Reflecting on Fort Scott, Kansas, from a Jewish Missions Perspective

Tomorrow (June 14) Tzedakah Ministries will have the honor and privilege of sharing the work of Jewish missions/evangelism with the amazing people of Heritage Baptist in Nevada, Missouri.  While traveling to Nevada, and because of my explorer tendencies, I uncovered interesting historical sites and/or quirky places to visit on my travels  across America.  Today I hit the proverbial jackpot of Fort Scott, Kansas, about 20 miles from Nevada, Missuri.

I visited the American fortress (Fort Scott) which played a role in much of our history of the 19th century — from the Trail of Tears to the American Civil War.  I walked around the fort and marveled at the impact on history an isolated place can have on a country.  But more on that thought later….

My original intent of traveling to Fort Scott was to visit the Milken Center — a place established after the four high school girls of Uniontown (20 miles west) discovered and revealed to the world the story of Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker who rescued about 2,500 Warsaw ghetto Jewish children during the war.  Unfortunately, the center was closed but there was an antique store next door.

Inside of the antique store I discovered German World War II memorabilia including a belt buckle (and belt) with the inscription “Gott Mitt Uns” on it.  This phrase while seemingly innocuous means “God with Us” as a statement of belief that God was on the side of the Nazis in the war.  WHAT GARBAGE!  However, it is this garbage that provides one of the obstacles to Jewish evangelism for many of God’s Chosen Ones. 

Satan used Hitler and the Third Reich created a barrier to the truth of Messiah Jesus.  This belt buckle perhaps was on the waist of a concentration camp guard as he persecuted and murdered untold numbers of European Jewry.  God was not with this soldier but it is the message of this belt buckle that stays in the minds of many survivors.  We must stand up and declare the buckle to be the lie from hell that it was and it is.  And we must do it today … especially in light of the new Hitler types rising up around the world.

After the fort adventure and the antique store discovery, I then went in search of something that few people would expect me to find in Fort Scott, Kansas — a Jewish cemetery.

I found the cemetery outside of the town and walked through this most beautiful of cemeteries with a sense of reverence and tremendous grief.  I saw gravestones dating back to the 1870s.  I saw the legacy of people who were born in Eastern Europe and died in the heartland of Middle America.  I saw those who died young and those who lived to be old … surrounded by generations of family who followed them in death.  And I cried.

I cried for those wonderful people who came to America hoping to find a life of safety and peace.  I cried for those people who survived wars and pogroms and hatred only to die and be buried in an isolated land.  However, and ultimately, I wept for their souls.  I mourned as I realized that these souls probably never heard the message that Messiah Jesus was, is, and always has been for them … and for them FIRST (Rom. 1:16).  They came to a land of freedom but never discovered the true freedom of a relationship with Messiah Jesus.  They traveled to a new world only never to hear the message of the Kingdom of God made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth.  They lived and died … quite probably never knowing or receiving the salvation message of the Suffering Servant and Prince of Peace — Jesus the Messiah.

So tomorrow I will seek to share my testimony of how a small town girl named Amy ended up with a God-given task of sharing Jesus with his brothers and sisters.  I will also seek to share how a town or church is never too small to take up the mantle of Jewish missions.  For if Fort Scott, Kansas, can be a watchman on the wall for the Western frontier of the United States in the 1800s, then Heritage Baptist of Nevada, Missouri, can be a spiritual watchman declaring that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah for all who will hear … and even for those who don’t wish to hear this message.  Shalom.