October 14 is CMJ USA Day of Giving. We chose this date because it is the day the church remembers Bishop Joseph Schereschewsky.
Joseph Schereschewsky was born in Lithuania in 1831 to a Jewish family. He was raised by a half-brother but left their village for the city of Zhitomir – in what is now Ukraine – at 15. By 16, he was studying at Zhitomir Rabbinical School, where a fellow student passed down to him a Hebrew New Testament published by the London Jews Society – now CMJ UK.
Joseph would continue to ruminate of the story of Jesus for years and later encounter a CMJ worker in Germany, who helped him sort through his questions. Joseph would travel to the United States, where he made his public profession of faith in Yeshua as the Messiah. Joseph eventually became a missionary and Bible translator in China and later leader of the Anglican Church in China. (Read more of the story.)
We know God has other Jewish men and women he's calling to be bold witnesses for Jesus Messiah.
"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'” (Rom 10:14-15).
