Camp this year was the best year yet. This is the consensus of the campers and our new ones, as well as our repeat campers, are already excited to return next year. The experiences sometimes are rough, but that’s how we grow, for it is at those times that we sense His nearness.

This year’s camp experience was transformative for me as well. It being our chai year, the eighteenth summer of this initiative, I was prompted to reflect on our mission as well as more broadly, how each of us can serve His Kingdom most effectively.

It probably was not a coincidence that the very day after camp ended one of the projects I had worked on for Our Daily Bread (ODB) Ministries was released, the second to follow next month. These productions take literally years so I could hardly remember content of the final productions. As I watched the first one I remembered why I had agreed to be involved in the first place, for these filmed interactions were far outside of my comfort zone. After deep prayer at the times requested, however, I was reminded of the bridge we as Messianic Jews are between the Jewish and Christian worlds and the role we are here to do.

For so many years my conversations about our faith were almost exclusively within Jewish communities, a place most comfortable for me ironically you may think since the topic especially decades back was a “hot topic”. Yet it was my natural home so I didn’t seem to have some of the hurdles my Jewish predecessors may have had whose faith journeys took them to churches in the early‘70s, for Messianic Jewish synagogues were not prevalent then as they have been for the most recent decades.

More recently with these ODB projects and in my multi denominational Bible study group in Florida I’ve been blessed to learn so much about our Christian brothers’ and sisters’ understanding of Yeshua’s teachings and their perceptions of Judaism. Conversation has led to understanding as we listen to each other and become able to see the wondrous fit of our diverse beliefs united in Him.

I am no Biblical scholar, and I’m constantly learning (thank you Daily Davar, sermons, and courses). The role I treasure now, however, doesn’t require me to know all the answers. Rather it allows me to be a source of clarification on those points where Christians and Jews may look at the same set of facts differently, for we as Messianic Jews dwell in the common ground of our faiths through our understanding of Yeshua’s role and His teachings.

As I watched the ODB release I was reminded of the joy of explaining the Shavuot/Pentecost connection, of raising awareness of the sensitivity to certain expressions commonly used that are heard differently by my Jewish brothers and sisters. These nuances and observations are met with such love and interest when explained, and vice versa when I share Christian perspectives that have been misunderstood by my Jewish listeners. I thank God for planting me in this middle ground and for allowing me to experience literally the both/and of Yeshua and His teachings.

I encourage each of you to be generous in sharing the love that Yeshua has placed in your hearts and the knowledge granted to you by that love. All we have to do is share that with those in our lives as He directs. God does the rest.

Shabbat shalom.

Diane