News

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    June 2003 (#3):

Shalom all!

I don't have much time to write this as I'm at the Library!

I want you all to know that I am completely well and the girls are recovering nicely. It was a long haul. We've never been so sick. Next year I'm planning a three-week rest in June, before the July part of our tour so we don't get so run down!

We have a quiet September with two concerts on the 13th and 14th in Oklahoma City (Kehilat Rosh Pina 13th and Ark. City's annual "Praise In the Park" 14th) We hope to squeeze in at least one more weekend of concerts before the end of the month. October will be very busy with "Behold Your God Dallas" and several concerts in Dallas, San Antonio, and Huston following "BYG." November brings the MJAA regional conference in Oklahoma City, and we hope to schedule several local concerts. In December we will be in Tennessee. That is as far as we have scheduled at this time.

We are still praying about signing with Tovah. It is not our way to "rush" into anything. A recording contract is usually a long-term contract and not to be entered lightly. We want to be sure we are doing the right thing.

Thank you so much for your encouragement and prayer. Please pray for wisdom for Mark as we tread the murky waters of the "music industry" seeking God's will about signing with a label. There are pros and cons. We just want Gods will. As you know fame and fortune are non-issues with us.

Pray that God provide financial backing that we will be free to work hard at music and ministry as we build our support network. We could use one or two people with the financial means to join hands with us as we "press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Messiah Yeshua..."

The Lord bless and keep you all, ~Shimrit Hanes

    June 2003 (#2):

Shalom friends!

I pray that this newsletter finds all of you well and rejoicing in the Lord. We are in Pennsylvania! We are staying with a friend that Mark used to work with at west coast Messianic conferences, doing sound and set up/tear down. He and his wife have been very gracious, and we have enjoyed their fellowship.

California was very busy as usual. After a very good conference with First Fruits of Zion, we spent the rest of the month of May, and most of June in southern California. We did five concerts in the area, we prayed for people, and several of us did one on one ministry with unbelievers as well as believers. We pray that the Lord will continue to work in people’s hearts, helping them to grow and bring forth good fruit. We pray that the seeds planted were planted in good ground, and those who do not yet believe will come to faith.

Messiah conference was a real adventure. The Lord overcame many obstacles to get us there. We were blessed with two one hour spots in the Cultural Center (market place.) We sold many CDs and made some wonderful new friends. We met Yochanan ben Yehuda of Galilee of the Nations, and his wife. Our youngest daughters became like Siamese twins for the duration of the conference. We met Jan Rosenburg, who writes messianic worship songs and is also a congregational leader, chatted with Kevan Cyka of Tovah Music, and I finally got to meet Jenny Goetz (Marty's wife) whom I had been writing to for advice, and sharing our ups and downs with via e-mail. We met many other great people, and the girls had a wonderful time and made many friends.

Kerah made herself famous by winning a contest wherein she had to dig gum out of yogurt (no hands) and chew it and blow a bubble, separate sardines from a dish of spaghetti (again no hands) eat a raw caramel covered onion, and then quickly devour the most lemons the fastest (only one hand allowed for this) she ate 9 lemons! Her gums were raw and bleeding, her face clothes and hair were a mess, but she was pronounced the hero of the girls, and dubbed the "lemoneater stalkermagnet" as from this point on (jokingly) she had five guys that followed her everywhere. This turned into something especially good when she found the racket ball courts and began to sing in one. The guys followed her in one by one and began adding different notes. They continued to rehearse off and on throughout the week and the end result was so good that Mark brought in the computer and recorded it. We gave all the guys copies. What an unusually neat thing to bring home from a conference!

Now concert dates have begun to line up, HalleluYah! We played at Beth Yeshua in Philadelphia the Sunday night after the conference. We were all so tired we felt like zombies! God is so good and faithful, He was right there with us, and we were told we sounded fine. I can't even remember last week. The girls, Mark and Les went to Gettysburg while I stayed at home with Natanyah who had an ear infection. She got over it quickly and is now fine. We have had a good rest here and are all well.

We are certainly eating well! I've actually gained weight! Thank you all for your prayers for us.

Shalom again!

This never got sent out because shortly after I wrote it I became ill. Many prayers were said over me, and many supplications from my own lips, as I was miserable. Two concerts and a week and a half later, I am finally beginning to feel better. Please pray for a quick and full recovery.This coming weekend will be very busy.

We are also gearing up spiritually for the "Behold your God Cleveland" campaign. We hope to be able to do some outreach concerts for them. As it is getting rather late in their schedule, and we had so much up in the air for several weeks. There may be a chance that we are not able to do this one. However we still have "Behold Your God Dallas" and "Behold Your God Ft. Lauderdale" and "Behold your God Miami" where we would be working alongside Kol Simcha.

Kevan Cyka of "Tovah Music" a new Messianic recording label would like us to sign with them. We have been in much prayer about this and in dialogue with Kevan about some of the particulars. Please be in prayer with us as we contemplate this big step.

God has provided us with a truck and small camper, as many of you know, as well as the new trailer we received before we left. We are now ready to begin purchasing our equipment, though for now it will have to be one piece at a time. If you would like to help with this, just mail your donation to:

Zemer Levav
504 N. 4th St.
Arkansas City, KS 67005

And earmark it "for equipment."

It has been wonderful meeting so many gracious and blessed people. We miss all our friends and family. We pray that God blesses you all abundantly. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. We love you all.

In our blessed Messiah, ~Shimrit --
Zemer Levav

    June 2003 (#1):

Shalom Friends and Family!

We are all well. We just finished participating in First Fruits of Zion's "Yeshurun" conference in Phoenix, AZ. It was a wonderful conference. It was very foundational covering our identity in Messiah, in Israel (including the equal standing of the gentiles as "grafted in" members of the community) and our identity in community (i.e. what should a Messianic community look like?)

We played daily throughout the 5 day conference. It was a stretch for us, but it felt good. We all learned, and have continued discussing the material we covered.

So far, so good, with our transportation up to this point. Mark is quite concerned about the knock in the bottom end of the engine in the van though. So keep that in prayer for us.

We camped one night in the Imperial Valley recreation area. It is a Sahara like stretch of sand dunes, and where the photo on the back of our CD was taken. We hiked to a high point in the dunes in the morning and surveyed the miles of rolling sand hills in awe. Then we lept off the steep sides and slid all the way back to our camp. THe desert was a baking 112 degrees in the heat of the day. We had to stop the van on our way up what we have affectionatly dubbed "G-d's rock piles," and spray the radiator with water to cool down the engine.

We are now in San Diego, and preparing for our next concert.

Well I hear our youg'uns downstairs "jammin" and we do need to rehearse some of our new material. So, the Lord bless and keep you all!
~Shimrit, and the members of "Zemer Levav"

    May 2003 (#2):

Shalom Friends and Family!

Today the Lord blessed us with a brand new trailer! It's a beautiful 5x10 with a side door. We anointed it with oil and gave it back to the Giver of all good things for His service. This will save us a good deal of funds as we were constantly renting trailers! U-haul loved us!

We are counting down! Two more weeks and we will be shuffling off to Phoenix, AZ for the first leg of our summer tour. We are sewing up a storm! We are making our clothes for this trip. Our Aerostar van is still down, but someone in Colorado has offered us a used Oldsmobile "Silhouette" so we may be picking that up on our way out west. It never ceases to amaze me how everything always seems to fall together at the last possible minute. God is faithful, we didn't have it before because we didn't need it yet!

Mark finished my new harp. The new sharping levers work much better than the twist knobs on the other harp, and It's really beautiful. The tone is deeper and very full. Our bedroom also is now finally finished, we wall-papered and painted, now all we need is carpet! We will move into the room tonight.

Our March/April newsletter never got out. I'm so sorry. But it is posted on our web-site, along with a concert photo. So if you haven't seen it yet, go check it out! [www.zemerlevav.org]. Though we didn't have many concerts, quite a bit happened during that time.

We'll be sending out news flashes throughout the summer.

Our prayer needs at this time are:

1. Angels all around us as we travel.
2. Good health, especially for Natanyah
3. The northeast area concerts for July to firm-up
4. An opportunity to play at Messiah conference
5. Our own sound system
6. A bus for our long tours

May the Lord of Hosts richly bless you, may your paths be paths of peace. In our blessed Messiah,

~Shimrit

    May 2003 (#1):

Shalom again friends and family.

It has been a quiet but busy couple of months. On the home front we now have the parlor almost finished. Hopefully soon Mark and I will have a bedroom! Mark has landed a remodling job that should help carry us through the next couple of months.

Les has been coming down every other weekend and we've been working hard on the new material, as well as preparing for this summer. Our family has also begun rehersing in earnest on Tuesday and Thursday nights. If you go to our web-page you will see our updated schedule. We are still hoping to go to the Messiah conference this summer. Joel Chernoff has sent our request to do a mini concert to his sister, who is in charge of scheduling these concerts. We are waiting to hear from her. This is why nothing is scheduled past the end of June. If we are going, we'll need plenty of time to get all the way across the country, and we will try to schedule concerts back East afterwards. If we can't go to the Messiah conference we will stay on the west coast and make our way up to Washington, and then try to schedule concerts in Colorado on the way home.

Mark and I traveled to Dallas Sunday the 19th for a meeting with David Rothstein of Jews for Jesus. They are planning an outreach in Dallas as a part of the "Behold Your G-d" campaign. As we believe that part of being obedient to G-d's commandments includes Yeshua's command to "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you..." Matthew 28:19&20 and also "...you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,and even to the remotest part of the earth." Acts 1:8.

We are following Rabbi Sha'ul's (Paul's) example and are offering our gifts to be used in whatever way the Lord directs. We are excited about being a part of this outreach, and sharing our hope in Messiah with many people both Jewish and Gentile.

Right now we are focusing on what we feel is our greatest immediate need, and that is a trailer. We don't want to spend what we will have to spend this spring and summer on trailer rental. It is such a waste. If it means holding off on getting our new CD duplicated and channeling some of those funds into a trailer, then we may do that. Les may have some insurance money coming which he is hoping to use in part to get his van running better. He got the engine running and then had major brake problems (someone put hydraulic oil in his brakes, he suspects foul play, as this sort of thing has happened before.) No sooner did he get this problem repaired than the transmission began slipping. He's driving around town with only two gears working. When he comes down here, we drive him down Friday night and take him home on Sunday. In order to do this we have to either leave one of the girls home from Shabbat service, or one of them has to spend the weekend in Wichita (our Volvo seats 7).

If Les can get his van repaired, we can use his van to haul a trailer, and split up passengers between his van and the Volvo. We believe that G-d will provide one way or another, and rest in that trust. We also believe in actively "waiting on the Lord." We will do whatever we can and trust that He will make up for our lack.

The girls are busy with home school, music and dance. Adrielle and Kerah have been "playing" by taking on characters, setting a scene and then improvising a dialogue on computor. They bounce up and down as each takes her turn writing what their characture is speaking. They take turns describing the scene. It reads almost like a screenplay! It's a good writing exercise and the rest of the family is enjoying the resulting story as it developes. Natanyah is reading now, and is very excited that she can now read library books. She got her own library card last week and was excited that she could sign her own name. Liorah has been writing poetry and short stories. All the older girls have been cooking and sewing. They are learning to make bread, and soymilk. Making it is much cheaper than buying it! We hope to make our own tofu soon. Shalisha is working her way through the "Adobe Photoshop" tutorial, and reading "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" (when people ask her "Why are you reading that?" she answers simply "Because I want to know." Ignorance may be bliss, but it can also be deadly) and trying her hand at painting in oils. All the girls are also sketching. Natanyah makes her own paper dolls.

The only other "new news" is that we were given a gift of an Amazon Red-wing Parrot. He is 5 months old and was hand raised. He has quickly become a member of the family. He enjoys rehearsals and joins in whenever I start singing. He climbs into the girls laps when they are writing or sketching on the floor and trys to eat their pencils. He is a real character so he fits right in!

I pray that the Lord blesses you all. Thank you to those who have blessed us. May you Shine like the stars in the heavens forever. Daniel 12:3

The Lord Bless and keep you all, ~Shimrit and all the members of Zemer Levav

Here are the needs that Zemer Levav has presently:

1. A trailer - We have been renting U-hauls and each tour has cost us 400 to 500 dollars in trailer rentals.

2. Les needs his van fixed - He needs transportation. We have spent quite a bit in car rentals to get him to the concerts we do in various cities.

3. We need a larger vehicle - Our Volvo station wagon seats seven (our family) with no room for toys and books for the long drives, or our ever present Ice chest that enables us to keep our costs way down. We managed this trip to cram some things around us anyway, and it was pretty uncomfortable. In the summer traveling with Les and Chuck will be impossible unless Les's van is repaired or we get a larger vehicle.

4. We need a sound system - We love doing smaller congregations and outreaches, but they often have no sound system, or very minimal equipment. This is not impossible, we have done it anyway, but it's fraught with problems. Often people can't hear the vocals (message?) and the harp. A sound system of our own will give us more freedom to do outreaches also. You really can't do an outdoor concert with the kind of instrumentation we have without a sound system.

5. This is not really a need but a desire. We would like to go to the Messiah conference in 2003. We were invited to play a mini concert there. The mini concerts are only "mini" in that they are during the day and are in a smaller facility than the big "concert" hall. They are open on a first come first served basis to newer groups, and they are for the purpose of giving new groups exposure, and so are not a something you get paid for, but I've heard that Marty Goetz did a mini concert one year! I wrote to Joel Chernoff thanking him for inviting us but that we did not know at this time if we would be able to afford to attend the conference. I did some math and found that according to last years prices it would cost us about 4,600.00 including travel expenses. What it would do for us is let congregational leaders from all over the US know that we are available to serve.

Please pray that these needs be filled. I know we serve a very faithful G-d. He has always made a way for us to do what He wants us to do. I believe that He will provide. Thank you to all who have been praying for Les and his family. His wife has continued to pull him into the courtroom at every opportunity, and his court costs keep piling up. Continue to pray that his wife returns to the Lord and her husband, and that their family is healed and restored.

If you are interested in being a Zemer Levav sponsor, we are an outreach of our congregation, and as such are under their tax covering so your donations will be tax deductible. We are working on some special things, Shalisha is designing some beautiful t-shirts and inspirational posters. We would like to give all our sponsors a thank you gift, for your help to us. Just contact us at [email address removed] if you are interested.

We are spending this winter closer to home with the purpose of spending more time developing our new material and recording. We are excited about the new material which includes the title song of our next CD "On the Wings of the Wind" also "Ruth's Song" from the musical production we did by that name,"Immanuel" which many of you have heard in our more recent concerts,"Forever" from Isaiah chapters 40 and 41, "Etz Chaim Hi" liturgy, "Shabbat Song" a brand new one, "L'David Mizmore" from Ps 110 and several others.

Our Summer tour is already shaping up. We will begin it by playing at the Yeshurun Conference for First Fruits of Zion in Phoenix, AZ May 22-26th. Hope to see many of you there!

    March/April 2003:

Shalom and blessings!

I hope that you are all well. Praise Yeshua, we have had very little illness this winter. I hope that you have also stayed healthy. I'm certainly looking forward to spring! We had a late season snowstorm, twelve inches, and then ice.

Work on our new songs continues. Right now we're doing a lot of brainstorming, experimenting, arranging, and creating. Three of the songs are in the midst of serious recording. Four others are almost ready. We are excited about the new songs, and can't wait to play them for all of you! Mark and Shalisha have been working for the past four weeks. This has been very helpful, though it has slowed down the recording process a bit.

We have done two concerts, one in Ark City at St. Paul's United Methodist Church, and the other in a little town called Milton at Milton United Methodist Church. We had a very warm welcome by both churches, and the ministry of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) was sweet. We'll be heading to Kansas City this weekend. Mark will be running sound for Paul Wilber's concert at Or HaOlam.

* * * * * * *

Paul Wilbur's concert was wonderful. God moved in some very special ways. I have been so wound up in the administration end of our ministry, that I was loosing my fire. I realized this and had been asking friends and family to pray for me. The Lord met me at that concert, and words cannot express the difference it has made in my life. All I can say is, "The Fire is Back!" Thank you for your prayers. Paul is also going to connect me with his translators. If you remember, we received a letter from Mexico asking us if we could translate our CD into Spanish. A door has also opened in Tijuana Mexico. We will be playing at a Christian coffee shop there while we are in Southern California.

Praise God! He has provided someone to update our web site for me. So, that's one less thing I have to do! We also have a new email address for the band. It is [email address removed], so please direct all your mail for Zemer Levav to that email address. Our family email address will remain [email address removed].

Booking is going well for our summer tour. We need concerts back east for July and August We do have some Sundays still open in June that we'd love to fill. If you know of a church that you think would like to have us, please let us know. We'd like to do some mid-sized to small churches, as they seem more open to having groups that are basically unknown. If you get us a booking, we will give you a free CD. This offer is part of a new method we are trying, to give me more time for my family, while getting the word out that we exist and want to serve. We don't have a recording company behind us with a nice advertising budget, and one on one phone calling and emailing are very time consuming. It was pointed out to me recently that we have people all over the USA who love us, and support our ministry in prayer, and financially. Why not ask these people to spread the word, each in his or her area, or by email to everyone they think would be interested? Just let your circle of acquaintances know about us and ask them to visit our web-site. Ask them, if they like what they read and hear, to spread the word to their friends.

Check our "Schedule" page to see where we will be playing and when. Chances are if we have one concert scheduled for an area, we need more bookings in that area! If you or someone you know lives within a 200-300 mile radius of a city where we have a scheduled concert, get the word out, and anyone who is responsible for connecting us with a Congregational leader/Pastor that results in a concert, will receive a free CD or a t-shirt (when we get them made!)

You are all such a blessing. Thank you for your prayers. Our needs haven't changed much!
We still need reliable, transportation.
We need our own sound system.
We need a trailer (unless G-d blesses us with a bus with luggage compartments underneath!)
If you would like to support this ministry on a monthly basis, you'll be the first to receive a CD, whenever we have a new release. Email me for more information.

May HaShem bless you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in
Messiah Yeshua,

~Shimrit Hanes