Laura Barron never thought she would be called to minister to the Haredim, one of the most unreached and hardest-to-reach people groups in the world. In fact, when she felt God’s call, she almost rejected it.

“I’ll do anything you want, Lord, but please, not this!”

Laura was raised in New York in a secular Jewish home. Her parents were hippies and moved the family to California in the 1970s but divorced shortly after they arrived. As a “latchkey kid,” she was often left to figure things out on her own. She was 12 when a friend from school invited her to church.

Laura says, “That was the first time I had ever heard the good news of Messiah. I didn’t even know who Jesus was. I had no background. I said, ‘Why not?’ It sounded like a good deal. I could know God; I could have a relationship with Him. Why would I say no?”

That day, she prayed with the pastor to receive Jesus. When she came home with the news about her new faith in Jesus, her family was scandalized. It was then that she learned “Jewish people are not supposed to believe in Jesus.” However, Laura felt she had received something real and insisted on continuing to attend church.

After checking out the church and ensuring young Laura wasn’t joining a cult, her family allowed her to continue on two conditions: first, that she wouldn’t take any sacraments, like communion or baptism, and second, that she would learn as much about Judaism as Christianity. Little did they know their second condition equipped her to eventually become an excellent missionary to her Jewish people.

Laura came on staff with Jews for Jesus in 1989 when she helped her husband, Andrew, establish the first overseas branch of Jews for Jesus in South Africa. In 1996, one year after their eldest son, Rafi, was born with Down syndrome, the Barrons transferred to the Canada branch in Toronto. A few years later, while being a busy mom of three young children, Laura earned a master’s degree in missiology with emphasis on Jewish studies from the Fuller Seminary’s School of World Missions.

Laura was completely unprepared for the mission God would eventually set before her.

Laura’s background as a secular, educated, North American Jewish woman helped her communicate effectively with most of the Jewish people she encountered. But she was completely unprepared for the mission God would eventually set before her.

After nearly 30 years of serving as a missionary with Jews for Jesus, Laura was asked to co-lead a team on the month-long “Behold Your God” evangelistic campaign in Jerusalem in 2018. Each team would specialize in ministering to a particular Jewish audience. To her surprise, she was asked to lead the team ministering to Haredi women. She had already told God that she would do anything for Him, but this wasn’t what she had in mind. How could someone of her secular background find any commonalities with the strictly religious Haredim?

“When the eight women who were asked to be on the Haredi women’s team first met, not one woman sitting in that room wanted to be there, and half of them were crying. We were all terrified of reprisals, fearful of our own ineptitudes, but still all obedient to God, saying, ‘I’m here.’ We started in a really good place of total vulnerability, and all glory was going to go to God,” Laura says.

In addition to being a highly closed society and suspicious of outsiders, the Haredim are extremely gender segregated. Strict social norms govern how each of the sexes are allowed to carry on their day-to-day lives. In many Haredi communities, the women are the breadwinners while the men spend their days studying the Torah. Meanwhile, families are large, with many couples having eight children or more. This puts enormous pressure on Haredi women, who shoulder the burden of running the home and caring for children while also earning an income. All the while, they are strictly surveilled to limit the influence of the outside world.

Feeling ill equipped for their mission, the Haredi women’s team bathed everything they did in prayer. As they phoned the Haredi homes to offer their services, they would always have someone sitting nearby praying.

Laura describes the month-long campaign to the Haredi women in Jerusalem: “We presented ourselves as Christians who wanted to love and serve the city and that we would be available to help with whatever they needed: cooking, cleaning, childcare, shopping, etc.—any kind of relief or support. During that time, not only did every woman want the service, but they nearly all agreed to receive prayer. We left Jerusalem seeing that not only was there a great need for this kind of ministry, but we also had established a foundation. As we left, one of my team members Lisa Weisbaum, who still serves with the Haredi ministry team, and I looked at each other and said, ‘This isn’t over. It’s just beginning.’”

I’ll do anything you want, Lord, but please, not this!

Since then, ministry to the Haredim has expanded globally with Laura leading the charge to Haredi women. She has had a pivotal role in networking with other ministries and individuals outside of Jews for Jesus who have a heart to reach the Haredim. Together, they have recently established NOSH (Network of Support for the Haredim), a faith-based network of people who offer their time and resources to love and serve the Haredim.

Seeing firsthand the benefits of prayer, the Haredi team launched a prayer guide now available in nine languages. They also hold a monthly intercessory prayer meeting. To learn more about NOSH or join the prayer movement for the Haredim, email us at harediprayer@jewsforjesus.org.

“Haredi ministry is a special calling. Most of the workers admitted that they responded to God in obedience rather than with a desire or special love for this particular calling. But across the board, the Lord downloaded His compassion for the Haredim into all of our hearts, especially as we learn and interact more with the community,” Laura says.

You can watch Laura’s testimony on our So Be It! YouTube channel.