Barriers to Bridges

One day at home, I picked up a Hebrew textbook. I was still trying to make progress on my own in learning to speak, read, and write Hebrew. In the book, I came across a picture of a street in Tel Aviv. Suddenly, inspiration struck me. The people living on that street need to hear that God loves them. He sent the Messiah to this earth for those people too. But how can they hear about Jesus? Should they hear about Him from me? But … I’m German.

To me, my German nationality seemed to be an insurmountable barrier to speaking to Jews about Christ. My country had done terrible things to the Jews. Even though I was born after the evils of the Holocaust, I, like many of my generation, carry a burden of guilt and shame for what the Nazis did. Would the message of Christ the Messiah be lost in my German-ness? How could I build a bridge to overcome that barrier?

I am a German, I told God. I have no idea how Jews might respond if Ipresented them with a New Testament and told them Yeshua was the Messiah. Maybe I should first travel to Israel and meet some Jews in their own country? I told God that I would take several copies of the New Testament along and see how people respond.

There were other barriers. How would I get to Israel? Where would I stay? Who would guide me? I had no funds for such an expense. It also seemed unlikely that my husband would allow me to go, given the possible danger. The 1970s was a time of armed conflict in Israel. My husband had a full-time job. Who would care for our children in my absence?

For the next few months, I prayed that God would provide the needed funds by the summer of 1979, that my husband would allow me to go, and that He would provide someone to care for our children. I also covenanted to share my requests with God alone and wait for Him to provide answers.

Then I met a young teacher named Rita Hoffmann who was also studying Hebrew on her own. We began to meet every Thursday in my home so we could study Hebrew together. I did not share with her my prayer about going to Israel. But sometimes on Thursdays, I picked up my guitar and sang some Hebrew songs and psalms for her that I had set to music. She was impressed and said that my songs sounded like proper Hebrew, both musically and in my presentation.

“You really ought to visit Israel,” Rita told me. I nodded but said nothing more.

A few weeks later Rita called. I was not home at the time and she spoke to my husband. She told him that she had met a lady who would be glad to pay for me to travel to Israel. My husband informed me of the call. As the two of us discussed the proposal, we concluded that such a trip would not work out.

But shortly afterward, Rita called again to tell us that the tickets had been purchased in faith that I would be able to travel. Peter and I invited her to our home so we could discuss the details. When the three of us got together, my husband mentioned that up until that time, I had never been alone in a foreign country except for Switzerland and thathe considered such a trip far too dangerous for me.

Rita had anticipated Peter’s misgivings. “Another friend of mine and I will go along with your wife and we will make all the necessary arrangements. Also, your wife's sponsor told me that it was God who instructed her to finance the trip to Israel, which includes an additional forty German marks pocket money per day for her.” It took more than one discussion with Peter, but eventually, Peter realized that I was in competent hands and gave his approval. My mother would come and stay at our home and help care for the children. Shortly before the trip, we decided that it would be beneficial for my nine-year-old son Peter to accompany us as well. My sponsor would include a daily allowance for him to be included in what she was giving to me.

Finally, I had the green light to travel to Israel! The trip was to be one month long, and I began to think about my objectives for this first trip. Was it possible to talk with Jews about faith in Jesus? How will the Jews respond to the New Testament? How will they respond to me, a German?Will our differing ways of thinking and living be too great a barrier? The answers to these questions would better equip me for a possible ministry to Jews. It also came to me in a dream that I should pickup a telephone directory in Israel, if at all possible, which would allow me to later send letters, literature, and Bible passages directly to Jewish people once I returned home to Germany.