The Jewish festival of Passover will start on April 5th and last for seven days. Our annual Passover banquet outreach will be held on Tuesday, April 11th, 6:30 PM at the Buck Hotel in Feasterville, PA. We ask that you please pray that God will open up hearts to the gospel at this special service.
The Jewish feasts in 2022 fall in the month's of September, and October. Hanukkah this year runs through the traditional Christmas season.
As always, we encourage believers to make plans for the Lord's Feasts as you can learn a great deal from taking part in these feasts as well as in the thorough study of the Scriptures that describe them.
Several years ago one of our staff had a Gentile Pastor friend take up this challenge, and he bravely began to build a "Sukkah" -- the temporary shelters (booths) where meals are served during The Feast of Tabernacles. To the Pastor's great amazement and joy, a Jewish neighbor took note, offered to join him in building the shelter, and enjoyed a meal with them. The Pastor remarked, "If you build it, they will come."
Hananeel always eagerly anticipates the Fall schedule with the return of ESL Classes and holiday observances and outreach. All services are held at Rhawnhurst Baptist Church in northeast Philadelphia. Please note that all services will be translated into Russian for our Russian speaking guests.
For us at Hananeel Ministries it’s an opportunity to show how Messiah’s ministry is pictured in their celebrations. Our Jewish friends eagerly anticipate these Fall Feast celebrations.
When we begain planning for this Passover event we never expected the dramatic events that would take place in the world in the days since. Passover is a feast of the Lord with central themes of "freedom" - of Israel's freedom from slavery in Egypt and freedom from the bondage of sin represented by the Passover lamb.
This year, those themes will be even more on the mind's of many of our attendees who came to America to find religious and personal freedom from the oppression of communist Russia.
Many of our regular attendees, as well as the general Russian speaking Jewish community of Northeast Philadelphia, were former residents of Ukraine. When these Jewish "Refuseniks" were finally granted asylum in America they found themselves in a strange position.
In the Soviet Union Jewish people were routinely discriminated against, and suffered great persecution. Now these dear Jewish souls are traumatized once again as they see their Ukrainian homeland attacked and laid waste by Putin's war that has shocked the world and brought terrifying reminders of the holocaust.
The Jewish feasts in 2021 all occur in the month of September, and Hanukkah also arrives early in the Julian calendar, beginning in late November.
We encourage you to make plans for the Lord's Feasts as believers can learn a great deal from a thorough study of the Scriptures that describe these feasts, and also their future fulfillment in prophesy.
Hananeel always eagerly anticipates the Fall schedule with the return of ESL Classes and holiday observances and outreach. All services are held at Rhawnhurst Baptist Church in northeast Philadelphia. Please note that all services will be translated into Russian for our Russian speaking guests.
We were delighted to see our guests participate in the program. We sang, we laughed as we used noisemakers called groggers as we booed Haman, and cheered for Mordecai from the book of Esther. I was able to share a message called: “The story of 2 Queens and 2 Kings.” The queens were Vashti and Esther, and the Kings were Ahasuerus and the other of course was God himself, the King of all creation. I was able to share how God’s deliverance of the Jewish people from Haman was nothing compared to His present ability to deliver everyone from sin. This sparked some interesting questions afterwards. Please pray that our unsaved guests keep asking us questions at our meetings, and that they also keep searching for the truth in Jesus.
Now that Passover is upon us once again we are faced with the challenge of sharing another message of God’s deliverance. Back in Egypt God delivered the Jewish people from the physical death of their firstborn by faith in the blood of a lamb. However, God has since delivered everyone from spiritual death, who have by faith believed in the blood of Jesus, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
We were able to conduct our High Holy Day outreaches of Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets) on Sept. 18th and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) on Sept. 28th. While attendance was down due to Covid, we were also able to reach out in other ways to those quarantined at home.
On October 2nd we were able to conduct our Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) outreach meeting to our Jewish friends. We shared how Jesus’ ministry at the Second Advent is pictured by the festival (Zec. 14 esp vs. 16-18). “Tabernacles” is also known as the “Feast of the Ingathering.” There will be a great ingathering of the elect from the four corners of the earth at the second coming as well (Isa 11:11-12, Eze 37:9-14, Mat 24:31, Mk. 13:27). This ingathering is pictured every year in synagogues as Jewish people wave tree branches in the direction of all the compass points in connection with the feast.
And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. - Isaiah 11:12
On behalf of the entire Hananeel staff I pray that God will bless you and grant you joy and safety throughout this holiday season.
Yours for the message of Israel's Messiah,
Tom Huckel, Mission Director
On sunset, Friday, September 18, the Jewish feast of Rosh Hashannah, the start of a new year in the Jewish calendar arrives. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah ( יוֹם תְּרוּעָה), literally "day of shouting or blasting". It is the first of the Jewish High Holy Days ( יָמִים נוֹרָאִים Yamim Nora'im. Rosh Hashanah is traditionally viewed as the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, and a day of judgment and coronation of God as king. It ushers in the "ten days of awe" culminating in Yom Kippur, the "Day of Atonement" observed September 27 (sundown) - 28, in 2020. That is followed by the great feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), celebrated this year from October 2 - 9.
We pray that our supporters are bearing up in this time of great trial and we trust that God will indeed do a great work in this new season. We know that many of you are suffering with financial struggles in addition to the heatlh impacts of Covid-19. Some have not been able to keep up with giving, but the Lord continues to sustain us. While our ministry has been unable to hold our Friday night outreach services and ESL Classes since March, due to various government restrictions, we are keeping in contact with our regular attendees, many of whom express how much they miss us. We are also now able to hold services with a limited capacity of attendees.
We will also be purchasing and distributing meals on Saturday, September 19, to shut-ins. Providing meals is a simple expression of our love for them, and fills a practical need. Most of them are on fixed incomes and have very little and these holiday meals are deeply meaningful for them. It has also provided opportunities to share and made a strong impression on the staff at Ben & Irvs deli where we purcahse these meals. Please pray that these physical expresssions of our love will yield spiritual fruit.
Rosh Hashanah: Friday, September 18, 2020
Yom Kippur: Monday September 28, 2020
Sukkot: Friday, October 2, 2020
Due to COVID-19 our Passover banquet scheduled for April 14th has been postponed indefinitely. In Pennsylvania, by order of the Governor, all gatherings of ten or more have been banned, travel has been restricted, and the venue where we hold our banquet is closed.
Those who have contributed gifts towards the event should know the funds will be kept in escrow until we are able to share "Messiah in the Passover" at an appropriate time.
In addition, due to the various restrictions and government edicts, our ministry has been unable to hold our Friday night outreach services and ESL Classes. A significant portion of our attendees are in the high risk category for Covid-19, but so far we are not aware of any of them contracting Covid-19.
Our missionaries are in contact with our regulars, and we will continue to check up on them. We are attempting to acquire Passover meals for shut-ins and will know later this week whether we will be able to do that or not. The diner we purchase from is extremely short-staffed due to the virus, so they may not be able to fulfill our orders.
We are also prayerfully considering other means of providing a safety net for those who are unable to get the food items they need. Many have children who look after them, but some do not. Please pray that God will open doors of ministry even in this difficult time of "social distancing" which is the exact opposite of our normal ministry and outreach methods.
Our ministry appreciates the prayers and support of God's people. We are all in this together, and we know that God reigns through all of this.