By Billy Hall, Contributor
Arnella Rose (centre) guides visitors to the Judeo Christian Study Centre in a Davidic Dance ritual. - Contributed
AS MILLIONS of Jews are making their way to Israel, in fulfilment of prophetic scriptures, a Jamaican is one of the missionary volunteers helping them to make their journey from scattered lands to their home of spiritual heritage.
Arnella Rose of Change Hill in St. Mary, is convinced that her life has been a preparation for her present ministry as a director of Exobus.
EXOBUS
Exobus, which is based in Hull, England, has as its goal, the moving of Jewish people from the former Soviet Union to Israel. So far, Exobus has assisted more than 75,000 Jews to settle in Israel - their prophetic homeland.
Exobus operates the Judeo Christian Study Centre (JCSC) also in Hull, England, where Arnella is a spiritual and academic adviser. Miss Rose notes that Jews from more than 120 nations have been pouring into Israel so much so that the population has multiplied several times since the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948. This, she stressed, is in fulfilment of the prophecy - notably Jeremiah 31:10 which states: "Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock." (KJV).
She has spent several years in Israel, including a period when she lived in two kibbutzim - which are agricultural communes which predated the establishment of the state in 1948 and which the Israeli Government uses to foster patriotism, encourage adventure and transform the desert areas of the land. Nearly 50 per cent of Israel is arid and sandy.
A former head of the Mathematics Department at Calabar High School, Miss Rose holds a Master degree in Middle Eastern Studies from the Jerusalem University College (Institute of Holy Land Studies). She has lectured in World Religions, Old Testament and Biblical Hebrew at the Jamaica Theological Seminary.
The Judeo-Christian Study Centre has been in existence since 1999. The centre, she says, "helps Jewish children from the Ukraine find a home in Israel and educates the church on the Hebraic roods of Christianity."
Exobus, started as Good News Travels, a commercial tour company, established by Phil Hunter, the CEO who used it as an avenue to disciple young people. Exobus grew out of that ministry, when he answered a call of God on his life to transport Jews to their homeland.
PRACTICAL PROPHETIC MINISTRY
According to its website, the Exobus Project is a practical, prophetic ministry to Jewish people working mainly in the Ukraine, but also in Moldova, Belarus and Russia. The Project currently has 16 bases scattered across the Former Soviet Union with the centre of operations in Kiev (Ukraine). Requests for help with transportation keep coming in, most recently from Azerbaijan and Romania. Weekly runs have started in Siberia.
Exobus helps Jewish people with transport from their home-towns to airports from where they fly to Israel. The Project has 28 vehicles based in 9 locations in 3 countries. The Ukraine and its surroundings has the highest density of Jewish people, after Israel and New York. The Jewish people in the former Soviet Union, but especially in the Ukraine have experienced intense persecution over the centuries, climaxing in the Holocaust. Anti-Semitism still exists today.
The Exobus project allows Gentiles to assist Jews in fulfilment of prophecy as in Isaiah 14:2, 49:22, the website stated. At the Judeo Christian Study Centre, Arnella's tasks include planning programmes and sourcing speakers, celebrating and explaining Jewish feasts and organising Davidic Dance weekends. She ministers about Israel in UK churches.
Commenting on present Mideast tensions, she said: "Israel is at the centre of the unsettled state of affairs in the Middle East for in God's prophetic plans for the world, the rise and fall of nations is contingent on their response to Israel." Spain fell as a world power after they expelled the Jews in 15th century, she noted.
When in Jamaica, Arnella stays in touch with the local Jewish community and is keen on promoting biblical, historical and cultural knowledge of Israel. She is working on a 10-part lecture series on the connection between Judaism, Christianity, Israel and the Church.
She explained: "I came to a living faith in Christ at a time the Spirit of God had just begun to visit Jamaica with a new outpouring. With this also came an awareness of Israel and a challenge to know and make known this nation's greatness and destiny. I thank God that he is allowing me to be a part of this ministry of connecting the Church to its Hebraic roots."
