Raymond Brooks Interview

Today I interviewed Raymond Brooks, a Jewish man who found his Messiah!

Raymond grew up in a traditional non-religious Orthodox home where they kept the high holidays out of respect for his maternal grandparents. He had his Bar Mitzvah but never really felt a connection with God within the synagogue. He felt it was a place where people went to socialize and prove how Jewish they were. Unless you understood Hebrew, the service was unable to be followed.

After Raymond’s Bar Mitzvah, he rebelled and high holidays were like a chore rather than enjoyable to him. The only good point he took from them was that he got the day off school.
In 2010 after a 12 year struggle with drug addiction, Raymond tried all he could in his own strength to give it up but failed on numerous occasions. His mother invited him to NYC for 10 days if he agreed to not smoke dope for the duration of the time. So with this agreement, Raymond went to NYC. During his stay, Raymond’s brother was serving on a Jews for Jesus summer campaign and invited them to one of their Shabbat meals. Raymond accepted with the understanding that they would not talk to him about Jesus. While there, he felt emotionally touched by the love he was shown, and they prayed for him to give up the drugs for good.

Towards the end of his stay in NYC, Raymond became scared to go home and fall back into the same habits as the previous 12 years, so for the first time in his life he decided to pray. He felt he was being drawn towards Jesus and the love he was shown during that Shabbat meal in New York. So he said to himself “ok I'm going to give this Jesus a chance” and he asked his brother what he needed to do.

Together they prayed the prayer of repentance and throughout the next year Raymond read the new testament for himself. At the end of his reading, he came to the conclusion that this was a very Jewish book, and he couldn't understand why most Jewish people were forbidden to read it. Most importantly, Raymond realized that it wasn't actually him giving Jesus a chance, but He was offering him the chance of an eternity in unity with the God of Israel. So on understanding the gospel he was really delivered!

Since that time Raymond attended theological school and completed his Masters Degree. Three years ago Raymond’s father became terminally ill with lung cancer, and Raymond cared for him and led him to the Lord seven days before he passed away.

Two weeks after his father’s passing, Raymond met his fiancée who God brought from Israel to his house in London for a Shabbat fellowship event. The two plan to marry in three weeks and then Raymond and his bride plan to make Aliyah.