Ministry Update from the Roses
Dear Friends,
It has been quite a while since we gave you a proper update. Due to the pandemic, the world has slowed down some and many of us are being asked to stay at home. It seems like now is a good time to let you all know how we are doing, personally, in our ministry and in our country. We have a really big announcement that we will save for the end.
(Photo to the left: Janice's parents with our five sons.) The main reason we have been a little out of touch is that we were really busy; not with normal life activities but with the kind of catastrophe that makes you drop everything. Janice's dear sweet mother passed away on February 1st. She was an important part of our lives and her departure was unexpected and unprepared for, except that we are sure that she is with her Lord and Savior. We found out in the evening and immediately started searching for airline tickets for the whole family. By February 3rd, we were in Alabama after about a full day of flying. We are so grateful for our many dear friends who dropped everything to help us pack, clean and leave our apartment in just a few hours. One friend even cooked up some of our food to freeze so we would have ready meals upon our return. By God's grace, another close friend helped us find our copy of Mom's will, which we needed. We did send out a quick note and thank you to everyone who prayed for us! We really needed your prayers. It was hard.
When we arrived in Alabama, at first we were busy with preparations for the funeral. Janice's dad asked Jason to preside over the funeral as he was certain Janice's mom would have wanted that. This was Jason's first time leading a funeral and one of the toughest tasks he has ever done. Saying goodbye to someone we all loved so much was so much easier because of our shared faith and trust in God that we will see her again. She was a strong believer in Jesus. We still miss her and we still have so much to learn from her lessons in life, but we are getting through it together as a family. Following the funeral, we were busy setting up Janice's Dad's finances and taking care of the enormous red tape related to wills and estates. It is a long process, but we were able to get everything moving before we returned home to Israel. (Photo above: Janice's father and family gathered before the funeral.)
"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus"
(Phil 4:4-7)
This verse has been particularly helpful to us during our recent struggles and perhaps it can be a source of encouragement for you as well during these challenging times. Starting in verse four provides us with a great deal more encouragement than the usual reading from verse six. It is difficult to be happy in times of sadness, but the joy of the Lord is with us always, because it is based on the promises of our God who was willing to send His only son to die for our sins. His promises are immoveable. Even in the midst of the greatest sadness we have ever gone through, we will rejoice in the Lord because we believe in His promises!
Back Home in Israel
Upon our return to Israel, we discovered that our ministry field and the reality for our entire country had shifted. We held a Purim event (Book of Esther: celebrating the salvation of the Jewish people from annihilation in Persia) that we had been planning for many months. The event was great, but because of the Coronavirus regulations our turnout was understandably lower than originally expected. One of our staff was in government-imposed quarantine, while our family was asked to self-quarantine, because we arrived from overseas and were sick (although not with symptoms of the coronavirus). For two weeks we stayed at home. During this time, we continued our homeschooling and Jason was able to work from home. The impact of the new and ever-changing regulations has now dramatically affected our little country.
As of this Sunday, everyone in the country has been asked to refrain from gathering in groups of more than ten people, so we are adjusting our activities to virtual meetings using video streaming technology. This is an amazing time that we live in, in which we can fellowship with people and minister to needs without leaving our homes. Our English classes, Bible Studies and Prayer meetings are all continuing virtually. This enables people to remain connected to us, even when our government is recommending we stay home. We would appreciate your prayers for those we are ministering to in such difficult times. Many people are struggling with depression and loneliness. Please help us to continue to meet people's spiritual needs.
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| Shaaryim (1Sam 17:52) |
It is hard to believe that before our world was "turned upside down" on February 1st... Jason had just led our pilot Outreach Tour for Israelis. We wanted a small group for the first trip and Jason took them to two amazing Biblical sites. No one in the group had ever been to these sites and they have historical and archeological connections to the Bible.
Eventually, want to hold these trips once a month but we are planning to start slower as we develop this outreach program. Because of the pandemic, we don't know when we will plan the next Outreach Trip, hopefully in May.
A big ANNOUNCEMENT...
...that needs your prayers. As many of you know, Janice and I started our lives together in ministry long ago. We met through good friends and developed our friendship primarily serving the Lord together at the Gospel Cafe outreach in 2005. We have always seen ourselves as a ministry team, and then a ministry family. Janice has always been integrally involved in all of our ministry activities. In our early years with Chosen People Ministries, she was ministering to people at the Gospel Cafe and serving coffee. These days she is running some significant programs and is very involved in our planning, vision-casting and more. Recently, we made the logical step of bringing Janice on officially as a part-time ministry staff member. This may come as a surprise to some that she wasn't on staff already. At first, only Jason could come on staff, because we could only raise enough funds for one salary. We are now in a place in life where Janice can commit to a more proactive role in our ministry, but we still do need to raise her part-time salary. So we would like to ask for your prayerful support for this. In principle, she is now on staff, but she will only receive a salary when our fund can support it.
Due to the challenges in the world health, we have postponed Jason's Spring Speaking Tour until the Fall and that doesn't help, but we are trusting the Lord. We would appreciate your prayers for a successful fund raising effort, so that Janice can receive her salary. We know that many pray for us regularly and want to continue to help us as able. One way to help us is by introducing our ministry to your friends and now we have a new way to sign up for our prayer letters directly on the Chosen People Ministry website. Now you can send the following link to your friends if they want to join our prayer team at: chosenpeople.com/pray4jason
Thank you so much for your prayerful partnership with us! We really appreciate you!
Blessings in Messiah,
Jason and Janice Rose
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| Tel Lachish (II Chronicles 32:9 and Isaiah 36:2) |
