International Newsletter May 2023

“Ever since God brought me to Steiger, I knew that my Acts 1:8 ‘ends of the earth’ would be Africa.” For years, missionary Cyrena has been praying for the opportunity to take the work of Steiger to Africa. Others within the mission joined this prayer, and last month, we sent our first Pioneering Team to the continent!

Through two events in South Africa (Cape Town and Pretoria), the team trained over 80 believers in how to relevantly communicate the Gospel to young people who have no interest in stepping foot in a church. The experience was life changing! 

Team member Felo spoke with Enual (a young man from the training) after a prayer walk on the first night. “He said he didn’t know how to get closer to God’s purposes for his life,” Felo recalled. The men prayed together that God would move powerfully in Enual’s life.

“On the last night of the training, we held a crazy street party in one of the busiest areas in Cape Town,” Felo shared. “In the middle of the music set, Enual approached us for the microphone. He did an incredible rap, bringing people in to share with them the pure and joyful life we have in Jesus. I was amazed to see him strong in his faith, enjoying and using what God gave him to bring people in and to live a radical and passionate life for Jesus.”

Students hit the Cape Town streets to share the Gospel.

Through these two training events, the groups shared the Gospel with 590 people, prayed with 400 of them, and led 41 of them in a prayer of salvation!

Team member Jelte met a man named Peter during an outreach. “He used to be a believer, but lost his faith after his wife passed away,” Jelte recalled. “As we started a conversation, I felt the Holy Spirit tell me not to talk, but just to listen.” So for over an hour, he gave his full attention as Peter shared his story of deep sorrow and grief. “The rest of the group had left when I started to pray for him. As I prayed, Peter fell to his knees and decided to give his life back to the Lord. He told me that this was a new beginning, that he had come home again.”

A student in Cape Town prays with a young woman struggling with anxiety.

Team member Cyrena continued on to Togo after South Africa, joined by Mable from the Steiger Marseille team. After two packed days of training, prayer, and worship with local believers in Lomé, the group hit the streets for creative evangelism in three different languages: English, French, and Ewe. In 3 hours, they had 33 Gospel conversations. 

“A couple approached one of the guys in our outreach,” Cyrena shared, “At first, neither of them were interested in the Gospel. As the conversation went on, the boyfriend became really resistant and the girlfriend started listening and responding. The boyfriend was telling her to stop asking questions, but she kept saying, ‘No, I want to learn more about this God and this Jesus.’ At the end of the 45 minute conversation, both of them received Jesus!” By the end of the night, the group prayed with 8 people who gave their lives to Christ, and are now walking in discipleship with all of them!

Since our Pioneering Team members returned home, the groups they poured into in Cape Town, Pretoria, and Lomé have continued to meet together and go out for creative evangelism. They are walking in discipleship with non believers and new believers they encountered while our team was there. With these new initiatives starting, we now have active Steiger movements in every continent but Antartica!