International State of Moriel 2008/2009
(Hebrew Year 5769)
J. Jacob Prasch (Rev) ” “ Director
As we approach 2009 and come to an end of 2008, as always it is a time for reflection and seeking the Lord for the future and also of thanking the Lord for His goodness and provision. It is also a time for thanking our brethren for their much needed prayers and generous support, especially for missions & evangelism as Moriel enters into its fifteenth year by the Lord”s grace.
2008 has indeed been a year of growth with increases in mission activities and attendance at meetings and opening if new venues, especially in North America. Growth has been steady, but at a much smaller pace than in the USA and Canada then in most of the rest of the world although there have been noticeable increases in Britain and Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, and in South Africa.
Despite battles with frail health, Marg Godwin in Australia and Nigel Nicholson in New Zealand both labor on in the Lord doing an excellent job for which we are all grateful. These countries are scantly populated in contrast to America, Britain and Asia and are geographically remote from the rest of Moriel yet growth has been consistent. We owe a particular note of thanks to our Australia council members Peter Danzy, Kevin Bickel, John Philips, Michael Shafton, Same Mule, and John Kidd.
Although there has been growth, Asia remains more difficult to quantify as Moriel affiliates there (and will continue to do so in some countries) without a branch of our own. However, Moriel Asia/Japan will be opening based in Osaka in 2009.
The real growth however has been in our missions and there is continued growth of our website in terms of unique visitors and hits and with the BE ALERT electronic news bulletin. Over the last few years, the Internet growth has been exponential.
As more people visit the website and subscribe to BE ALERT, printed newsletter subscriptions have neither grown (except very slowly) nor have they declined (except by intentional culling) but are largely static with more people preferring updated on line material. The exception would be in the USA where the periodical subscriptions are increasing conspicuously. Online ordering of materials has long overtaken catalogue orders through the Moriel Quarterly in the USA.
Neither I (Jacob Prasch) nor anyone else profits from the sale of recorded materials. All proceeds and royalties are donated to the ministry to cover operating costs. Neither do I, nor most of our team receive a salary (apart from those in full time foreign missions service and a very few full time support staff that keep the website running). There are no pensions and few benefits even for full-time staff. All of the administrative work remains in the hands of volunteers, and all donations designated for missions go directly to missions with none going to administrative costs.
This has been both Moriel’s blessing and Moriel’s continual financial struggle. Year by year our financial intake have increased, but most of the contributions are designated for the mission field and are placed directly into missions and evangelism, always leaving us a short fall and deficits for operational costs such as telecommunications, petrol, etc. Still, the Lord honors our priorities and provides. For this we are indebted to Him, and to you our partners. Money however, while always needed by ministry, as with any honest ministry it has never been our single biggest need. Our biggest need is prayer, and the need to see souls saved and taught the Word of God. Our other huge need of course is for the health of our orphan children, most of whom are HIV + and our need for dedicated mission staff and the resources to sponsor them.
Moriel Missions
Most people know Moriel as a teaching ministry, others as an evangelistic ministry to the Jews, and others know it as a discernment ministry. Many people know it as an Internet ministry and a number of people attend congregations planted by and/or affiliated with Moriel.
While all of these things are indeed true, internally within Moriel the brethren on our teams in various countries rather know and view Moriel more as a missions organization. This is the area where we invest our hardest work, our most man-hours, and most of our money.
Moriel missions are two-fold: One are ministries with both a humanitarian and evangelistic mission we support (in Israel and India), and others which we operate ourselves (Africa).
Moriel has outreaches, humanitarian aid and evangelism run by Sal and Dianne, and newly married Zak. Lyn, Dave and Chris Royle run Ebyown and Alan and Sue Wells have an affiliated work called Bezaleel. In Tanzania, Norbert and his crew handle our work and Moses and his team plant churches and have an orphan program in Kenya. Dave Royle oversees all work in Africa.
Moriel operates somewhat differently from other Christian orphanages in Africa. Bezaleel is an associate facility run as a home and Ebyown is a children’s village registered with child welfare but run not as an orphanage but as near to a home setting as possible and concentrating on special needs children (we have acquired land for a second Ebyown in Tanzania). Most of our activities in Zimbabwe have had to be terminated due to the Mugabe regime and finding financially honest local co-laborers in Kenya is a huge problem.
We differ from most in at least two areas. First, we operate as a family environment not as an institutional one, emphasizing Jesus, missionaries as parent figures, as well as the usual emphasis on hygiene, nutrition and anti-retro viral pediatric medical care. Secondly, our children are either AIDS babies or extremely ill or handicapped demanding an intensive level of supervised medical care. We therefore do not have hundreds of babies and children but dozens due to the kind of care and medical treatment they require. We only take the clinically worst cases of babies and small children who would otherwise in effect be more or less abandoned to die, or who have been abandoned to die. These are our children whom the Lord has entrusted to love with His love.
2008 has been a difficult year first because we lost a baby girl named Angel who is the granddaughter of Patience. Although not an Ebyown child, Angel was loved by all of us. The death of a little one is terrible and it never gets any easier and particularly takes a heavy toll emotionally and spiritually. Because of the tight health regime we can thank God that in its 9th year of operating Ebyown has not lost one child under our care. This year has not been good, but the Lord has been. We know these children go to be with Jesus away from the ugly world into which they were born. We have recently taken on another cerebral palsy child and HIV baby. Our pressing requirement now is for more volunteer medical staff.
The death of children is however painful, something we have learned to anticipate the possibility of this sad fact. ‚ But, what transpired in Tanzania however is something for which we were unprepared.
Moriel houses sick and handicapped babies and small children. However, there are countless thousands of orphan children at older ages in Tanzania whose parents died usually from AIDS related disease. We operate a school for such orphan girls. But we learned that pagan tribesmen from other villages had raped a number of our girls on their way to or from our school leaving them socially ostracized in their tribal culture, 3 pregnant, 3 HIV+, and 5 with STDs. Local police wanted bribes to find the perpetrators (which we would not pay). This left us with quite a dilemma.
Due to the prayers and generosity of our friends we are now building rondevals to house the girls (ages 13-17) on the school grounds and the victims are getting medical and ante natal treatment as required. We will also be helping them to care for their babies. I cannot describe how difficult this ordeal has been and we continue to covet your prayers. We cannot do enough to thank all of those individuals and those churches that contributed so generously without us even asking anyone except the Lord.
In 2008 we expanded our support in Israel to include another congregation in Galilee. In 2009 we are planning to take on sponsorship of another new congregation near Jerusalem and to increase our support budget for another congregation we already support in Galilee in addition to our ongoing support of the National Evangelism Committee. Due to security reasons we cannot place specific details in the public domain but we can inform our supporters privately as to locations, identities, etc.
Our sponsorship of the orphanage work in India is proceeding as usual. Problematically, adjacent areas of India are experiencing increased persecution by fundamentalist Hindus. Pastor Chancy does a fantastic work. Most of this support originates with Moriel Australia.
Discernment Ministry
While Moriel is not a political organization, we do see a prophetic significance in the contemporary events in the Middle East and we stand with Israel and the persecuted believers in the Moslem world. The vicious spiral of factually distorted and unbelievably biased attacks on Israel by figures such as Stephen Sizer and David Rushworth Smith has left us to respond to this challenge. Predictably, after agreeing on TV to debate me, Mr. Sizer backed down. The unbelievable maelstrom of twisted revisionism published by “Evangelicals Now” in the UK by Rushworth Smith was horrific. Moriel and Jacob Prasch are the continual targets of anti-Israel “Christians” who, as in the case of Sizer, even teamed up with terrorist Iran to denounce Israel even as Iranian Christians were being martyred by the same regime who televised Sizer.
Moriel also was among the first to warn of the fiasco at Lakeland, Florida (imitating the failed Toronto and Pensacola revivals). With the moral collapse of Todd Bentley, the tattooed wonder boy of C. Peter Wagner, Bill Johnson, Wendy Alec, Mark Stibbe, John Arnott, and Rick Joyner, who kicked elderly ladies in the face, the bubble fortunately burst quickly leaving the promulgators of that sham publicly embarrassed and looking like the religious frauds many would say they are. With little doubt, Satan will have other lies in store for 2009, which he will perpetrate against the biblically ignorant and undiscerning. Lord willing, Moriel and our sister ministries will be ready to respond.
Moriel will continue to partner with others in discernment ministries aware of the issues challenging biblical orthodoxy and threatening the Body of Christ at these perilous times such as Sandy Simpson, Mike Oppenheimer. Jewell Van der Merwe, Bill Randles, Dave Hunt, Roger Oakland, Philip Powell, Jan Markell, Stuart Dool, Tony Pearce, Deb Dembrowski, Jackie Alnor, and multiple others upholding scriptural truth in an age of apostasy, emergence, money preaching, ecumenism, and purpose driven lies.
Friends & Partners
Our partner ministry in Singapore, 2 Timothy 2 led by Jeff Loh, Esther Goh, and Cecilia Perh all continue to serve the Lord faithfully and fruitfully. The Christian Ministerial Fellowship International (CMFI), with whom most Moriel preachers hold credentials, continues to grow. Our particular thanks to Paul Sherbird, Tom Chacko, John Angliss, Bruce Shimwell and Jim Cottington. CMFI was established by moderate Pentecostals and Charismatics who were compelled by the Lord to leave movements such as the Assemblies of God and Elim due to various doctrinal and ethical considerations.
2008 has also been a difficult years from some of the ministries with which we align ourselves. Dave Hunt and Roger Oakland have both struggled with major health issues. We also ask those who pray to be mindful of the health of the wives of Arnold Fruchtenbaum and of David Hocking, two brothers from the more sane axis of the Messianic movement.
Women’s Ministry
2008 also saw Moriel’s first women’s conference in California and another is being planned for 2009. 2008 also however saw the birth of Moriel’s women’s ministry in the UK, Zarephath Ministries ably led by Julie Edensor.
Evangelism & Home Mission
We have by God’s grace seen a number saved in 2008, Jew and Gentile. We have also witnessed many believers leaving unscriptural churches after being exposed to the teaching material the Lord gives us. A highlight of 2008 was the Utah outreach to the Mormon cult by our American branch led by David Lister. A host of ministries joined with us, including many ex-Mormons and we saw 12 people saved out of Mormonism at an outreach in Manti, Utah at what is called the Mormon Miracle Pageant. The year was not without its blessings.
2008 has also witnessed the spiritual and numerical growth of our newest congregation in Pittsburgh, PA near our main American base. Moriel is cautious about planting churches however. If there is a solid biblical congregation in an area our policy has always been that we would much rather stand by, help, and encourage what already exists than begin something new. As the Lord leads however, we will explore new church plants.
Teaching Ministry
A variety of new teaching titles have been released in 2008 including: Amos 7&8, Reductio Ad Absurdum, ” ˜Thou Shalt Not Ask’, The Children of The Harlot, Jehoida The Priest, and What The Spirit Explicitly Says. We also released the first series of “on site” DVD teachings filmed in Israel and Greece. Please pray the Lord will give us more grain for 2009 in this time of famine for the hearing of His Word. We are hoping to get the on site Seven Churches in Revelation DVD’s edited for release in 2009 and more on site teaching filmed in Israel.
Internet Ministry & Media
Scot Brisk has as usual performed brilliantly and with blessing in editing BE ALERT.
By early 2009 Danny Isom, Carol Champion our web mistress, John Dunn, and Greg Kaloutsis will have completely redesigned the Moriel website. From Internet radio & TV to the on line the new website should Lord willing prove much more efficient and varied.
We are meeting with Revelation TV in the UK concerning televising Jacob Prasch as Tom Chacko already has a program on that award-winning channel with Howard Condor.
Stewart and Deb Menelaws are also continuing to expand GVTV 24/7.
We also are praying that Radio Free Church and Godly Conferences with whom we are linked will become fully operational in 2009.
On the American side we want to thank the Achey’s as they continue to fulfill the American media orders along with many of the international orders, also the Nelson’s for their work on the Moriel Quarterly. The layout improvements has been appreciated. A thank you to Al Dager for his sacrificial work in editing and printing.
A big thank you to Darren and Allison for their hard work in editing the new on site messages and on the tours. Also, their ongoing work with Moriel UK.
Once again, we thank our missionary staff, our volunteers whom the Lord has blessed us with, and above all the Lord Himself. Not least of all we once again thank you for your prayers, help, and support. 2009 promises to be a busy year for all of our preachers, Dave Royle, David Lister, Tom Chacko, Skip Gillespie, and Jacob Prasch, etc.
May the Lord bless you, your families, and your churches in the forthcoming year and beyond. In the meanwhile, we covert your prayers. Please pray for our countries and their leaders, for our children in India and Africa, and please pray for Israel and for the salvation of Abraham’s descendents ” “ the Jews and Arabs, and please remember Moriel.
With Much Love & Gratitude in Jesus,
J. Jacob Prasch
(Director)
