International Newsletter October 2015
For almost a year, we’ve been working with Safak, a Kurdish man whose father is a muslim cleric, and our Turkish partners “TACO” to organize a large stage truck tour of Turkey. We were planning at least 10 major concerts reaching thousands of people in a country that is 99.9% Muslim.
Unfortunately, there was a lot political unrest and violence in different parts of Turkey this summer and so the Turkish minister of interior put a ban on all public events right before the tour was about to start… and so all our planned concerts were cancelled!
We were VERY disappointed because we had a great vision of reaching thousands of people throughout Turkey - a country that so desperately needs to hear the Gospel. But, unfortunately, it was beyond our control.
After a lot prayer, I felt strongly that God still wanted us to go and that canceling the tour was not an option. Everyone agreed and so we developed an unplugged “street” version of show that we could perform in parks and other crowded locations multiple times in a night without permission.
So after our last concert in Bulgaria, we parked our stage trailer in a secure lot and left for Turkey unsure of how it would go.
In the end, we were able to do 14 street shows all over western Turkey. There was no violence and miraculously no shows were shut down by the police. This was a HUGE miracle according to our local partners, especially during these volatile times in the country. In fact the police were always very respectful and often wanted information themselves about Jesus.
It was truly amazing how powerfully God moved!
For example, in Izmir, a group of young nationalist, racist men rallied against our street performance, chanting and trying to stir the crowd against us. But miraculously after hearing the Gospel message and talking and praying with Chad Johnson (from Come&Live!), the ring-leader of this group knelt on the rough ground and genuinely surrendered his life to Jesus!
In another city, I had the opportunity to pray with an older man and his wife. They were conservative Muslims, but felt VERY touched by the Holy Spirit. He told me that Turkey needed this message. They both filled out the surveys for the Turkish Bible Correspondence Course (our discipleship partner in Turkey).
Remarkably, during the tour:
All those who responded will be followed up personally by the local churches or by our partners in TACO.
Despite the fact that we could not use our stage trailer, some thought that this was one of the best tours we and ministry partner “TACO” have done in Turkey so far.
Thank you so much for your prayers and financial support that made it possible to bring the love of Jesus to these beautiful people.
For the lost,
David Pierce
The 2015 tour was one of the most intense and fruitful in our history. The team spent over 400 hours driving and played shows from Moscow to the southern tip of Portugal. God cleared obstacles right and left and tens of thousands of people heard the Gospel!
For the first time in over twenty years, No Longer Music was able to play shows in Russia and God moved in power! Another highlight was an unbelievable 13 days in Ukraine. Over 20,000 people came to the ten shows and hundreds raised their hands wanting to commit their lives to Jesus. Everywhere we went, God touched hearts and transformed lives!
We are more convinced than ever that there are no closed doors for Jesus. We are humbled and grateful to God for all He allowed to be a part of on this tour and we can't wait to go again!
Statistics
Go to www.steiger.org/2015tourreport to read more and watch summary videos
We were VERY disappointed because we had a great vision of reaching thousands of people throughout Turkey - a country that so desperately needs to hear the Gospel. But, unfortunately, it was beyond our control.
After a lot prayer, I felt strongly that God still wanted us to go and that canceling the tour was not an option. Everyone agreed and so we developed an unplugged “street” version of show that we could perform in parks and other crowded locations multiple times in a night without permission.
So after our last concert in Bulgaria, we parked our stage trailer in a secure lot and left for Turkey unsure of how it would go.
In the end, we were able to do 14 street shows all over western Turkey. There was no violence and miraculously no shows were shut down by the police. This was a HUGE miracle according to our local partners, especially during these volatile times in the country. In fact the police were always very respectful and often wanted information themselves about Jesus.
It was truly amazing how powerfully God moved!
For example, in Izmir, a group of young nationalist, racist men rallied against our street performance, chanting and trying to stir the crowd against us. But miraculously after hearing the Gospel message and talking and praying with Chad Johnson (from Come&Live!), the ring-leader of this group knelt on the rough ground and genuinely surrendered his life to Jesus!
In another city, I had the opportunity to pray with an older man and his wife. They were conservative Muslims, but felt VERY touched by the Holy Spirit. He told me that Turkey needed this message. They both filled out the surveys for the Turkish Bible Correspondence Course (our discipleship partner in Turkey).
Remarkably, during the tour:
- More than 3000 people came to our show
- 200 raised their hands publicly because they wanted to know more about Jesus
- Young people from Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan prayed with us after the concerts
- Over 300 filled out surveys and will receive the Turkish Bible Correspondence Course
All those who responded will be followed up personally by the local churches or by our partners in TACO.
Despite the fact that we could not use our stage trailer, some thought that this was one of the best tours we and ministry partner “TACO” have done in Turkey so far.
Thank you so much for your prayers and financial support that made it possible to bring the love of Jesus to these beautiful people.
For the lost,
David Pierce
From Moscow to Portugal and everywhere in between!
The 2015 tour was one of the most intense and fruitful in our history. The team spent over 400 hours driving and played shows from Moscow to the southern tip of Portugal. God cleared obstacles right and left and tens of thousands of people heard the Gospel!
For the first time in over twenty years, No Longer Music was able to play shows in Russia and God moved in power! Another highlight was an unbelievable 13 days in Ukraine. Over 20,000 people came to the ten shows and hundreds raised their hands wanting to commit their lives to Jesus. Everywhere we went, God touched hearts and transformed lives!
We are more convinced than ever that there are no closed doors for Jesus. We are humbled and grateful to God for all He allowed to be a part of on this tour and we can't wait to go again!
Statistics
- 15 countries
- 38,000 kilometers driven
- 645 hours spent in a van
- 84 concerts
- 50,000 people heard a clear gospel message around Europe and The Middle East
- 3,125 people publically accepted Jesus
Go to www.steiger.org/2015tourreport to read more and watch summary videos
