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HISTORY:

Maris Salmins was a member of a congregation in Latvia that had a sacrificial love for the Jewish people. He attended a Bible school in Estonia. The leader of the Bible school had a Jewish mother. That leader taught his students to have a love for the Jewish people and how G-d had never cut off or replaced the Jewish people. He showed the students how the prophecies in the Bible had a clear outline of good things to come for the Jewish people. Maris also attended a few seminars in Sweden at a congregation which owned ships which took Russian Jews to Israel.

While the Iron Curtain was in existence in the former Soviet Union, Iris Lefkoff carried Bibles and tracts into Russia for the Jewish people. She continued making trips to Russia, the Ukraine and Latvia after the Iron Curtain was down. In 1995, G-d called Iris to move from Houston, Texas to start a Messianic synagogue in Riga, Latvia. At that time there was no Messianic ministry anywhere in the country.

Maris was a member of an intercessory group at his congregation that met weekly to pray for Israel and the Jewish people. Two weeks after Iris moved to Riga, she visited that group. Maris met Iris.

Maris was at the first service of the synagogue that Iris believed she was sent to start.

After the group had grown to about 24 people in Iris' apartment, they rented a meeting room. After a few months, they appointed a local Latvian Jewish man to be the leader.

One year later, Maris and Iris were married. They began Beth Yeshua, the first Messianic Jewish congregation in the country of Latvia. Three and a half years later, the Latvian Jewish man they had appointed as leader of the congregation took over the complete leadership of the congregation. They then encouraged the elders of that congregation to start a second congregation. Following that they started a home group for elderly Jewish people who were saved, discipled and are now meeting on their own with a leader from amongst them!

The three groups we started in Latvia have now encouraged the establishment of three more groups.  Last Purim, they all celebrated together! 

STATEMENT OF FAITH

We believe that the Jewish Holy Scriptures from Genesis to Revelations are infallible.

We believe that the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is echad (a plural unity which includes The Father, Yeshua and the Holy Spirit of G-d).

We believe He gave His people instructions in the Torah so that they could lead peaceful, healthy and abundant lives throughout all their generations.

We believe the G-d of the Tanakh is the G-d of the Brit Chadasha.

We believe that Yeshua is L-ord, G-d and the promised Moshiach of Israel.

We believe Yeshua is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

We believe that because He is deity he was able to lead a sinless life.

We believe that His leading a sinless life meant He kept all of His Father’s instructions, including the Torah.

We believe in Yeshua’s virgin birth.

We believe that Yeshua as the suffering Moshiach shed his blood as an atonement for sin.

We believe in Yeshua’s resurrection.

We believe that He being the Son of David, will return to reign victoriously in Yerusalem.

We believe that a person is continually changed by the work of the Ruach HaKodesh when a person accepts the atonement for his sins through Yeshua.

We believe in the resurrection of the dead, the righteous to life, the unrighteous to damnation.

We believe that the atonement for sins through Yeshua’s blood is a provision for the Jewish people as well as for Gentiles.

We believe that it is proper for all believers to do G-d’s will as revealed in his Holy Scriptures.

We believe that Jewish customs and traditions that do not contradict the Tanakh or Brit Chadasha should be followed as the Ruach HaKodesh leads.