Mottel BalestonShalom in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus)!
I am Mottel Baleston.
Dear friends, we appreciate your standing with us as we see Jewish people come to faith in their Messiah and grow to maturity in Him!
We serve with Missions Door (MTTA) in the work of sharing Messiah Jesus within the Jewish community and educating Christians concerning the Jewish roots of faith in Messiah. Locally, our work is known as "Messengers of the New Covenant", as we making known the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31) that God promised through Messiah.
Our ministry has several facets, one of these is our partnership with Beth Messiah Messianic Congregation in Livingston, New Jersey, a fellowship that is centered on saving faith in Messiah Jesus and whose membership is about 70% Jewish. Each spring we conduct about a dozen "Messiah in the Passover" outreaches, many in Jewish areas, where a good number attend who don't yet know the Messiah.
Our ministry is part of a movement of Jewish people coming to faith in Jesus that reaches back to the first century. This movement is connected to both non-Jewish believers (like Grace Baptist church) as well as to Jewish people worldwide. Some parts of our worship service at Beth Messiah would be familiar to you, and others, such as the singing of the Psalms in the original Hebrew would be very different.
Over the last several years, conservative leaders in the movement of Jewish believers discerned a need to form a connection with other congregations who were focused on a Messiah-centered, grace-embracing Messianic Jewish expression. Beth Messiah became a founding member of the Association of Messianic Congregations in 2003. We hosted the founding meeting of this association. Our worship services are Jewish in style, and Scriptural in emphasis. You will hear some Hebrew that you might not recognize, but the proclamation of Messiah as Savior would be the same as in your Church.
One of the ways we welcome people includes teaching basic Hebrew. Our classes at Beth Messiah have attracted people from the non-believing Jewish community. The ability to read the Torah Scrolls in the original Hebrew is something important that gives evidence of our claim that Messianic Jews are educated in the Hebrew Scriptures. These efforts have attracted several mixed families with Jewish husbands and Gentile wives. We continue to ask God for guidance on how to encourage greater discipleship in Messiah. Amen and Shalom!
Summer Ministry
Each summer we teach classes at the Camp Shoshanah Discipleship Program. It is in the Adirondack Mountains, and is a 3-week discipleship program for new Jewish believers arranged by Ariel Ministries.
Camp Shoshanah was key to my early spiritual growth back in the early 80s. This summer's program was the 36th year the Lord has been working in the lives of Jewish believers through this vital ministry.
The classes entail 5 hours per day of Bible-college level study and students tend to be serious about learning and growing in faith. The Lord has allowed me to teach several of these courses over the years. It has been a very rewarding experience and productive ministry.