We dare not proceed without expressing once more our love and gratitude to you for your faithful support, financially and in prayer. God supplies for the needs of our family and the work through you.
Today I met with a young missionary couple for their medical interview. Recognizing the challenges of life abroad, we strive to help missionaries to be good stewards of their health. This involves wisely addressing existing medical concerns and also the development of a diet and lifestyle that will avoid needless hindrances to their lifelong ministry. A veteran missionary I know always counsels young missionaries to “stay” when they encounter difficulties because it takes many years to develop a fully mature and fruitful church on the mission field. We desperately need longevity!
We have a long-term view with great big goals! Our dream for this missionary is that someday his church will have a Christian school and a Bible institute or college, with hundreds of young people training to serve God full-time to reach their continent. We prayed before we began, and we prayed in closing. How desperately we need God’s mercy and grace! May God mightily use them!
Memories flooded my mind of our early days as missionaries. We set aside a career in the U.S. Navy and Lana followed me to a country ravaged by war because of the desperate need for those who are lost to be saved! Better to invest our lives to reach people who’ve never heard than to go through the motions where Christ has been rejected. And we still go. Most recently it was a handicapped man outside his home who heard the Gospel and trusted Christ as his Saviour.
Believers often fail to see the “bigness” of missions, failing to give God their best. Young people don’t think it’s a big deal when they turn their back on a call to full-time service to seek secular success. Maybe it is because those they look up to don’t pray or give with an urgency that matches the greatness of the need and God’s authority. We desperately need to heed God’s direction to pray, give, and go!
Both Lana and I have experienced serious health setbacks in the last few months. By God’s grace, my bronchitis has resolved, and Lana’s on her way to recovery. In December I broke a vertebra in my upper back in a fall down a flight of icy concrete steps. (Sorry, no video record for those who enjoy watching klutziness.) I’ll be in a back brace for two months to finish the healing process. These trials have reminded us that time is limited, and we desperately need to work as long as the Lord allows! “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” (John 9:4)
May our prayers be those of the destitute and desperate, Psalm 102:17 prayers. Please remember:
1. Our physical health, for a speedy recovery without lingering hindrances.
2. Our schedule for the year, that God would show us His will and open doors accordingly.
3. God’s provision for needs and power for ministry.
That all may hear, everywhere,
Dan and Lana Siemer