Our Story

The Apple of His Eye Mission Society exists to boldly declare Y’shua as the Messiah and urgently equip God’s people to do the same.

We are passionate about telling Jewish people and gentiles that Jesus is the promised Messiah and invite them to respond in faith.

What We Seek To Do

• We seek to develop effective, dynamic new materials to assist Christians in personal evangelism

• We seek to open new mission stations in centers with larger Jewish populations around the world to provide a focal point for evangelism activities

• We seek to train new leaders for service

• We seek to utilize the technologies available to us to enable us to better communicate the Gospel.

• We seek to zag where others are zigging

• We seek to expand our international prayer consortium for Jewish missions

• We seek to model for the rest of the church courageous mission work done as a faith mission

Apple of His Eye Mission Society is a not-for-profit 501c(3) organization. We file a Form 990 annually for the public disclosure of all our finances.

We have come together because we desire a changed future

The change we desire is lost souls being found in Christ; churches including Jewish people in their overall mission focus; and Christians overcoming their reticence to witness and boldly presenting the message of salvation to those they know.

We are a faith mission

We rely on God to provide the resources through churches and individuals to carry out our mission efforts. Our support does not come from governments or non-believers, but from those who agree with us that the Bible is true and Jesus is the only way for salvation (John 14:6). We rely on the prayerful, sacrificial donations of time, talents and treasures of those who agree with us to enable us to carry out our mission.

Our role supports the building up of the church as a whole

Ephesians 4:11-15 It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

God called some to serve the church as evangelists, people who are broadcasting the Gospel to those not yet followers of Christ. As evangelists serve, they not only are declarers of the Good News, but are also part of God’s plan to prepare the church to mature into powerful witnesses who will speak the truth of Jesus, in love, to a lost and dying world.

Jewish missions presents some unique challenges

We face a challenge in brining the Gospel to a Jewish audience:

• There are over 16 million Jewish people scattered over 134 countries of the world.

• Missiologists acknowledge that over 98% of the Jewish population today is unsaved.

• Not only do we face indifference by many regarding spiritual matters, but that is colored by the long history of anti-Semitism which, by some in the Jewish community, is linked to the church.

• It has long been declared by Jewish leaders that one cannot be Jewish and believe in Jesus. Yet the first followers of Jesus were Jewish, Jesus was Jewish, and the Apostles were Jewish. We believe that the most Jewish thing one can do is follow the Jewish Messiah, Jesus!

• We cannot piggy-back the Gospel onto an agricultural mission, a medical mission or an educational mission. We do not need to translate the scriptures into a native tongue. The Jewish people have taken a desert and made it bloom. They are on the cutting edge of medical technologies and are highly literate. The Old Testament was given in their original tongue, Hebrew. This means that the only thing we can do is to tell people of Jesus in as loving and direct manner as possible.

Apple of His Eye Mission Society is a not-for-profit 501c(3) organization. We file a Form 990 annually for the public disclosure of all our finances.

We are organized around a set of CORE VALUES which link us together.

God's Promises Concerning the Jewish People

We believe that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. The promises that He has made concerning the Jewish people will be consummated in His time (Jer. 31:35- 37; Romans 11:24-26). We stand against anti-Semitism in all of its forms, and view withholding the Gospel from the Jewish people to be the worst form of anti-Semitism.

Direct Jewish Evangelism

It is vital that we focus energy on a clear presentation of the Good News of life and salvation in Y’shua to unsaved Jewish people world-wide. (Romans 1:16)

Lutheran Biblical Doctrine

We value sound Biblical grace-oriented teaching as we equip people to be witnesses to the life we find in the Messiah, Y’shua.

Planting Messianic Congregations

The planting of worshipping congregations with a messianic Jewish heritage is an important outcome of our ministry.

Nurturing Mishpochah (Family)

We value a caring and committed community which will rejoice with one another in victory and mourn with those who mourn. We recognize that for some, faith in Y’shua may lead to loss of family and Jewish community support, and we willingly stand in the gap to provide support and community for those Jewish believers.

Awareness and Training for the Church in Jewish Evangelism

We value raising the awareness level of Lutheran congregations for their Jewish community neighbors and we work to lift their zeal and skills in sharing their faith with them.

Leadership Development

We prize the discovery and usage of the Spiritual Gifts and talents of Jewish and gentile believers, and we invest time and energy in training and deploying them to carry out God’s mission in the community and the world.

Apple of His Eye Mission Society is a not-for-profit 501c(3) organization. We file a Form 990 annually for the public disclosure of all our finances.

The term “Apple of His Eye” comes from the Bible. It refers to the “small man” or pupil of the eye that is protected by the Lord:

Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you. When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. For the LORD’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance. In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions. The LORD alone led him; no foreign god was with him. - Deuteronomy 32:7-12

Our name sprang from an outreach event in 1990, our very first one in The Big Apple, New York City. We aim for Lutherans to associate the phrase today with Jewish evangelism.

We are a mission society in that we are going; and giving the Gospel wherever we go: public events and places, giving presentations in churches, through our personal lives, and in the development of materials and technologies to tell the Good News of Messiah.

We are a society in the sense that we are an group of people who share an interest, aim, and profession of faith.

Apple of His Eye Mission Society is a not-for-profit 501c(3) organization. We file a Form 990 annually for the public disclosure of all our finances.

Established 1996

The Apple of His Eye Mission Society began full-time efforts in 1996 to address the challenges of sharing the gospel with the Lost sheep of Israel, and all others who need the Gospel.

Steve Cohen, then a twenty year veteran of Jewish missions and long-time volunteer with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) Task Force on Jewish Evangelism, moved to St. Louis to apply full-time energies to his former hobby – helping the LCMS become active and effective in reaching Jewish people with the Gospel.

Humble Beginnings

We started with a file folder and the use of a cubby-hole in the administrative unit of Christ Memorial Lutheran Church in Affton, Missouri. From the earliest of days we sought opportunities to bring the message of salvation out in public settings. Our home-made gospel tracts, called broadsides, have been written, printed and distributed to tens of thousands since. Each one is an invitation to engage in a personal evangelistic dialogue over the person of Jesus. Since 1996 we have written over 120 new Gospel tracts and distributed over 600,000.

Evangelizing the World

We have mission advocates serving with us in Washington DC, Dayton Ohio, Chicago, Southern Georgia and Moscow.

Praying for the Lost

The International Prayer Consortium: In 2003, we began a new initiative with a handful of people sitting around a table at a conference in Helsinki, Finland. We banded together to use the tools of technology for developing an international prayer network to pray for the needs and concerns in Jewish missions. Today we communicate with over 5,000 prayer warriors around the world who have knitted their hearts with ours and those who would be emerging leaders.

Apple of His Eye Mission Society is a not-for-profit 501c(3) organization. We file a Form 990 annually for the public disclosure of all our finances.