Reshet ministries, meaning "net" or "network" in Hebrew, was the name given in 2009 to a network of Christian leaders in Leicester who for a number of years have shared a burden to promote a biblical understanding of the significance of Israel and its relevance to the Church today.
The photo opposite is symbolic of our ministry. It is a rope bridge linking two peaks in Ireland – called "Carrick a Rede." We see our network – our "Reshet" as being part of an interlocking bridge linking the "peaks" of Israel, God's first covenant people, and the Church, his latter covenant people.
Over a number of years the Inter-church Prayer for Israel group (PFI) led by David Evans in conjunction with Bible Hall led by Peter Austin has organised conferences, celebrated the feasts, invited speakers from all over Israel and given teaching in churches by request. We have seen Christians from Leicester go to serve God in Jerusalem and Haifa in Israel, we have financially supported them and other ministries both nationally and internationally who share our heart for Israel and have made resources available from various organisations.
We sensed it was time for our operation to be re-named since many of those we have welcomed often under the banner of PFI have come from CMJ (the Church's Ministry Among Jewish People), CFI (Christian Friends of Israel) and other independent organisations both in Israel and the UK. So, basically, "Reshet" is aptly named because of the many and various links we have both with organisations in Israel and the UK. We also felt that God was about to expand our work, and indeed since we began to pray together regularly under the Reshet banner we have seen the number of opportunities for meetings and ministry increase.
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are called Gentiles by birth ... were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the enmity occasioned by the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them (Jews and Gentiles) to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility ... for through Him we both have access to the father by one spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow – citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord."
Ephesians 2 v 11-22 (abridged)
