Testimony: World tour moves on for couple after 25 years in Israel! — Charles Gardner

After a quarter-of-a-century of living in Israel, Australian-born Rev Aaron Eime is moving to England to head up the work of the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people in the UK.

Aaron has been working for CMJ in Israel since arriving there in 1998 as part of a world tour with his wife Michelle, and succeeds Rev Alex Jacob, who served the ministry as CEO for many years.

It was back in the 1990s that the newly-married Australian couple embarked on a world tour. But once they reached Israel, they never looked back, sharing the good news of the Jewish Messiah with all who would hear.

Co-founded in 1809 by William Wilberforce, CMJ has been focused ever since on the spiritual restoration of Israel, preaching the Gospel “to the Jew first” (Romans 1:16) while at the same time encouraging Christians to re-connect with the Hebraic roots of their faith.

It was before leaving his homeland that Aaron had an encounter that confirmed his faith in God as creator of the world he so loved to travel. He was already a believer but had become somewhat disillusioned with things he was learning at university – until, that is, he attended a creation vs evolution debate.

He realised, through a presentation of the amazing process of blood-clotting by microbiologist Dr Michael Behe, that there was no way it could have come about through evolution.

For it requires a sequential chain reaction of enzymes to bind up a wound when the skin is cut. Each one has a special duty but, if just one is removed, healing will not work. And yet it clots only the wounded area rather than the heart or brain, which would be fatal.

Aaron explains: “Evolution is the gradual increase of genetic information over time. But if all the enzymes are not present from day one, the blood cannot function, and life cannot exist. Evolutionary theory provides no satisfactory evidence for how blood came about. It cannot possibly have evolved, so must have been created by a super-intelligent mind. This is why the Bible says that ‘life is in the blood’ (Lev 17:11).

“Behe’s argument totally floored me, and that was the precise moment I knew God was real. I knew then that a super mind (i.e. God) had created the world, and that he was intimately involved, even at the microbiological level, with his creation. And ever since then, I have been a firm defender of the faith against the lie of evolution.”

Born into a small-town farming community in Western Australia, where his dad was involved in the wool trade, Aaron moved to Brisbane where he studied psychology and social work, came to faith and got married to Michelle.

They duly took off on their adventures, exploring Canada, the United States and Mexico before coming to England where they hired a 1973 camper van and eventually drove all the way from London to Israel where the mother of the friend accompanying them on their journey was a volunteer.

After taking a ferry from Greece, they arrived at Haifa in 1998, and have been in Israel ever since. They had originally planned to drive back to London, return to Australia and live there happily ever after!

But everything changed after camping by the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth, and accepting a dinner invitation from neighbouring Bedouins. Aaron and Michelle both woke up next day “unbelievably sick” and in desperate need for somewhere to recuperate and get cleaned up (so it was a low point for them too).

After consulting the Lonely Planet’s Guidebook (in the absence of Google), they found an advert for Christ Church, Jerusalem, boasting “nice gardens and clean toilets”!

Christ Church just happens to be the headquarters in Israel of CMJ, where they have been established for 200 years and reach out with love and compassion to both Jews and Arabs.

Aaron said: “We duly made the wonderful discovery of a community of Arabs and Jews who believed in Jesus. But they were desperate for volunteers to help them, and we said we’d pray about it. So, we drove up to Galilee and returned three days later fully intending to say ‘No’. But when we sat down beside then Rector, Ray Lockhart, I leaned forward to say ‘No’ and out came ‘Yip’!”

As Solomon wisely put it: “To man belongs the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue.” — Proverbs 16:1

So the couple stayed, had all three of their children in Israel and became a fixture at Christ Church. Micah was born in Bethlehem (he was named after the prophet who foretold that Messiah would come from there – Micah 5:2) while their daughters Atarah and Tirzah were both born in Jerusalem.

Aaron subsequently enrolled at the Hebrew University to study the Bible further and was duly ordained by the Bishop of Bolivia, later engaging in regular study with rabbis, who told him: “We would love to have Christian input into our studies.”

As well as this, he has been regularly touring the world again (especially Canada, the UK and Ireland) sharing in-depth teaching on the significance of the Hebraic roots of our faith, which has blessed countless Christians over the years (including this writer).

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