Founder’s Blog

FFOZ 2007 Year in Review

By Boaz Michael  | Comments (5) | Posted on December 9, 2007

In my initial assessment of 2007, it seemed that this was a year spent mostly on “behind the scenes” preparations that will lay a foundation for growth and, Lord willing, the future stability of this work. I know that taking this time is needed to accomplish our mission: To Teach Torah and its way of life, fully centered on Messiah, to today’s people of God.

However, upon a more pragmatic review of the year, I found that we actually produced more than I thought. Since I tend to be more creative, I do not like it when I have to “stop” and attend to details. I like to put plans into motion, and I expect that they will continue running without my direct oversight. You see, I have been caught in the mire of all the administrative rejuvenation for the last six months, and that made it hard for me (initially) to realize how much the Father did bless FFOZ in the production of teaching materials this year.

I solicited feedback from most of the staff and have taken their contributions to create a timeline of 2007—and, Wow! We were busy. I am so honored to serve the Body of Messiah alongside so many gifted, Godly and amazing friends. Their hard work and dedication to the work of First Fruits of Zion keeps me encouraged and very busy trying to stay a step ahead of them. My prayer—and I know that I speak for our entire staff—is that the Father will use all of us through this work to shine His Torah and the Name of our Messiah, Yeshua, brightly in 2008 and in the years to come.

So, I invite you to take a look at our 2007 timeline and gratefully honor HaShem with us. We bless Him for sustaining us, keeping us alive and allowing us to reach this season. So many of you have been a part of this, so I know you will share in our joy as well. This review is super long, but certainly encouraging.

January 07
The FFOZ Shalom Tour
The Shalom Tour was seven months underway at this time, and my family found our way to the state of Florida where we lingered throughout January. During that time, I met with many leaders throughout the state and from all of the various flavors of the Messianic movement represented there. It was a very productive time relationally speaking as we sought to share our values for Torah with those who either did not know about the work of FFOZ, or had a negative perception of our work. This is largely why FFOZ endeavors to teach of the value and role of Torah to believers in the Messiah, and we saw great fruits from our time in Florida as we worked diligently to clarify most of what we stand for in regard to Torah teaching and lifestyle.

To Whom Shall We Go? (Florida)
This day-long seminar was a truncated version of our new conference addressing—and in some cases advancing—our thoughts and approach to the Nature of God and the Messiah. This conference/seminar was created to defend the Master and uphold His Messiahship in light of arguments posed by traditional Judaism, and the shortcomings of a traditional Christian interpretation and position of the Godhead and the Messiah. This Florida seminar was held under duress since Daniel’s flight was cancelled in Philadelphia rendering him unable to join Toby and I. We worked vigorously to rearrange our teaching sessions while Daniel ended up walking several miles in a blizzard (without proper snow clothing) to find a place to sleep before the Sabbath. Daniel’s nightmare did not end for several days; while in Florida Toby had a great weekend making sand castles on the beach with my kids after a well-received seminar.

February 07
New Staff Members
David Vermeesch became a full-time FFOZ staff member, serving under the title of Director of Communications. Now, don’t get me wrong, we’re still not big on titles at First Fruits of Zion—but they are helping describe needed administrative functions. David’s day-to-day work is in the much-needed area of creating systems so that FFOZ can better relate to and communicate with our friends, and also sharpen this message.

Restoration Workbook Released
The companion guide to D.T. Lancaster’s book Restoration: Returning the Torah of God to the Disciples of Jesus written by Toby Janicki. This spiral workbook is a chapter-by-chapter study that is perfect for personal study, and is very helpful for facilitators of home study groups.

Jot & Tittle/Search the Sidra Audio CDs
Short audio lessons connected to the chapters in Jot & Tittle and Search the Sidra introduce and teach the Hebrew language through the weekly Torah portions. These lessons were once part of the Torah Club Volumes Two and Four, but we received so many requests to extract them and create a separate CD that we just couldn’t refuse creating this tool to help so many learn Hebrew.

Pray in the Spirit on DVD (3 volumes)
Three of the sessions taught at our 2006 National Shavu’ot Conference on prayer were edited and produced as DVD productions. These sessions introduced the place of spontaneous prayer within Judaism, and introduced sections of the Amidah and the Shema.

March 07
HaYesod (Aleph)Joel Powell, Daniel Lancaster, Toby Janicki and myself went to Israel to begin the re-production of the new HaYesod program that will, God willing, launch in the fall of 2008. We spent ten very short—and yet very long—days at various locations throughout the Land taping 36 on-location teachings.

Sect of the Nazarenes
During the time in Israel, we also shot the material for an hour-long documentary-style presentation entitled, “Sect of the Nazarenes” which, Lord willing, will be edited and produced into an exciting and compelling introduction to the early Jewish believers. This production is intended to clearly and convincingly show the Jewish and Torah foundations of the early followers of the Master and should hit post-production sometime in the spring of 2008.

April 07
myFFOZ
myFFOZ is the internet landing place for free online FFOZ content, hundreds of searchable articles, free online tools, and video and audio materials. myFFOZ transformed our website from being a mere marketplace into a tool of teaching providing free access to many FFOZ teachings through the worldwide web. With the launch of myFFOZ, our teaching team resolved to frequently update our blog sharing relevant, personal and engaging articles and teachings. The content available is no longer stagnating, but rather dynamically communicating the daily happenings of our lives, our newest thoughts on the Torah, and many other areas of mutual interest within our online community.

eRosh: Pirkei Avinu (Torah Teens), Disciple Detectives (Torah Kids)
One of the larger components of the new approach to the FFOZ web under the myFFOZ section was the addition of a monthly teaching for the entire Torah family. FFOZ committed staff resources to develop teachings for children and young adults—a huge area that has been neglected for years. In addition to using the monthly e-mailing to give resources to families and congregations for the next generation, the eRosh also serves as a practical tool to remind us of God’s biblical calendar. Each month we post a calendar that lists many of the biblical events that have occurred during that Hebrew month, giving us a sense of the seasons of our historical faith and connecting us to the Bible in a new and fresh way. A quick example of this would be to study the texts of Peter or James around the time of their deaths—thus recalling these martyrs’ words and their examples to live holy lives for the sake of the Master.

May 07
The Janicki family relocated to Missouri, being the first of the FFOZ team families to arrive at our new FFOZ facility home.

Shavuot National Conference
At the Shavuot conference in Hudson, WI we presented and filmed the full “To Whom Shall We Go?” conference. We shared wonderful times of fellowship with the many travelers that came to join us for this appointed time. The Torah service provided by Daniel’s congregation, Beth Immanuel, was one of the best I have attended in the US, as were their open hospitality and welcoming demeanor. As always, the weekend came to a close much too quickly for most of us.

Shema Yisrael: Our Creed Our Connection Seminars
FFOZ conducted a mini-tour in our continued efforts to introduce set time, liturgical prayer on the Shema, entitled, “Shema Yisrael: Our Creed Our Connection.” Toby Janicki and his family brought this seminar to about nine different cities in May. God willing, it will eventually be made available to the larger body on DVD.

June 07
New Beginnings and Sad Goodbyes
The FFOZ Colorado office facility of twelve years closed down and moved to a temporary rental facility in Marshfield, MO. Through this transition, we lost most of our long-time distribution office staff; however, we were able to replace most of them with new families and individuals here in Missouri. Michael and Rebecca Cundiff also left their Colorado home of 30 years, and the Dralle’s left family and friends in Illinois to relocate and join the greater FFOZ team here in MO as we centralized our staff in preparation for the future.

New Torah Club Online Forum
Our online Torah Club Forum had been shut down due to our inability as a staff to manage and oversee it. This online community had always been intended to be a place of safe and productive discussion and communication, and when this did not happen, it was my intention to never open it up again. However, several men approach me with a plan to purge the forum of those that caused problems, and then commit themselves to checking in and monitoring the discussions regularly to insure that a balanced and safe atmosphere was maintained. So, in June we reopened the forum and it has run great ever since. This is such an important tool for those who have questions of both theology and practical application. Thanks to Bill Beyer and others for making the Torah Club forum a fun and educational online community.

New Torah Club Projects Started
Just north of Missouri—in Minnesota—where Daniel Lancaster resides and works from a small office in his home, copious amounts of Torah teachings have been produced. In June of 07, he began the complete rewrite of Torah Club Volume One with a focus and emphasis on the wide ethic of Torah. It is an introductory volume that carefully explains and introduces Torah concepts to those just beginning to seek.

Ten-thousand miles east of Minnesota (and just a little south) outside the city of Ashkelon, Israel the Torah Club material and presentation was being completely re-engineered. We decided it was time to move away from the previous unmanageably giant notebook containing hundreds of pages of commentary into a new 5-notebook library set with a slip case. The new design components were then sourced to various vendors in the southern United States of Texas where Joel Powell diligently coordinated this massive retooling and engineering of these volumes of materials. Delivery of the notebooks and slip cases were greatly delayed due to production hurdles, but finally arrived in our MO office ready to ship in December 07.

July 07
FFOZ BaseCamp
BaseCamp is the FFOZ staff’s virtual daily meeting facility—it is our hub of communication and communications. Currently I have 86 “active” project folders open, each of which represents multiple ongoing discussions, milestones (AKA: deadlines!), managements issues, etc. As the ministry has grown and projects have multiplied, it became literally impossible to manage until we introduced this new software collaboration center that enables our staff to have one location for the management of all of our tasks, stages of projects, volunteers, reviewers and timelines. In July we also implemented a new system that completely restructured our workflow and created greater collaboration, project work flow, interaction with advisors, communications, enabling more people in more locations to serve with us in this ministry.

My family arrives in MO
My job within FFOZ took on a new and temporary role when I, by necessity, had to shift my job duties and become more involved in the day-to-day administrative needs of the organization. This need was recognized only after the physical move and uprooting from CO revealed some administrative shortcomings and exposed some significant problems in our computer data base system. The Shalom Tour was quickly and temporarily put “on hold” so that I could invest my time to help the office transition and the new computer systems and administrative policies to better serve this ministry.

To Whom Shall We Go? (Dallas, TX)

August 07
FFOZ New Building
Under the expert building management of Michael Cundiff, FFOZ began to build our new offices and distribution center in Marshfield, MO. The brand new 12,000 sq. ft. building on four acres will save the ministry thousands of dollars each year in expensive rent, insurances, etc. It provides a comfortable environment to bring our staff together, and it is a facility that will effectively house the production of more materials.

Volunteer Staff Proves Invaluable
Beginning to use more volunteers was an important juncture for FFOZ and represented limitless opportunity for many to work together through, sharing talents and skills for HaShem’s purpose. Through our new online BaseCamp collaboration center, we now work with volunteers all over the world. This enables so many other like-minded believers to essentially become part of the FFOZ team through accessing the virtual office, and managing, writing, directing, overseeing and communicating, etc. with our greater FFOZ friends and family.

Jonathan—a Copyright/Licensing Administrator by day—serves FFOZ at night as a volunteer staff member in coordinating and managing the FFOZ eRosh team. I cannot express the value of our volunteers and hope that as they serve in the ministry in a practical and significant way, HaShem will reward them. Although Jonathan lives in Mobile, AL, the eRosh team he manages live around the world: Anne Mandell, eRosh Designer lives in Vancouver B.C.; Craig Raisch, eRosh artist lives in Ft. Collins CO; Shaun Fergus, Pirkei Avinu artist lives in north-central Florida; D.T. Lancaster, “Disciple Detectives” author lives in St.Paul, MN; Toby Janicki, Pirkei Avinu author and Seth Dralle, Hebrew calendar collaborator both live in Marshfield, MO. Hats off to Jonathan as he helps serve the 7,000 families that receive the eRosh each month.

September 07
New Levels of Accountability Implemented
Through BaseCamp (our online collaboration center) we are now able to work more freely with outside counsel throughout the development of our resources. This transparent approach to the development of our teachings has long been a part of FFOZ and, in my opinion, is what has helped us stay balanced and consistent throughout the years. Until now, timely communication with our counselors, advisors and reviewers has been difficult and labor intensive, and most of the time has slowed down projects considerably.

Starting in September of 2007, the advisors and reviewers began to have complete access to every stage of the development of those projects in which they are directly involved. And now they can help shape the materials from early stages by raising objections and concerns from the get-go and requiring us to substantiate our teachings through additional sources when we’re still in the research and development stages. All of this collaboration and critiquing was always done before FFOZ materials were published, but now we can do it much more timely and create a much better finished product.

Holy Cow! Does God Care About What We Eat?
Written by messiah magazine editor and FFOZ staff member Hope Egan, Holy Cow! receives a favorable comment and reference in the New York Times newspaper. Holy Cow! also underwent its third printing in the fall of 07.

October 07
Torah Club Companion Dictionary
Recognizing the maturing message of FFOZ and still understanding our responsibility to reach out to those who do not currently understand or appreciate the Torah. We always need to make this message approachable and understandable. Thus we created an online dictionary.

The online dictionary will be the destination for those who do not know what words like parashah, Shabbat, Rashi, etc. mean and often get tripped up when first encountering these words and concepts. To date, over a thousand entries have been input covering the majority of new, unfamiliar terms represented in our materials. The investment of time and effort in this project ballooned significantly and took hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to create. We are excited to see this grow over the years and become a significant tool in people’s journeys into Torah life.

Mezuzah Book Published
In 1997, I saw a shift taking place from people approaching the Torah intellectually to wanting to practically keep the commandments in their lives. At that time, FFOZ resources were primarily apologetic in nature—and most still are to this day; however, we began creating a series of books called Mayim Chayim (“living water”) to address the needs of practically living out the Torah. In October of 2007 we re-launched this series with our new book, Mezuzah: You Shall Write them on the Doors and On Your Gates. See video introduction.

In 2008, we already have four new books in this series on our docket for publishing—God willing—starting with a book on the Sacred Name, entitled, “Hallowed Be Thy Name: Sanctifying God’s Sacred Name” scheduled for print sometime in early spring.

November 07
Israel Tour
Under the guidance of Steven and Daniel Lancaster, FFOZ had another—and some say the best-to-date—study tour of Israel. In 2008, we will evaluate how to meet the growing demand for these tours, because our November 2008 tour is already filled up, and we’ve even begun a waiting list. In the future, we hope to host additional tours to Israel throughout the year.

Restoration: Returning the Torah of God to the Disciples of Jesus goes into its sixth printing.

December 07

Torah Goes to Africa
Daniel Lancaster goes to Kenya and other parts of Africa to teach about the Messiah and His Torah.

myFFOZ
Improvements were made to myFFOZ membership login status which required significant behind the scenes programming.

FFOZ Shipping Re-visited
Vast improvements were made (and continue to be made) to the entire back-office shipping procedures for FFOZ mailing. In order to become more efficient and consistent in our service to our constituents, we are currently undergoing several changes and are experimenting with new postage services in order to be cost-effective, while at the same time being timely with our order shipments.

New Software Systems
In addition to Aaron Eby serving as the siddur translator and FFOZ teacher, he has some serious computer programming skills. Aaron and his family spent three weeks here in MO analyzing and putting a plan in place to address our computer needs and shortcomings. God willing, we will have an updated system early in 2008 that will allow us to better serve and communicate with our Torah Club members and constituents.

Completed translation of the FFOZ Siddur
The completed English and Hebrew version of the siddur is complete, and after the first of the year will begin to go through edits and design. It is our prayer, and by God’s strength, we hope to have this done by May of 2008. The magnitude of this project escaped us, but we are certain that this complete and comprehensive translation of the siddur will benefit the Messianic body for generations to come.

Moving—AGAIN!
December 17th is the target date for the FFOZ offices to move into our new, and God willing, permanent home. We’ll post more on this later this month with photos; but for now, your prayers in these final stages are greatly needed.

Moving Forward Into the Next Year…First Fruits of Zion is conservative in our approach to ministry, yet forward thinking and always working toward the advancement of a Torah-centered life and walk as strong believers in the Messiah. This year, with a new, strong and solid foundation laid, many key communication components, internal administration needs identified and addressed, a new facility and a continued focus on our mission, FFOZ looks to serve you in a more effective way. Your prayers and support for this work are needed as we partner together to make known the living Torah—Yeshua HaNetzeret. God strengthen us all.

In the next couple of weeks I will be publishing on the FFOZ blog our plans for 2008. But before I publish our list I would like to know if you have any ideas? What would you like to see FFOZ work on and complete in 2008?

About the Author: Boaz Michael is the president and founder of First Fruits of Zion.

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