Staff Testimonies
FFOZ, dedicated to proclaiming the Torah and its way of life, fully centered on Messiah, to today's people of God.
Joel Powell
Joel, FFOZ’s Audio/Visual Director, edits, produces and designs the graphics for all of FFOZ’s audio and video related products.
I grew up in a believing, seventh-day Sabbath-keeping home. The commandments of God were always important among our family and friends. In fact, they were so important that they sometimes eclipsed the need for grace and loving our neighbors.
My wife and I were brought up in the same church environment with the same beliefs. Mia and I were high school sweethearts, so we were married and started our family when we were very young. We were also very comfortable in our faith and in the church environment in which we had grown up.
Over time, however, my own lack of focus on the “weightier matters” (like showing love to my neighbor and caring for the poor, elderly and widows) became burdensome to my heart and mind. I began to realize that there was much more to my relationship with God than just keeping His commands, and my heart eventually softened to those who saw things differently. Rather than condemning or trying to convince those who didn’t agree with us, we began to handle sticky situations with graciousness and thought-provoking questions.
While my heart was softening towards my brothers and sisters in Messiah, my view of Israel and the Jewish people was still less-than-loving. As a result of my upbringing, I was convinced that the Church had replaced Israel and the Jewish people. In spite of the Hebraic veneer of my faith walk (attending church on Saturday, acknowledging the festivals and avoiding pork and shellfish), I was anti-Semitic and I didn’t even know it.
As my wife and I began to delve deeper into the Scriptures, we started to see God’s Word in a new light. One issue that impacted us significantly was finding out that “Christ” was not Jesus’ last name. The fact that Christ comes from the Greek word christos, the equivalent of the Hebrew moschiach (“anointed one”), was a minor piece of information that had a major impact on us. This, and the notion that “Jesus” was a transliteration from Latin and Greek, prompted us to leave the church that we grew up in, and drew us to the Sacred Name movement. If we were missing large gaps of truth in these small areas, what else might we be missing?
In 2000, with my eyes beginning to open to a more complete understanding of the Bible, we started attending a very warm and loving Sacred Name congregation that had an appreciation for the Hebraic roots of our faith. One weekend in 2003, our small community attended an FFOZ seminar in Austin, Texas, entitled Y3K. I had never experienced such an eye-opening presentation of the Scriptures, intertwining Messiah and Torah. Y3K presented the original Christian faith as what it was: a faith that was and is intrinsically Jewish. This led us to become much more focused on molding our lives to that of the Messiah, and we began to develop a greater interest in first-century social and religious life. This led us away from using the Sacred Name because we found ample evidence that Yeshua Himself did not use the Name in accordance with the tradition of first-century Judaism.
Later in 2004, we attended the same seminar when FFOZ came to the city where we lived. There we met in a Torah-submissive synagogue and later decided to visit there on Shabbat. We fell in love with the people and their commitment to studying the Scriptures. There was a hurdle to overcome, however. The worship was primarily liturgical, and neither my wife nor I had any experience in liturgical worship. While the liturgy was at first burdensome to us, it is now our favorite part of the service. It is beautiful, lofty and worshipful; in my opinion, the liturgical prayers are a “soothing aroma before the LORD.”
I guess the lesson that I've learned while on this journey is “never say never.” Our Torah-submissive community has helped us to see the Scriptures and our Messiah from a Hebraic mindset, and our hearts have been softened to matters pertaining to Israel and the Jewish people. Six years ago, if you had told me where I would be now in my walk of faith, I would have said, “No way, not me!” God absolutely works in mysterious and truly wonderful ways.
Joel and Mia Powell live in Houston, Texas with their home-schooled children Julia, Jacob, Joshua and Jonathan, as well as Mia’s adult cousin, Brian.
