A lot of great things have been happening this past month with Dor Haba! After cancelling the larger youth camp we usually do in the summer, the Lord really encouraged our team and gave us fresh vision and an exciting new direction. It makes me think of that famous expression, “when God closes a door, He always opens a window.”
For Dor Haba it has been multiple windows.
The Dor Haba Collaborative
We began something called the Dor Haba Collaborative. Basically, we go with small teams to various parts of the country and partner with one or two congregations in that city or region to host two days of creative collaboration among teenagers there.
We stay in groups of 10 indoors, according to COVID-19 regulations, and no more than 20 outdoors for evening worship, teaching, and open mic. In each place, we do workshops about worship, music, songwriting, art, film, sound recording, photography, and dance.
The heart of our message is to encourage them to go deeper in their relationship with Yeshua, and, from that place of intimacy with Him, to create beautiful things together that will impact Israel, the Middle East and the world for His kingdom.
So far we’ve done six of these days in Jerusalem, one in Rishon Letzion, and two in Tel Aviv. In about 10 days we’re doing two days in Haifa, and after that Tiberias and Nazareth. There are plans to also go down to the Negev in the South and do some days there.
So, what creative projects are coming out of these Dor Haba Collaboratives? A lot of new indigenous songs written by teenagers. These songs are coming out of a real raw place in their hearts, and deal with pressing into their relationship with God and finding hope in Him in these unstable times.
They’ve come up with storylines for music videos for their songs, and we’ve begun filming these with them. The dance teams have choreographed some dances that really hit to the heart of the situation right now.
The teenagers themselves are coming up with the choreography. We just help facilitate it. They performed this past week on the boardwalk in Tel Aviv and in the city square.
Worship and Outreach on the Beach
The worship times they had on the beach in the evenings resulted in opportunities to share the Lord with people. One of the guys, Yossi, who stopped to watch and listen told me, “I’ve never seen teenagers sing with such passion and conviction. I can see they really believe what they’re singing. There must be something to it!” I was able to tell him what they believe, who they’re singing to and why.
He was glued to the floor like he couldn’t or didn’t want to leave. We talked about how God made a way for us to come close to Him by putting on flesh (Yeshua) and sacrificing Himself to make us holy.
We could visibly see on his face the work the Holy Spirit was doing in his heart. Before parting, we were able to tell him about the congregation just five minutes away that had hosted us, and we gave him the phone number of the pastor there.
New Projects Done by Youth
The idea is that the days that we do in each city will be like launching pads for continued collaboration in that city and region. For example, the six worship teams that began in Jerusalem doing the Collaborative are continuing to meet weekly in our new Dor Haba Collaborative space to write new songs and prepare them for recording and to release them online.
Dor Haba art students from all over Israel are collaborating on a graphic novel we hope to print. It is based on a vision someone had for a young Messianic believer from Jerusalem who had just been through a really hard season. A vision that has to do with the deliverance, healing, resurrection life, and identity only the blood of Yeshua can bring.
Another project in the works in the Collaborative is a Bible podcast in Hebrew and Arabic, read by teenagers to the background of original electronic music they’ve created and produced.
Please keep all these projects in your prayers. The next Dor Haba Collaborative will be with Arab and Jewish teenagers in the North of Israel, August 20-22. For this we also need your prayer!
We are also in need of video editors. If you know anyone who may want to come and serve in this way, please let us know.
In the Succat Hallel Prayer Room
Finally, in regards to the tragic explosions in Beirut, Lebanon, we have believing friends there who are reaching out to those in need of shelter and food. We are waiting and looking for an opportunity to take youth from Dor Haba to go help in some way, especially if the Lebanese government takes up Israel’s offer to help.
For now we are keeping our Lebanese brothers and sisters in prayer, especially in the worship and prayer watches led by youth and kids at the Succat Hallel house of prayer in Jerusalem. Teenagers are continuing to cover multiple hours of prayer and worship in the night throughout this month of August.
My 15-year-old daughter has a friend who is of religious Jewish background. For the past two years, she has been rebelling more and more against her religious upbringing, something that has been of great concern to her parents. Her mother frequently talks to me about it.
This friend was allowed by her parents to attend some of the night prayer watches at Succat Hallel. They were happy she wanted to do that instead of hanging out downtown with secular friends. So we can see Yeshua is at work in these troubling times, bringing those who are hungry and thirsty to Himself.
Thank you again for your prayer, love, and support!
May you be filled with Yeshua’s abundant grace, peace, and joy – He is truly our rock in the storm.
In His love,
Tal Rosenfeld
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