BEVERLY DABBS

So, you want to know how a little Jewish girl from Brooklyn, New York, wound up becoming a Jewish believer in Jesus, in Montgomery, Alabama.

My parents moved to Birmingham, Alabama, from New York when I was just 3 years old.

The south was such a big change for a Jewish family.

It was hard to keep Kosher because there was only one small store that sold Kosher food.

My sisters and I would ride a city bus to synagogue to worship because my parents never bought a car.

Being New Yorkers -- city dwellers -- all their lives, they had relied on public transportation, and were not about to change just because they had been transplanted to the south.

As a child I had a deep love for God. There was a yearning in my heart that was hard to describe. As a matter of fact, this yearning actually made me want to become the 1st woman rabbi, but back when I was a child, this was impossible. Going for Hebrew lessons after school most days was just part of my life up until my Bas Mitzvah, when I was told I turned into a woman in God's eyes.

I am mentioning all these things so you can see how
God knew about my love for Him before I truly met Him.

I attended synagogue until I married. The man I married was not Jewish, but neither did he attend church. It was not until I had my first child and she turned 2 or 3 years old that I decided that my child needed some sort of religious upbringing. I knew my husband would not go to synagogue so we started attending a small church in Birmingham. By some strange “coincidence,” an old Jewish friend of mine whom I had grown up with also attended this church.

My friend introduced me to Dottie Ellwell, a woman who had a love for the Jewish people and conducted a ministry for them. Dottie gave me my first Bible and for the first time in my life, I read the Old Testament and all the prophecies about the Messiah. How could I deny what I was reading? It all pointed to Jesus.

Soon after reading these prophecies, realizing I could not deny that Jesus was the Messiah, I prayed with my friend Dottie, and accepted Jesus as the Messiah that the Jews have been waiting for all these years.

I moved from Birmingham to Montgomery. There was a time sadly when I strayed from God, but today I can testify that never did He stray from me. When I divorced in 1986, I felt like God had not honored what I believed was His promise to me: to restore my marriage. I became angry with God and that is when I strayed. Yet God is slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. So not like us! I came back to Him with an even greater appreciation for who He is and with the knowledge that He alone knows what is best for me. No, I have not remarried, but..

I have found all I need in Christ our Lord.