Eitan
Kashtan
Nine years ago the
phone rang in our house. The man on the other end of the
line introduced himself as Paul: "Orit’s father has
died", he said, "do you want us to bury him here?" The next
day my wife Orit flew to the USA, where she spent a week.
While there she discovered that her father, who left his
family in Israel and became a gambler, had before his death
joined a "religious group".
I
was perplexed. He was an officer in the Israeli army and a
chess champion. How could such a smart person believe in
God?
Orit told me that the people among whom he had lived were
very "special": "They are kind, humble and good. I never
saw people like that". She asked if we could spend some
time with them in the States so she could have the
opportunity to learn more about what her father had come to
believe.
"If they give us a place to live, a reasonable salary and a
nice car, I don’t mind", I said.
Three months later we were in a mission school called
Masters Mission, right in the middle of the Smoky Mountains
of North Carolina. The people there accepted us with open
arms and we were soon impressed with their knowledge of the
Bible and their commitment to practise their faith. But we
held firm to the opinion that they were wasting their time
and talents.
My wife and I proceeded to try and show these fine people
that God did not exist and that Jesus was not the Messiah.
We joined their Bible classes and read the Scriptures at
home, trying to find contradictions. But, try as we may, we
could not find any.
After nine months of intensive study, God drew my wife to
himself. It took me another month because I resisted: I
knew the gospel was truth, but I was not willing to repent
and yield my life to the Lordship of Jesus. Then God in his
grace broke into my heart too.
We eagerly wanted to return to Israel to tell others about
the truth we had found and did so in 1990. We have since
become members of Grace and Truth congregation and I now
work with HaGefen Publishing. We are very grateful to the
Lord for the privilege of being involved in Christian work
and we thank God for accepting us sinners as His
children.