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Sephardic Anusim Center of the Americas
Newsletter
January 2009
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"The exiles from Jerusalem who are in
Sepharad will possess the towns of the Negev."
(Obadiah 20)
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The term, "coalition" simply means "union into one
body or mass" and includes the need to be in an
alliance with fellow members of the coalition.
Webster's Dictionary includes the
term, "combination" which expresses the reality
of many diverse members entering into a coalition by
combining their diverse talents, skills and
abilities into one united body. In other words, there's
supposed to be diversity within some uniformity and
uniformity within diversity.
I believe it's time for us to coalesce and set aside the
differences that disunite us in order that God's
purposes for aliyah be accomplished 'before it's too
late.' I say this because Israel needs us more
than ever - and we need Israel more than ever as
well. We need to come together like the dry
bones of Ezekiel's vision or it's possible that we'll
remain dry in our own little worlds. (Ezekiel 37) Verse
10 declares that the dry bones that came together
became a "vast army." Another version reads, "An
exceedingly great army."
I can relate to this vast and exceedingly great army!
But it didn't become vast and great much less an army
until each individual member complied with the
Maker's prophetic demand.
Therefore, to some of you I am encouraging, to others
I am challenging and to others I am appealing that we
pay the price of getting united so that the 'powers that
be' in Israel might listen to us and at last hear our
united outcry all across this nation and hemisphere.
This is not a money making venture but we do know
that it'll take a lot of money to mobilize our people to
make aliyah. This is not a religious group but we are
people of faith. This is not a political group but we
intend to do as much advocacy as we need to in order
to create a need to be heard and subsequently also
allowed to make aliyah.
There are three dimensions to this coalition:
founders, associates and friends. We already
have most of the founding members and would like to
identify more. We also have a few associates and
need many, many more. Now we need to quickly
expand the dimension of our coalition's "friends."
Associates are those that want to be involved in as
many ways as feasible to them; and "friends" are all of
those that want to help by praying, informing others
and occasionally helping us out when they can.
Our intent is to keep all coalition members informed
on progress as well as hurdles on that lie ahead. We
also intend to hold centralized as well as
decentralized meetings all across our nation and
particularly in the Negev of Israel.
If you'd like to become a member of ACA
meaning, "Anusim Coalition of the Americas" email
me your response ASAP. I'll send you additional
information and a simple one page questionnaire to
fill out so that we might have record of all members of
our coalition and thus keep communication lines
open. (Refer to the bottom of this newsletter for
ACA's vision statement.)
Now let's move on to the spiritual and prophetic
message God has given me.
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WHAT'S IN STORE IN '09 AND BEYOND?
I believe that in times like we're living in these days,
we want to know what's in store for us in America and
around the world. A lot of folks like to create jingles
that rhyme with the New Year such as, "It'll be fine
in '09." But to be honest with you, I don't think
it'll be too fine in '09 and neither does my
overview of this New Year have any rhyme or jingle.
In a nutshell, here's what I'm hearing in my soul. I'm
persuaded that '09 is a year of
accountability. The sooner we get to
counting our blessings, our resources, our assets
and liabilities as well as our relationships, the better
we'll fair out as this year progresses.
In other words, it's time to start counting, accounting
and recounting in order to show ourselves
accountable to God as well as to those that really
matter around us.
I believe it's a time to take good stock of everything
God has given us or allowed us to gather. I'm
convinced that it's time to pay close attention to detail
and to do our due diligence about our
spirituality as well as our daily lives.
In other words, it's time to count the cost at every level.
We must count our resources as well as our needs.
This isn't a time to begin projects we can't finish,
unless God mandates it in our lives. I believe that
counting the cost means we must lunge forward in
faith and not presumption or in someone else's faith.
Counting the cost means we must have a good grasp
of what God is requiring of us and do only that-no
more and no less. In other words, we need a good
plan - God's plan for us.
This compels us to know what God's purpose is for
us in general and specifically for this New Year. We
must march forward in a determined cadence without
looking back or later saying, "I should've this, I
should've that."
"But how am I to proceed into this New Year?"
some might ask. There is one word that spells out the
method within which we're to move persuasively
forward. The word is RADICAL. Here's why.
Our nation has entered a very serious cycle of radical
situations both domestically and internationally. This
nation's president elect, Barak Obama comes from a
very radical background personally and professionally.
When you couple his past radical actions together
with the radical cabinet he's mounting - all within the
context of the radical crises our nation is in, it's not
difficult to discover that we've entered a very radical
year in our nation's history.
So how are we to approach the counting and
accountability in our lives and families this year?
RADICALLY. We must approach, and if need
be, confront the spirit we're in with a radical resolve or
we'll suffer severely as we exit this year and begin to
enter the next.
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Contact Information
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Dr.Dell F. Sanchez | |
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210.326.6570 | |
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"United we stand - divided we fall." We've
entered a year when this saying is truer and more
crucial than ever.
A few years ago, God laid it on my heart for Helen and
me to do extensive research in the Ben Gurion
Heritage Institute in the Negev. Our goal was to find
out what Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben
Gurion, had to say about our Spanish/bilingual
Sephardic people. We were honored to review Ben
Gurion's personal chronicles and memoirs.