Lori Kate Lowenhar was born and raised in Elkhart, Indiana, in a home with a Jewish father and a Gentile mother. At a young age, she embraced Yeshua (Jesus’ Hebrew name) into her life. After ten years of earnest prayers, her Jewish father also came to faith in his Messiah. Music played a central role in her family throughout her childhood, with Lori Kate learning both the clarinet and piano.

She went on to study at Cedarville University, where she earned a degree in music education. After graduating, she joined The Liberated Wailing Wall, Jews for Jesus’ traveling musical evangelism team, serving for two years. It was during this time that the Lord began directing her heart toward Israel. In 1998, she became a dual citizen of Israel and the United States.

Looking back, Lori Kate recognizes how God used her musical and evangelistic training to prepare her for a greater purpose—moving to a foreign land, learning a new language, and raising a family in Israel. In addition to being a devoted wife and mother of four, she is a highly sought-after music teacher in the Jezreel Valley, instructing students in clarinet, saxophone, flute, piano, and recorder. She and her husband, Ilan, co-founded One Lev (One Heart), an international music ministry that performs in Israel and abroad. Their ensemble includes both Messianic Jewish and Christian Arab musicians, uniting in worship to share the Gospel throughout the land.

Since the war of October 7th, Lori Kate and her family have experienced God’s grace and mercy despite the deep struggles and division that have gripped the nation of Israel. The Lord has opened new doors for ministry through music, home Bible fellowships (in both English and Hebrew), and a women’s Bible study. By God’s grace, both Jewish and Arab seekers are attending and discovering the hope found in His Word.

Most recently, Lori Kate co-founded Katzir (Harvest), a new ministry in partnership with two other women—an Israeli Arab Christian and a Gentile believer from Canada. Through Katzir, they pray together monthly via Zoom with women from around the world and minister locally by hosting Shabbat meals, coffee gatherings, Bible studies, and even pickleball games as a way to build relationships and share God’s love.

Lori Kate is passionate about sharing stories of hope and encouragement, especially in challenging times. She desires to inspire others to seek God wholeheartedly and invite His presence into every aspect of their lives.

Learn more about One Lev (One Heart) at http://www.onelevoneheart.com .

Psalm 122:6 says, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee."

My website is http://www.onelevoneheart.com

Hi, I'm Angel.

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Praise God for you, Lori Kate.

It's a great pleasure to connect with you.

What part of the world are you in today?

Well, I'm actually right now in Indiana.

Oh, so you're back in Indiana.

Yeah.

Okay.

Originally, you would have been in Israel or have you moved permanently?

Um, I am just traveling, visiting family at the moment and doing some ministry and then I head back to Israel this next month.

Okay.

Sounds good.

We tag who we speak with based on where they are and I think we were celebrating Israel this morning in the house.

Yeah.

That's great too.

Yes.

Wonderful.

So, how did you come to meet Jesus?

Well, my parents were very, well, my mother was very influential during my childhood because she had become a believer shortly after she married my dad who was the very stubborn Jew who basically told her, okay, you do your thing.

I'll do my thing.

And I kind of watched this develop in my young childhood and at eight years old, going to church with my mom, learning about Jesus.

I wanted him in my life, even though I was very young, I knew it very clearly.

This was my calling to live for him.

And then shortly after that, my father became a completed Jew.

Um, and that was very exciting for our family.

Is there a point in your life when years after you remember having an encounter that got you back on the train or was it simply a relationship from aid going forward that was consistent with Jesus?

I would say that, um, I always wanted to live for him, but there was a time when I finished my degree from a Christian university.

I got a music education degree, and then I went into another ministry that was called Jews for Jesus.

And it was, um, two years that I spent at on the liberated willing wall.

That was a long time ago.

We traveled all over America and the Lord was just planting seeds in my life during that time of, you know, being able to evangelize, being bold in my witness and trying to understand what was his calling on, on my life.

I love playing music.

So combining music and evangelism was such a blessing.

And so then that's when I went to Israel for the first time.

And that was about 30 years ago.

And then I knew he was bringing me to the land, um, you know, the land that he had fulfilled in 1948.

And I was meant to be one of the Jewish people following in those footsteps of being called back.

That was a huge turning point for me.

I could imagine.

So you're coming from Indiana this time.

How many states on average would you have visited in the U.S. before you got over there?

I have been to every state except for Alaska and Hawaii.

Wow.

So all 48 states.

So you definitely knew what the U.S. contained.

Yes.

And how long has it been?

You've been over at in Israel.

Well, I have lived there now more than 28 years and I met my husband there and we have four children and it's been well, I guess you could say it's been quite an adventure.

So there's confirmation in truth that the leading you got was accurate.

Yes, absolutely.

Um, of course, you know, life isn't always easy living in Israel.

Uh, I feel that, you know, going through the hardships and the, and the chaos of life there is, you know, having a burden to share with Jews and Arabs living in Israel, the hope that we have in him, it's so important today.

Yeah, definitely.

I mean, Israel is at the epicenter of many things that are going on, right?

So, oh, yes, yes, for sure.

And, you know, the rise of antisemitism doesn't help.

And I think it's just, they, they need to know that people, true believers in Jesus love them and pray for them.

And it's, it is great to be able to share with them that yes, there are Christians around the world that desire to pray for them on a daily basis and celebrate, you know, um, some of the holidays along with them, you know, we just celebrated Rosh Hashanah and we just completed Yom Kippur, and now we look forward to Sukkot.

Yeah, it's always interesting to me how things connect in conversations, because I had a conversation with guys this morning and they were telling us about the holidays.

And I asked exactly, he said the exact hour word you said, right, which I'm not going to attempt to pronounce, right.

And I said, what is that?

And he told me, you know, it's a Jewish holiday.

And here you are bringing it up again.

But even in the connection of your ministry, where you're, you're going around singing, doing ministry, you have an encounter.

And that's what you're still doing today.

Yes.

So my husband and I co founded the ministry of one love, which means one heart, we co founded it actually with a Russian partner.

Because along in the past 10 years, we've, we've had, you know, wonderful musicians join us that have Russian, Ukrainian, even Christian Arabs have joined us to unite our hearts together to create music to share the gospel.

And it's been wonderful to get some of our songs on the Israeli radio, as there are no Christian radio stations in Israel, because our music speaks about faith, love and hope in our loving, you know, God, God, our father, Adonai.

And we have, we have shared music for Holocaust survivors, we've also gone into nursing homes, we've partnered with other ministries, local ministries in Israel.

And then we are traveling a little bit because as a nonprofit ministry, with donations and support, we're able to travel twice a year to Europe, and once a year to America, where we are connecting people and nations to Israel.

That's amazing.

So when you connected with Lorianne, was it via her podcast?

Or how did you guys connect Lorianne Wood?

Oh, I found her on a website that I was receiving some of her newsletters.

And I reached out to her and I said, Look, I'm living in Israel.

I love what you are writing and how you're sharing.

You know, would you be interested in connecting and she reached out, you know, she returned back to me and said, Yes, absolutely.

And then she wanted me to write an article for her website.

So I did.

And that's how we connected.

I was really glad about that.

Because any any opportunity I get to share the love of Jesus and how it's going in Israel, we appreciate prayers.

That's I think that's what's so important is that we pray for one another.

But God is hearing the prayers of the watchman on the wall, as Isaiah states, because the gospel is going forth in Israel today.

And it is exciting because people are opening their Bibles or wanting a complete Bible, Old and New Testament, coming into our home and, you know, eating meals with us and searching.

And of course, these decisions don't come lightly.

They are.

It's a process.

It can take years for people to really understand that Jesus is for them.

So yeah, so all that just kind of fell into place.

Yeah, that's amazing.

So is this something that's counterculture from where you grew up, where you grew up in Indiana?

Or is this something that just falls in the vein of what you were doing already?

Yeah, no, definitely.

I mean, we're kind of surrounded here in the Midwest, in America with churches, and you know, the gospel, so it was kind of an easier environment.

But going to the Middle East, really allows the opportunity to have your eyes open and say, Wow, I've got to trust in the Lord.

For every opportunity the doors that are opening to us to share God's love with them.

You do have to be very careful, you do, you know, the Holy Spirit's really interceding for us.

And you just see things a little bit more clearly.

But really, by the grace of God, so truly grateful for music and for relationships and working in Israel.

This has allowed us more and more opportunities to share Yeshua, as we call Jesus's Hebrew name, with so many.

Again, for those listening, Lorian was previously on the podcast, and we reached out to ask who would recommend someone and Lorian again, who has an amazing story with her heart.

And, you know, just fighting life in itself and being someone who was deemed not like nowhere is she supposed to be alive, right?

And yeah, she's breathing life as well into conversations by connecting with you.

As a result, yeah, you would think she's someone that could say, Hey, I don't have time for that.

Yeah, I'm dying here.

But instead, she is more of I'm living here, right?

So let me connect you, in fact, inviting you to write as well.

So I'm intrigued, the music side, the clarinet side, where did that come in?

Well, my sister and I grew up in the home studying piano at an early age.

And then once we started around the fifth grade, you know, in school, that's when instruments were encouraged.

And so my band instructor said, You should play the clarinet.

And it was, you know, once I had it in my hands, it was no turning back.

And so from there, I went on and learned saxophone, flute, trumpet, trombone, I even studied a little bit in university, oboe, bassoon, had to study violin, cello.

So I pretty much have a good basis of musical instruments.

So the music education degree made sense.

All right, five years from today, you're listening to this conversation, Laurie, you would have heard the evolution of one woman who has moved from Indiana with a clarinet and other musical skills.

Yeah, had four children moved to Israel.

And today is looking forward to the future.

What is a message you'd leave for future you?

Oh, I'm just excited to see events unfolding around us.

And knowing that, you know, I'm just going to continue in this ministry with my husband, partnering together, writing more music, and just seeing how, you know, we can connect with the world and bringing, you know, painting Israel in a way that people just don't understand and seeing how, you know, it's everything is based on the Bible and bringing Bible verses to life through music.

I think that's what our burden is to make Yeshua's name known and magnified.

A pleasure.

I treasure Laurie Keat.

Thank you for being on What is Inspired by 12 Minicons.