Dear Friends,

Dear Friends, THREE OF OUR BROTHERS IN THE EASTERN CITY OF MALATYA, TURKEY WERE MARTYRED FOR THEIR FAITH YESTERDAY. Terrorists broke into their Christian literature distribution office, tied them up and, after torturing them, slit their throats. Two were Turks and one was a German missionary. They worked very closely with Dave Wilson with whom we are partnering in Istanbul. He is arranging our upcoming tour in Turkey and Kyrgyzstan this August. His band had just been in Malatya ten days earlier for an Easter church service. He wrote me this email shortly after this happened:

David,

I look forward to partnering together with you (and Steiger) to help push back the wall of Islam that so dominates this part of the world.  There are cracks and holes in the wall all over the place. May we go forward in holy boldness and love in the name of our King.  Pray that the church would not respond by going more underground and decrease in boldness.  This is the time to preach the gospel in the light even more and take it to the streets.  There was a great picture in the newspaper yesterday—a bunch of protesters, who weren't Christians, in the center of Istanbul in Taksim Park.  They were having a peaceful protest, but they were holding up a sign in solidarity with the recent attacks on Christians in the last year. The sign they held up said, "We are Christians", even though they were pro-democracy Muslims.

These verses came to mind yesterday as I was thinking over what had happened:

"They defeated him through the blood of the Lamb and the bold word of their witness. They weren't in love with themselves; they were willing to die for Christ." (Revelation 12:11)

It makes me all the more aware that we are all a moment from eternity and we should be ready to count the cost and also the reality of the battle we are engaged in.

Pressing on, Dave W., Istanbul, Turkey

The thing that makes this all the more a step of faith for me is that my whole family will be with me on this tour—our son Aaron and his wife (and our new daughter) Jennifer, Ben our youngest son and Jodi. It's one thing to obey God when it just involves me going somewhere.  It requires another level of faith when God is asking me to bring my wife and kids!

But like Dave Wilson said, we are not going there because it's our idea. I am confident that God is asking us to go and I expect Jesus to move powerfully and that we will see His power break the darkness of Islam. Obviously we need your prayers. Pray that God sends His angels to prepare the way and that He protects our team and Dave Wilson as we boldly proclaim the gospel.

You can see what happened when we performed there last year in Selcuk, Turkey (outside the ancient ruins of Ephesus) by visiting this YouTube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfI8SXpJgiw

The police kept harassing us when Dave Wilson tried to translate my preaching but we were still able to give out 300 Bible tracts. 

Evangelistic Tour Support Update:

Praise God!!! Since our last newsletter God has provided for the money to cover ALL the travel costs of the upcoming evangelistic tour. This is a HUGE answer to prayer. We still need 15,000 US dollars to cover the "in country" costs in Kyrgyzstan and Turkey and 2,000 US dollars in shippingcosts. Please consider if God would want you to help bring Jesus to the Muslim world by financially supporting these remaining tour costs. Evolving Developments: Our contacts in Lebanon are continuing to work through the details of my planned November trip. Inquiries to include visits toJordon and Syria have recently been received and are under discussion. We need you to pray with us about these arrangements.  

Thank you for your love and support.

For the lost

David & Jodi Pierce
Steiger International

The dates for the evangelistic tour are below:

June 28-30       Cornerstone Music Festival, USA. I will be giving a seminar at the festival on how to reach                             radical, urban youth. Our band will also play on Friday night. Although this is a Christian                             festival, I still expect many to come to Jesus for the first time at our concert.

Aug 1-6             Kyrgyzstan. This is a Muslim country between Kazakhstan and China. I expect hundreds to                            find Jesus while we are there.

Aug 7-15           Turkey. This is a very tough country, but I have faith that God's power will touch many. We are                             praying about establishing a permanent Steiger work in Istanbul in the future, to partner with                             David Wilson and TACO.

Aug 17-21          Iceland. Most people in Iceland have never heard about Jesus; it is one of the most                              unreached countries in the world. I have been praying about going there for years, so I am                              really excited that God has opened this door. I anticipate a long term Steiger presence there in                              the future.

Aug 24                Berlin, Germany. We are planning on doing a big outdoor concert on the Alexander Platz in                              East Berlin. We will be working with Teen Challenge and Steiger Germany.

Lebanon             I am hoping to go there in November with Dave Wilson to meet with promoters who want to                              set up evangelistic concerts in Oct 2008 for University Students.