We want to welcome you to Beit HaShalem Emet (BHSE) and tell you a bit about us and why we do what we are doing. BHSE is the fruition of many years of prayer, waiting, studying, and seeking Adonai.
We, Mike, and Pat Marcus come from diverse backgrounds. Mike grew up in an interfaith household. His father was Jewish and his mother was Catholic.
The Story Of Mike And Pat Marcus
Pat was raised in a Christian home. Her father was a Methodist minister. Mike is a pharmacist by profession, and Pat practiced law for several years before entering the teaching profession. We have been involved in mainline denominational churches, charismatic churches, and Messianic congregations during our years together. Both of us had, and continue to have, a heart for marriages and families.
In the mid-1990’s we were associated with Marriage Ministries International as leaders for several years teaching G-dly principles to married couples. At the same time, we were counseling married couples experiencing problems. We realized how many more relationships we could save if we taught couples about these principles before marriage. Thus, we began to counsel and teach premarital couples for our local church. Soon Adonai led us to write a premarital curriculum which hopefully will be published soon.
How Adonai Changed our Lives
After years of premarital counseling for our church, we became deans of the new Bible school. We created a curriculum and taught many of the courses. Both of us were licensed as pastors in 2005 and then ordained in April 2009 through New Wine Christian Center (now called Gateway Church International). It was during this time that Adonai, who had been working in our hearts all along, began to stir up an intense desire to seek more of His word.
This desire led us to study more of the Old Testament and its connection with the New Testament. As always, Adonai was faithful by providing opportunities to learn through the First Fruits of Zion’s HaYesod (The Foundation) course and two years of learning Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) at a Messianic congregation in Maryland. In addition, we both took a Torah class through a Yeshiva in Maryland.
