February 2023 CMNZ/PFI Newsletter

How Do the CMNZ Facilities Operate?

How do the CMNZ Facilities operate?

By Chris Nel

Many of you dear folks are involved with CMNZ in one way or another and are aware of our hosting facilities, where our main focus is hosting Israelis, with the hope of sharing the Gospel of their Messiah with them. Currently CMNZ owns two such facilities: the Zula Lodge and Backpackers situated near Wanaka, and the Punakaiki Beach Hostel on the West Coast, close to the famous Pancake Rocks. A dear saint, Hazel Leslie, who had hosted thousands of Israelis in her lifetime, left her house in a Trust for the continued use of hosting Israelis. CMNZ staff members manage the well-loved “Hazel’s House” on the outskirts of Dunedin, for this same purpose. These three facilities have become known to Israeli travellers, and the saying goes, “You can’t go to New Zealand without staying at these places.”

So, how do we operate these amazing facilities? The “curriculum of hosting” is a very practical one, where we learn from wise predecessors, from mistakes and from experience. One of the great ideas that took shape early on in managing the facilities is to have our visitors stay in two groups per week. Guests may choose to stay Monday through Thursday morning or Thursday afternoon through Sunday morning. This system works really well, as it gives us and the volunteers time to “jell” with the Israelis.

Our Volunteers: During the warm months when we host Israelis, we are totally dependent on the help of volunteers. These are believers (young and the not so young) who have a heart for Israelis and a heart to serve. They come from all over the globe, including Israel – an added bonus as they speak Hebrew! As resident managers, we find that most of our time is actually invested in training and supporting our volunteers, as they are the ones interacting the most with the Israelis, including 2 am talks! They are also our future leaders, and this experience becomes a vital link in the formation of their futures.

For most of our volunteers, their short-term mission with CMNZ becomes a life-changing experience. We typically start the day off with devotions, followed by cleaning chores, after which they can have personal catch-up time, group time, or hang out with the Israeli guests. Once a week we have a “volunteer dinner” at our house, and what better opportunity than a shared meal to talk about issues, get to know each other better and bond with the group?

Ministry: How do we go about sharing the Gospel with our Israeli guests? Well, after the daily chores of cleaning, gardening, maintenance, etc, comes the fun part: We engage in sincere conversations with our guests, and as the opportunity arises, we talk about faith-related matters. Such conversations can occur in various settings: while making food and eating together, going on hikes, playing games, making music … and the list goes on. We also have combined meals, like Shabbat dinners where we make time for a testimony or a short challenging message.

We hope this gives you a peek into the hosting ministry of CMNZ, and some insight in how to pray for us!

A Retreat For Seekers

By Nicki Smith

If you have ever hosted Israelis in your home, you will know that there are many different types of responses to hearing about God and faith in Yeshua. A few are annoyed or dismiss your beliefs. Many are interested and ask more questions because they have never heard these truths before. And some are on a seeker’s journey: asking questions about Yeshua, starting to read scripture and connecting the prophetic dots. How do we meet these seekers’ needs and help them understand and see Yeshua?

We are trying something new this summer, Spiritual Retreats! This is a 5-day retreat and opportunity for Israelis to hear the Gospel, ask questions and get out into God’s creation. Throughout the week there is teaching, reading scripture together and small group discussions. And every day there is an outdoor adventure activity: hiking up Mt. George, kayaking or floating down the Pororari River, exploring the local glowworm cave, rock climbing and much more. Our goal is to share the whole story of God:

1) We have a creator who made us, loves us and made us for a relationship with him.

2) We have a problem with sin and brokenness in our lives. This inability to cure or fix ourselves means that we need a saviour.

3) God’s plan was to send his son Yeshua as a perfect sacrifice to atone for man’s sins. We all need a saviour and God made a way.

4) When we believe in Yeshua, God is faithful to forgive our sins. It doesn’t just stop there. We then enter into an eternal relationship with him! This is not about religion and rules; this is all about a restored relationship.

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:18-20

Our hope is that we will see a harvest come out of these Spiritual Retreats. May their questions and seeking turn them to trust in Yeshua. I also pray that they will leave with more questions and hunger to know the Lord.

Will you join us in praying for God to bring the Israelis that are ready to seek, ask and discover? Our plan is to run a Spiritual Retreat in early February and early March. We have already met a couple Israelis who were very interested in knowing more about Yeshua, but the timing doesn’t work out for them to join. This is all in God’s hands and we trust that if he wants these retreats to run, he will provide the seekers and align the timing. Please join us in praying for open hearts and for God’s will.

Messiah: Prophet, Priest and King

Part 1: The Messiah the Son of the Living God

By Nigel Christensen

“He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, ’We have found the Messiah’ (which means Christ)” (John 1:41 ESV). In the New Testament the word Messiah (Mashiach in Hebrew) is translated to mean Christ (Christos in Greek), so these terms can be used interchangeably. Messiah means “anointed” and refers to the concept of someone being anointed with oil for service in a particular role. There are three offices in the OT for which someone was anointed: Prophet (1 King 19:16), Priest (Ex 28:41) and King (1 Sam 15:17). Some men held two offices but only Messiah would hold all three.

Messiah would be Unique: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour” (Isaiah 61:1-2 ESV). Jesus applies Isaiah’s prophecy to himself and the program of his 1st coming (Luke 4:16-21). Note that three persons are involved with this anointing: (1) The Lord who is anointing (2) the Messiah with (3) the Spirit of the Lord God. This is a true anointing, rather than a symbolic anointing by a human representative using oil. Uniquely, the Messiah would be anointed directly by God with the Holy Spirit. We see this fulfilled visually at Jesus’ baptism, where the Father, the one anointing, anoints the Son with the Holy Spirit. Peter refers to this: “…after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power….” (Act 10:37b-38a ESV).

A Second key difference was that Messiah would be Divine: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The sceptre of your kingdom is a sceptre of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions” (Psalms 45:6-7 ESV). Here God who is on the throne as King, anointed by God. This shows that Messiah would be both fully God and fully Man.

Purpose of the Role: “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Timothy 1:15 ESV). In Hebrew this would read “the Anointed Saviour came into the world to save sinners.” A key purpose of the 1st coming of the Messiah was so that he could provide a divine solution to the human problem of sin. We will cover this when we look at the office of Priest. For his 2nd coming there would be a different purpose, that of Judgement, which we see in Isaiah: “He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples” (Isa 2:4 ESV). We will look at this when we discuss the office of King. But in both cases the purpose of Messiah is to address the problem of the broken relationship between God and Man. Messiah provides both a divine solution (for all who would believe in Him) and a divine judgement (for those who do not believe; John 3:17-18 ESV).

Blessings of the Role: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3 ESV). As the Messiah, being fully God and fully Man, Jesus was able to live a perfect, sinless life here on earth, enabling him to fulfil his role as Saviour. Those who trust him are “in Christ” and blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Jesus can provide every spiritual blessing because he fulfils all three offices of Prophet, Priest, and King; only he is capable of providing all the blessings they bring! It is essential, then, that we understand who Messiah Jesus is: Not just a good man; but The God-Man (Matt 16:15-16).

God of Abraham

By Michael Thomas

“I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

Have you ever read through a passage in the Bible repeatedly and you felt like God wanted you to see something, but it remained just beyond reach? Years ago, sitting in a coffee shop in Gaithersburg Maryland, I was relaxed and enjoying my usual Bible reading. When I came across the above this passage (Exodus 3:6), it felt as though the words were bouncing off my thick skull, not penetrating my head or heart. I felt like God was trying to get me to see something, but it remained just out of reach. What was so significant about God saying that He is the father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

As I pondered this, a woman came into the café who looked familiar. She attended our church and I felt like I should remember her name, but couldn’t. She saw me and came over and introduced herself, as I did also. But despite knowing one another’s names, we still didn’t “know” one another, so the conversation lagged into slightly uncomfortable silence.

Finally the woman said, “I’m the mother of Emily and Kate.” While I didn’t know the two girls that well, I knew that they were friends with our older children, Morgan and Chloe, so I said, “I’m the father of Morgan and Chloe.” At that moment, though we didn’t know each other by our own reputations, we immediately had sufficient context to begin relating based on the reputation of our children. We laughed about the high school plays, the kids’ classes, events at church and a few other things before she left.

Returning to the passage and re-reading “I am the father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” I realised that the Creator of the universe allows Himself to be known by His children, even through their faults and foibles, successes and failures. As I considered this, I thought back through the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, recalling that their failures didn’t prevent them from having a genuine (yet imperfect) faith in their God, a faith based far more on God’s faithfulness to them than on their faithfulness to Him.

Too often in my own life, my faithfulness to God is occasionally (ok, usually) lacking. How in the world could the Holy, Almighty, Creator of the universe choose to be known by failing, imperfect men like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and even me? While I wouldn’t say that this is the central teaching of the passage, I learned a very important lesson that day that has stuck with me through many years: In spite of my failures, God isn’t afraid to be associated with me. It doesn’t phase Him that I’m imperfect. His constant love for me, despite my imperfections, connects others who meet with Him through me. How amazing that – although God is holy, almighty, eternal, creative, and pure – He is also perfectly relatable and doesn’t need perfect vessels to introduce Himself to others. He doesn’t mind being known through His children.

Thanks Abba!

PFI Prayer Focus

By Michael Thomas, PFI Director

Pray for the salvation for the people of Israel

Pray for openness to the Gospel and for situations that lead to that openness

Pray for Israel-related ministries

Pray for boldness, provision, and fruit for ministries that aim to bless Israel

Pray for issues in the land of Israel

Pray for the concerns of Israel’s government, the people in the land, and among the Jewish people worldwide.

Pray for pastors and churches in New Zealand

Pray that NZ pastors and churches would obtain a clear understanding of Israel's role in God's redemptive purposes, and be bold in standing for Israel in these days of increased anti-Semitism.

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