Volume 19 Number 3
January/February 2003

THE YESHUA MOVEMENT IN LATIN AMERICA
by Hector Espinoza
Spanish Ministry of Kehilat Ariel

This last October, Rabbi Barney and myself had the privilege to travel to South America for a time of ministry. The main purpose was to teach at two of the Messianic Jewish Bible Institutes (MJBI) which have been recently established in strategic Jewish areas. We started our journey flying to the second largest city in the world; namely, Sao Paulo, Brazil (pop. 20 million). Here we stayed three days enjoying the fellowship at the messianic synagogue over the weekend. Rabbi Barney was asked to share the message at the Havdalah service and even led worship with the guitar and the rest of the band of the congregation. Although we were not fluent in Portuguese, it was beautiful to be able to worship together because Hebrew is our common tongue. The rabbi and I were also able to spend many hours encouraging and training some of the local leaders who had a multitude of questions. In many ways they are on one of the frontiers of the Jewish world and the messianic movement. Yet we could not help but be struck by the zeal and passion of
these Jewish believers for Yeshua. For those of you who know our rabbi well, you will appreciate that on the Sunday morning we were able to drive over to the beach for some 4-6 foot Brazilian waves!

Then it was on to central Brazil to a major city called Belo Horizonte. This city is about the size of San Diego and has a well stablished
messianic community. We were blessed to tour the new building (seating for 300) which they had just purchased. The location was amazing being directly across the street from the major football/soccer stadium. Literally tens of thousands of people see this witness for Yeshua every week! The main focus of our ministry here would be to teach at the MJBI class of 40 students. The topic was “Messianic Jewish Theology” covering such areas as holy days, customs and answers concerning our movement. Although there was a Portuguese interpreter, I was able to communicate quite well with Spanish as we shared our experience with these precious brothers. After five days of teaching, we were also able to share a message at the shabbat morning service of this thriving congregation. What a blessing to see other Latin believers in Yeshua praising Him in that rich culture with the power of the Ruaj
(Spirit). We have got to bring some of the Latin messianic praise music to KA! Although there was no surf in this land locked city, we were both happy to also experience the famous barbeque restaurants and plenty of “real” cappachino coffee. Starbucks will never quite be the same!

From Belo we had one final ministry stop which was in the vital Jewish center of Latin America; Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was here that we were especially struck by the economic hardships of the entire continent. In fact, Buenos Aires is the city which has the largest Jewish population in South America (recently about 500,000). Perhaps 200,000 of these have immigrated in recent years to the north and many directly to Israel. It is a blessing for Israel but the remaining community must struggle with economic hardship as well as the continuing spirit of anti-Semitism. Nonetheless, there is a growing messianic community with a synagogue and MJBI school equipping many people. We repeated the 5-day class on “Messianic Jewish Theology”, this time using me as the translator. It was nice to be able to fully relate in both Spanish and Hebrew. Again I was struck by the passion and commitment of these wonderful believers in Yeshua. Please keep this group in your prayers as they continue to lift up Messiah.

Since we returned home, I have been asking the L-rd what should be some of the fruit from this great trip. One practical project is the translation and publication of Rabbi Barney’s two books for Latin America. We had so many requests for such literature that could help the budding movement grow in the messianic Jewish faith. I am currently busy translating the first book and the Kehilat Ariel board has committed to publishing this as a love gift for those believers. For me personally, I am always taught lessons when I travel abroad. It is always a time of new perspective, broader vision and humility. The trip gave me a fresh appreciation for all that G-d has done for me. We live in incredible times. As the prophets predict: “Thus says the L-rd of Hosts, Behold I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; and I will bring them back, and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem, and they will be My people and I will be their G-d in truth and righteousness.” [Zechariah 8:7-8] We have an opportunity to partner with Adonai as He prepares His people for the messianic redemption. May we all have a fresh vision for Latin America and our Jewish brothers and sisters who stand for Messiah!

URL:http://www.kehilatariel.org/1_2_2003

Last Modified January 18, 2003