Once an Arafat Man

Once on the Road: Epicenter Conference

This weekend I have the great pleasure of participating in the Epicenter Conference 2009 in San Diego, CA.  This is a pleasure for me because I get to be with my good friend Joel Rosenberg.  Joel has been a good friend to our ministry in the Middle East.  Recently Joel wrote about "Once an Arafat Man" in his new book called "Inside the Revolution". Joel has such a gift at helping people understand the significance of events taking place in the Middle East.  If you've not read the book...you should.  Buy it on Amazon here.

At today's conference, I will be speaking at 2:30pm.  If you're in the area, I hope you can make it.  And if you do, please say hi.  I'd love to meet you.

Learn more about the Epicenter Conference 2009.

Hello Swiss!

It's been some time since I last posted here on the blog.  So many great things have been happening as we draw closer to the release date of the book.  We've traveled through Florida to visit with many of our friends there.  Today I find myself in the beautiful country of Switzerland meeting with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

As the release date comes, I want to ask for your prayers.  We are anticipating a great opportunity to open up dialogue within the local church and the world.  Please pray that God will use this book to reach the hearts of the the Muslim community and for hardened hearts to be softened to the loving grace of God.  Thank you!

Don't forget, you can pre-order the book on Amazon.com here.

As for our Gaza ministry...no updates as of yet.  We are still exploring our options within the international justice system regarding Hamas.  We covet your prayers in this area as well.

Thank you so much...and God bless!

-Tass

"Once" on the Road: Grace Church Visit

What a wonderful time my wife and I had sharing our story with the community at Grace Church in Overland Park, KS.  I can't say enough about how encouraged we are every time we visit Grace.  Thank you to all who came Sunday to see us.  It was wonderful to see Facebook friends, old friends, new friends and family visiting us.  Thank you to Dean the Missions Director at Grace for hosting us and to Pastor Tim for letting me speak to your church.

You can listen to the message here.

We're on the road again and will be updating soon both on our Facebook Group Page and here on the blog where we'll be visiting.

By the way...if you're on Facebook or would like to sign up, be sure to join the "Once An Arafat Man" Facebook Group Page here.

"Once" on the Road: Heading to the Heart of America

For those of you in the States, I'll be in the Midwest this Sunday.  If you're in the Kansas City area, you can hear me speak at Grace Church in Overland Park, KS.  For church information, visit their website at www.VisitGraceChurch.com.  I'm looking forward to visiting with Grace...we consider this a "home church" away from our "home church".

You can listen to the Grace podcast to hear an interview I had with Kevin Patrick of 710 KCMO radio.  Listen to it here.  I believe it's about last 15 minutes or so of the podcast.

Please pray for me this week as I travel back to the U.S.

-Tass

"Once" On the Road: Update from Jericho

1- Update on the new family in Christ.

After long and intense prayers and searching for a home with our new family in Christ ( the Mahmoud ) family. The Lord has heard and answered. An Arab pastor friend of mine and an American pastor, praise god for them, have offered to take them in to an undisclosed area for their safety. Not only did they find them a home to live in, but also a home church to be discipled and a job that will earn him 4,00 Israeli shekel or what is equal to $ 1,200. To say the least the family is just ecstatic. What a testimony to them and all of us this is. Thanks for all the prayers. GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME.

2- Seeds of Hope Update

This week i visited with the Director of the Social Services Department for the approval of Seeds of Hope in Israel as an NGO ( non governmental organization ) to operate as a an international humanitarian organization in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza strip. Again, another answer for prayers, a tremendous victory for the kingdom of God.

3- Jericho Update

We have finalized the deal on our building. A four story building that will house our kindergarten, youth cultural center, and the 24 hour prayer center. Renovations are under way. Please pray for the finances of this center. It is going to take at least a QUARTER OF A MILLION $ US DOLLARS to get it ready by January of 2009. GOD is able and He is GOOD ALL THE TIME.

4- Personal Reflection

My daily morning prayer and "claiming the land" walk is going strong. In the process, I am shedding a good amount of extra luggage (losing weight) hallelujah! GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME.

Well my friends, it is time for me to get ready for the week end. I am going to Jerusalem to meet up with my friends Zvi and Lisa who just returned from a trip to England.  We're heading north to worship with our friend Pastor David Davis and his wife Karen.

Thank you so much for your continued prayer.

Love you all.

-Tass

Invading Jerusaem and the West bank ( Judia and samaria )

I thought New York was a big challenge. Brooklyn, is a piece of cake compared to this part of the world. I started out in Switzerland as I mentioned in my last entry. That went so good, we had altars full of people all the time. Praise the lord!

Then comes Israel and the challenges of Arab and Jewish relations. There is so much hurt here it takes what feels like an eternity to heal. I am grateful to be a small part of what God is doing here. I may sound a little on the side of complaining but, on the contrary, I am excited about being here.  Upon arriving here, I decided a day off would be a good thing before getting started here. During the day, I received several phone calls that set my agenda for the next week. One of these calls was from a woman who is a messianic believer.  She has a shelter caring for needy Jews who have found themselves in situations where assistance is necessary. She shared with me a story about an Arab family. A man, wife and 4 children from the west bank of Ramalla. They were accused to be collaborators with Israel and the man was badly beaten. They were able to escape with all of his family to Israel and landed on the beaches of Tel Aviv. After  making the beach their home for some time, the civil services discovered them and took them to the social services department. The lady I was speaking with on the phone was contacted by social services asking her if she would help this family. She took them in and was excited to have the opportunity to help this family. The community that she lived in is a moshave ( that is small farming Israeli secular Jews). They discovered the Arab family from the West Bank living there and they went up in arms demanding that this Arab family be removed from the moshav.

That's why she called me in to help. Tanya is the founder of "Holyland Ministries" helping needy families.  She has been hosting this family for for a month and has asked me to assist in any way I can.  i went to see what i can do. I met with Tanya and the Arab family to get a "debriefing" of. This Arab couple are hurting so much.  After being rejected by their own then being rejected by the people they were accused of "collaborating" with, they find it extremely difficult to trust anyone. My heart breaks for this family. I began by comforting this man and his wife and told him that Tanya and I will not leave him and that we will do everything through the Lord Jesus to help him. The interesting thing is that no one spoke Arabic and the family did not speak any English or Hebrew. This really should be a book. They told about the love they have received from this woman and the other believers. How they did everything to comfort them.  I am so thankful for people like Tanya who offer the compassion and love of Jesus Christ to others...even when this family couldn't communicate with words to Tanya...the love and compassion was communicated clearly.

It was pentecostal daye her in Israel which is considered a holiday. The dinner was brought and we all broke bread together. As we were eating, I was sharing with the Arab man about Jesus and the reason why he is here. The man said, "You know, for one month I am living here, I felt like I was living in heaven. if Jesus is the reason for all of this then I want him to be my lord too." I looked at his wife who was sitting next to him and she said, "Yes, me too". I am such a "softy"...I broke down in tears. I shared with the rest of the believers and they broke in tears as well. We took them to the roof of the house (a Jewish tradition to pray on the roof ). We sat under the open sky and I began to walk them through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation explaining why Jesus is the way and then shared with them how God changed me from a former "Arafat Man" to a lover of God and people. They were so shocked when they found out I was a Muslim too. They were in tears now. We prayed with them and prayed and prayed and we all were in tears thanking the Lord for this gift of new souls on this modern day of Pentecost.

This set the course of my next days with a new fire,... GOD IS SO SO GOOD. ALL THE TIME. Praise His name. more exciting things to come. Keep checking back here as God continues to do incredible things for His glory.

Blessings,

Tass

On the Road Again...

For the next month I will be in Switzerland and Israel. In switzerland During my 3 day stay, I'll be promoting reconciliation between Arabs and Jews through the German version of "Once An Arafat Man". The book has been out in Switzerland and Germany since last October and doing well. We are praying that this book will help provide the vision of reconciliation to all German speaking countries.

After that, I'll be taking off to Israel to work on getting our building ready for the Kindergarten and the cultural center completing the legal work with the government of Israel to have an NGO ( non governmental organization) status in Israel and the PA authority. Basically making Seeds of Hope a legal humanitirian organization in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. I need your prayers for favor with the Israelis and the Palestinians for that.

I will be back by July 3rd to celebrate the 4th of July with the family and on Sunday july 6th I will be speaking at Grace Church in Overland Park, KS. I hope to see some of you there. Make sure you can come so I can say hi to you all.

-Tass

"Once" on the Road: New York

This has been a special time for us in New York. It's been a good time of building new friendships in both Arab and American church's. Our Arab hosts and their in-laws have extended their love to us in so many ways that left us fat and speechless (great food and great fellowship) . We are so grateful to them for opening their homes for us. The true Arab Ibrahamic hospitality was shown to us so much.

We had a great time in the area of Albany seeing old friends and making new ones . Our first stop was at an inner city congregation called "Victory Christian Church".  We were welcomed to participate in a meeting addressing the poor and the down cast. That was a moving experience for me personally. The pastor was kind enough to take up a love offering for our ministry to Gaza. I was amazed at their sacrificial giving...and it truly was sacrificial. It was an unbelievable amount. Seeing the passion and good work that Victory Christian Church is investing in, Karen and I felt compelled by the Lord to re-donate the love offering back to them so they could invest in their incredible ministry to feeding children in their community. What a great church.

Our second stop on Saturday, May 10 was the Brooklyn Tabernacle. We were invited to share my personal story of how I met Christ with their missions team.  I was also able to share stories of the work God is doing through our ministry in both Gaza and Jericho.  It was a blessing for us to share these stories.

On Sunday we attended the noon service at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. What an incredible time we had during their services.  You could sense God's spirit moving in that church during Pastor Cymbala's message. Afterward, we had an opportunity to visit with Pastor Cymbala and Pastor Jerry Park the director of missions at the Brooklyn Tabernacle.  During our time together, Pastor Cymbala issued an invitation for us to come back in the future to speak during their Sunday services. It's shaping up to be in late August or early September.  I'm honored to be able to share the "Once" story with the people at Brooklyn Tabernacle.

It has been a very busy time for us here. We believe the Lord is opening doors for us in the Apple state. Would you please pray for those doors to open soon?  We're excited to see how God uses the "Once" story to encourage American and Arab churches in New York.

Blessings,

-Tass