Jews for Jesus

My Video Testimony:

Jews for Jesus Canada Director, Andrew Barron, shares his testimony from jewsforjesus-owner on GodTube.

Andrew Barron grew up in a Conservative Jewish home in New York City.  His family kept kosher.  But after Andrew finished his Bar Mitzvah training, he and his family stopped going to the synagogue regularly, and began attending only on holidays.  His grandparents, on the other hand, kept many of the Orthodox traditions.

Andrew remembers:

“When I was about fourteen, my grandmother began to suffer from Alzheimer’s or dementia.  For two years, it was just awful.  And she was very, very Orthodox—very religious; that was what her life was about. So it made me wonder, ‘What’s the point of being religious?’”

School and Sun

When he’d finished high school, Andrew moved away to attend school at Florida Institute of Technology where he studied Physics.  He was highly involved in his fraternity, Theta Zi, which he joined because of its history of opposing anti-Semitism in the South.  He loved school, and loved his life in Florida.

“It was an ideal sort of life.  A lot of my friends were flight students, so we used to fly to the Florida Keys and the Bahamas and go fishing and camping. I never wanted to leave Florida.   So, when I finished my undergrad degree, I applied to a doctoral program at FIT and was accepted.

But then, Andrew had what he calls an epiphany.  “I realized, ‘I’m gonna be twenty-seven years old and still living in my fraternity, with a largely meaningless existence.’ And it scared me, so I took a job and left school.”

Making Space for the Messiah

                Andrew moved to Denver to work as an aerospace engineer, helping to design and plan space shuttle missions for the United States Space Program.  He had heard the Gospel and started reading a Gideon Bible while still living in Florida, but it was in Colorado that God started really tugging on his heart.

“After I moved to Denver, I met a missionary with Chosen People ministries named Eliezer Urbach.  I started going to his Bible studies.  I started meeting Jews who believed in Jesus.  I was curious and spiritually hungry.  I was wondering whether the Bible was true and God was real.”

After a time, Andrew became convinced not only that God was real, but also that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah.  He prayed to accept Y’shua (Jesus) with Eliezer, who then said to him, “Well Andrew, now you get to spend the rest of your life explaining yourself to people who won’t understand you.”

Marriage and Ministry

That statement stuck with Andrew, and when he met a Jews for Jesus missionary a few months later, things started to click into place.

“I flew out to Santa Barbara to a Jews for Jesus Ingathering, and I thought, ‘I really like these people.  They’re intelligent.  They’re driven.  They strive for excellence.’  They were Jews and they were playful.  That really resonated with me.”

Jews for Jesus recruited Andrew to become a missionary, and he agreed.  He moved to Boston to work with the ministry branch there and to attend seminary.  One night, while attending a Thanksgiving dinner sponsored by his congregation, he met an intriguing young woman named Laura, who had recently returned from living in Israel.  She, like Andrew, was a Jewish believer in Jesus.  By the end of the evening, he had asked her on a date.  By the end of the winter, he had asked her to marry him.

Shortly after meeting Laura, Andrew volunteered to begin the first overseas branch of Jews for Jesus—in South Africa.  Andrew and Laura were married in June of 1989, and in October of that year they moved to Johannesburg.

Blessing in South Africa

Over the next seven years, they successfully planted a Jews for Jesus branch and a thriving Messianic congregation.  They also began their family, with their son Rafi arriving in 1995.

Rafi was a beautiful baby boy with Down syndrome. They were able to access support for him in South Africa, but it was mostly through private services and therapists. They had accomplished their goal to raise up a self-sustaining ministry there, and felt released to leave it in the capable hands of local Jewish believers and an indigenous Jews for Jesus branch leader.

A Calling to Canada

In 1996, the Barron family moved to Toronto to lead the Jews for Jesus work in Canada, and they remain there to this day. Andrew organizes outreaches, meets individually with seekers and new believers, speaks in churches throughout Canada and the northern United States, and oversees the other Canadian missionaries, both in Toronto and Montreal. Laura is also a missionary and she is the editor of all the publications for both the Canada and South Africa branches.

After moving to Canada, Laura and Andrew were blessed with two more children—Ketzia and Simona.  All three children are busy with their activities; Rafi participates in an adapted sportball program, swimming lessons, skiing and horseback riding.  He is especially skilled in basketball.  Laura says, “Canada has been a great place to meet Rafi’s special needs and has many opportunities for his school years and beyond.”  Ketzia and Simona have both been involved with ballet, and Ketzia recently took up karate as well.  Both girls know how to make and keep good friends; they are confident and bright and loving sisters to their brother.

The Barrons enjoy taking walks as a family and going swimming together.  They also take a family vacation to Florida every year to see family and spend time relaxing and playing at the beach.

On the rare occasions when Laura and Andrew get a weekend to themselves, they like to visit a bed and breakfast in nearby Niagara Falls and see a play together.

Andrew himself has a very interesting hobby: he is a blackbelt in karate.  He is studying for his second-degree blackbelt and he also teaches others in the dojo where he trains.

A Future and a Hope

As he reflects on his ministry with Jews for Jesus, Andrew remarks:

“On my own, I never would have been able to accomplish what I have. It is only because of being a part of the Jews for Jesus family where we inspire each other.  It’s given me opportunities I never thought I’d have.”

But he isn’t resting on his laurels.  Andrew has high hopes for the future of his ministry as well.

“What I’m looking to do is really specialize in leadership development.  I’m doing doctoral work now at the University of Toronto.  My interest is studying what are the social and cultural forces that are at play on Jewish people as they consider the gospel.  For most Jewish people, the religious or dogmatic issues are irrelevant; it’s mostly social and cultural influences.  I really enjoy teaching others about Jewish evangelism.  I’ve been doing the training for the New York Summer Witnessing Campaign for the last eight or nine years.  I think it’s something that I do uniquely well in the ministry.”

Whether meeting curious people on the streets, discipling new believers in a Bible study, or training new Jews for Jesus volunteers and staff, Andrew is dedicated to sharing the gospel with his people, both now and into the future.

Andrew Barron is Chief of Station at the Canadian branch of Jews for Jesus in Toronto. He was a science student whose studies in astronomy caused him to wonder about the vastness and complexity of the universe. In 1981, while helping to design and plan space shuttle missions for the United States Space Program, he came across a gospel pamphlet from Jews for Jesus and wrote a letter to the organization. One of the staff had a short speaking tour in Denver and arranged a meeting with Barron to discuss Jesus. Shortly after their meeting, Barron was convinced of Jesus' Messiahship. He has served with the Los Angeles Branch, been a team leader on numerous Jews for Jesus Summer Witnessing Campaigns and pioneered the work of Jews for Jesus in South Africa. He and his wife, Laura (also a Jewish believer in Jesus) reside in North York, Ontario, with their three children Rafael, Ketzia and Simona.

Listen to Andrew Barron's Audio Testimony (requires Real Player)