From: "C. Fitchlee" <fitchlee@paonia.com> To: "Ephraim & Rimona Frank"
<shevet@netvision.net.il> Sent: Friday, Nov 18, 2005
Subject: Re: Shalom Fellow Israelite, Letter 293 (faith and identity)
As I was reading your email I was brought to tears as I felt His Ruach and was considering the awesomeness
of his mercies and lovingkindness that He would call us from our own graves and open our eyes to receive
His Truth and an understanding of who, in His mercy, He has called us to be.
I felt that as you send your emails out to so many people, I would assume most of whom are like my family,
fellow Israelites who until recently had no idea who they were, you might enjoy reading of how He spoke to
our little family.
There is far more to our story than I could write here but in a nutshell we were "regular" non-denominational
Christians. Happy to be very involved in Sunday worships, I enjoyed being part of a small worship team, we
loved the weekly bible studies with fellow believers in our home and, of course, celebrated the traditional
pagan holidays - though we had long since thrown out santa and the bunny business. We thought we were doing
well. Our faith was real within the limits of our understanding and our continual prayer, especially mine, was
asking Jesus to draw us closer to Him. Night after night after all of my family had gone to bed I would lay on
my face before Him, crying out to Him. But I felt like a moth beating itself against the light until it
finally falls, dead, into the drift of other dead moths beneath the light.
Awesome things had happened in our lives, even the Father returning to us our baby son who died while still in
the womb. A year or so before, our child before him also died in the womb. But this child, after being dead
for over a week, on the day he was to be removed from my body, was restored to life. The warfare and YHVH's
indescribable awesomeness surrounding those events is a story in itself that I won't go into now. But He gave
us back our son, born left-handed and red-headed. His Hand had clearly been upon us and we knew we were His,
but we had come into such a wilderness time... He had put a hunger and thirst into me ... and as the church we
attended dethroned Jesus, neglected prayer and enthroned the programs and "wisdom" of man I tried to be
faithful to speak out the words He put on my heart and to share the vision He gave me even though they were
not received. In time He made it clear that we no longer belonged there and were to "come out".
Missing fellowship we soon began to attend another church and within perhaps little more than a year or so He
again "called us out". We wanted to worship but had no idea how we could be part of any church as we knew
them. During these years a couple who were friends lovingly, patiently and with great gentleness continued to
share with us about keeping Shabbat. Sometimes we would hear a little, other times we were unable to hear, and
had no understanding. We weren't sure we could change our lives that dramatically or even if we should and
didn't want to be jumping on somebody's bandwagon if that was what it was.
Then one evening, almost 3 years ago, a couple who were dear friends still attending the second church we had
been called out of, spent the evening with us in just worshiping and prayer together. As we were ending the
evening the husband was praying and he thanked the Lord that we could "gather together". Immediately the Ruach
haKodesh spoke to me and said "That's what I call you, The Gathering". I was awed and excited but had no
understanding what He meant. I could only think that He must be speaking of the Remnant of Joel 2, and that we
were blessed to be part of His Remnant. But I didn't yet understand who the Remnant is. I just thought it meant
those Christians who are not lukewarm.
Months passed and we continued to search Him about whether we should keep His Shabbat. I didn't want to be
persuaded by any man as I'd heard every well-spoken argument both ways. I wanted to know His will for us. As a
"Spirit-filled Christian" I feared it might mean turning from the fullness of Him into a legalism. Eventually
He put it upon our hearts so heavily that we decided to celebrate Shabbat for the first time. I called our
patient friends and asked "How? What do we do?" And she asked me, "Do you realize that this Shabbat is Shavuot?"
I didn't even know what that was and she explained it was both the giving of the Torah on Mt. Horeb - AND the
day of the outpouring of His Spirit, or Pentecost as I knew it. How awesome of YHVH that in His amazing timing
He called us to His Shabbat on the very day that answered the fears in my heart. And His Presence over our
family with our 3 little children was so powerful that Shabbat that it felt like a huge glove had been laid over
us. We had no doubt then what His will was for us. Immediately after that Shabbat the warfare began and all
hell literally broke loose in our lives for the next almost-year but that's another story.
But, this part is so exciting to me... a few months later we were with friends celebrating Yom Teruah for the
first time, just learning what it was, what it means, what it is all about. (We were still very fuzzy on all the
feasts). Part of the reading for that day was Devarim 30:1-5 "And it shall come to pass, when all these things
have come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind
among the nations, where YHVH your Elohim has driven you, 2 And shall teshuvah [return] to YHVH your Elohim, and
shall obey His voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your lev
[heart], and with all your being; 3 That then YHVH your Elohim will turn your captivity and have compassion upon
you, and will return and gather you from all the nations, where YHVH your Elohim has scattered you. 4 If any of
you are driven out to the farthest parts of the shamayim [heaven], from there will YHVH your Elohim gather you,
and from there will He fetch you: 5 And YHVH your Elohim will bring you into the land that your ahvot possessed,
and you shall possess it; and He will do you tov, and multiply you above your ahvot [fathers]." (It wasn't until
later that I began to see vs. 6 "And YHVH will perform brit-milah [cirumcision] upon your lev [heart], and the lev
of your zera [seed, offspring], to love YHVH your Elohim with all your lev, and with all your being, that you may
live.") As we were reading that passage together YHVH spoke to me again, as clearly as the first time and said,
"THAT'S THE GATHERING I AM TALKING ABOUT."
In these few years that have passed He has been circumcising our hearts, revealing the idols and paganism and
rebellion in our own lives and the lives of the generations before us and revealing His plan of gathering Israel
back to Him. It has been an ongoing process of His revealing, our repentance and being delivered and healed. We
have grown and are no longer the same people we were and by His mercy we won't remain as we are but continue to be
changed. And we've learned we aren't even the people we thought we were. But through these times of searching and
testings and the stripping away of the realms of death as we come into His Life, when we have questioned so much,
we have had the assurance that came directly from Him. He is gathering us and we are in awe that He has included
us in this awesome move of His Ruach, prophesied of throughout His Word. We have learned so much and have so much
to learn. But we know, not from the mouth of any man but spoken directly by His Ruach to my spirit, twice, and
before I'd ever heard of any such thing, and confirmed in His Word, that He IS Gathering His people. We are
thankful beyond any words to be a part of His Remnant.
Many months before, just after we kept our first Shabbat, that dear patient friend told me that the reason He put
it upon our hearts to do so is that we are a part of Israel. In my profound ignorance I laughed at her and said,
"I don't THINK so.... we're Irish!" The thought of it makes me smile now. Oh the unfathomable mercies and
lovingkindness of our Abba!
That is just a nutshell story of part of what our Kinsman Redeemer Yeshua haMoshiach has done to lift the dry,
dead bones of just one tiny part of Israel from the grave, and breathe Life into us. And I am sure the story is
similar for so many others. It is completely His work. I hope sharing our story is a blessing to you.
Shalom, Cindy