1981: My Story

Hi, I'm Izzy. In the following chapters I'm going to share with you about my journey and the work I've been entrusted with - a mission that has already touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people - but I thought I'd start here by introducing myself and telling a little of my story. 

I am Canadian! I grew up in the prairie province of Saskatchewan, probably the Nazareth of North America. My grandparents were my heroes: hard-working, Depression-era pioneer farmers whose families had immigrated to Canada from the far western and eastern ends of Europe, some from Jewish families and some not. My Dad led a faith community and my Mom homeschooled me and my three brothers. I had a very happy childhood and spent much of my time reading books and building forts. I was a mix of serious and silly, present and playful, some of which you can see in this favourite boyhood portrait.

In my early teens several crises shattered my perfect world and set me on a quest seeking answers to life's hardest questions. God became very real to me and I felt him calling me to spend much time with him and devote myself to prayer and the ministry of the Word, similar to the calling of Yeshua's first disciples. For several years I spent hours a day and sometimes whole nights in meditation and study while working just enough to subsist. The inner work was intense! I fasted for months on end, eating only once daily, and at one point fasted altogether for over forty days with only my passion and the divine presence sustaining me.

My deepest desire was to experience as much of God as a man can in this life and to know the Master for myself, and I wasn't disappointed. Yeshua began showing himself to me in very personal ways, with one of the most precious revelations being just how Jewish he is. There is so much I could say about that epiphany, and really it's what every one of these posts is going to be about in one way or another. I was led to start going to my local Conservative synagogue and there I began encountering Messiah in the midst of Judaism and the Jewish community. As part of my own journey following Yeshua in this way I learned Hebrew, spent almost a year in Israel, and reconnected with my family's eastern European Jewish roots.

After meeting somebody at my synagogue who was Messianic I spent several years going through the Hebrew Roots and then Messianic Jewish movements. Since then I've come full circle and am back in the Jewish community where I feel most at home and closest to Messiah, practicing traditional Judaism. My passion to experience God and know Yeshua for myself hasn't changed since my teens and the following stories are an overflow of that romance. I hope they bring new life and love to your heart. 

I'm also wondering if I could keep you posted on my ongoing journey? If yes sign up for texts or emails here: