Bring in the Sheaves - 2021 Harvest Completion & more
Dear Friends and co-laborers in Great Commissions,
Shalom to you and your family. I pray and hope that you are doing well. I anticipate that this news report from Operation Nehemiah Missions finds you well in Yeshua. Here in New England, the winter is truly upon. We had massive winter snow on Sunday night into early Monday. Thank God, it has so far dissipated.
Deja Vue. It is happening in USA not only in the Sudan: Shurtleff Versus the City of Boston, MA.
Blatant persecution versus Subtle persecution – They both lead to reducing Christians and Jews to a dhimmi status or second-class citizen in one’s own country. Such is the case of Shurtleff Versus the City of Boston, MA.
In the Sudan and elsewhere in the Islamic state where Shariah law is the law of the land, your life will be spared if you renounce Yeshua the Messiah as your Savior and God, and you will be beheaded if you do not deny Him. Here in the USA and elsewhere devoted Christians and Jews suffer the same fate from a diabolical movement seeking our demise except that one is blatant and the other one is subtle they both lead to the same result. They are both existential threats to the very existence of Judeo-Christian Civilization on which this country is built.
What if he denied Jesus in His application?
If Mr. Shurtleff had simply lied in His application out of fear of being atrocious from society in 2017 that this Christian flag has nothing to do with Christianity and mentioned nothing about the history behind it, they would have approved his application and allow him to fly the flag in the Boston city flagpole with the rest of the 284 other heathen flags approved by the city of Boston. But he refused to deny Jesus Christ and the Judeo-Christian history behind the flag, he stood by his faith, therefore, he was outstripped and his application, denied not only once, but twice by the MA state and Federal Circuit courts so finally the case ended up at the US Supreme Court. Whether or not our religious freedom be respected and cherished or trampled underfoot in America will largely rest on how the Supreme Court will issue the final ruling on this case as early as June. From the arguments heard from both sides, the Supreme Court seems ready to rule on behalf of Mr. Shurtleff against the City of Boston. You need to pray that they don’t change their minds.
What has that to do with me, ONMI and you?
My new year winter activities started with domestic missionary travel within the USA by speaking at Camp Constitution Monthly Luncheon in Lexington, MA last Thursday. Following that speaking engagement, on Monday, the president of Camp Constitution Pastor Shurtleff invited me and a team Christian leader across the USA to accompany him to Washington DC to pray and have a rally on the sideline of the argument hearing before the US Supreme Court in the case of Shurtleff Versus the City of Boston regarding flying Christian Flag.
Lexington, MA memorial site
Supreme Court Heard Religious Viewpoint Case Today Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver presented oral argument today to the U.S. Supreme Court in Shurtleff v. City of Boston, arguing that the City of Boston violated the Constitution by censoring a private flag in a public forum open to “all applicants” merely because the application referred to it as a “Christian flag.” Liberty Counsel represents Boston resident Hal Shurtleff and his Christian civic organization, Camp Constitution.
Shurtleff and Camp Constitution first asked the city in 2017 for a permit to raise the Christian flag on Boston City Hall flagpoles to commemorate Constitution Day and Citizenship Day (September 17) and the civic and cultural contributions of the Christian community to the City of Boston, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, religious tolerance, the Rule of Law and the U.S. Constitution. For 12 years from 2005-2017, Boston approved 284 flag-raisings by private organizations with no denials on the flagpoles that it designated as a “public forum.” Had the flag been referred to as anything but Christian, the city would have approved it. The flag itself was not the problem; it was the word “Christian” describing it in the application that was the issue.
ISIS becoming a household name again in the USA?
Following Synagogue Attack, Senator Josh Hawley Demands Explanation for How Islamic Terrorist Entered Country. Senator Josh Hawley of MO Calls on Biden to Immediately Recognize Attack as Anti-Semitism. Secretaries Blinken and Mayorkas, write with alarm over reports that the Islamic terrorist who took hostages at a Jewish synagogue in Texas this past weekend was granted a travel visa, despite his long criminal record and a series of red flags. This failure comes in the wake of the Biden Administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and failure to vet the tens of thousands who were evacuated to our country. Repeatedly called on this Administration to require in-person vetting to avoid precisely the sort of terrorist incident we witnessed this weekend. Yet the Biden Administration has moved in the opposite direction, waving in-person vetting for new classes of visa holders. It is time to reverse this trend and begin enforcing our immigration laws. A key step in this effort is understanding how your agencies allowed the terrorist who took hostages in Texas into this country despite his known background.
Courtesy NY Times
ONMI: In South Sudan, ONMI country Director Pastor Timothy and Joyce Levi had their 7th baby on January 5th, 2022. They have a beautiful baby girl named Anastasia Miracle Levi. This is the First Miracle baby delivered at ONMI’s Bethlehem Mission center in Kerepi subdistrict in EE South Sudan after returning from exile, i.e., 5 years after people fled the region into Uganda exile in 2016 and returning in 2021. Please join me to congratulate them and their family. Despite the scarcity of medical and healthcare center for maternity, in South Sudan, the couple made their resolved and defied the odd and the test of time by staying in South Sudan and have the baby delivered in the country. Momma and the baby are both doing well.
Bring in the Sheaves to the store house: The vision is working, and you are making all the difference.
Food Security: Beth Israel farmland made stunning delivery of food production and the yield exceeds our expectations in 2021. Throughout 2021, with your generous support, Operation Nehemiah missions’ agricultural food production made miraculous difference in 2021. Beth Israel farmland has produced varieties of food crops throughout last year. According to our country director Timothy Levi and ONMI agricultural Farm Manager, Mr. Festo Otim, they have reduced dependence on food imported from Uganda by 80 %. In January 2022, it is dry tropical season in South Sudan we are in the final process of harvesting one of Africa’s most populous food crops, the sorghum after the cassava. Festo said, if all goes well at the end of the harvest, they are expecting from 20 tons of sorghum from last year's effort. This is roughly 40,000 pounds of grain or roughly 18,000 kg of grain. This is not counting the produce from Cassava, corn, sweet Potato, bean, fruits, and vegetable from last year’s harvest.
Looking at this group of people working harvesting crops from their own fields in their own country, give us a complete contrast between free and responsible South Sudanese working with their own hands, with your support to raise standard of living for themselves as opposed to a group of fellow citizen living in the same country or in exile depending on relief and UN handout to keep them permanently powerless and perpetually living in fear despite of the potential opportunities readily available in their own country.
During this dry Season January – March we are embarking on dry season cultivation, land ground preparation for 2022 agricultural season. Our farm Coordinator Mr. Festo Otim said, this morning, he is preparing for overarching farming activities encompassing various areas of both food and cash crops cultivation in 2022. To accomplish that we need your support and encouragement as you have always pushed us forward to accomplish a lot of progress. God willing, we are looking for what the Lord has instore for the ministry in 2022.
Request for prayer as this is urgent but all to God in prayer: ONMI needs $60,000 as the project progresses to its final phase. ONMI is racing against time to get the building ready by this February. We are hoping that you can push ONMI through this final process to raise the remaining fund to bring at least this one building project to a completion by the end of January and early February.
