We thank and praise the Lord for all your faithful prayers for our pre-trial hearing on Monday.  A number of you have called or written to see how things went.  I have waited till now to send out a brief report, so that I could include our lawyers 'official' summarization.

The only person missing physically from the proceeding was the rabbi Yehuda Deri, who was available by telephone, however, if needed.  For Yad L'Achim, instead of the director of the entire organization, their famous (around Israel, at least) activist and head of the Department for the Battle/War Against The Mission was present.  His name is Alex Artovski.  When he identified himself to the judge Iddo Ruzin as the head of this department, the honorable judge was somewhat amused and surprised that there is actually such a ministry by that name!  Alex went on to state, without any further ado, that we were out "to finish off the Jewish people".  With that unprovoked and unsolicited opening volley, the Judge sternly rebuked him and told him to stop.  Alex, as representing Yad L'Achim, also refused any consideration of 'compromise' to come to some workable agreement.

Judge Ruzin seems to be a 'human being' in his desire to see adversarial parties try to resolve their disputes out of court, and has a credo, 'Live and let live'.  He seems to pay attention to the parties, and to see from where the issues arise.  Please pray that he would continue throughout the case to be the presiding judge, and that his judgment would be just.

The judge has asked the four attorneys to sit together to try to come to some agreeable arrangement; even Yad L'Achim's lawyer, Moshe Morganstern, agreed, despite his client's unwillingness.  Rabbi Deri's attorney is Hasoon Nuni.  No one really thinks that the lawyers will succeed in this -- and we have our own minimal conditions, as we seek to  maintain the honor of the Lord in all this -- and the judge wants to hear from them by Dec. 1. 

The next scheduled preliminary hearing (again) is set for February 17, 2008.  There is a different 'sense of time' here in the Middle East!

The website below will give you some visual and audio sense of the riotous atmosphere during the demonstration against the believers.  Even though the pictures will repeat themselves, the audio (mostly in Hebrew) carries on through other scenes not displayed.

http://www.messianicgarden.com/

--Pray that Judge Iddo Ruzin would fear God in his conduct throughout the hearing, trial, and judgment; that he is not one to take a bribe, or to be intimidated by fear of 'powerful' authorities amongst men; that he would be able to discern the truth and to keep focused on the real issues and evidence.

  --Pray for our two believing lawyers, Marvin Kramer and Kevork Nalbandian, that they would be humble in their manner as lawyers, but wise with the wisdom which is from above in their strategy against the schemes of the adversaries; that Marvin and Kevork would maintain unity, which can not be divided, and help each other keep on course and discern the flow of proceedings.

  --Pray that our witnesses would be reliable when called to testify, with a clear memory, and that scheduling of trial dates would favor their appearance before the court.

  --Pray that whatever may come upon us in the course of this case, that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ/Yeshua the Messiah will be honored, and that the will of God will be discerned by us so as to act in godly faith and obedience to allow God to accomplish all His purposes regarding the suit and its consequences.