A Year of Outreaches
First Stop Florida
I started 2023 by going to Florida to spend time with my father, trying to get churches and volunteers to join us in this outreach, as well as do what I love to do best, share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with anyone and everyone that GOD puts on my path.
Praise GOD, though we did not get as many churches and volunteers as we would have liked, GOD did give me a lot a quality time with my dad sharing the Gospel everyday with him as he nears his ninety-eighth birthday in February. I was also able to meet with many Jewish people at my fathers retirement community. I also met with four Jewish friends who have moved to Florida from New York.
Stories, Stories, and More Stories!
To My Dad with Love!
My first full day in Florida was spending the day bonding with my father Morris. I was happy to hear that his fulltime aide Hyacinth was constantly sharing the love of Jesus with him. Dad with weaker than he was the last time I visited six months earlier with my wife Mia and our dog Thelma. I knew that when I saw my dad that I needed to be more intentional about the Gospel as knowing he was nearing the end of his life had me feel more urgency then ever.
The day that I went to Coral Ridge PCA to see the missions pastor and hear Voddie Baucham preach, I shared with Hyacinth that she should stream Voddie live that morning and half kidding mentioned, “maybe you can get dad to listen”. To my surprise she texted a picture of my hard of hearing dad listening to Voddie preach through his phone connected to his Bluetooth hearing aids.
I noticed that the longer that I was down in Florida, the more my dad asked about my belief in Jesus. Thank GOD that I am going back down in February to surprise my dad on his birthday and continue to share the good news with him before the LORD takes him home.
Please pray for my dad and those close to you that do not know their Messiah yet!
My Oldest Friend
Believe it or not Debbie and I have known each other for over sixty-five years. From infants to teenagers, adults, and now senior citizens, we are still friends. We have helped each other through divorces, parenting, and more recently the transition of watching our moms pass and becoming our dads caretakers. Over the years Debbie has become more and more of a progressive liberal as I have become more of a devoted disciple of Jesus. Even though it has caused many differences of opinions, we still remain good friends. Even my wife Mia considers Debbie one of her best friends. As usual, Debbie and I got together while I was in Florida in January. As we sat, I was able to share with Debbie my purpose for spending the month of January in Florida. She asked why this was so important to me. This was all I needed to share my heart for all my Jewish friends to know their Messiah, including Debbie and her dad. For the first time in years, though she has never agreed with me when it came to Jesus, she still saw my heartfelt passion for my work. I even saw a tear in her eye. I told her that I would be visiting her dad in the nursing home next week. Though Debbie said that she could not bear to see her dad much anymore, that she appreciated that my dad and I were visiting him. Debbie even allowed me to pray for our food, to which I added the Hebrew blessing along with a regular blessing on our meal. After a wonderful meal and conversation about my ministry we parted and promised to get together when I return in February.
Daddy Dearest
As promised, my dad, his aide, my sister, and I all went to visit Debbie’s dad Marvin in the nursing home. Even though Marvin is in the stages of dementia, always considered himself an atheist, I was able to share the Gospel message with him by telling him that Jesus was his Messiah.
Debbie’s dad Marvin was not only good friends with my parents but my camp director as a camper, camp counselor, and friend for over fifty years. Marvin lost his wife of over sixty years a few years back and his mental health has declined since. We have kidded about putting my dad’s still sharp mind into Marvin’s highly functioning body to create the perfect ninety plus senior citizen. My great prayer is to see these two self-proclaimed atheist men in their nineties come to meet their Jewish Messiah on this side of eternity. AMEN!
Listen and Learn
The second week in Florida was a trip to Fort Meyers to see the Founders Conference, where I able to listen to some of my favorite preachers, teachers, writers. The three wonderful days at the conference get my all pumped up to hit the streets at the Hollywood Beach the next week.
Hitting the Streets
There is nothing better to me than share the Gospel in very Jewish neighborhoods with everyone that the LORD brings by. We had only four volunteers but that did not stop us from having some great conversations. I was amazed of how many Orthodox Jewish families were vacationing at the beach, where we set up during the week. We even had a conversation with some anti-missionaries who were very happy to keep us from other conversations.
We have honestly never seen so many Orthodox Jewish vacationing in one spot other than the Catskills, New York. In the five years of sharing the Gospel in Jewish neighborhoods we have never had as many seeds planted with Jewish people as this one week in Hollywood Beach.
After these four wonderful days of planting seeds and sharing the Gospel with hundreds of people I could not wait to come back three weeks later to do it all again. Believe me when I tell you that nothing is more important than sharing Jesus after you know Him. There is nothing more thrilling, more meaningful, or rewarding!
I pray that all of you that read this will find your gifting and outlet for sharing Jesus to everyone that God has and will bring into your life. May you also always urge other believers to do the same.
May the Outreaches Continue
LORD willing 2023 will also include Pittsburgh in June, New York in July, Denver in September, and back in Florida next Winter. Also pray that God would open up other Jewish populated cities in North America!
Shalom and AMEN!
~MITCH TEPPER
