Marty Zide is the director of the Midwest Messianic Center. As a Jew he placed his trust in Jesus as his Messiah in December of 1971. Marty grew up in a reformed Jewish home. He compared reformed Judaism to the Sadducees of Christ's day who were the liberal sect of Judaism. He went to temple two days a year with his parents not attending at all because of their work. They did, however, celebrate Passover and Hanukkah. In April 1971 Marty received his orders to report for service in the Army Reserves and participated for 4 months in active duty in Kentucky. At the same time, his two close friends, one Gentile and one Jewish, went to California for the summer and ended up becoming followers of Christ. The plan was that when they came back from California and he left the Reserves, the three of them were going to move to Columbia, Missouri, go to school and rent an apartment. That's exactly what happened. As Marty soon found out, living with two new Christian believers meant he'd become a target as he admitted to being pummeled with the gospel.