On Erev Passover, ECHAD ascended to the upper west with some gospel literature, posters and a garbage bin. We drove up,chose a spot to set up and waited. The upper-west side of Manhattan is fairly densely populated with Jewish people: young families,holocaust survivors and several large synagogues. This has made it a favorite area for our Jews for Jesus missionaries to do street evangelism in.
Passover commemorates God bringing our Jewish people out from the land of Egypt into their promised land of Israel. A believers in Y’Shua,we also see how he ultimately became the perfect passover sacrifice.The scriptures tell us that the Israelite’s could not wait for their bread to rise leaving Egypt so they were instructed to leave with it as it was,unleavened. Chametz or leaven is a symbol for sin and pride in the bible, a little of it causing the entire loaf to become puffed up. Weeks before Passover it is tradition for everything containing leaven to be removed from the home,and burned up in a furnace at the synagogue.
While we couldn’t have a furnace in the upper-west,we decided to have a big trash can with a sign saying ’ CHAMETZ ‘. For 2 hours we handed out tracts and had people refuse them.We had people who were seriously seeking and people who were seriously crazy.
Our objective was to use a timely Jewish holiday to communicate the gospel in a creative way. We are finding in our out reaches that humor goes a long way to break down barriers,to gently impress important and poignant issues. We were able to share with many Jewish people,the miracle of salvation.
