With the current geopolitical situation, the No Longer Music tour to Ukraine was never certain. The increased difficulty in crossing borders and obtaining permissions meant potentially all the effort and expense of heading there could be for nothing.
www.vimeo.com/steigerint/ukraine
To top it off, the three potential shows were located far in the east of Ukraine, close to the fighting. After hours of driving and waiting at the border, we didn’t know what to expect when we arrived for our first concert in Poltava, Ukraine. Our local Steiger team (many of whom are Steiger Mission School graduates) had worked hard to prepare the concert and as the show started over 1,500 people had gathered!
David finished the night off by clearly explaining the message of Jesus that had been performed on stage and over one hundred people responded! The next day, many came to our “meet the band” follow up event to learn more about following Jesus.
After our first show, we drove further east to the city of Orikhiv. This city is located approximately 180 km from Donetsk which is where the heaviest fighting has been taking place between pro-Russian separatist and Ukrainian forces. We were literally within hours of war.
The night before the concert, the NLM team did an all- night prayer chain because of the intensity of the situation.We asked that He would form a barrier between those who came to our show and the violence only hours away.
God answered our prayers and the atmosphere was incredible. Over two thousand people streamed in to watch the show and you could feel God’s peace. There was incredible freedom for both the band to perform and the crowd to respond! Hundreds came to the fire in response to David’s invitation to receive Jesus.
Our local church partners - who had fought hard to make this concert a reality - received over 60 contacts with people on the night alone. It was an unbelievable!
The following night we played in large square in the center of Zaporozhye. Like all our shows in Ukraine, there was such an amazing connection with the audience and they were extremely engaged. This time David asked those who wanted to know Jesus to kneel in front of the stage. Around twenty people knelt down in front of a large crowd and publicly received Jesus!
Over 5,000 people attended the 3 concerts and hundreds responded to the invitation to receive Jesus! What an overwhelming privilege it was to work alongside our Ukrainian brothers and sisters to bring the hope of Jesus to Ukraine at such an historical time.
Ben Pierce
Pray for NLM tour of the Middle East
This month, No Longer Music will be doing a tour of Turkey and Lebanon (August 9 - 25) reaching the “globalized middle east youth” demographic. This is an unstable region during an especially unstable time. Please pray that God will keep the doors open to proclaim the Gospel. Pray for wisdom and discernment as the team navigates challenges and obstacles. Pray for safety. Pray for God’s power and for many people to surrender their lives to Jesus!
Follow NLM tour:
Tour Blog www.steiger.org/nlmblog
Facebook www.facebook.com/steigerint
Twitter www.twitter.com/steigerint
Vimeo www.vimeo.com/steigerint
Pray for SMS Outreach!
Students from the Steiger Missions School will be going on outreach this month. Please pray that God moves powerfully through the students. Some will be going to Polish Woodstock - a crazy secular festival with hundreds of thousands of people in attendance. They will be involved in various forms of creative outreach. We will also be sending out our “No Longer Music - SMS” team - a version of the NLM show consisting of SMS students. They will be doing a 6-7 concert tour of Poland and will be the main band on our stage at the Dresden City Festival in Germany. Last year 500,000 people attended this festival in one of the most atheistic parts of Germany.