads of the mullahs, right over the heads of the secret police, right over the heads of of the government structures, right into the hearts and the satellite dishes and then into the homes and into the hearts of Iranians who are seeking. Hey, I think I'm on the wrong team. The brutality, the violence, the wickedness of this regime is horrible. But I believe there's a God and I believe, you know, so if I'm on the wrong team, what is the right team? And so that's just been exciting to see. We've been also meeting with Iranians who've come out of Islam, come to faith in Christ from different ministries as well, as we keep looking for what's the best way and what are various ways that we can fund Islam. I don't know if there's time to share just one testimony maybe of a Muslim in Iran who's come to Christ. I'll give the example of when we were with Hormoz. He shared that he's got this daily show that Joshua Fund finances, and he gives the news of the day. He shares scriptures, but he also takes live call-ins from Tehran. I mean, Kelly, I remember you and Lynn and I, when we first thought, wow, well, yeah, that's something we would love to support. So somebody called in and he said, you know, I came to faith in Jesus out of a Muslim background from a number of years ago by watching your show. And as I've been growing and I've been trying to share my faith in Jesus with everybody in my family, but I've been very much resisted. I'm the only believer in my family. And then he said that his uncle had gotten super hostile and said, if you talk to me about Jesus Christ one more time, I'm going to turn you into the secret police. I'm going to watch them drag you out of your house and then hang you in the center of Tehran and I'll be cheering your death. So, of course, yeah, he took a step back, obviously, and just started praying for he'd already planted seeds. But, Lord, would you change my uncle's heart? What was astonishing was that that a few months later, the uncle called his nephew and and the nephew then later relayed to Hormoz on this live phone call. Hey, as this war has unfolded, I'm really struggling. And I think I might be wrong. I think you might be right. Could we get together and talk about Jesus and who he really is? And in time, this nephew was able to lead his uncle to the Lord. That's an amazing thing. And God doesn't need the Joshua Fund to be part of it, but he's called the Joshua Fund to be part of it. And it's one of these audacious prayers when the board started saying, maybe we should not just bless Israel and her neighbors. Maybe we should be blessing Israel and her enemies, Iran being the number one. I'm so glad that we've made this decision and that the three of us were unified in sharing that idea with the board. Because we're seeing fruit. And it's just a great moment. I think there's so much more that God is planning to do. And last point, I'm praying that, you know, as we pray about the Tel Aviv to Tehran corridor, I want the Holy Spirit to be coming from the east, coming from Iran and say, Oh, Lord, thank you that you're here. pouring out your spirit. And millions of Iranians are leaving Islam and coming to faith in Jesus Christ as their savior, as God in Iran. But, you know, could the spirit move our way and bring more Syrians and Jordanians and Lebanese and Palestinians and Israelis into the kingdom also?
00:10:19
Speaker 1: So I'm excited.
00:10:21
Speaker 2: But that is our big, crazy, audacious prayer. And we're just starting to see fruit from it.
00:10:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, amen. It is exciting. And when you think of Iran, it's so, you think of them as an enemy, like you just said. We know that Jesus told us that we're supposed to love our neighbors, but he did tell us to love our enemies. And we had Henry Allen on our last podcast talking about, why do we have a heart for the neighbors? Why do we pray for the Muslim world? And one of the other things that he taught us in our early years of the Joshua Fund was that where there's darkness and a wall of satanic opposition and spiritual darkness, there are always cracks in that wall. And the light of God is always coming through. And we need to live with that hope and with that trust that God is doing something, that God cannot be stopped. His plans cannot be thwarted. And so we need to act with boldness and pray with boldness So that's exciting to think about. You know, here we are sitting in Jerusalem and we've been living under the missiles and the coming in from Iran. And yet we know the people of Iran are just as imprisoned as others. You know, they're just as tortured by their own leaders. And so we have such a great heart for the Iranian people. I know we share that, all three of us.
00:11:42
Speaker 2: And if I can use that as a transition, Lynn, you know, having a heart to pray for God to just do so much more in Iran is wonderful. It's easier, I will say. It's a big, audacious, crazy prayer, but it's easier when you already see the spirit moving. In Gaza, we are not seeing the spirit moving. We're just seeing pain and suffering. And that's why, Kelly, I'm so grateful for your heart for prayer today. on every front. I mean, we're not even on a meeting together and you're like, let's just stop there. Let's pray for that one. And even if we're going to pray at the beginning and the end, you love to stop us and pray. And I'm grateful. Your heart is orphans in Gaza all God all people Palestinians in Gaza but orphans and right now we for years the last three and a half years Lynn and I have traveled and met with so many Arab ministry leaders and we say do you do you see how God's going to go reach the people of Gaza and they're like we don't we don't we don't like so many nobody does but you have a heart particularly for widows and orphans would you just talk about what is the crazy prayer that you're.
00:12:46
Speaker 1: Praying Thank you, Joel.
00:12:49
Speaker 2: I will.
00:12:49
Speaker 1: But let's start with how we got here, how God laid this on all three of our hearts. You know, we had this wonderful ministry time with one of our ministry partners and we had dinner. And he shared about 14,000 orphans in Gaza. And I mean, it just felt like a Mic Drop moment for all three of us. And the Lord just impressed on my heart right then and there how we needed to pray for the orphans in Gaza. You know, all three of us have sat through sessions where we have seen really horrible things that have happened in Israel through the terrorist groups in Gaza. And yet here are these innocent people, in my viewpoint, women and children that are just there. And I just felt that. I just felt that so deeply. so deeply at that time and then we met with other ministry partners and found out there were many more orphans and if you just think of gaza and you see pictures of it and it just it looks like a lunar landscape it just looks so decimated and destroyed then you think about these children how can that not be on your heart and so um joel and lynn uh you know We prayed and the audacious prayer there is to consider a Gaza aid center. And the meaningful part about that for me is what an opportunity and a place to minister to women and children in great need. I know we're going to share some scripture later, but scripture really calls that out too. And we just want to provide love and care to the suffering widows and orphans. And if the numbers of the orphans go down, we need to take that to mean that some have died. And if the number goes up, we need to take that as more suffering is occurring. And how do we come and support them? And Lynn had some really good touch points too. So I'll just ask her to share a little bit more about Gaza here. But we have an opportunity to pray to really for a Gaza aid center where we can come and support and provide humanitarian aid and care Amen.
00:15:07
Speaker 2: Actually, let's hold that thought then. Yes, let's go to the break. And when we come back, I want. Yes, I hope you two will continue that conversation. I know you will. I don't just hope it. And then also a conversation about a really exciting dream that's been on Lynn's heart, mine as well. But but it's been sort of cooking in Lynn's heart since we knew each other in college. A ministry training and discipleship center here in Israel. That's a dream that's a bold, crazy, audacious prayer that's like 40 years in the making. And, you know, sometimes God puts something on our hearts and he says, keep praying and don't give up. But I'm not going to do that tomorrow, but just keep praying. And so that's something I'm looking forward to you two guys sharing as well. I apologize for having to go to do this other ministry call, but I'm grateful that we have a team, this executive leadership team, myself as the president, Lynn as the vice president, Kelly as the executive director. We work really well together, and I'm so grateful for how God is leading in this season of the Joshua Fund, and I'm excited where he's going to lead us in the future as So thank you. And everyone, hold on. Don't go away. We have to go take a commercial break, but we'll be right back. They'll be right back. Lynn and Kelly will be right back in just a moment, right here on Inside the Epicenter.
00:16:36
Speaker 3: Our passage from today is Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20, otherwise known as the Great Commission. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, Jesus says, I, Jesus, am with you always, even to the end of the age. Would you join us in praying for these audacious prayers that we have shared today? Pray with us about the corridor between Tel Aviv and Tehran, that God would be mightily pouring out His Spirit in Tehran and to all the Iranian people. even the enemies, even the most hardened enemies, that God would appear to them in visions and dreams, and that they would come to know Him, and that the Holy Spirit would be poured out all the way across that highway down to Tel Aviv. Would you also join us in praying for Gaza, that God would break through the darkness, that there would be new opportunities, new open doors for the Joshua Fund and other believers to and churches to come alongside and to bring hope and life into the people of Gaza. In particular, will you pray for the orphans and the widows? And finally, would you pray for us as we dream and pursue a ministry center, the Willow House here in Israel, as we raise the funds to do that, that you would pray with us that God would make it a reality. Thank you so much. Welcome back to this episode of Inside the Epicenter. We have been wrapping up our series on the 28th anniversary of the Joshua Fund. We're so excited to have been looking back about what God has done in the last 20 years and talking to some of the people that came on that journey along the way. Today, as we wrap up, we want to talk about the future. We're talking about audacious prayers. And I'm here with Kelly Drury, our executive director. It's such a joy to talk with you on the podcast today. And right before the break, Kelly was sharing about her heart for Gaza. You know, on October 7th, we know it was such a turning point, really, in the history of Israel. But it was a turning point in the history of Gaza as well. The devastation that Hamas and the leadership there brought upon themselves has been devastating. Really, really hard to understand. overemphasize or to explain. And so we know that people living there, especially these orphans that Kelly was describing, that we heard about from many different ministry partners and the numbers kept growing, is something that we want to pray that God would intervene, that He would intervene into the darkness that is Gaza. You know, there's very few Christians left in Gaza. We know that if they had a chance to leave, most of the Christians have left over the years, even before October 7th. But since October 7th, many more have left. So we're talking about handfuls of believers left in a whole region that's just in a place of real darkness. So Kelly, it is audacious to pray that God could use us in some small way to reach into Gaza, isn't it?
00:20:02
Speaker 4: It is.
00:20:03
Speaker 1: But God laid that on our hearts, all three of us, all together. in such a strong way. And it's an incredible blessing and opportunity to have these audacious prayers, to pray and to see what doors has God opening and what pathway does he have for TJF. And that's what we really want to know. We want to hear from him and we want to know what it is that we're supposed to do and what is his strategy. And you've got some great strategies on that, on that side.
00:20:33
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know about strategies, but definitely, you know, asking the Lord, what are the gifts, what are the loaves and fishes He's put into our hands? So we know, and we've talked about on the podcast before, you know, just the heart for humanitarian aid that began right at the very beginning of the Joshua Fund. We've been part of being able to mobilize the churches, the believers, to serve their own communities, the needy in their own communities. And so we're really asking the Is there a way, Lord, for us to do that in Gaza? Is there a way for us to have a food distribution, basic medicine and water, but a place that becomes a small oasis, a place of light and hope where people can come and feel safe and cared for, where we could perhaps have some helping kids with homework or helping kids with learning to read you know, maybe doing something like play therapy. We have wonderful partners here in Israel and around the world who have a lot of experience when we're talking about places that have gone through war, places that have gone through terror and trauma. And so we've really been blessed to learn about what are some ways that you can come alongside. Right now in Gaza, it's like a I would say it's like life support. That's what they need. They need basic food, water, place to lay your head, safety. And so, yeah, just asking the Lord, can we be a part of bringing that to these children, to their mothers is amazing.
00:22:06
Speaker 1: I think too. And I think we've heard this many times before. And our dear friend Henry has shared this. Sometimes you cannot hear the gospel if you're starving and you have these great needs. And so it is an incredible opportunity to quiet that noise. And who wants to see starving children and who wants to see starving widows?
00:22:29
Speaker 4: Nobody.
00:22:29
Speaker 1: I mean, your heart has to ache and hurt for that and want to help.
00:22:36
Speaker 4: We do.
00:22:37
Speaker 1: We do.
00:22:38
Speaker 3: And we have that promise from the Lord that He's building His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. It looks so close to the enemy prevailing against the church in Gaza, but we know from God's word that that is not the case, that there is hope there. There are believers there. There are believers coming out of a Muslim background as well as, you know, people that have been raised in the church that are traditional Christians, that are born-again Christians from a traditional Christian background, etc. So, We know that his church is going to survive there. It cannot be thwarted, but it's gotten pretty close at the moment. And so if we can be praying for those believers that are left there to not be hopeless, to not grow weary in well-doing. You know, I think of those scriptures, Kelly, and I'm sure you're a woman that loves God's word as well. You know, when you think of sort of, it's overwhelming, you know, when you look at the numbers and you look at the odds against us, What from God's word inspires you to keep going? Where do you get hope from for these audacious prayers? It's not just a dream in your mind.
00:23:46
Speaker 1: No, where do I get hope from? I get hope from the Lord and I get hope for my daily scripture reading every day. So I can't think of like a specific passage at this point, but I can think of James 1, 27. which says, pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. That's what we want to.
00:24:17
Speaker 4: Do.
00:24:17
Speaker 3: Amen. That's a great verse. Can you give the reference one more time?
00:24:21
Speaker 1: James 1, 27.
00:24:22
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:24:24
Speaker 3: And it's not just widows and orphans, although all through the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, and the Torah, The nation of Israel is judged by how they treat their widows and orphans and the foreigner in their midst. Those are the three main measuring rods that the Lord uses to judge Israel's heart. He would say to them sometimes through the prophets, right, your lips are with me, but your heart is far from me. And one of the ways that God can see our heart is how we care for those needy in our midst. And it is, in God's word, again and again, it's the foreigner among us, the widows and the orphans. And the Lord says, if you've got a cold heart towards them, then you have a cold heart towards me. And so, yeah, just a beautiful command from the book of James. We see from Genesis to Revelation, this is the heart of God. So, yeah. It's a wonderful thing to not grow weary in well-doing, right?
00:25:24
Speaker 1: It's very true. And Lynn, if you remember when we visited some of the kibbutzes that had been attacked by Hamas, you know, here are these people and you go and see their homes and you go and see just these horrible things that have happened. You're visibly seeing it. You're bearing witness. You're seeing this and it's just like, wow. And you're hearing the people say, that this has actually happened to that has survived. And they're saying, we do not hate Gaza. We love peace. So, so many people like to misinterpret different things, but of all the people, people that whose lives have been horrifically impacted for them to say, I do not hate. It's a good encouragement for us to do not hate and define what we are supposed to do. Hearing from the Lord to serve others. Amen.
00:26:16
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:26:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're absolutely right. We've brought so many delegations of pastors and leaders and just regular people, counselors down to those border communities in Israel, those kibbutzim, you know, where the horror really unfolded so strongly. And again and again and again, that has been the message. You know, these were people that loved peace, that believe in peace.
00:26:41
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:26:42
Speaker 3: And they are, you know, we've learned that bitterness is, it really, it just, it poisons your own soul. It poisons your own heart, this kind of hatred and bitterness and revenge. That's not our job. That's God's job. And so our job is to love, to forgive, and to keep bringing the words of hope to people who are trapped and being the hands and feet of Jesus. So I'm so glad that that's something that we all share on the Joshua Fund team, you know, that we have such a wonderful humanitarian aid team here in Israel. And a great network of people over 20 years that have just been faithfully, quietly, without fanfare, just bringing that cup of cold water to a thirsty soul.
00:27:25
Speaker 1: And we've also had the great opportunity to wait on the Lord, to put this before Him and to pray. And we've prayed for a very, very long time for the orphans in Gaza. It's been on our prayer list and our team prays every day. And it's been on our prayer list for a very, very long time. And we are praying that God would show us His direction for His ministry. And we're trusting Him. And we just can't wait to see what He's going to do.
00:27:54
Speaker 2: Amen. Amen.
00:27:56
Speaker 3: Well, let's pivot to our final audacious prayer. Yeah. I think, um, I was thinking about our staff retreats that we had not this year, but last year, Kelly.
00:28:08
Speaker 1: Can you describe a little bit about.
00:28:10
Speaker 3: The blue sky sessions and what we were doing at that retreat?
00:28:15
Speaker 1: Well, one of the things that we did at, um, not our retreat this year, but our retreat last year was we had all of the teams share what their dreams are. And, um, my friend Lynn here, she shared a great dream. Um, one that we knew of, but, um, She shared a great dream. And Lynn, you should share what you told our team and our staff.
00:28:36
Speaker 3: Well, I would love to do that. Yeah, it was such a fun. Joel, I don't know where he heard this term, but blue sky sessions, you know, those kind of moments where you lay on your back, you look at the blue sky and you just say, Lord, you know, what are you, what do you want me to dream about? What have you put in my heart? And so it was fun to go around and have every single member of the staff share that. their blue sky dreams. You know, what's God putting in their hearts? And so the Lord's brought together such a beautiful staff team. And yeah, my blue sky dream was something that we're calling the Willow House. This is a big, audacious prayer. We've never, as the Joshua Fund, we've never owned any property here in Israel. We've rented a warehouse for humanitarian aid. We've rented space for different events. And to host people and such, but we've never had our own place, our own home in Israel. And I have been dreaming since college. So I graduated college in 1990. So it's been, I'm not a math person.
00:29:37
Speaker 2: How many years?
00:29:38
Speaker 3: You know, it's been 36 years. So I've been dreaming about that God would give a place in Israel where it would be like a spiritual home, a spiritual welcoming place for young people, for people from abroad, from people from Israel, where they could come and get their questions answered about God, about God's word, about prophecy, about God's heart for Israel and her neighbors. You know, we have a message that unfortunately is all too rare. Teaching that God has a heart, not just for one, not just for the other, but for all people, right? Jesus came and said that he came to die for the whole world, that God so loved the whole world. And so this both and that we always talk about, you know, in the Joshua Fund is actually a rather rare message in the Christian world. And so to be able to have a center where we can disciple people, we can have these deep conversations, where we can have creative events, where we can host people from abroad, where we can host everyone from political leaders to Christian leaders to young Israelis who just want to come have a great meal with us and talk about Jesus, talk about the Bible. This has been a dream of mine that we'd have such a creative center. center in Israel. And so, yeah, I got to share that with the staff.
00:31:01
Speaker 2: And with our board.
00:31:02
Speaker 3: And the board has unanimously said, let's go for it. You know, in Arabic, we say yala, like it means, or in Hebrew, it's kadima, forward, let's do it, let's go. And that was just the overall sense from the board and from the staff, which was, of course, super exciting for me to have that affirmed.
00:31:21
Speaker 1: One of the reasons I think it's super exciting for you is one of the things the Lord's given you is hospitality. And you love to have people over and feed them and play games with them and have fun. And you have such a heart to host the women and children at your church and in other ways. And you haven't done that just recently. You've done that for a long time. And the heart to have a place that we can absolutely maximize for so many ways has been so communicated clearly to you. You know, you want ministries to be able to use the property. You want people to come and learn at the property. You want for people to come and rest at the property. You want, you know, the key things that you really want. And from what I've heard from you strategically is discipleship, evangelism. You know, you want to learn all those things and have a center where that can happen. And I think it's an amazing dream. And I'm excited to be praying for this. And our blue sky sessions have been fun, but I really feel like... staff together in a beautiful way, just to really hear what was on their hearts and to really share.
00:32:29
Speaker 2: And I love it.
00:32:32
Speaker 1: You know, let's have people come to know the Lord. Let's have people deepen their faith and let's have people learn how to disciple, be discipled and evangelize. Let's do it.
00:32:41
Speaker 2: Exciting. Absolutely.
00:32:43
Speaker 3: Everyone in Israel that I mentioned this, this idea to, they get so excited about it because, you know, here in Israel, there are very few places where, that the believers have as their own place to host people. There's a camp, an amazing camp. There's an amazing kibbutz, like a mashav, where there's an inn.
00:33:02
Speaker 2: And there's a few little.
00:33:02
Speaker 3: Guest houses here and there. But to have a place that we can bless the body of Messiah, both Arab believers and Jewish believers in Jesus, and people from around the world where we can host counseling sessions and You know, we've talked a lot about the need for Christian counseling over the past three years has just skyrocketed. And so what an amazing thing. We could do parent conferences and counseling conferences about how to help our children get through these traumatic times. You know, we can have music. I want it to really reach the next generation. This is one of my great passions. When we talk about discipleship, we want to reach the next generation with God's word. And what God's Word says about Israel and about the neighboring countries and about the Great Commission and refocus and re-energize the next generation about these things. And I feel like what they would respond best to is good food, music, nature, you know, that's what, and just community, real authentic community. And that's my vision for the Willow House. Just to share a verse, the verse why we are going to call it the Willow House comes out of Isaiah 44, which is, Isaiah is my favorite book of the Bible. And I love it because it's so real about the difficult times we go through, but it's also so filled with hope about what God's going to do, what he's doing and what he's going to do. And this verse from chapter 44, it's verses one to four. But now hear, O Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen, thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant. There's been so much fear in the last three years, but God's word says, Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. That's like a love name for Jerusalem. For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. I, the Lord, I will pour my spirit upon your offspring and my blessing on your descendants, and they shall spring up among the grass. like willows by flowing streams. And what an amazing promise from the Lord. He's going to refresh His people. He's going to comfort His people. He's going to bring new life to those who don't know Him yet. And this is the heart and the excitement. I could talk all day about the Willow House, but I will stop because we do need to wrap up pretty soon. But You know, Kelly, do you have any just last thoughts as we kind of wrap up about where you see us going in the next 20 years? You know, as the executive director, you've come in at such a strategic moment to see us kind of become an adolescent or young adult ministry, let's say. So, yeah, what are some closing thoughts you might have?
00:35:55
Speaker 1: Some closing thoughts I have are how key discipleship is. Um, you know, that has come through really as a strong, a strong component and a strong thread about all the different things that we have a heart to do in the next years and beyond. We do not know how many years we have. Um, you know, we don't only God knows. And so, you know, I would say, uh, one thing I want to share is on these topics, it does feel to me like our strategy needs to be, um, now focused, you know? I don't want to build a ministry center. I want to buy one that's already met so that we can start getting the messaging out that God has laid on our hearts. And I think all of us want to see awakening everywhere and recognition everywhere. We want to see that. And I think that one of the blessings that we have, no surprise from you here, Lynn, for me to say this, but One of the blessings that we have is an incredible staff. And when we get a new staff member, their skill sets and their abilities are such a blessing.
00:37:07
Speaker 4: And you know that you know that you know that the Lord has put them on this team and that it is a great joy and great fun to work together to see what God is doing.
00:37:19
Speaker 1: And we often say this is not our ministry. This is his ministry. We want to do in the next 20 years what He has called us to do. And Joel and Lynn have a heart to do that too, because this is His ministry. And so let's see what He has, and then let's do it.
00:37:38
Speaker 4: Amen.
00:37:39
Speaker 3: And I think, you know, you've shared with me before, Kelly, just like you just mentioned, we don't know how long we have. There is a sense of urgency. We see prophetically, we see things that God has said are going to happen in the end times right before His return happening. If you think of it as a chessboard, pieces are in motion, major pieces. And we've talked about a lot of those things on this podcast. But prophecy is not for just contemplating and thinking, wow, it's fascinating and trying to interpret the news. God does tell us that we should be wise and that we should understand our times. But for a purpose, First of all, that we would purify ourselves and pray for the church's purity, that we'll be ready to meet the Lord, but also that we purify our purposes and our focus, that the Lord is coming back. We want as many people to be in heaven with us as possible. And so this is, you know, everything else can fall aside, but we need to keep our vision on what God's called us to do, what our part is in the Great Commission in reaching the and making disciples of all nations. And of course, especially our calling is here in the epicenter. So, uh, yeah, I love that you have shared before just about that urgency. We don't want to build a ministry center. We want to get going, you know, yalla. We want to do it.
00:38:59
Speaker 2: Let's do it.
00:39:01
Speaker 1: And, um, Lynn, your heart for this is, um, it's so fun to hear and it's so in you and, um, it's a, it's a great blessing and it's been a lot of fun. And, um, I just want to share that we have a lot of fun in our calls. And we have a lot of fun as we work together because we want to see what God wants to do. And then we want to see what our part is. So it's just fun. And so for the next 20 years, we're going to do it. We're going to do these things and we're going to. do it.
00:39:30
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:39:31
Speaker 3: As many days as the Lord gives us, we're going to keep going, keep walking forward in those good works that He's prepared ahead of time.
00:39:37
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:39:37
Speaker 3: And you're so right. There is joy. There's joy that comes in God's salvation and in walking in the plans He has for us. And being unified, this is where we see such joy and fun and laughter. So it's important to keep playing, to keep playing in this life, because there's enough darkness in this world that we don't need to be one more Eeyore, but we can laugh and have joy because we have that eternal perspective. I love that from Proverbs 31, one of my favorite verses about that Proverbs 31 woman, which is really, I think, a personification of wisdom more than a unreachable goal for women. But, you know, it says that she laughs at the future. She laughs at the future. There's not a fear. We can look forward and know God's got the future in his hands and we're his children. And in the end, Satan and this world can't take anything from us. God is with us and he's got us. So, It's a good place to end, I think, as we've talked about these three of, we have many audacious prayers. I think we have about two pages, three pages.
00:40:40
Speaker 2: What is it, Kelly?
00:40:41
Speaker 3: We just were praying over them.
00:40:43
Speaker 1: Five pages of audacious prayers.
00:40:46
Speaker 3: So yeah, in our last retreat that we just had last month, Kelly led us through a great session of just praying around tables with all the staff, praying through these audacious prayers, and we continue to do so, of course. But we've talked today about just the heart to reach Iran, to see God break that Islamic stronghold that is there, holding those people in darkness. This is an audacious prayer.
00:41:11
Speaker 4: We need.
00:41:11
Speaker 3: We need God to break the back of the spirit of Islam. And, you know, Henry taught us in the last episode that a lot of that comes from prayer and fasting and just being faithful to keep broadcasting the good news in as many ways as we can. So we talked about that. We talked about the heart for the needy, the heart for the orphans and the widows and the women of Gaza, Lord, and asking for a breakthrough there, that God would raise up people to really bring light and life to those people. And then we just talked about the Willow House and our dream of having this discipleship center in the land. So we hope you'll join us with these audacious prayers, our audience. And we also hope that you'll continue to listen in the future. And thank you. Thank you for joining us. Remember, we say our hope and our desire is that you will learn and that your learning about what God's doing will cause you to pray and to fast and to get others to pray and.
00:42:09
Speaker 2: And that you'll give.
00:42:10
Speaker 3: We always appreciate when you want to join us in this effort. We have so many needs. They've multiplied so many opportunities. You know, every need is an opportunity to bring the love of Jesus to a soul, to a heart, and to a family.
00:42:25
Speaker 2: To a nation.
00:42:26
Speaker 3: So we especially would love if you'd consider becoming an Epicenter ally. That's a monthly giver. When you can commit to giving on a monthly basis, we know that you're with us for the long haul. We can plan our budgets. We can plan how much we can give to various ministries. And we have that stability. That's such a blessing. So we hope that you'll consider giving gifts. You could give gifts towards all these audacious prayers. We would love that. And then we want you to come, come to Israel. Remember, we've got a tour coming up at the end of March into early April. You can go to joshuafund.com and learn all about how to give and learn all about how to come on our Epicenter tour. And the Yeah, thank you for joining us on this podcast. Kelly, thank you for your service to our staff, to the Lord, to this ministry, which is His ministry, as you said. And yeah, it's been a blessing to have this conversation. We hope that you'll join us next time on Inside the Epicenter. But for now, Shalom from Jerusalem.
00:43:34
Speaker 1: Thank you.
