Simeon's Cry Ministries
Sean and Ayelet Steckbeck's ministry in the Negev Desert town of Metar
simeons_cry@hotmail.com

From the email notice on Nov 14, 2006
Israel Messianic Supreme Court Case


We now know the day of our Supreme Court case in Israel to be December 13th [the Court will now hear the case in May 2007].

Since this is a precedent-setting case, we are asking for as many prayers as possible. If anybody has contacts with prayer chains, prayer lists, intercession teams, houses of prayer, houses of worship, churches and congregations, prophetic teams, etc. PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE TO PRAY! We believe this case needs to be bathed in intercession and prophetic declaration.

For those of you who do not know us, our names are Sean and Ayelet Steckbeck. Ayelet is a native Israeli that became a believer after a supernatural revelation of Yeshua (Jesus) while attending an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem. Sean is an American believer that lives and serves with his wife in ministry in Israel and has applied for Israeli citizenship four years ago.

After a year into the four-year process, the Ministry of Interior in Israel harassed us for being believers. Receiving a hint before they harassed us in the interview, our lawyer had us wire ourselves for a public record of the harassment.

They are refusing to give me citizenship on the basis that I am a believer in ministry among the messianic movement in Israel. After posting our story with an interview on the Mabat Israeli News channel with the wired conversations last year, our believing lawyer decided to take our case with two other families in the “Bagatz” or the Israeli Supreme Court. Now, in my fourth year in Israel, we are going to the Supreme Court in May 2007.

This case has precedent setting features that include making it illegal for government offices in Israel to receive information from the anti missionary organizations (such as Yad Lachim) that are the enemies of messianic Jews and have been the main cause for our persecution.

Please pray for us--Sean and Ayelet and our children Maayan and Asaf Steckbeck; for our believing lawyer, Caleb Myers, and his assistants, Mike Decker and Sharon Weisman. Pray for the head of the Supreme Court and for the other two believing families who are also being represented in this court case.

Thank You,
The Steckbeck Family

Update on Messianic Supreme Court Case from December 12, 2006 email

RE:Update

A couple days they postponed the court date to May. They only get one postponement, but this time they waited until nearly the last second.

One of the things to pray about is that we are requesting for the case to be heard earlier than May. Our attorney was not sure that this would happen.

A day after the case was postponed we had to go to the Ministry of Interior to get my son's birth certificate (I have a three month old and we had the hospital papers and had not received a birth certificate as of yet). This is a simple five minute process for every normal citizen and of course has nothing to do with my status. I went to do this when the Ministry of Interior decided to take the hospital papers, my identity card (todat zehut), and my wife's identity card and told me they would mail it to me. I asked them why? They said something was written in the computer that they had to check.

I went to the car to tell my wife, who in turn called Caleb to ask his advice. He told us to buy a tape recorder again and tape the conversation and go back and ask them why. So my wife and I went back, and we had an interview with the Beer Sheva manager of the Ministry of Interior. She explained to us that she had no idea why they had to check with the main office in Jerusalem, but that is what the computer said.

So we told her how the Jerusalem office is discriminating against us because we are messianic believers. We told her that it should in no ways effect us getting a birth certificate for my son, and we told her that this is discrimination at the highest level that we can not receive service like all other citizens. She agreed with us. They had a conversation between the managers in the back and called Jerusalem. I overheard the Beer Sheva people saying that we were right and what they were doing to us was wrong. THEY ACTUALLY AGREED THAT WE WERE BEING DISCRIMINATED AGAINST AND IT WAS WRONG. In the end, they did everything they could and got us the birth certificate we needed.

Please pray for the believers who are faced with having to go before the highest courts of the land to receive the justice and freedoms granted to all other Israeli Jews. In the fight for freedom, sometimes we have to do things--like taking others to court--in order to secure freedoms for others and not just ourselves.

These legal battles of the believers in Israel are very much like the battles that were fought in the U.S.A. in the 1960's when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus and black children and young people had to be escorted under Federal protection to attend the schools and universites in their sourthern state communities.

Let's not idealize the persecutors just because the denial of religious freedom is taking place Israel. Everyone has the right to choose their religious belief without persecution in their community because of their choice. To believe this way is NOT anti-Jewish or anti-Israel, it is pro-freedom of choice.

Please remember that whenever you send out information about the case,
or make mention of it through your various forums and media,
that the following be included as a constant reminder:

This case is not against Israel or against the Jewish people.
It is not to be used in any way
to foment or promote anti-Israel or anti-Jewish actions or reactions.
It is already known through the Scriptures
that Israel at present is opposed to the good news of God,
so we are not out to make them an enemy.
Nor is our legal action intended to be used by any other minority
or religious groups in Israel to encourage or affirm anti-Israel/Jewish sentiment.

For the sake of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, Israel and her people are beloved
by God the Father for His honor and glory, and for the honor and glory of His Son.