International Newsletter July 2009

Dear Friends,

Just recently, I stayed in a room that looked down on a Middle Eastern city where in some neighborhoods the houses are riddled with bullet holes from street fights. The young couple I was staying with opened their hearts to me. “We are alone. Please help us,” they said. “We are so tired and feel like we are crawling on the ground. We can’t stand alone!” Download pdf

The day before, I talked in a club with a young university student whose only experience with God was “religious people” who called him Satan because of how he was dressed. He thought knowing God was only a form of repeating words and songs in a programmed meeting. His other exposure to God were religious extremists who felt they had the right to kill anyone who converted to Jesus.

Later that day I talked with another university student who was studying for his PHD in engineering and played bass in an alternative hard core band. He was sick of all the bad forms of religion he had experienced, so he rejected God altogether and became a hard core atheist. However his life was so void of meaning that he finally cried out to God, who he didn’t believe in, because he was so desperate. While he was doing this, he told me that Jesus physically came to him and put His hands on his shoulders. He explained how he felt “this cleansing come on his whole body”. Now, totally transformed by God’s power, he is desperate that others like him hear the truth.

On August 1st, we will be doing a “Battle of the Bands” competition in a large venue in the centre of this city. Sixteen secular bands have already signed up for the competition and many of these bands are very influential in the universities and alternative music scenes. No Longer Music has been asked to be the judges during the competition and to decide who the winner will be. This will be announced after No Longer Music plays at the end of the night. At least two thousand people are expected to attend this event and MTV is going to send a film crew and broadcast our concert nationally. It will also be promoted on the most popular music station in the country.

We have established a local follow up and discipleship team, comprised of local and foreign Steiger missionaries, that will be supported by various Steiger leaders. We are renting a venue and large apartment for 4 months (August 1-December 1) in the centre of the city where we hope, with Gods help, to start a new church that will not only reach the city but serve as a base from which to reach the entire Arab world.

I am not naive about this situation. I know this is going to be a battle and that we need Gods power and grace, but I believe this is a door He has opened and we must go through it. The message of the cross is going to be proclaimed publicly, perhaps like it never has before in recent history in this part of the world, so we know it is going to be a fight. Please join the tour prayer chain and consider helping to sponsor this church planting project.

We still need sponsors for the following (all in US dollars):

1. Sound system, lights, and backline: $15,000
   We are buying this system because the costs of renting it are almost the same. This will save us considerable money as we do future evangelistic concerts. This sound system will also be used in the new church we are starting in the city centre.
2. Stage, setup and transportation: $10,000
3. Food & housing for NLM team (12 people at $30 a day for 11 days): $ 3,960
4. Venue rental (4 months) for new church ($2,000 per month): $8,000
5. Venue rental for Evangelistic concert and secular band competition on August 1: $2,000
   Please pray and consider how you can support this incredible opportunity to present Jesus boldly in the Middle East.

For the lost,
David & Jodi Pierce

Prayer Resquests:

1. Please continue to pray for Michael Sengle, the Steiger Germany base leader, who is still looking for a potential property for our new Steiger base outside Dresden, Germany. This will be the headquarters for the International Evangelistic Artists Association, the Missions School in 2010 and a place where secular people can come for contemplative retreats and find out who Jesus is. We have an international team that is ready to move to Dresden to establish this work
2. Please continue to pray for the Steiger Minneapolis team, led by Mark Johnson, that is currently working in a large hippie gathering in the USA (21 June – 7 July).
3. The SLOT Art Festival in Poland that will also be happening from 8-11 July. Last year 5,000 people came to the festival and hundreds came to Jesus for the first time. Pray for good weather and for God’s anointing on all that
4. takes place.
5. Pray for Jodi & Kate as they work with all the students that have recently completed the Radical Missions School in New Zealand. Most of the 33 students who attended the school are planning on working with Steiger somewhere in the world. Pray that God protects them as they make preparations to enter the mission field!
6. Pray for Sandro Baggio and his family, who leads the Steiger work in Sao Paulo, Brazil. They are doing well, but are really tired of all the work to get the permits from the Fire Department and from the City Office for the new church. Apart from these two issues the renovation process is doing well; they should finish the basement and street level floors by late September.

So please pray that all those involved in Steiger and our local teams will boldly preach the gospel.
If you would like to receive a weekly email that includes the latest prayer requests submitted by Steiger missionaries from around the world, please send your name and email address to prayer@steiger.org


More News:
The “Rock & Roll Evangelistic Circus” in the Black Forest in Germany was a great success!!!

One night we did a drama about how God cares about us and how it is never too late to change. It addressed how bad choices get us into trouble, but it is never too late for a change if we cry out to God.

Afterwards one of our team talked to a young man who was known in the village as a drunk. His backpack was full of alcohol and he was clearly in desperate need of God. He stopped drinking that evening and later in our team meeting we prayed for him to be delivered from alcoholism and for him to come back the next day. God answered our prayers and he came back the next evening, had no alcohol with him and was not drunk! We are still in contact