Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah

Love For His People, Inc.    12120 Woodside Falls Rd. 

Pineville, NC 28134     704-806-6934 

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to our family of friends!

We are grateful to be able to send this year end letter to you, sharing with our family and friends the good year  the Lord has blessed us with. As the year of 2011 draws to an end, our first full year of growing the ministry of Love For His People,  we treasure what the Lord has accomplished. It is because of your friendship, support and encouragement along the way.  As I thought about what the Lord’s provision and direction has brought, my heart is most appreciative. We give thanks, while continuing in the path He has been leading us on. Without the Holy Spirit’s presence, and yours in our midst, I know the trek would have been less fruitful. Let me share some of the moments and events that Laurie and I participated in, and the work of the ministry that we were able to participate in, to bring encouragement and strengthening to others.

Beginning in January, Laurie and I began hosting the newly formed Friday night meetings called Beit Tikvah, as part of Antioch International Church in Fort Mill, SC. These continue to be a time to bless Israel, learn of our Jewish roots, and share in the Shabbat candle lighting. Leading Messianic style song worship, most often with the help of Little Big Eagle, Mary and Little Deer, and others, was a joy. Senior Pastor Peter Wyns shared regularly on our Jewish roots and our need in standing solidly with Israel. We are most grateful for our heritage given to us as believers, through the Lord’s chosen people.

In February we attended the NRB (National Religious Broadcasters) annual convention in Nashville. Our greatest joy was being invited to the Israel Ministry of Tourism breakfast. Later that night we further showed support for Israel by attending the annual ministry meeting of Proclamation to the Nations, headed by Laurie Cardoza Moore, of Nashville. Our desire continues to grow stronger to stand with those who stand with the nation of Israel, and the Jewish people worldwide. That is one of the major thrusts of the ministry entrusted to us.

Three times this year Laurie and I led worship for the quarterly assemblies of Highway to Zion, here in Charlotte, NC, headed by our good friend Cathy Hargett (also a director on our LFHP ministry board). Additionally we greatly enjoyed our times with our dear friends of Beit Yeshua in Lincolnton, NC. Curtis Loftin (another director on our board ), whom we have grown to very much appreciate over the past five years, his wife Carolyn, along with the Williams, the Miles and the Anthonys, regularly included us in their feast celebrations. I shared a brief word on how to practically support Israel, at their annual “Honoring Israel Night” in May.

Later that month we joined in the March of Remembrance, annually commemorating Holocaust victims, at the China Grove, NC gathering. Headed worldwide by Messianic song artist Ted Pearce, the local public display of support was put together by our friend Rabbi Yossi Wentz and the Messianic congregation of Beit Shofarot.

I personally enjoyed writing the 30 issues of the Ahava Love Newsletter this year, shared through e-mail, on our blog site http://loveforhispeople.blogspot.com/,  and my personal Facebook note pages. It also is a regular posting on our Cross TV web page  (http://www.cross.tv/love_for_his_people_ministries).  Included in each edition was my Ahava Love Letter and an article by another board member, Dr. Bill Duerfeldt, from Asheville, NC (when he and his wife Cindi are not volunteering in Jerusalem!)

With a major portion of the generous donations of over $17,000 received this calendar year, we were able to give monthly support to a Messianic Jewish family of five in Jerusalem.  Also serving in Jerusalem, Jim and Linda, volunteers on the staff of Christian Friends of Israel, received monthly support through us for their work in The Land. Pastor John Ebenezer of Hyderabad, India, beginning his new orphanage called Lighthouse Center India, was blessed through the gracious contributions of our regular donors. Orphans in Liberia and Jewish kindergartens in southern Jerusalem were also impacted this past year, as together we extended His loving embrace.

Thank you for your ongoing support. We simply cannot extend His love for His people without you in 2012. We love you!

Shalom and ahava,

Steve & Laurie Martin