Many of you are praying for your Jewish neighbors and faithfully sharing the Lord as God gives you opportunity. The following testimony is from a young mother who found her Messiah in a matter of months as some of her neighbors were “praying for her behind her back”. I trust you will be encouraged as you read Stacy's story “In her own words”. - Miriam Nadler

Stacy’s Story
This is my testimony of how Yeshua came into my life, touched my heart and changed my life forever. First, let me tell you that I am Jewish and was raised in a Conservative Jewish home in the greater Washington, DC area. I went through Hebrew school and was Bat-mizvahed at the age of thirteen. Looking back now, I don't think I ever understood what it meant to have a relationship with God. I went through the motions, but never really understood why.
Flash forward fifteen years where I now live: the “Bible Belt” of Charlotte where most of my friends seem to be Christians (at least Gentile). My two best friends, who are Christians, never really talked to me about what it meant to be a believer, but I could see they were absolutely amazing women. I thought they represented how a “Christian” should be: caring, truthful, dependable, loyal and not overbearing. But for some reason I actually appreciated the absence of faith in our conversations.

Enter One ‘Nutty’ Friend
I did have an acquaintance of sorts who I thought was a bit on the overbearing side: Tammy*. Tammy and I have daughters who play together, and one day last December we began talking on the telephone about how we were raising our girls. Tammy is home-schooling so she incorporates God and the Scriptures into her child’s education.     

So I said to her “That is not what the real world is about. My daughter, Anna, will know about concrete things like reading and social studies, and we are raising her to be a good honest girl. That is what is important.”
Tammy then said to me “Stacy, how can you think eternal life is not important?!”
Well, this actually struck me as a humorous question because at that point Tammy seemed to be “ off her rocker.” I thought, “I’ll have some fun with my “meshuggenah” (“nutty”) friend”, as we began going back and forth about God. I had my views and she could not sway me, but it was amusing to hear her get frustrated! That is, until I had had enough. “Look Tammy,” I said, hoping to end the conversation and put her in her place. “I am Jewish and my family is Jewish, and If I ever did anything (like accept the Messiah) I would break my family’s heart. So I’m sorry, but, that is how it is and we will just have to agree to disagree.”
“Well that’s a shame,” she said. “But, you know there are a lot of Jews that have converted.”
Now it was not so humorous anymore. What I heard her say was “I am sorry you are going to spend eternity in hell, but you can join my team and admit that ‘being Jewish’ is wrong.” Our phone conversation ended on bad terms. I was so mad at her that I started reading anything I could on being Jewish. “ I am not going to buy into this ‘Jesus thing,’ I thought to myself. So I bought The Idiot’s Guide to the Bible and read the entire book. At that point, I started feeling like, “Well maybe this Jesus did do some pretty amazing things, if you actually believe it at all.”

A New Testament Experience
In the beginning of March, a friend invited me to her church. She explained that a Jewish man would be speaking. I accepted the invitation, and to my surprise, it was awesome. There was an amazing atmosphere of love and joy as I saw Jews and Gentiles worshiping the same God together. The speaker said that even if you believe in Yeshua, you are still Jewish. Well, this was a concept that I had never even considered. It reminded me of being able to get a ticket at the amusement park for that exciting ride I always thought I was too short for.
After the service I told my two friends how interested I was in learning more. Though they did not show it, they were really excited. They later told me of all their prayers for me, and that they had been praying for me “ behind my back.” Thank God for them!
A few weeks later my friend took me to Hope of Israel Congregation. I found the service interesting and with Passover coming up I decided to celebrate with my family. I learned that Sam Nadler had written a Messianic Passover Haggadah that showed how Yeshua actually celebrated Passover. So I stopped by his office to get a copy to celebrate Passover that evening. Sam and I spoke briefly about what it meant to consider Yeshua as the Messiah of Israel. Miriam actually offered to meet with me the following week to go over any questions. That was, in my eyes, so generous and great that I eagerly accepted.

A Brand New Life, In Messiah!
The next day was Saturday, April 2nd and I decided to visit Hope of Israel Congregation again. What can I tell you? The Lord touched me through the service, and when Sam invited those who wanted to accept Yeshua as Messiah to pray, I prayed the ‘sinners prayer.’ My life has not been the same.

It was truly an overwhelming experience. (Sort of like taking a first time bungee-jump and winning the lottery all at once!) But as my head began to clear, I began to fully understand what had happened, I realized that I was still Jewish, and now I had the Messiah of Israel with me! There are no other words for it other than I was ‘born again’.