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| Christians from different churches and Ed leading in a
time of prayer after he taught a Bible study in Kwidzyn,
Poland, in September 2004.
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Ed D. Kleiman
"Francis Schaeffer said, 'If we are a community built on prayer, and we're not a praying people, then this is the end of the world.' Well, this may not be the end of the world but most of us can clearly see that the church is not having the impact on the culture it should. I believe Francis Schaeffer was right. The presence and power of God is not manifestly dwelling among His people, and we are not seeing the Lord work simply because we are not asking, seeking, and knocking in prayer (Matthew 7:7). Yet, I have seen the Lord work powerfully in response to the faithful prayers of His believing children. I have seen it in different parts of this country, and in many other parts of the world." (Ed Kleiman)
Ed Kleiman, a Messianic Jew, grew up in St. Louis "worshipping & serving the god in the mirror" as he refers to it. From the age of sixteen to forty one he offered up daily sacrifices to this god; of drugs, alcohol, and sexual immorality. Then God granted him repentance (Acts 11:18), and God's gift of eternal life by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8), on October 23rd, 1994.
The pastor of that church who was used to proclaim the gospel of God's grace, which is the power of God for salvation (Romans. 1:16), met to disciple Ed every week for the next 2 years and 8 months, until he was called to pastor another church in another state. Sometime after, Ed began attending and auditing classes at Covenant Theological Seminary.
He preached for the first time on November 16th, 1997 at a retirement home. In the beginning of 1999 he began preaching at Sunshine Mission, a homeless shelter in St. Louis (shown at right). There for over the past thirteen years Ed has preached well over a hundred and twenty times, and seen God grant new life to some of the most down-&-out, through their trust and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. In 2000, he became part of, and now serves full time with the missions organization, International Messengers.
On September 11, 2001, ten minutes before Ed, or anyone in his office heard about the World Trade Center, he gave notice where he worked, saying the Lord had opened so many doors of ministry that he believed He was moving him on. Ed needed to pursue full-time the ministry God had already given him: calling His people to once again humble themselves and pray; and say why it was so important to do so now! The Lord will raise up people to get us to no longer trust in ourselves but in Him alone (2 Corinthians 1:9).
In 2002, Ed ministered in 15 different churches in six different states and two different countries, leading prayer initiatives and teaching on prayer. Four times a year now he teaches new missionary students in Libby, Montana at the Training Center for International Messengers. In that year alone he taught 20 different missionaries before they went to places in Poland, Hungary, Romania, the United States, Germany, Slovakia, and the Ukraine.
Like all great historical revivals in the past, prayer continues to be a crucial, and still often missing element. Our gracious Lord has been using Ed, also expanding opportunities and opening doors to preach on the importance of the local church, God's design for the family, especially the role of men, the call for missions, while always emphasizing the power, priority, and purposes of prayer.
 The photo at the right shows Ed speaking to the missionaries at International Messengers Staff Conference in the fall of 2003 in Zakopane, Poland. Ed went on to teach and minister in several other cities in Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia.
In 2004 Ed ministered in nine different cities throughout Poland and spent a week teaching nationals who were the new missionary students at the Missions School in Odessa, Ukraine. In 2005 he did his first, of several Men's Conference in Romania.
Please continue to pray for this important ongoing work! The Lord has used it to rekindle a passion for Jesus Christ in many churches throughout the United States as well.
Ed Kleiman believes in the sufficiency of Scripture and prevailing prayer because he has been transformed by the power of both. Less than two weeks before placing his trust in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross, and in His perfect righteousness, his friend who invited him to church told the pastor during a meeting he felt his friend (Ed) was "ripe" or ready. The pastor stopped the meeting and prayed for Ed's salvation and for God to grant him eternal life, and within two weeks God answered that prayer.
Since that time Ed has been gripped by the power of the one true, triune, living and sovereign God. He's been ravished by the love of his beloved Lord Jesus, and empowered by His Spirit to trust in all of God's promises (2 Corinthians. 1:20), in this life, and the one to come. He knows; "Faithful is He who calls him, and He also will bring it to pass." (1 Thess. 5:24)
Influenced much by the heroes of the faith who've gone before him, Ed would say with them; nothing less than sovereign power and irresistible grace would ever be sufficient for such a one as myself! None need despair, since He has saved such a worthless, hell-deserving one as me!
May you too experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it! (Ephesians 3:19)
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Men's Conference in Romania in the Spring of 2006 |
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| Write |
Center for Biblical Studies
P.O. Box 32832
St. Louis, MO 63132 |
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Call |
Ed Kleiman (314)
989-1360 |
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Email |
edkleiman@att.net |
We must at all times, in all ways, with all people, point them to Christ!
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The above photo shows Ed with a group at the end of
their one and only prayer walk, in a small village in Romania.
During that prayer walk they shared the Gospel with an older
man who came up to them saying he was drunk, one woman came to
them asking for a Bible (pictured holding looking at the
camera), and an elderly woman on two crutches also came up to
them and asked for prayer (pictured sitting on the bench), and
as they prayed, she wept. Ed went on to say; "Not bad for the
first prayer walk." |
The photo above shows Ed in Radom, Poland asking the
question to those in the only five evangelical churches in the
town; "What would this city look like if Jesus Christ made His
rule and reign over every aspect of it clearly known and
visible to all?" They then went on to begin to pray for those
things. |
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