It’s diverse. God is at work. And there are a variety of fringe characters clouding the edges of the picture. A person might use words like these if you asked him or her to paint a verbal portrait of Jewish believers at the end of the first century. Nineteen centuries later, I find myself reaching […]
Walking down the main streets of Jerusalem to frolicsome music, surrounded by children playing and families greeting each other under shelters constructed from wood and foliage, is a strange experience for an English believer living in Israel. These structures and the light-hearted festival atmosphere appear in time for Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles. This […]
In June Hege and I and our two boys, Jonatan and Joel, packed our things, left Jerusalem behind, and moved back “home” to Norway. After six and a half years in Israel, during which time both our boys were born, it was sad to have to say goodbye (lehitra’ot) to friends, colleagues, and a lan […]
“The French philosopher and writer Blaise Pascal once said, ‘A servant can do two things: He can go behind, carrying the suitcases, or he can go in front, carrying the lamp.’ My hope and dream is that the Caspari Center will do both. We are in the land to serve the Messianic communities and the […]
For children’s ministers, summer is a hot season in every sense of the word. The Sea of Galilee is like a hot bath that neither refreshes nor energizes. The heat of the mid-July Mediterranean Sea welcomes not only humans but also jellyfish that mercilessly bite anyone who dares to disturb their calm and peace. The […]
A regular working day at Caspari begins at 8:30 a.m. with half an hour of devotions. We read from the Bible; share our understanding of the Scriptures, our experiences, and our needs; and pray for each other, for the ministry and our nations, and for other matters. This wonderful tradition was established years ago by […]
The destruction of the temple in AD 70 was a devastating blow to Judaism, except for two groups: the Pharisees and the Christians. They were both able to cope with the new situation without many problems. Jerusalem and the temple were important to both groups, but the temple was not an essential, irreplaceable institution. It […]
When I was little over a month old, my parents and I moved to Jerusalem. My father being the international director of Caspari Center, we lived here for nearly ten years. Both my siblings where born in Jerusalem. When I was nine, my family and I moved to Chicago, Illinois, for three years, before finally […]
At times, we experience things that affect us profoundly. “It changed my life,” we might even say in retrospect. Sometimes for the better, sometimes not. My first encounter with Israel was such a profound experience. For the better, that is. As a young theology student, it affected me profoundly to read the stories of the […]
We are happy to announce that Caspari Center has published another book for the benefit of the body of Messiah: a manual on youth ministry that has had the working title “Youth Book.” This is a natural continuation of the work which was first started with the book Raising Children in the Fear of the […]