International Newsletter November 2012
Dear friends,
In 1991, No Longer Music did a 32-concert “Moscow to Mongolia” tour throughout the former Soviet Union. Hundreds of people accepted Jesus on that tour, which included a follow up strategy involving NLM “Fan Clubs”. The leaders of these fan clubs were church planters who stayed behind to help nurture those who responded. You can read more about the tour in my book “Rock Priest”.
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A few weeks ago, 21 years later, Jodi and I received the following Facebook message from a Mongolian man called Sheika. Here is his letter.
David Pierce
No Longer Music
Steiger International
Dear David,
My name is Sheika and I am Mongolian. I just want to encourage you through this message and my testimony.
When I was 16 years old, I heard the gospel for the first time in my life in November of 1991 in Darkhan, Mongolia at a No Longer Music concert. I wanted to contact you to encourage you by letting you know that I was saved by grace through your band. Today, I am a full time pastor in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Below is my testimony and I hope one day we can see each other.
I was born in west Mongolia in a place called Khuvsgol. When I was 3 years old, my family moved to center of Mongolia, to the second largest city - Darkhan. I lived there for 21 years between 1978-1999. My parents were and still are communist people.
As a teenager, I left school and became friends with some bad street kids. I started to drink, smoke, cheat on girls and steal many things. Also during the communist time, listening to western music was illegal for us. But I started to listen to rock music and very soon it went very deep and one day I became a satanic music listener. My hair was long and I had strange behaviors at the time.
In November of 1991, I heard a rock band from Holland (No Longer Music) was visiting my town for to do a concert. I went there and I liked it. It was the first time in my life that I saw a western rock band live. It was unbelievable for me. Suddenly you shared the gospel and your testimony. It touched my heart and I wanted to know about Jesus. A band member gave me a small tract about Jesus. During the communist time, everyone used to teach us that there is no life after death and that there is no God. Our God was Lenin, Stalin and our Mongolian leaders. But when I read this small tract, I found my whole life answer.
After 3 months I heard some Christian people visiting my town from the capital city and they started to meet every Saturday - this was my first church. Once every three months, we would go 7 hours by train to Ulaanbaatar (capital of Mongolia) to learn about the Bible and Christianity from a missionary from England. Then in 1998, I moved to Ulaanbaatar to start a church to reach universities students there. Now I am a full time pastor.
Sheika
Prayer Requests
- Nov 2 - 6: ILT Meetings in Krogis, Germany
Steiger leaders from around the world gather to hear from the Lord and develop the strategic plans for the next few years. Pray for wisdom and God’s direction. - Nov 8 - 12: Platform Conference in Sumy, Ukraine
David, Ben and Aaron Pierce will be working with Steiger Missionaries in Sumy, Ukraine in doing a large Platform (evangelistic art/music) conference. We expect many people from all over Ukraine and Russia to attend. This is part of our vision to establish a Russian-speaking No Longer Music team in the future. Pray that many would be challenged to use their God-given creative talent to proclaim the Gospel to the lost. - Nov 16 - 19: NLM Scouting Trip in Cairo, Egypt
David and Ben Pierce will be going to Cairo, Egypt to meet with potential local partners about setting up future No Longer Music tours. This is part of Steiger’s “Globalized Muslim Youth” initiative throughout the Middle East. Pray that God will lead us to the right people and give us wisdom about the future.