Shalom from the busy Ortiz household. We are preparing to travel to the U.S. with Ami, as he has vacation for Passover. What prompted the journey was an invitation by Joel Rosenberg to attend his Epicenter 2009 conference in San Diego. He has invited David to share, and Ami and I will be standing on the platform with him. They are expecting 10,000 people at the conference, and we're looking forward to hearing the realities that face us here in the Middle East and around the world. Even though we live here, we're not told the inside story most of the time, probably because it would cause mass panic! However, as believers, we need the whole truth, and we need to prepare ourselves in prayer and the Word for the times ahead of us - which promise to be more and more challenging.
This will be the last update for about 3 weeks- I pray that you all will have a joyous Passover Season, and resurrection Sunday. What a joy it will be for me and my family to join my mother, brother and his family in Miami for the Passover Seder. Please pray for the truth of the Passover Lamb to penetrate their hearts and spirits. We will also visit David's mother in Puerto Rico, as well as his siblings, God willing of course.
NEW WEBSITE
Another miracle has occurred for Ami. Many of you have seen the website that was created for us by George Whitten, www.lionofgod.org which was a gift from the Lord for which we are daily grateful. Another brother in the Lord, Aviad Cohen, met our family, and has taken Ami to heart. He is an extremely talented artist and a genius in all kinds of media, music, computers, etc. He has created a website for Ami which is comprehensive and powerful. He created it with the cooperation of Calev Myers and Albert Veksler of the Jerusalem Institute for Justice. On the website - which is www.amiortiz.com you can see the "Uvda" journalistic film with English subtitles on the home page, and a film that was commissioned by the Jerusalem Institute for Justice on the incident as well, also in Hebrew with English subtitles on the documentary page. It is particularly powerful, and tells the story conveying the trauma of the incident, and yet the victory, which is Ami himself, who survived and is daily overcoming in such a miraculous way. You can very much get a feel for who Ami is in this film. It is titled "Haman's Visit" and is rated 'R' because of the graphic images of Ami's wound. The website is full of information and more to come.
FOREIGN MINISTRY
We had a landmark meeting yesterday with the initiator of the action alert and petition, Adv. Majed El Shafie from Toronto Canada. He came to Israel to meet with several people, among them two men from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He presented them with a notebook which contained the action alert and petition, 1,800 signatures gathered in two weeks, with strong comments from the signees, and between 80-90 emails, some of which bring tears to our eyes, and some of which are strong in their messages of justice deserved. David, Ami and I participated in the meeting with the Director of the Department for Religious Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, and also the head of the Legal Department of the same ministry. Unfortunately, Majed told them after they spoke to us, that since the last time he had met with them seven months ago, nothing had been accomplished. The information was exactly the same, which was, "Yes, the Government of Israel condemns this crime, and we've spoken to the police, but they said the investigation is top secret and we can't divulge any details."
Majed explained that the petition was remaining open on line until next Purim, that people would continue to sign and comment - and that hopefully justice would have been served by then. He said, "Remember this saying - justice delayed is justice denied". Please pray for Majed as he is on the front lines of the battle for the persecuted church. He is an important tool in the Lord's hands, serving persecuted believers all over the world - including those in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
David then spoke, he said, "First of all, in all the cases of terrorism in this country, there is always someone from government condemning the act. However, in our case, no one publicly condemned the bombing in our home, no one came to visit Ami in the hospital (from the central government) and we didn't even receive a telephone call.
Secondly, even though you say that you condemn the incident, it has been done quietly, not publically". David then shared Deut. 21:1-9:
1 If a man is found slain, lying in a field in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, 2 your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns. 3 Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke 4 and lead her down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they are to break the heifer's neck. 5 The priests, the sons of Levi, shall step forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings in the name of the LORD and to decide all cases of dispute and assault. 6 Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7 and they shall declare: "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. 8 Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O LORD, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent man." And the bloodshed will be atoned for. 9 So you will purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.
This passage is about taking responsibility for the shedding of innocent blood when the perpetrator is not known. It is the elders of the community that need to condemn it, and atone for it before the Lord.
David told them, "It is a shame that other governments have taken responsibility in condemning the bombing, and ours has not. The Kentucky State House of Representatives passed a bill condemning the bombing - The Canadian government has condemned it - On Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Ami was a topic of conversation among many Senators and Statesmen.......but when people ask me what has your government done to condemn this act, I have to keep my mouth closed."
David said, "The flyers that were handed out in Ariel against us, and which had our pictures, names and addresses, weren't handed out the other day - 2 years have gone by and nothing was done by the police, not only in Ariel but all over country where flyers have been handed out against the Messianic believers, in Arad, Beersheva, Tel Aviv area, Ashdod, and others."
The Police have also been irresponsible with evidence that we gave them, and only when one of the news channels did a story on the incident, did the police begin to ask us to resend several pieces of important evidence that had been given to them from the beginning." We told them that we had to go to court to get back our hard disk and that the police didn't invite us to see the pictures of the man who dropped the bomb off near our door, we had to request it.
David said, that because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested to meet with us, now when we go to the U.S. and speak in front of ten thousand people, at least we can say that someone approached us from the government trying to solve problem. Until now, the outcry of injustice has not been by government, but by residents of Ariel and Israel, especially after the Channel two story.
Ami spoke up saying that he doesn't feel protected. He said that when he walks down the street alone, he feels that he has to check out the area, and look behind him to see if someone is following him - that is a terrible feeling, knowing that criminals are still out there and could strike again, at us or someone else.
Then I spoke and said "I don't care what people think about me, because I know who I am. But - I don't want my son to feel like a second class citizen. He is a loved and valued member of the society in Ariel - He's on the basketball team, and he knows kids from every school in town. However, it has offended him that he was never visited in the hospital by a member of the central government (except for by the Mayor of Ariel). When has this ever happened after a terror attack in Israel?? Especially since his body was ripped apart by this bomb that came into our home and he still has many operations and much recovery ahead of him (then I told them which operations in detail). We kept on trying to show them his scars - but they wouldn't let us. They said that they had seen them in pictures.
They promised us that they would help us by putting pressure on the police to carry out this investigation.
Can we pray for fruit from this meeting? However, our trust is not in man, but in the Lord.
Psalm 118:8-9
It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.
Yours in the Risen Messiah,
Leah
This will be the last update for about 3 weeks- I pray that you all will have a joyous Passover Season, and resurrection Sunday. What a joy it will be for me and my family to join my mother, brother and his family in Miami for the Passover Seder. Please pray for the truth of the Passover Lamb to penetrate their hearts and spirits. We will also visit David's mother in Puerto Rico, as well as his siblings, God willing of course.
NEW WEBSITE
Another miracle has occurred for Ami. Many of you have seen the website that was created for us by George Whitten, www.lionofgod.org which was a gift from the Lord for which we are daily grateful. Another brother in the Lord, Aviad Cohen, met our family, and has taken Ami to heart. He is an extremely talented artist and a genius in all kinds of media, music, computers, etc. He has created a website for Ami which is comprehensive and powerful. He created it with the cooperation of Calev Myers and Albert Veksler of the Jerusalem Institute for Justice. On the website - which is www.amiortiz.com you can see the "Uvda" journalistic film with English subtitles on the home page, and a film that was commissioned by the Jerusalem Institute for Justice on the incident as well, also in Hebrew with English subtitles on the documentary page. It is particularly powerful, and tells the story conveying the trauma of the incident, and yet the victory, which is Ami himself, who survived and is daily overcoming in such a miraculous way. You can very much get a feel for who Ami is in this film. It is titled "Haman's Visit" and is rated 'R' because of the graphic images of Ami's wound. The website is full of information and more to come.
FOREIGN MINISTRY
We had a landmark meeting yesterday with the initiator of the action alert and petition, Adv. Majed El Shafie from Toronto Canada. He came to Israel to meet with several people, among them two men from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He presented them with a notebook which contained the action alert and petition, 1,800 signatures gathered in two weeks, with strong comments from the signees, and between 80-90 emails, some of which bring tears to our eyes, and some of which are strong in their messages of justice deserved. David, Ami and I participated in the meeting with the Director of the Department for Religious Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, and also the head of the Legal Department of the same ministry. Unfortunately, Majed told them after they spoke to us, that since the last time he had met with them seven months ago, nothing had been accomplished. The information was exactly the same, which was, "Yes, the Government of Israel condemns this crime, and we've spoken to the police, but they said the investigation is top secret and we can't divulge any details."
Majed explained that the petition was remaining open on line until next Purim, that people would continue to sign and comment - and that hopefully justice would have been served by then. He said, "Remember this saying - justice delayed is justice denied". Please pray for Majed as he is on the front lines of the battle for the persecuted church. He is an important tool in the Lord's hands, serving persecuted believers all over the world - including those in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
David then spoke, he said, "First of all, in all the cases of terrorism in this country, there is always someone from government condemning the act. However, in our case, no one publicly condemned the bombing in our home, no one came to visit Ami in the hospital (from the central government) and we didn't even receive a telephone call.
Secondly, even though you say that you condemn the incident, it has been done quietly, not publically". David then shared Deut. 21:1-9:
1 If a man is found slain, lying in a field in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, 2 your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns. 3 Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke 4 and lead her down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they are to break the heifer's neck. 5 The priests, the sons of Levi, shall step forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings in the name of the LORD and to decide all cases of dispute and assault. 6 Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7 and they shall declare: "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. 8 Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O LORD, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent man." And the bloodshed will be atoned for. 9 So you will purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.
This passage is about taking responsibility for the shedding of innocent blood when the perpetrator is not known. It is the elders of the community that need to condemn it, and atone for it before the Lord.
David told them, "It is a shame that other governments have taken responsibility in condemning the bombing, and ours has not. The Kentucky State House of Representatives passed a bill condemning the bombing - The Canadian government has condemned it - On Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Ami was a topic of conversation among many Senators and Statesmen.......but when people ask me what has your government done to condemn this act, I have to keep my mouth closed."
David said, "The flyers that were handed out in Ariel against us, and which had our pictures, names and addresses, weren't handed out the other day - 2 years have gone by and nothing was done by the police, not only in Ariel but all over country where flyers have been handed out against the Messianic believers, in Arad, Beersheva, Tel Aviv area, Ashdod, and others."
The Police have also been irresponsible with evidence that we gave them, and only when one of the news channels did a story on the incident, did the police begin to ask us to resend several pieces of important evidence that had been given to them from the beginning." We told them that we had to go to court to get back our hard disk and that the police didn't invite us to see the pictures of the man who dropped the bomb off near our door, we had to request it.
David said, that because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested to meet with us, now when we go to the U.S. and speak in front of ten thousand people, at least we can say that someone approached us from the government trying to solve problem. Until now, the outcry of injustice has not been by government, but by residents of Ariel and Israel, especially after the Channel two story.
Ami spoke up saying that he doesn't feel protected. He said that when he walks down the street alone, he feels that he has to check out the area, and look behind him to see if someone is following him - that is a terrible feeling, knowing that criminals are still out there and could strike again, at us or someone else.
Then I spoke and said "I don't care what people think about me, because I know who I am. But - I don't want my son to feel like a second class citizen. He is a loved and valued member of the society in Ariel - He's on the basketball team, and he knows kids from every school in town. However, it has offended him that he was never visited in the hospital by a member of the central government (except for by the Mayor of Ariel). When has this ever happened after a terror attack in Israel?? Especially since his body was ripped apart by this bomb that came into our home and he still has many operations and much recovery ahead of him (then I told them which operations in detail). We kept on trying to show them his scars - but they wouldn't let us. They said that they had seen them in pictures.
They promised us that they would help us by putting pressure on the police to carry out this investigation.
Can we pray for fruit from this meeting? However, our trust is not in man, but in the Lord.
Psalm 118:8-9
It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.
Yours in the Risen Messiah,
Leah