Rhonda's Story
We’ve believed in Yeshua as our Messiah for many years; however, since 2005 as we homeschooled our children, God started teaching us about God's Appointed Times vs man-made holidays. We didn't realize it until 2017 when Adonai started downloading information on us like a fire hydrant about His holidays and Replacement Theology in the Church. It has made us realize how far away the church is from its Jewish Roots. We have also realized how the church has clothed Yeshua in pagan clothing. We want to learn all we can so we can help the church understand the repentance that needs to take place in order to provoke Jews to jealousy and return to the ancient paths. In 2008, we started pursuing overseas mission work. God closed the doors on us about a year later but has used our physical therapy business as a launching/landing pad for overseas workers of the Gospel since that time over and over again.
Since around 2013, we feel we have been called to have a clinic overseas in the area of Jordan or Israel. It sounds big, but God has shown us that He wants us to pursue it, and if He opens doors, we are willing to go and/or send others from our clinic that are like-minded. We want to learn as much as we can in order to hire and develop workers that are willing to share the love of God in Truth. We desire for all to know Him in His fullest. We believe that God has put the brakes on us going overseas until we learn more about the Truth of His Torah and how He wants us to follow and obey His commandments.
Many things, not just one, lead us to believe that we are to take our clinic model overseas. We have had Muslim friends that we have spent time with and prayed for since around 2010 tell us we should put a clinic in Jordan. In 2013-14, we had about 3 different encounters in which we were encouraged to put a clinic overseas - our Jordan Muslim friends, a mission pastor, and Adonai just speaking to our hearts prior to both of these encounters. It blew us away that one of those encouragements came from the Muslim family that is from Jordan. Because of this, we started working towards having 5 clinics stateside to fund an overseas clinic. Currently, we have two clinics.
Physical therapy is different than many business models -people come for physical therapy to have treatment 2-3 times per week and spend 45-60 minutes each session. We have learned over the years that many times when someone is dealing with a chronic physical injury, they also have spiritual and/or emotional issues that are causing it to be difficult to heal from the physical ailment. People are very willing to listen to spiritual counseling during their treatments because they are dealing with pain and injury and want to get better. Therefore, it is very easy to share Truth during the time spent with patients. This is why a mission pastor encouraged us to consider using our business model overseas to reach the unreached people groups of the world.
We want to equip ourselves as much as possible if God is calling us because we have realized how much we don’t know. We also have realized that even if we don't go overseas, God wants us to learn and do -obeying His commandments. While learning the Torah, we have realized how beneficial it would also be to understand Hebrew better. We have sought out as many resources as we can find to help us become better equipped. Currently, we are leading a Torah Club through FFOZ in Northwest Arkansas studying Shadows of Messiah. We want to learn to do things here better before we consider ever doing the same things in a different culture. Other resources we have learned from has been Rabbi Shapira with Ahavat Ammi, Breaking Israel News, El Shaddai Ministries, and Beth Yeshua International Ministries. More than anything, God has brought patients and staff into our lives that have also been studying and becoming more obedient to God’s Torah in love.
Over the past two years, we as a family have chosen to avoid Easter & Christmas - realizing their pagan roots. We have been learning and observing God's Appointed Times. This has caused some HARD issues with our extended family, which have not come alongside yet. Truly, we have rocked our kid’s worlds by changing from man-made holiday celebrations to God’s Appointed Times as well as changing our diet, yet they have been willing to learn and do.
Now, about our family. Below in the picture are our most precious people God has given us. From L to R - Jace: He is 21 and a student at the University of Arkansas. He should graduate with his Bachelors in Business this next year and plans to pursue his Master's degree as well. He has a very strong heart for mission work and has traveled overseas to the Maldives and Indonesia. He is very intentional about international outreach at the U of A while he studies.
Next is Ryli. She is 17 and attends high school at Shiloh Christian School. Her 8th grade Bible teacher understands the importance of the Torah and she has encouraged him to teach her friends Torah weekly. She is full of energy and very social. She wants to be a vet and LOVES horses. She is very skilled with horses, and God has shown us that there are actually some facilities using horses to help kids in Israel heal emotionally. This too, has caught our attention.
Next is my husband Joe, and myself. We are 50 and want to finish the race well. We have no retirement fund, instead, we pour our money into our family, business, and people God puts into our path. We are broken like so many others but know our righteousness is only through Yeshua our Messiah. However, because we love our Abba Father, we want to obey Him.
To our right is our son, Jasper and his wife Sarah. Jasper is 25 and has been married for about 2 years. He writes music and works at our clinic. If you look him up on Facebook, he is currently working on releasing his songs. He recently released a new song called the Sinner this Friday. He has been inspired a great deal by Switchfoot and Jon Foreman. He too, understands how much we need to grasp hold of God’s absolute Truth from cover to cover. His wife Sarah is a 3rd-grade teacher and is very supportive and learning with us. She is adorable.
Jaret, on the far right, is a Freshman at the University of Arkansas. He was the star running back in football last year and has an amazing testimony about trusting God. It would take a lot of space for me to write about that story here, but maybe we can share that another time. He is currently taking a semester off from school, and really trying to figure out what God wants him to do next. He thinks he might want to pursue being a pilot. He loves people and is very social, but doesn’t really get everything we are doing with changing life as he knew it from 5-10 years ago. He is as loyal as they come.
Have you shared your story yet? Send it in here: https://goo.gl/LxP9gJ
Did you become a member yet? Join here: https://goo.gl/ngu4Ao
Want to help out? Volunteer here: https://is.gd/SuFJ1S