Mission Focus – Sept. 2014

During the early part of the nineteenth century various gatherings were held in London and Scotland to consider what steps should be taken to reach the Jewish people with the gospel. As a result, a meeting was held in the National Scotch Church, Regent Square, London on 7 November 1842 to form the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews. Those present included the famous Robert Murray M’Cheyne. It was agreed to co-operate with the Church of Scotland’s Mission to the Jews. The society later became the International Society for the Evangelisation of the Jews. In 1879 “an agency for gospel work among the Jews conducted by Hebrew Christians” commenced work in the Barbican district of London which, in 1891, became the Barbican Mission to the Jews.

The work of both societies expanded rapidly to provincial cities and to mission stations on the Continent, particularly in Eastern Poland where many Jews responded to the gospel. Work was pioneered in Palestine, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Within fifty years William Wingate, a pioneer missionary to the Jews of Budapest, could say, “Hebrew Christians are everywhere. Every class of Jewish society contributes … professors in universities, lawyers, medical men, literary men, musicians, artists, merchants, mechanics, poor and rich are quickened by the Spirit of all grace, convinced of their sin and guilt. They are at the feet of Jesus, and enabled to say with every believer, ‘We have redemption through the atoning blood of Jesus, even the forgiveness of our sins’.”

Israel was still a scattered nation and Jewish rationalist thinkers were determined to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Pogroms in Russia spurred these early Zionists to return to the land of their fathers and in 1897 Theodore Herzl inaugurated the first Zionist Congress with this in view. The Balfour Declaration of 1917, which established a national home for the Jews in Palestine, and the Bolshevik Revolution which closely followed, encouraged the Jews to return to the Land after an exile of eighteen centuries.

World War II with its horrific extermination of six million Jews under the Nazi regime, brought the work in Europe to a standstill. Through the efforts of Rev. I.E. Davidson, many Jewish children were rescued from certain death to be brought up, with parental permission, in England. Many came to know the Saviour and some are now serving him as ministers and full-time workers. Gospel work, closed in Europe by the war, now began to be developed in other countries. Today CWI extends to Jewish people in Israel, France, UK, Australia, Hungary, New Zealand and Bulgaria.

Australia Office:

KayChan and Sue are both from Korea and have a son and a daughter. KayChan was a licensed preacher in the Jinjoo Seongnam Presbyterian church in Korea for 2 years before being sent to study in Israel in late 1994. He studied Hebrew at the Hebrew University, and Old Testament and Semitic languages at the Department of Biblical studies in the University of Haifa. Whilst in Israel KayChan engaged in helping local congregations by preaching in Hebrew and English, and by helping with their witness to the Israeli community. KayChan and his family returned to Korea in 2002 where he was appointed Director of the Global Centre of Missions Research and Development. KayChan joined Christian Witness to Israel and he and his family came to Australia in 2006.

In Sydney, CWI staff work out of the Israelight Centre in Bondi Beach, they also have an outreaching mall stall every Friday lunchtime between 11am and 2pm in the Oxford Street shopping mall at Bondi Junction.

CWI’s annual public “Edersheim Lecture” in both Sydney and Melbourne is given on an issue related to Jewish mission. The aim is to stimulate greater study of such issues so as to heighten awareness and deepen understanding of mission to the Jewish people.

For more information about Christian Witness to Israel, please visit www.cwi.org.au