A Land of Rest

Shalom Friends and Family,

It has been three months since my last newsletter, and much has changed since I last updated you. Thank you all for your prayers on purchasing land. We now own an acre for our home/recording studio, with some beautiful old oaks, a small pine grove in one corner, and several fruit trees. We are so thankful.

 

 

 





See the two baby plums?

 

And there’s our RV at the bottom of the photo.














It’s previous owners left at least two years accumulation of garbage, three or four trailers that they stripped all the metal from and left to dissolve into the ground, with most of their possessions inside. Why? I really don’t understand.

 

We bought the land on March 25th (Mark’s Birthday!) and have been doing massive cleanup ever since. But though we have our work cut out for us, the potential for it to be beautiful is there, and we feel really good about this area. We’ve met many of the neighbors, and we are very pleased to find that many of them are believers, and serious about their relationship with God. There is a desire to learn more about the Jewish Roots of their faith, and a love and respect for Israel in this community. There is also ample open doors for outreach.

Concert Ministry:

Thank you for your prayers for more open doors for concert ministry in the area. We have done two concerts, and shared two songs on a Sunday morning at another church. This gives us an opportunity to speak for Israel. I was honored to be asked to pray for Israel at the National Day of prayer gathering on the Courthouse steps next to the ten commandments. Through this I met several other pastors that may be interested in having us.

You are probably wondering about what happened to the Haiti trip! It was postponed because of unrest on the island we were going to be focused on, and through a series of events we decided that Mark and I shouldn’t go this time, but Andre and Kerah are still planning on going. They should be leaving in the next week or so, and Kerah will be flying home to be with us in June when we start our summer tour. Any of you who may have given towards our Haiti trip, thank you so much. The funds will stay in the account and go towards our next mission trip. Pray for the people of Il a Vache, the boat builders and fishermen are being forced to move inland in the name of “preserving the coastline” but the real reason is that there are certain politicians (some from the USA) who want to invest in building more resorts on the island, and they want the natives out of the way. It makes me so angry!

Kerah's EP!

Kerah’s 3 song EP (extended play) “Breaking the Fourth Wall” has been released! If you are interested in purchasing it, it should be on our website (Andre updated our website with new photography, and was also going to get Kerah’s EP up on our “CDs and More” page. I haven’t been able to get on and see it yet!) www.zemerlevav.org/cdsandmore

We have been working very hard to get the small single wide mobile home that came with the property up to snuff, so that we can begin recording. I want to get my new song “Butterfly” released as a single, and we are thinking about releasing “He Will Thunder” as a single also. We have been so busy working on the land we’ve had to put our music projects on hold. This is hard for me, I’m getting very antsy to get recording! I recently wrote an instrumental piece on my harp that I’m really wanting to polish, and record. I want to add some other instrumentation to it, but can’t work on it till the harp part is recorded. Hopefully we’ll be ready to move our stuff in by the middle of next week!

Natanyah's News:

Natanyah will finally get a bedroom again. She had one for the few months that we were in Nevada, but her own space has been something she has had to go without for most of her life. She’s been working hard cleaning and now painting, and is very excited to have this room until we can get the house built in the fall. She is doing our booking for us now. It is her first paying job since babysitting in Nevada. She is doing well! We will be traveling from Cross City, Florida, to Mobile, and then Montgomery, Alabama. From there we will be going to Knoxville, TN and onward to Pennsylvania. After Messiah Conference we will go to Ohio, then across the Northern states to Washington and Oregon, down to Denver, Colorado; Wichita, Kansas; then all the way to North Carolina, and then home again to Florida around the end of September.

Urgent Prayer Need:

On a less happy note, I need prayer for my mom and sister Elizabeth, and funds to get to them. My sister was caring for my mom, when she began having grand mal seizures and now she can’t drive anymore. Then mom got pneumonia, and caring for her has been too much. The doctors are still trying to figure out why Elizabeth is having the seizures. 

On top of all this they found out that the excruciating pain mom was having, is from multiple compression fractures in her spine, maybe from severe coughing from the pneumonia? I am really needed there now, and we just don’t have the funds to fly me out. One group raised 400.00 towards a ticket for me, but that won’t get me from Tampa, FL to Santa Maria, CA. I will need twice that for a round trip ticket and support, for the week I am there. There are no International airports close to them. I don’t want to be a burden in any way while I am there, as Elizabeth’s husband got laid off, and of course Elizabeth can’t work. 

If anyone has flight miles that are transferable that they would be willing to give please email me, or if you would like to help pay for the other half of the ticket I need and/or living expenses (mostly just food and gas for the week, and maybe enough to help mom get some things she needs, like a contour pillow so that she can sit with proper back support). 

This has made things a bit sad for me in spite of all the amazing things God has been doing for us here in Florida, and I have been worried because I know I should be there for them.

Prayer Needs List:

I always read over the last newsletter before I write the new one, and this time I’ve basically shared according to the last newsletter’s prayer list, adding the family news. We really appreciate those who faithfully pray for us, we are so thankful for you all.

Here are the prayer needs for this quarter:

  • Please pray for healing for my mom and sister, and for work for her husband.
  • Pray that full provision will be made for me to get to California if there is no immediate healing, and that God will give us wisdom about  how we need to go about everything, and how long I should stay.
  • Pray for provision for new septic on the land, the old one can not be repaired and we have been living in the RV and going to nearby campgrounds to dump our tanks.
  • Pray that God will guide Natanyah as she books the band for our summer tour, and that He opens the doors where He wants us to go and closes them where we should not go.
  • Pray for Rabbi Peter and his family as they move to Haiti, and for Kerah and Andre’ also as they sail with his parents, and Captain/Pastor Bideaux and his crew who will guide them in his sailboat. Pray also for provision for Kerah’s flight back to Florida for summer tour.

May Adonai bless you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Messiah Yeshua,  ~Shimrit and family

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