2 Many are they who say of me, "There is no help for him in God." Selah.
3 But You, O LORD, are a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts up my head.
-Psalm 3:2

I haven't been in touch in a very long time but you have all been on my mind. I wanted to share with you what has been happening with Ami - as you know he had his 13th operation - reconstruction of his thumb joint, and he is now in a hand brace and needs physical and occupational therapy. Eight days ago the pin that was holding the joint in place after the surgery in which a tendon was transferred to the joint was removed. We knew he was in trouble when as he sat on one of those stretcher like beds in the treatment room, the nurse brought in a pair of household pliers - the type you use to take a nail out of the wall, and placed it on a piece of sterile paper next to him! It was very painful, and took him at least an hour to recover from the procedure which was done without any local anaesthetic. But we are slowly getting the therapy that he needs, unfortunately it has taken longer than we wanted, and will criss-cross with the ear operation on July 11th. This will be the 14th operation which is an ear drum replacement - we have not been given good odds for this operation as the doctor said that the hole is so big, there is only a 60% chance that the graft will "take". A year ago the right ear was operated on and recently we did a hearing test and almost all the hearing in his right ear has been restored - that operation was given an 80% chance success rate and it was 100% successful- and we know that we serve a mighty God who never falters in any of His promises so we are praying for yet another miracle in the left ear!!!

TRIAL UPDATE

As you know, Jack Teitel has been deemed by the court district psychiatrist to be in a psychotic state at this time - meaning that he wasn't necessarily in that state when he committed his crimes, but at this time he is and therefore unable to stand trial. A hearing was set for early June in which the judges were expected to either accept or reject this evaluation. If they had accepted it, Teitel would be admitted to a psychiatric hospital and treated until he would be stable enough to stand trial, which entails an undetermined amount of time -it could be months or years. However, before the hearing took place, the psychiatrist asked for a postponement until July 14th - which the State prosecutor says is a good sign. In other words he is still being evaluated. We would appreciate prayer for full recovery from Ami's hand operation and success with the ear operation - and for Teitel to not be able to get away with a temporary psychosis plea so the trial can get underway already since this is a precedent setting case in Israel, and so believers in Israel will not have to live in fear of a similar attack happening to them.

I had an interesting encounter in my weight watchers group - I thought I recognized a new woman in the group, who was always sitting with the group that comes from the settlement that Jack Teitel is from. After the meeting, I approached the woman and asked her if she was Rivka Teitel's (Jack's wife's) sister - she is. We spoke about the situation, and she mentioned that her family feel as if they are his victim's also, that they weren't raised to hate and really knew nothing about his activities. She mentioned that her own daughter suffered a stroke (she must be very young), and her husband was in a shooting attack at around the same time as the attack in our home occurred. I believe he was blinded in that attack.

BEERSHEVA UPDATE

I'm sorry that I didn't report to you last month that the Beersheva case has ended with a decision by the judge against the Messianic believers, and the demand that they pay the legal fees of the defendants. Here is an excerpt from Howard Bass from the end of May, 2010:

Shalom Brothers and Sisters,

A verdict has been handed down by Judge Iddo Ruzin in our lawsuit filed against the Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yehuda Deri, and against the anti-Messianic organization, Yad L'Achim. The judge did exactly what we have been praying and hoping . . . that he would not do! Judge Ruzin has determined that the two defendants are innocent of any wrong-doing concerning the events before, during, and after 24 Dec 2005, and that we did not produce sufficient evidence to prove any personal liability on their part in our civil suit against them.

Judge Ruzin has ordered that we pay graded percentages of our claims against them for violations of Israeli law, attorneys' wages for their clients' defense, and the five appearances in court for the trial, for a total of approximately 155,000 ILS ($40,200). This miscarriage of justice is a sad commentary on the state of affairs, and should be seen, too, as a wake-up call to all who care for truth and righteousness.

We express our sincere and heartfelt thanks to all of you for your encouragements, prayers, praises to God, and financial contributions throughout this lawsuit to date. We believe, with many of you, that we were led by the Lord to enter into this lawsuit, and we have sought to honor the name of Yeshua. We believe that at least in this latter regard, we were successful: even the judge in his decision referred to the Lord as "Yeshua", and not by the acronym commonly used by many in this land. We understood from the outset that there was a risk involved in taking these particular defendants to court for what we still know they are liable.

We always believed, and still believe and accept, that the verdict is from the Lord, and it is for us to discern what He is saying to us through it.

Glory to the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel.

PLEASE PRAY

We ask you to pray for continued wisdom, strength and supply for Howard and Randi Bass and Kehilat Nachalat Yeshua in Beer Sheva. They are stalwart soldiers for the Lord, and real servants of the Lord and the Body of Messiah in Israel.

We have been enjoying visits from many friends from around the world - we will be quite busy this whole month with many commitments but I will write after Ami's operation. From our past experience, there will be a bandage inside the ear for 3 weeks, which when it is removed, will reveal whether the operation succeeded. Prayer is vital at this time.

Thank you for your prayers and love,

Leah