April 2001 Personal Letter

Dear Friends,

Some days are brighter than others in the ministry, and this is certainly one of them! I received a most heartening letter from a publisher that I literally haven’t talked to for twenty-five years.

When I was a fledgling author in the early ’70s my primary publishers were Moody Press, run by Moody Bible Institute, and Tyndale House Publishers, run by Ken Taylor, translator of the Living Bible. Those two publishers were considered beyond reproach as to correct Biblical doctrine and were very important in the Christian bookstores. Both imprimaturs were considered the top of the Christian publishing industry.

In those days I was writing several manuscripts at a time, trying to finish whole book projects rather than just short articles, as a means of supporting myself and my family. Both publishers kindly gave me advances on my books, and book sales with both were very successful.

In any case, the recent letter from Tyndale House was so encouraging. It is reproduced here for your edification:

Dear Zola,

Tyndale House Publishers has again allowed me to direct some of the contributions that are a part of our way of conducting business.

Your ministry is important to God’s outreach in these days, and it is a blessing to me and my family to know that you are honoring God through your efforts.

It was signed by the Vice President of Sales at Tyndale House, and a very sizeable donation was enclosed.

It is rejuvenating to know that there are ministries like ours who take God’s Word seriously and just do what needs to be done for the Kingdom. Our ministry also makes contributions to those who are, in the words of Tyndale House, “important to God’s outreach in these days.” We have given support to the Ruff House, which provides for retarded children, and our ministry, of course, supports our friends in Israel, especially in the difficult times they are now having. Thank you for your kind donations to that cause — our “Good News from a Far Country” fund. Your contributions go to people who have served us faithfully in travel and television for many years, and I can’t tell you how appreciated it is during this time when they are nearly without income. We also have always made it our policy to take Holocaust survivors on our Israel tours free of charge.

I wish I could report that our relations with Moody Bible Institute, with whom Dr. McCall and I wrote a number of bestsellers, were as good as with Tyndale. As you know, we have notified that institution of shortcomings we found in their teaching curriculum, and we received the usual “kill-the-messenger” response. At this point, we have twice contacted Moody’s entire Board of Directors with our detailed, constructive criticism. In response to the first letter, we received a derisive answer from President Joseph Stowell, which was not helpful. In the second case, after waiting the better part of a month, we received a brush-off from Moody’s Chairman of the Board. More on that in the upcoming Levitt Letter. I’m sorry to have to give you that report.

I don’t know whether you should write to Tyndale House about their kindness or not. In a way, I almost hesitated to discuss their gift since some donors would rather keep their giving confidential. In this case, though, I felt that as a commercial company they deserved some credit. I’ll tell you what: buy a Tyndale House book. You can’t go wrong!

On the subject of Israel there’s good news of a kind, even from over there. Sample the following short article from the International Jerusalem Post.

Small Wonder

A Palestinian woman’s baby was delivered by Israeli soldiers last week.

Shurouk Ghazi, 22, from the village Tilt in southern Samaria, set out for a hospital in Nablus accompanied by her husband when she went into labor. Stopping at an army roadblock near Kedumim, her husband informed soldiers his wife was about to give birth. The regional army doctor was summoned, and Ghazi was transferred to an army ambulance.

En route to the hospital, the army doctor delivered a 3.5 kg baby girl (about 7 1/2 lbs.).

It has always struck me that the vast majority of ordinary residents do not have any quarrel in Israel. Believe it or not, I think there are more arguments between groups in America than there are between Israelis and Palestinians. It is those in leadership over there who are fighting, and a few hot heads, but trust the media to interview only selected people, just as they film only at selected sites. Of course, the selections are meant to promote the idea of a crisis and terrible tension.

I don’t think the media has ever mentioned the Good Fence, on the border with Lebanon. It is the place where Israeli soldiers and doctors have treated Arab men, women and children for nearly twenty years. It all started one day — because medical care is not up to snuff in southern Lebanon — when a Lebanese woman at wit’s end handed her sick and crying baby over the fence to an Israeli sentry standing guard, and begged him to provide medical care for the infant. A precedent was set by that act, and its tradition has continued year in and year out with thousands being treated. CNN and the other foreign news journalists have driven past the Good Fence time and again without filming the goings on or interviewing the participants.

There comes a time when the media can actually be an enemy to the ordinary people. I think we’re living through one of those times.

When CNN films Palestinian ambulances screaming up to street riots, they don’t bother to tape the part where the guns are unloaded from the backs of the ambulances. They also don’t note that the ambulances typically drive away empty, only to return bringing back more weapons. They rarely carry the wounded. Again, medical care is lacking in Arab-held territories.

I hope that Baby Girl Ghazi, will grow up to be one of the vast majority who appreciate being able to live in the democracy of Israel and will remember that Israeli soldiers and an army doctor brought her into this world. I hope she will not be one of those who are “educated” by Arafat’s minions to hate her neighbors. It wouldn’t hurt to offer a prayer for this infant who so well represents real cooperation between peoples at a time when the whole world is being told that no such thing exists between Israelis and Palestinians.

Our next tour to “Israel” doesn’t go to Israel! As you may have seen in our past Levitt Letter, the tour will go to The Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Florida, an excellent recreation of first-century Jerusalem. This “New Jerusalem” includes a Tabernacle, the Garden Tomb, all of the stores and people on the streets, Qumran, and a wonderful model of the whole city. All of this is presided over by a nearly full-sized (!) first-century recreation of Herod’s Temple, the temple where our Lord taught the people and overthrew the booths of the money-changers. I can heartily recommend this tour to those of you who are unable, for a variety of reasons, to go to the real Israel. We plan to do the Orlando tour on a Friday through Sunday weekend, May 4th–6th, for a price of $299. That will include all local transportation, entry fees, all teaching, guiding and your hotel rooms. The rooms will all be family suites, and children under 12 can go at half-price.

A month later, June 5th–15th, we will be conducting our Israel Kibbutz Tour. Besides being our most economical tour of Israel, this one is the perfect summer holiday for students and teachers and a unique opportunity to experience life on an authentic Israeli cooperative farm. These pioneering farm collectives are the foundation on which the modern State of Israel was built, and it is a wonderful up-close view of the communal life that made the land safe to work for early settlements. Our tour pilgrims will lodge in comfortable farm guesthouses at the Sea of Galilee and in the forests of Israel, but will still enjoy the very same itinerary as our Deluxe Tours, visiting all the major Biblical sites. Among the many spiritually enriching and educational experiences on this unique tour, we also have an added exciting adventure — we are going on an actual archaeological dig! You may call Tony Derrick during office hours at 214-696-9760 for more details, or 1-800-WONDERS any time. [Or click here for an online application.]

Finally, our Ultra Grand Tour of Greece, Israel and Petra will occur this coming September with many tour option packages. Depending on the options you choose, tours will run between Aug. 29th and Sept. 16th. Our Fall Tour brochure will be coming out around mid-May. Once again, let me say: I can vouch for the safety of all of these tours without reservation.

We will be taping our new series Thy Kingdom Come: The Future of Believers during our April tour in Israel, and that footage should be ready by the latter part of the summer. This will be a ten-program series that will present a thorough examination of what will happen to those who are saved, rather than the typical focus on what will happen to the world.

I would like to thank you again for your constant and reliable support and for your faithful prayers for this ministry. Please know how much we appreciate you. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

Your messenger,