From Tel Aviv: A Holy Spirit Moment

Shoshana Birnbaum and her team were in absolute awe of what God did during their outreach to artists living in the Florentin neighborhood of Tel Aviv. She says, “The Holy Spirit was so palpable, God was so present in our conversations—it was almost as though we were having a prayer service that the average Florentinian could understand and be part of.”

The team has been hosting galleries featuring local artists for years, learning from experience, and earnestly praying and planning for real, deep interactions. God answered those prayers and blessed those plans in a big way.

Eli pointed out the hope we can have as we experience suffering.

This year, Shoshana and her team invited Israeli artists and musicians to creatively explore the themes of suffering, destiny, and the meaning of life from the book of Job. Shoshana says, “For our closing night, several musicians performed songs they’d composed for the exhibition. Around 120 people showed up. At one point, Eli, Shoshana’s husband and also the director of our Israel work, gave a talk explaining the wisdom of the book of Job.  He pointed out the hope we can have as we experience suffering, and how, though we may wonder why the almighty God doesn’t always stop our suffering, we can know that He loved us enough to take all the suffering of the world upon Himself. He did this so that we don’t have to face the never-ending suffering of being apart from Him.

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“Throughout the week, more than 500 people came to the Moishe Rosen Center (MRC) to attend the exhibition. By the end of the event, our team had over 250 gospel conversations with those who attended, including the artists and musicians.”

Eli adds, “The ending concert was unforgettable. The musicians—believers and unbelievers alike—poured out their souls, singing about God, and posing challenging questions. The crowd was captivated and their attention undivided, with many closing their eyes in reflection.

“Many people made a point of thanking us for doing this. Some had never before considered that knowing God means having an honest relationship with Him, even about hard things like suffering. And their questions gave us so many opportunities to explain the gospel.”

It was exciting to see how God works and brings our paths together.

Nikol, who serves with our Florentin team, said, “During the week leading up to our closing night, I crossed paths with several people I knew from different places, and they came to the exhibition. Some were friends from high school who I hadn’t seen for a while. I had the opportunity to share with them the change that Jesus made in my life. It was exciting to see how God works and brings our paths together. One guy I came across, Natan, is someone I’d met in India during our Massah outreach. We’d had very deep conversations with him about faith, and I’d given him a New Testament.

“Natan was surprised to learn that the book of Job is in the Bible and was even more surprised that we chose a ‘Jewish book’ as the subject of our exhibition. It was a good opportunity to explain to him more about faith. Natan stayed for all the performances and also for Eli’s talk. At the end of the evening, he thanked me and said he had a great time. I am sure that God touched his heart that evening much more than I can see or understand, and that another seed was planted in his heart.”

Finally, Shoshana says, “It took three months to prepare this weeklong event, and we never could have done it without the prayers and support of partners like you! Please pray for God to continue working in the hearts of Natan and the hundreds of other Israelis who attended the event. May He bring the gospel seeds that were sown to full-blown faith in Yeshua!”