Dear Friend,
The first time I visited Zola’s gravesite was on my birthday, Tuesday April 25. It happened to be Holocaust Remembrance Day, but instead of shedding tears for six million persecuted Jews, I cried about how joyful Zola must have been to meet me, his oldest son, for the first time, 46 years ago. At age 21, he had fallen asleep in a hospital waiting room and awoke to hearing that he had a healthy baby boy.
My childhood memories of Zola as the young music student are faint. He paid his way through music school by serving as Cultural Editor of Indiana University’s News Bureau and writing movie reviews for a local newspaper on the side. My mother passed away in 1970 when I was almost ten. This was quite a shock to both of us, of course, but we adapted by living as roommates and best friends, with him doing most of the cooking and me taking on the dishes and laundry. Zola considered himself an agnostic. During a rainstorm, we averted any injury when spinning off a slick highway and into a cliff. Out of nowhere, Zola had cried out, “God, NO!!”
As an unbeliever, Zola composed a few musicals and played oboe at local recitals. We were members of the local chess club, and we enjoyed movies, tennis and bike riding. Our rented house was very humble, and Zola had four old cars, three of which ran.
Sitting in on some Campus Crusade for Christ meetings, he and I learned about salvation through grace. We also experienced the profound joy and enthusiasm of Christians in worship and fellowship. Soon we became believers, and he felt an incredible calling to work for the Lord. His unofficial ministry began right away with a picnic blanket and a small, hand-lettered sign that he stuck in the ground in the shade at the nearby student union. The sign said, “Rap About Jesus,” and that’s what he did with curious passersby. When Zola was off-duty, people would drop by our house to “rap” some more.
By summer 1971, we were on our way to Dallas, Texas, where Zola had accepted a writing position with Campus Crusade. His job was to help publicize Explo ’72, a convention that trained 25,000 young adults to be better disciples. In the early-to-mid-’70s, he wrote several books as a freelance author and hosted a daily talk show, The Heart of the Matter. We attended a messianic congregation called Beth Sar Shalom, where I had my Bar Mitzvah at age 13. You can see my speech from that occasion in our book Jesus, the Jew’s Jew.
We moved into a ranch style house that, in the back yard, had a floored tin shed, which the previous owner had used to shape and bake pottery. It was in that “temporary house,” as we called it, that the Divine Potter shaped my father into a writer of national repute. Zola operated this ministry’s “headquarters” in the front part of the shed, and I, as a high school student, ran my lawn mowing enterprise from the back, which was just a ramshackle add-on. He typed many a night into the wee hours on an IBM Selectric typewriter, producing this ministry’s dozen or so $3 study booklets entitled The Seven Feasts of Israel, The Miracle of Passover and so on.
In December of 1978, when I was a freshman in college, Zola broadcast his first television program, Zola Levitt Live, on KTVT-39 in Dallas. That was the flagship station of the national Christian network CBN, now called ABC-Family. In the mid-’80s, Zola Levitt Presents went on TBN as well as CBN, and these two national networks grew our ministry enough to improve our TV production quality, newsletters and teaching resources. Since then we have added PAX, Daystar and about a hundred full-power independent stations, all listed at www.levitt.com when you click on “TV Schedule.”
I had helped this ministry in the ’70s with tallying church contributions, book sales and inventory and then in the ’80s as a purchasing agent. I graduated from The University of Texas at Austin’s Business School in 1982 with a BBA in Business Management and subsequently excelled in a couple of sales positions before Zola asked me to join the ministry as its business manager. In November 1988, I came aboard and was able to do the most good at first by negotiating better prices for our newsletter printing, video duplication and office space.
Over time I have seen dozens of Christians come and go as office workers and thousands join and leave this ministry as supporters. This work has taught me about human nature and the need for Christians to pull together. Our suppliers and staff consist of relatively ordinary people who humbly offer their extraordinary talents and gifts. And how these gifts complement one another! We don’t have the bureaucracy and formalities of a secular company (Praise the Lord), and we know that our daily work here impacts our readers’ and viewers’ spirituality, often eternally.
For years my friends and associates have asked what I would do “should Zola ever retire.” Well, he has retired now, so finally they are entitled to an answer.
My plans and vision for this ministry are the same as Zola’s: Glorify God. Bless Israel. Proclaim the good news of the Gospel. Fish for men. Reap the harvests of new Believers. And keep my candle burning for the Rapture. Come quickly, Lord Jesus; please!
For those who might ask if we have a television spokesperson who is as lovable as my father, I would respond, “How could we?”
Unless, perhaps, you count my stepmother, Sandra Levitt, who joined our family and ministry team in 1998. In the eight years since she and Zola honeymooned while leading an Israel tour, she has been at his side for virtually every speaking engagement and tour to Israel. Sandra knows backwards and forwards everything that Zola taught in churches and in the Holy Land. More significant than that, to my surprise, is how remarkably anointed she becomes when taping TV programs for our ministry. Stay tuned!
In addition, several of Zola’s closest associates are just as well informed as he: Dr. Tom McCall, Dr. Jeff Seif and Dr. Todd Baker. Tom has co-authored four books with Zola, all offered at our website and in our catalog. Jeff, together with Zola, created our Institute of Jewish-Christian Studies, a one-year, twelve-course program that has had nearly 2,000 graduates since 1986. Todd founded and heads up this ministry’s To the Jew First mission trips to Israel and leads the Shalom Shalom messianic congregation that Zola and he founded seven years ago. All four of these Bible scholars speak in churches across the nation. Please contact Scott in our office for information regarding our speakers at (214) 696-8844, ext. 21 or .
Lou Hays, a Believer and fellow chess player and golfer with Zola, has been our Levitt Letter editor for nearly three years. He has developed a sixth sense for the sort of articles and cartoons Zola preferred for keeping our readers on the cutting edge of prophecy fulfillment and Biblical commentary. Our graphic artist, Don Day, is so effective that when he moved from Dallas to Oklahoma ten years ago, we asked him to continue laying out our newsletters, book covers and other materials via email, fax and Fed Ex.
Ken Berg has been our Executive TV Producer since Day One. He is a little younger than Zola was and has proven to be a dedicated friend as well as consultant. Ken has a knack for making our programs look twice as expensive as they are. His Assistant Producer, Jerry Hodges, handles our syndication, which involves buying and scheduling our airtime on television. You may wish to refer to page 3 of January’s Levitt Letter, posted at www.levitt.com, to see more about Jerry and this ministry’s stewardship.
All of us feel the loss of our founder, but we also know that Zola intended his ministry to continue in these remarkable days. Why God chose to take him home now, as the threats against Israel seem to be approaching historic culmination, we cannot know, but maybe the timing offers the rest of us an inspiration to “rap about Jesus” as never before.
The bottom line is that, even though we miss Zola terribly, the need for this ministry continues, and we still have the resources to continue our mission. For a refresher on our mission statement, please refer to our website’s main page or page 3 of Zola’s Catalog, free for the asking. I would like to declare that this ministry will be even more effective than before, but it is difficult to imagine how it could be. For that aspiration, I won’t lean on my own understanding. (Prov. 3:5)
Our three most recent Israel tours have sold out even though Sandra hosted them instead of Zola. All the same guides, drivers and land agents are at their posts to ensure our traditional, high caliber itinerary carries on with Jewish Believers. Zola often said that a tour to Israel is worth more than ten years of Sunday school. Our fall tour schedule is as follows: The Deluxe Tour (Israel Only) is scheduled for October 29–November 8; Grand Petra (Israel & Petra) October 29–November 12; Grand Athens (Greek Isles Cruise & Israel) October 24–November 8; and our all-inclusive Ultra Grand Tour (Greek Isles Cruise, Israel & Petra) is October 24–November 12.
To request a brochure on any of these tours, please call Tony at 214-696-9760 during regular business hours or 1-800-WONDERS (800-966-3377) anytime, or visit www.levitt.com, where you can download a brochure from the website, or request a brochure be sent by mail.
Please stay with Zola’s vision for this ministry. Watch the TV programs and read the newsletters closely. Send me your feedback. It reassures me to consider that this ministry doesn’t have to last forever—just until the Rapture. Perhaps the Rapture is as close to us now as the Israelites were to crossing into the Promised Land when God called Moses home.
Please join me in praying for the peace of Jerusalem.
In His Service,
P.S. We are contemplating several new television series, including “Insights on Psalms” with Jeff Seif and “Women of the Bible” with Sandra Levitt. Prepare to be blessed with the continuing excellence of our teaching!
