Winter 2012

Personal Note

Shalom from Las Vegas! The Hill family is praising the Lord for what He is doing in our lives. On Feb. 19, we celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary! We are thankful for the Lord’s love and preservation of our vows we made to one another and to Him 18 years ago. He has blessed us mightily, and we continue to look forward to many more blessed years together in Him.

Las Vegas hosted a yearly national archery competition where participants came from all over the world. Our girls participated this year, and Stephanie placed second in her category while shooting the best she’s ever shot in two consecutive days! God certainly blessed her with a straight shot and a keen eye.

Joseph & Mara

After a great day of evangelizing at UNLV, members of our volunteer group went out to eat. At the restaurant, Rich noticed an elderly couple watching them. “Mara” was viewing Rich’s “Jesus Loves You” star of David sweatshirt and smiling at the same time. This was an unusual reaction, so Rich said hello and gave her a tract. After we all ate, “Joseph & Mara” approached our table and started a conversation. It turned out that Joseph is a 90-year-old Sephardic Jew, and Mara is a 65-year-old Israeli Jew. We invited them to sit with us, and we spent the afternoon “schmoozing” with them—much of our time was talking about Jesus!

Joseph had many questions, and was in awe of our answers. We explained that we knew nothing of God other than what was revealed to us in the Scriptures. Although he knew of the Gospel of Jesus, he would often giggle with the response, “That’s impossible!” Toward the end of our conversation, a member of our team asked Joseph if he wanted to pray to receive Jesus as his Messiah. Knowing the truth of the Gospel message just presented to him, Joseph joyfully responded “yes” and prayed with us right at the table! It is never too late in life to repent and change one’s mind and heart about Jesus. The extra good news was that Mara was already a believer of Jesus. Now they can live a life of faith together!

We have since visited Joseph and Mara, and have encouraged them in the Lord. They both have failing health issues and need help. At their families’ and our requests, they applied for social services. Please pray the Lord will provide for their needs.

Megan

The Lord certainly moves in mysterious ways. Oanh went shopping at the local supermarket and found a wallet lying in the middle of the parking lot. The big question was, “What do we do?” Do we turn it over to police or give it to the supermarket? Who knows how long it would take for Megan to get her wallet back? We prayed about it and decided to try to track down this young lady.

There was no phone number in her wallet, so we performed an Internet search and actually found her mother and brother living in Michigan. Rich talked with Megan’s mother on the phone. She was obviously shocked that someone would go to great lengths to return a wallet. We explained the reason was simple—we love Jesus! We do all mitzvot (good deeds) because of our love for the Lord. Megan’s mother is Catholic, so we had quite the conversation about Jesus. She realized this was God’s miracle to bring us all together and share about Jesus. She was so excited about meeting Messianic Jewish people that she said she would share this miracle with her best friend who is Jewish. As we gave Megan her wallet back, we were able to share the love of Jesus with her. As far as we know, Megan and her mother did not receive Jesus that day, but the seeds of hope were planted and God’s miracle was cherished.

Our Guinea Pig “Rose”

You may remember in our last Rich’s Reporter that Rose lost her much beloved friend Angel to a mystery disease last summer. After this, and just prior to our California tour, Rose got sick also. We immediately took her to a new veterinarian who turned out to be Jewish. During our visit, he noticed Rich’s shirt that has a Jewish star and “Yeshua” written on it. So, we shared the Gospel with him in a Jewish way and gave him a tract.

An objection he had was that Jesus’ name was not mentioned in the Tanach. This was not a typical Jewish objection that we’ve heard before, but we simply explained that there was not a personal name associated with the Messiah in the Tenach except for “Immanuel” (which means “God is with us”) in Isa. 7:14. The Messiah is not named per se, but He is definitely described as our God who would die for the sin of the world. We told him that Yeshua fulfilled this Messianic mission when He came the first time.

His second objection was that the “suffering servant” was not Jesus but Israel. He said you could substitute Israel with the word “servant” and it makes sense. Now this was a typical Jewish objection about Jesus, and Rich responded by saying: “The rabbis have taught our people that this is the truth, but have you ever gone to the Scripture (Isa. 53) and read it by replacing the suffering servant with Israel? I have, and it does not make sense. It would then say that Israel died for Israel’s sins!”

He confessed that he had not actually tried it, and we encouraged him to do it. Rich even offered to meet with him to go over this and other Scriptures, but he refused the offer. Maybe we will be able to talk with him again someday. It is amazing, but God even uses the sickness of a pet to try to bring eternal life to those who need to hear!

A Christmas Party

God is working even at a Christmas party. While celebrating at a friend’s party, we learned that a youth was having trouble. She explained that she had recently given her heart to the Lord, but she was hearing voices in her room and sensing that something very bad was there too. This young lady came from a Muslim family, and one family member was into voodoo. God had set- up a wonderful experiential opportunity to teach the 10 youths at the party about spiritual warfare.

Satan and his demons are alive and well. Their goal is to disrupt our walk with the Lord in any way they are allowed by God. But the Lord has given us the power in Jesus’ name to cast them out of our lives—just like when Jesus cast the demons into the pigs (Mark 5:1-13). We certainly don’t want these uninvited evil guests living in our houses or in our lives, so Rich gave instructions on how to deal with them when they sense there is demonic activity in their lives. It was wonderful to see their smiling faces knowing that God cares for them and has already given them victory in spiritual warfare through the wonderful name of Jesus!

“You and All Your Household”

You may remember us writing about Sampson and his family—they have attended Beth Yeshua for years, and Sampson also volunteered on campus evangelizing with CJF Ministries. Well, one day Sampson hurt his shoulder and asked if he could use Oanh’s special cream that helps with pain. She was going to drop off the cream at Sampson’s house on her way to running errands, but God had other plans.

On her way out of the house, Sampson asked Oanh to pray for his sister-in-law’s physical and spiritual healing. She was a non-believer who needed Jesus. While Oanh was leaving, lo and behold, his sister-in-law showed up at Sampson’s house. Oanh and her discussed her physical problems, but more importantly they talked about her spiritual problem. She was so distraught that she broke down in tears while Oanh shared the Gospel, and then she joyfully received Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Oanh encouraged her to tell Sampson’s family, including his father, that she just had received the Lord—and she did.

Oanh was preparing to leave Sampson’s house again, when he asked her to pray for his brother’s hardened heart against Jesus. Lo and behold, guess who walked in the front door—Sampson’s brother! Oanh talked with him for some time about the Gospel, and he also received Jesus right there in Sampson’s house! Oanh then exhorted him to share with the rest of the family and he did.

Everyone in the house then praised the Lord and hugged one another for the salvation brought to Sampson’s household that day! It simply is amazing what God has in store for us as long as we are ready to respond to His working all around in our lives.

Salvation Update

Since the previous issue of Rich’s Reporter, 10 people (including 1 Jewish) received Jesus as their Lord and Savior through our ministry. In 11½ years of ministering in Las Vegas as CJFM missionaries, we have led a total of 788 souls (including 57 Jewish people) to the Lord. We praise the Lord for using us to His Glory!

Please Pray for . . .

• More churches and individuals to join us as partners in this important ministry to the Jewish people.
• God to continue to bless and open more doors of opportunity for each of our outreaches: Beth Yeshua, UNLV, mall, speaking in churches, one-on-one referrals, and the dance team in convalescent homes.
• Even more volunteers for our UNLV and mall outreaches this year.
• God’s revival in Las Vegas and on the UNLV campus.

Thanks from the Hill Family

You are greatly appreciated! Without your prayers and financial support, we would be unable to continue as missionaries to the 80,000 Jewish people in Las Vegas. We praise God for you, and thank you for your love and commitment.

If our ministry has blessed you, then please consider joining us as consistent financial partners. We need your help. Thank you, and may the Lord continue to bless you with His promise! In Genesis 12:3, God said to Abram, “And I will bless those who bless you.”

In Messiah’s love,

Rich & Oanh