Teaching Team

Shavuot in Hudson: Are You In?

By Toby Janicki  | Comments (2) | Posted on June 8, 2007

It was just an hour before sundown on the eve of Shavuot. Boaz and his family had invited the FFOZ staff to the RV Park where they were staying for dinner. Almost the entire staff of FFOZ was present for the combined Shavuot/To Whom Shall We Go conference in Hudson Wisconsin. The conference was held at Beth Immanuel’s new building.

After dinner, Daniel and I began discussing the idea of perhaps making an immersion before Shavuot. The only place we could accomplish this was in the St. Croix River. We pulled Boaz over into the discussion. Could we pull this off before sunset? Boaz looked at us like we were crazy. Then Joel came over. I asked him, “Are you in?” “In for what?” he asked. After explaining it to him I asked him again, “Are you in?” He replied, “I’m in.” Within five minutes and to our wives dismay all four of us including Boaz’s son Jeremiah were headed off in the car to immerse in an ice cold river.

After we had accomplished the deed we all felt a certain sense of satisfaction and that we were prepared for the day ahead. While to others what we did looked foolish and crazy, to us it was another way to connect with the Master.

One thing I believe this immersion prepared us for was two day version of the conference “To Whom Shall We Go.” In a lot of ways in this conference we stepped out on some limbs and got a little crazy. But to us it was all for the Master. After all that’s what the conference was all about. We wanted to stand firm and lift up Messiah and we beckoned others to do the same. We shared both heavy information as well as emotional pleas. All in all it was a success and God willing to the DVD’s as well as the workbook should be coming out before 2008.

The title of the conference comes from the words of the Peter after a tough teaching from by Yeshua in the Capernaum synagogue:

As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Yeshua said to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?" Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. (John 6:66-68)

We could almost parallel the words of Yeshua "You do not want to go away also, do you?" with my words to Joel “Are you in?” I was asking Joel to participate in something that to a lot of people did not make sense, how much more so was the Master. Discipleship requires intense commitment and doing things that go against the status quo. It requires that we believe even when it is difficult to believe, that we remain strong even when we are weakened. It is our prayer that through this conference we encouraged people to be strong in the tough times ahead and helped them begin to answer the difficult questions.

About the Author: Toby Janicki is a teacher, writer and speaker for FFOZ. He is also a writer for messiah magazine and the author of the Restoration Workbook and a new book on the Mezuzah.

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