Shalom All:
We celebrated Shavuot at the MIA Salt Lake convocation, and it was a wonderful experience!

I feel so full of God that my cup runneth over and I have to tell someone about what happened. Our theme was Jeremiah 50:4-5:

In those days and at that time, declares YHVH, the sons of Israel will come, both they and the sons of Judah as well; they will go along weeping as they go, and it will be YHVH their God they will seek. They will ask for the way to Zion, turning their faces in its direction; they will come that they may join themselves to YHVH in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.

Every teacher built on these verses and on Sunday morning I brought out that at the first Shavuot Israel was given the Tablets of the Covenant, a “Wedding Ketubah,” and they said “I Do” to the Almighty. On a Shavuot morning many years later, Messiah Yeshua’s disciples met in an upper room and the Holy Spirit was poured out on them. With this outpouring, YHVH’s people were empowered to walk in the Wedding Covenant given to them at Mt. Horeb.

I then reminded them that the prescribed offering commanded for the feast of Shavuot was the waving of two leavened loaves of bread. Because they contained leaven, they were not fit to be offered on the altar, but they were nonetheless, Abba’s prescribed wave offering. These loaves represent both houses of Israel: Judah and Ephraim. The actual loaves were to be made of fine flour, yet their leaven kept them from being more than a wave offering. In the same way, both houses offer some fine teachings, but both are leavened, and in their divided state, neither one is complete.

For the feast, Heidi Strain baked two very large loaves of bread, Dr. Joe Dombeck (of Hoshana Rabbah in Portland) was dressed as the High Priest, and Sylvia and Dan were dressed in white. Dombeck carried a Torah scroll, representing the Lamb offering (Yeshua), and Sylvia and Dan carried the prescribed loaves. These were reverently waved in every direction: north, south, east, west, toward Heaven in worship, and toward the earth, bowing in humility before the Holy One. The offering was beautiful.

We invited everyone to come forward, take two pieces from the bread offering, stand before YHVH, and in re-commitment say “I Do” to His covenant. We asked Him to fill and empower us with His Spirit, and we waved our “loaves” before Him, partook of the bread, and asked Him to make us an instrument of His reconciliation, to use us to help reunite His divided house. Finally, we exited the platform one at a time, by going through the Holy of Holies.

This personal wave offering was done as Kiah Conrad played the piano and sang his new song, “Only Your Way, Yahweh.”

In one way, I don’t like telling this story because there are times in life when the words of man will not do to describe holy things. This is one of those occasions.

It was truly a wonderful celebration of Shavuot. And now with full hearts, we look toward our National Conference in St. Louis...

Even as the people of the Shavuot convocation were re-committing themselves, and asking Abba to help and empower them, so I believe there will be more of the same re-commitment and empowering in St. Louis.

Harp/singer Debra Bates suggests St. Louis 2008, will be about “Saints Loosed!”

My husband, Angus, surely agrees with this assessment. Since the mid-90's he has been teaching about the “end of Ephraim’s punishment,” which punishment he explains in detail in his book, Restoring Israel’s Kingdom. According to his scenario, the final year of Ephraim’s 2730 year-long punishment, that of being “Not a People” or Lo-Ammi, ends in 2008!

Truly, this is the year for Ephraimite Saints to be loosed!

It also is a time for serious re-commitment. Times get more serious, even potentially dangerous with each passing day. As Ephraim seeks reconciliation with brother Judah, it is time for him to repent of the deeds of his youth (Jer 31:18-19). Julianne Patton points out that, even as the “Voyage of St. Louis” was once turned away from Cuban shores, even as Jewish people were allowed to suffer the Holocaust, so we need to repent for being insensitive concerning our brother in his time of need. We need to repent of this and all of our misspent deeds. For it is time for Ephraim to once again become a mighty man and be reunited with a repentant and powerful, brother Judah (Zec 10:6-7).

Hale Harris wrote a moving article about us fasting and praying for and about this upcoming conference. This is not a time for us to have our ears tickled with “a new teaching,” but to be brought to our knees before our God. His ways are high and holy and if we are to follow Him in this hour, so our way too must be high and holy.

We truly pray and believe this is going to be more than just another conference. If Abba will allow it, this gathering will mark a pivotal time in the history of the people of scattered Israel.

You contended with them by banishing them, by driving them away. With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the east wind... "Through this Jacob’s iniquity will be forgiven; this will be the full price of the pardoning of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalk stones; when Asherim and incense altars will not stand" (Isa 27:8-9).

It is time for us to eliminate the idols from our lives, and to seek full pardon for our sins...

The virgin of Israel Has done a most appalling thing... My people have forgotten Me, They... have stumbled from... the ancient paths... Like an east wind I will scatter them (Jer 18:13-17).

It is time for Virgin Israel to look to the place from which we came, time to return to the ancient paths...

We were once scattered by an east wind from the Holy One. East winds blow toward the west. The farthest western location from Israel is California. After that, one is headed eastward.

The Arch at St. Louis is known as “The Gateway to the West.”

It is time for us to repent, time for us to look toward eastward, toward the Holy One and His ways. It is time for us to symbolically march through that Arch, but this time, with Abba’s help, we will be heading eastward...

God says, “I have surely heard Ephraim grieving.”  In response, Ephraim says:

Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, like an untrained calf; bring me back that I may be restored, for Thou art YHVH my God. For after I turned back, I repented; after I was instructed  [after I came to know myself], I smote on my thigh; I was ashamed, and humiliated, because I bore the reproach of my youth (Jer 31:18,19).

It is time for us to repent, and take on the light and easy yoke of Holy One, time to truly seek His ways...

Ephraim will be like a mighty man, their heart will be glad as if from wine; their children will see it and be glad, their heart will rejoice in YHVH. "I will whistle for them to gather them together, for I have redeemed them; and they will be as numerous as they were before" (Zec 10:7-8).

They will walk after YHVH, He will roar like a lion; indeed  He will roar and  His sons will come trembling from the West (Hos 11:10).

Abba, may we be granted ears to hear Your roar, may we hear Your voice in our ear, and may we come trembling from the west. Allow us, we pray, to make this symbolic trek and to return to You at this time...

On Monday at this conference, we will have a time devoted exclusively to the ladies. The MIA is about “the restoration of all things.” This includes the women in our midst. We have had several meaningful meetings for women and now we want to expand our efforts. On Monday morning we will have a two and a half hour meeting, followed by a luncheon. It will include a brief time of teaching, followed by a time of sharing and ministry. The Psalmist tells us, “The Lord gives the command; the women who proclaim the good tidings are a great host” (Psa 68:11). We want to help raise up Abba’s, “host of women who proclaim good tidings.” Please plan now to join us for this special time.

We also will have time devoted exclusively to dance classes (with Dan and Sylvia Calderon and with Chester Anderson), and one for music and musicians. I hope to be present in that room because I know that, at this time, Abba is releasing inspiring singers with new songs in their mouths, and one of the best ways to preach truth is to sing it!

May many Saints be loosed for service in St. Louis!

Blessings,
Batya