Thank you for your effective prayers. God has blessed our labors this summer in an extraordinary way.
We’ll remember this summer for ministry reasons. Since our last prayer letter to everyone, the Lord has granted journey mercies, and much fruit on three trips to foreign fields.
• God blessed a lot of work and answered six months of prayer for the Peru trip, with over 750 people trusting Christ as their Saviour. We’re also praising God for granting an opening door to have regional conferences across the entire Amazon headwaters area to reach and serve the 5,000 isolated villages. He has awakened us to the need for advanced first-aid training for the village health promoters that serve their communities with front-line care. I’m starting to write a first-aid manual suitable for them, incorporating the Gospel message.
• The Guatemala trip that followed for a Great Commission conference was so encouraging with packed services. We’ve worked with the Wilders over the last 18 years, and it’s been such a joy to see what God has done through them. Their family is thriving, and the church auditorium construction should be finished soon.
• Finally, the summer closed with a trip to the Istanbul region to meet with Team Eurasia and a large group of FBMI missionaries from all over the world. The joy of learning what God is doing there and elsewhere is beyond words. We also can’t thank God enough for the opportunity to learn how to better serve them.
We’ll also remember this summer for health reasons. I got sick in Peru with a bronchitis, which kept coming back. By God’s grace, it now seems to be fully clearing up. Meanwhile, I’ve had many missionaries contact me with their health concerns. It’s a joy to look back and see how God prepared us, called us, and directed us to meet this need today. An element of this blessing is the joy that we have to see veteran missionaries, whom we’ve served medically over the years, now helping the newer, more inexperienced missionaries in the spirit of II Corinthians 1:3-4.
Finally, we’ll remember this summer for the specific souls that have heard the Gospel and especially for those who’ve responded. For example, I remember sitting on a bench with two broken men in the Peruvian Amazon town of Indiana; they trusted Christ. I remember a Nigerian man on the doorstep of his home in South Holland, Illinois, who turned from dead works to Christ. I remember Michael, who was very lonely and unhappy, rejoice to hear, understand, and believe. I remember a young Turkish soldier on a bus and an older Turkish graduate student on a plane. Thanks in part to Google Translate, both began to understand and are hungry to learn more.
Please pray for our trip out West for Missions Conferences this month in Arizona and California. Please also remember to pray for our health, as the hurdles seem higher and more frequent. And please pray that the Lord teaches this old dog some new tricks for writing and illustrating the book for Peru. This will be my first, and the hurdle is high!
That all might hear, everywhere,
Dan and Lana Siemer