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Turning to God
HaGefen’s goal is to
serve the churches in Israel in their God-given task of evangelism and
discipleship. We work to fulfil that goal mainly, but not only, through
publishing. We recognise that one of the many needs of the growing
church in
Israel is evangelistic material. As Jewish people show increasing
interest in
the gospel there is need for literature that explains why Jesus of
Nazareth is
the promised Messiah of the Old Testament.
Our latest
publication
is an evangelistic booklet, Turning to God, written by Tuvya
Zaretsky of
Jews for Jesus, in which he clearly explains from the Scriptures and
the Jewish
writings man’s need for repentance and what that entails.
This
booklet was published by HaGefen in
1987 and reprinted in 1991 but, despite a need for the publication, it
has long
been out of print. Thankfully, there is a growing demand for
evangelistic
material as more churches and individuals become involved in preaching
the
gospel.
As
technology has
advanced, our digitally saved files have become irretrievably obsolete.
However, new technology has also provided the means for recovering lost
material and in 2007 HaGefen purchased software that converts scanned
pages
into a digital format. Turning to God was scanned and carefully
proofread to correct mis-identified letters, during which process minor
editorial changes were also made.
The book’s
jacket needed
to be updated no less than the text. One of HaGefen’s objectives is to
train
graphic artists, writers and editors, so two young graphic artists were
asked
to propose sketches and a concept for the cover. The most suitable one
was
chosen and the artist made minor changes to the fonts, colours and so
on.
For better
or for worse,
Israelis judge a book by its cover and, to inspire interest in the
booklet, we
needed to be creative in the design. Since the book talks of
repentance, we
chose a picture of a child being led by the hand along a sandy beach,
with
words from Isaiah 53:6: “All of us like sheep have gone astray,
each of us
has turned to his own way”. The idea was for the biblical text to
emphasise
the reader’s need and for the picture to arouse his curiosity regarding
the
solution. The final product is before you!
The
initial print run
was 5,000 copies and as 4,000 copies were distrbuted in just two
months, we are
now considering a reprint of at least another 5,000 copies. We are
thrilled to
think that within a few weeks hundreds of people could have read Turning
to
God. In addition, we have received positive reports about the way
the
booklet is being used. To see the fruit of our labours
both
encourages us and confirms that there is a demand for the literature
that we
continue to publish.
Please
pray that the
Lord will use the booklet for his glory, and to call his people to
himself.
David Zadok
For HaGefen Publishing www.ha-gefen.org.il
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