NEWSLETTER May 2022

Dear Prayer Partners,

REMEMBRANCE DAYS
January, the first month of the Gregorian calendar, is also the start of the year in Israel although
the Jewish calendar is primarily used for the celebration and remembrance of religious holidays
according to the Hebrew Scriptures.

The first of such remembrance days is the Festival of Purim, based on the book of Esther. While this is
a day of great joy and celebration for the children as they put on costumes, dress up and even receive
gifts, it is a day of remembrance of God’s protection
over His people. God used Mordechai and Esther
to frustrate Haman’s annihilation plan of the Jews.
God not only protected the Jewish people, but He
also guarded the Seed of the Woman, mentioned
in Genesis 3:15, through whom the Messiah would
come. It is also an occasion where people “send
gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor” as
commanded in the book of Esther 9:22. Purim is on
the 14-15 of the Jewish month of Adar, which usually
falls in mid-February or the beginning of March. This
year it was celebrated on the 17-18 of March.

The next feast is that of Passover, which is on the

15th of Adar Beth, the second Adar. Every fourth year
in the Jewish calendar there is an extra month since
Purim unlike the Gregorian calendar that is based on the
solar, the Jewish calendar is based on the lunar of
29 days alternating with 30 days in the following
month. Passover is always celebrated in the spring,
and it is usually in the month of April. This year it fell
on the 15th of April. Passover is celebrated for seven
days, and most people eat unleavened bread as
commanded in Leviticus 23:4-8. All Jewish bakeries
are closed for the duration of the Passover. This is
the occasion in which we remember the delivery of
our people from slavery to the Egyptians and how
God Himself (not the Angel of death!), came down
to strike all the first born in the land of Egypt, but
Passed Over the homes that had the blood on the
two doorposts and the lintel of their house (Exodus
12:7). But of course, for us, it is also a reminder of a far
greater Passover, where Christ who is our Passover
Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7) by His death and resurrection,
delivers us from slavery to sin and Satan.

HaGefen Publishing, P.O.BOX 265, Gedera 7075201 ISRAEL www.ha-gefen.org.il

Later in April there is the Holocaust Remembrance
Day, which is not the same day as the International
Holocaust Day set by the UN to commemorate the
death of six million Jews. And about a week later
there is the eve of the fallen soldiers and victims
of terror attacks. As of May 3rd, their number was
24,068 men and women who were killed defending
their country. This year the Holocaust Remembrance
Day was on Thursday, the 28th of April, and Soldiers
Memorial Day was on Wednesday, May 4th. The 74th
Independence Day began in the evening at 8:00 pm
on the 4th with an official ceremony on Mount Herzl
in Jerusalem.
So these last few weeks have been filled with days
of remembrance. Perhaps these days are good for
us since as human beings we have short memories,
and that is one of the reasons why the Lord in His
great wisdom gave us special days to refresh
our memories. May we use these memorial and
remembrance days in ways that God intended.
And as we remember these days, let us not forget the
horrible war that is happening now on European soil,
the war between Ukraine and Russia. Since February
24, when the war started with the Russian invasion,
thousands on both sides have been killed. Millions
in Ukraine have lost their homes and livelihood and
have become refugees, and both the Ukraine and
Russian economy have been severely damaged. As
is often the case in all wars, innocent people pay the
price and too often the ultimate price.

FROM HAGEFEN TO SOLDIERS

Grace and Truth congregation for almost two decades has been sending Purim packages (as mentioned
above of the command to send gifts), for all the Messianic soldiers. Eti Zadok has overseen this wonderful
project since 2007. In its early years there were about 30 to 40 soldiers serving in various units from all
the congregations across the country. This year they sent 240 packages, and the congregation each year
gives them two books in addition to other goodies that are packed in the Purim packages. This year our
“hot off the press” book published by HaGefen, What Does it Mean to Be Born Again? by R.C. Sproul and
Knowing Christ by Mark Jones were the two books that all 240 soldiers received. We are grateful for this
great cooperation that we have between the church and our publishing.
FROM HAGEFEN TO UGANDA
About a month ago one of our staff shared about some
humanitarian work that is being done by some Israelis in
Uganda. The essence of the work is to provide education
for children who cannot live in their homes and enable them
to go to school to guarantee them a better future. The idea
was to gift them with 100 coloring books on the book of
“Noah” that HaGefen had published. However, there was a
need to redo the design to make it suitable for the English
language as it is read from left to right, unlike Hebrew that
is read right to left. And, there was a time constraint in that
we had complete it in four days as one of the members of

Noah
the group was flying to Uganda and wanted to bring the
booklets with her. Four of our small team got on it, and we
were able to have it done and printed in time to get them
to airport and into Uganda. We received pictures and thank
you notes from the organizers, and the smiles on the faces of
these precious children says it all.
 HONORING THE PIONEERS
One of the areas that HaGefen has been involved in
the last few years is honoring those pioneers who
gave much of their life to pave the way for Gospel
work in Israel. In the past we have published
two such books. One tells the story of a Finnish
pioneer, Kaarlo Syvanto, who before the state of
Israel was founded believed that soon the day of
Christ’s return would come, and he immigrated
to Israel in the 1930’s to prepare the land. In his
lifetime, he and his son, Olavi Syvanto, probably
distributed hundreds of thousands of Bibles in
many languages in Israel.
The second book was the story of Albert and Ruth
Nessim and their ministry in Nahariya, the tip of
Israel not far from the Lebanese border. In January
we started to work on Phillip Meyer’s biography,
and it will be published soon. In addition, we have
Kaarlo and Maire Syvanto Phillip and Berit Meyers
begun a work on a book by an Israeli Ethiopian
lady who has written her story of escape from
Ethiopia to Jerusalem, and we will be publishing
it in Amharic, English and Hebrew. We also are
working on publishing a book that Judy Pex has
written. John and Judy Pex are local believing
pioneers who opened the Shelter Hostel in Eilat
in 1984 and have been faithful witnesses of Christ
in the land for many years. We hope to have the
Hebrew edition of it completed in the next few
months as well.
It is encouraging to see that there are more
and more Israelis who are putting the history of
the church and their families into a book for the
generations to come, as an opportunity to tie-in
their story, although in a different way, with the
days of remembrances mentioned earlier.
Albert and Ruth Nessim John and Judy Pex
 OUR FRUITS
At the moment we are working on 18 different
projects that are in different stages.
Some of these will be printed in the next few
weeks, and others like The MacArthur Study Bible
will take much longer time to complete.
In our last newsletter we wrote about the book
Knowing Christ, by Mark Jones, the pastor of Faith
Reformed Presbyterian Church in Vancouver,
Canada. We have already printed the book in
Hebrew and Russian, and the Arabic one is finally
about to be printed as well. The second book from
the Crucial Questions by R. C. Sproul, Can I Trust
the Bible? is being translated, and we hope to
do four more of these “crucial” booklets. We will
also be printing the third and modified edition of
Knowing God by J. I. Packer.
An important project that we have been working
on is providing books for pastors and for church
libraries. Recently, we provided $350 worth of
books to a new church which has started in the
Jerusalem area. Four other churches in the very
north of Israel have received copies of all our
commentaries and discipleship books. We see
this project as one of the important calls in our
publishing as we equip church leaders with good
and solid literature that can strengthen the church
of Christ.
And finally, after skipping 2021-22 year when we
did not prepare our 16-month calendar, we are
working on one for the 2022-23 calendar year, and
we hope to have it ready by July.
Since the beginning of the year, we have sold some
350 books and have given away another 1,600
books free of charge. David continues to teach in
other parts of the world via Zoom and leads and
supports various national ministries.

A PERSONAL NOTE FROM DAVID

Most of you by now have heard of my heart attack on January 4th that caught me and the family by
surprise. However, thanks to the Lord, the timing and the place where it happened was ordained in such
a way that within an hour and a half I was in the catheterization room. A few stents were put in my heart
and there was not much damage to the heart muscle. I have recovered and have been back to work for
the last few months, but now I try to take a better care of my body and heart!

In addition, about a month ago Eti was diagnosed with colon cancer, which
also caught us by surprise. Thankfully the cancer is contained and on May
9th she had surgery to remove the tumor and part of the colon. Please
keep her in your prayers as the recovery will be a long process, and we
have yet to find out what kind of cancer it is and its stage. Only then will
the oncologist decide on the next best course of action. Your prayers
on her behalf and the Zadok family is much appreciated.

David Zadok, on behalf of the HaGefen team

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Physical Address: Adom 12, Kanot Industrial Zone

Mailing Address : P.O.BOX 265, Gedera 7075201 ISRAEL

Office: +972 (0)8-916 8686, Cell: +972 (0)54-6699597

office@ha-gefen.org.il david@ha-gefen.org.il