Israel Day Parade

June 5th was Israel Independence Day. The Jewish community has a parade along 5th Avenue every year to celebrate and show their support for the land of Israel.  Last year a group of us went in Jews for Jesus T-shirts and handed out Gospel tracts.  We had a few good conversations with Jewish people.  But, we encountered more hostility than usual and decided to try a different approach this year.

Stewart was speaking in a church out of town so Karol, another missionary from our Brooklyn branch and I headed to the parade in blue shirts that said: Yeshu=Yeshua=Salvation.  It is a play on words in Hebrew.  And Our shirts were in Hebrew letters.  Therefore only Hebrew speakers knew our message. Instead of handing out Gospel Tracts we carried Israel Flags and walked along with the crowd.  We had some very good conversations this year with people who approached us.   I have to admit after facing intense hostility last year I was nervous .  But it was awesome!  It's all a learning process we must constantly re-evaluate our strategies in regards to how we relate to our Jewish people.  Enjoy the photos!