Fellowship for Messianic Testimony to Israel

The "Association for the Messianic Witness to Israel" (amzi - in German: Arbeitsgemeinschaft für das Messianische Zeugnis an Israel) promotes the witness of the Gospel to Jewish and Arab people in Israel. We want to raise awareness of this work among Christians by providing regular prayer requests and news updates.

We support brothers and sisters in Israel in making Jesus, the biblical Messiah, known to their own people.

amzi is sponsoring the following ministries in Israel:

Seminars and retreats

Church-planting in partnership with indigenous churches

Evangelism in cooperation with local churches and other organisations

The “Musalaha” ministry working for Jewish-Palestinian reconciliation

Social ministries such as drug rehabilitation

Distribution of Bibles and other literature in partnership with the Bible Society in Israel and similar organisations

We are involved in an international messianic ministry:

in Germany a Messianic gathering in cooperation with the Hanover Free Evangelical Church;

Sponsoring messianic ministry;

Lectures, seminars and church services on the subject of Israel, Judaism and the Bible;

Information about Messianic Jewish and Arab Christian churches and organisations in Israel;

Publishing literature on themes related to Israel;

Up-to-date reports can be found in our periodical "Messianic Testimony" in German or in our weekly Prayer Mail (order through gebet@amzi.orgxxx  without xxx);

We help to find short-term ministries in Israel.

Amzi was founded as an association in St. Chrischona (Bettingen near Basel) in 1968, and in Germany in 1985. The members of the Council of Reference are from both State and Free churches. The work is supported by prayer and voluntary donations. AMZI forms part of the St. Chrischona Union and has contact with many other churches and organisations. Through its membership of the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism, AMZI enjoys regular exchanges with other groups and people world-wide sharing the same concern for ministry among Jewish people. AMZI is a member of the Swiss Evangelical Alliance.

Switzerland:

amzi

Postfach

CH-4153 Reinach BL

Telephone +41 (0) 61 712 11 38

Fax +41 (0) 61 712 11 34

Germany:

amzi

Hauingerstr. 6

D-79541 Lörrach

Tel +41 (0) 61 712 11 38

Email: info@amzi.orgxxx  (without xxx)

Bank accounts:

amzi / Arbeitsgemeinschaft für das messianische Zeugnis an Israel

Swiss Postal account: amzi, Bettingen, Account N° 40-33695-4

Swiss Bank: amzi, UBS, Basel, Account N° 292-IQ136862.0, IBAN: CH73 0029 2292 IQ1368620, BIC: UBSWCHZH80A

Germany: Sparkasse Lörrach-Rheinfelden, Account N° 1-017.730 (Sort Code 683 500 48)
IBAN: DE15 68350048 0001 017730, BIC: SOLADES1LOE

German Postal account: Postgiroamt Karlsruhe, Account N° 030 258-756 (Sort Code 660 100 75)

Austria: Creditanstalt Bregenz, Account N° 0984-51305/00 (Sort Code 11000)
IBAN: AT26 1100 0098 42733900, BIC: BKAUATWW

amzi

amzi (Association for the Messianic Witness to Israel) is part of “Pilgermission [pilgrim mission] St. Chrischona”. Our special concern is to serve our brothers and sisters in the Middle East through prayer and financial support. This vision began  from the  very beginning of our denomination. In 1837, Chrischona sent somebody to the Middle East to find out whether it was possible to build a colony to go and share the Gospel with the peoples of the Middle East. This turned out to be impossible due to the political situation. When this changed in 1840, Chrischona sent the second and third student of its newly founded theological education institution to Palestine. Their names: Conrad Schick and Ferdinand Palmer. Together with other brothers who followed they tried to find a living, though life was very hard and supplies from Europe were insufficient. In the end, they all had to join other organizations to survive.

Though Chrischona didn’t have the money, they sent people with a great impact to the Land.

Conrad Schick was the constructor of New Jerusalem and got an honorary doctor’s degree from the University of Tübingen (Germany).

Ludwig Schneller was the builder of the biggest orphanage for Arabic children.

Johannes Frutiger developed the biggest retail business (C.F. Spittler & Cie.) in the Middle East and made emigration to Palestine more attractive. He was the founder of a bank and financed the building projects of Conrad Schick as well as the railroad to Jerusalem. Together with Conrad Schick he constructed Mea Shearim, Menachem Yehuda and other important buildings.

Christoph Hoffmann and the Templers had a relation to Chrischona, too, though they evolved in a different theological direction.

There was even an Apostle road, which started in Jerusalem, to take the Gospel through Ethiopia to all Africa. Martin Flad from Chrischona founded the Messianic movement within the Falasha in Ethiopia.

The men’s selfless service helped develop the infrastructure in the Middle East.

The impulses for this came from Basel, where already in 1812 a Jewish school was founded to teach Jewish children on the initiative of Christian Friedrich Spittler and others. 

If projects or ministries already do exist, it is characteristic for Chrischona to cooperate with them. That is the same today; Chrischona has connections to different denominations all over the world. In Israel and the neighboring territories, we network with all brothers and sisters, both Messianic Jews and Arabic Christians. 

That’s where the ministry of amzi is. It’s our concern to build bridges between the different traditions to live our faith. In his last prayer, Jesus prayed for unity in Christ, the Messiah. I am committed to   esteem  one another in love and respect. There is only one Messiah: Yeshua, Jesus, the Jewish Messiah.

Acts 15 is a special challenge for all of us. Do we have the greatness to allow ourselves to  express our faith in different traditions and ways? Theologically, we have to go back to this point. We have the freedom to live our faith in our Jewish or non Jewish traditions without denying the other his freedom as unbiblical. The challenge is to respect the different traditions and consider them as an enrichment.

God Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one. Nothing the Son does is contrary to the Father and the Holy Spirit. The same, everything the Holy Spirit does is in accordance to the Father and the Son. We as human beings can hardly imagine this unity. Even as a very good married couple, we will have  dissensions now and then. God is different. He is one. This unity is the picture, which touches me and which Jesus’ prayer was all about. Are we ready to be one in the spirit even if the outer appearance is different?

We understand our ministry as part of this vision. We would like to connect people from Europe and from the Middle East, Arabic Christians and Messianic Jews. This unity is our God’s desires. 

We as amzi pray and support our brothers ans sisters ans motivate others to pray for them as well. We do this through writing about their concerns in our magazine and in our weekly prayer e-mail, which is translated to German, English, French, Russian, Italian, and Hungarian. We also translate and mail several newsletters of different ministries and publish our own magazine every two months.

We are grateful for everyone who shares this vision and cooperates with us. It’s not our job to start ministries in our own name, but to support existing ministries. This kind of ministry  is unusual to a lot of people, but that’s our vision.