In 1966, when I was a high-school teenager, I got acquainted with a special Finnish Christian couple in Beersheva: Olavi and Esther Syvanto. They regularly attended the same Shabbat afternoon services I did at the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) compound, located at the old Turkish neighborhood, on 15 Street of the Patriarchs. At that time Beersheva was a small, dusty and rapidly developing town in the northern part of the Negev wilderness. Bedouins often visited and came to the market. The urban area was prophetically growing with thousands of Olim (new immigrants) pouring into the desert town mostly from north Africa, from Eastern Europe, and from India and Pakistan. My own family came to Beersheva from Romania in 1964.
A mini congregation
In August 1964, Warren and Linda Graham, young American missionaries and their small children, also settled in the C&MA compound in Beersheva. Their profound vision was to share the message of the Lord Yeshua with the Israelis. Olavi and his family, then with three children–Kari, Helena and...
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