Dear Friends and Family,

I like it when you meet someone you’ve been praying for without knowing it. 

For the last few months, I have been coming to Hard Times Café to pray every day.  I am actually writing this from there.  Because this area has a very large number of Eastern African immigrants, we have been meeting more and more Muslims at our Saturday night Jesus Kitchen.  I have been praying very much for this community because I want them to better understand who Jesus is and to experience the extremely personal love and grace that come from their heavenly Father.  I feel fairly strongly that no argument will prove Christianity’s validity to most Muslim, so I have been praying for two things: first, that God would stir them up to desire more and to know that they are missing something; and second, to experience Jesus in us so genuinely that when they meet us they know they have found what they were looking for. 

A few weeks ago, I was at the Jesus Kitchen, and a young African man came up; I’ll call him “Abdul.”  He began talking about how we believed a lot of the same things, making it important that we respect each other.  Of course, this led quickly into a discussion of the fact that we didn’t agree about who Jesus was.  I had the opportunity to point out the divine things Jesus did, like forgiving sin and accepting worship, which would amount to blasphemy for someone who was only a prophet.  Abdul listened and then said something like, “Dude, I can tell when somebody’s saying the truth, and you got that right.  I been wondering about this, if maybe there was something else to it.”  We continued to talk, and he sounded moved as he read aloud a bit of the Bible I gave him.  At the end of our conversation, he let me pray for him, and as I prayed that God would reveal Himself to Abdul and answer his questions about who Jesus was, he said, “Amen!  Amen.”  I finally walked away, and he turned to one of his friends and said, “Man, I just been blessed!  I ain’t never heard nobody talk like that!”

I was so amazed to see this clear answer to my prayers.  He had been thinking about his faith in Islam and wondering if he was missing something, and he recognized truth in my words as we spoke.  I wanted to say to him, “I have been praying for you!  I didn’t know your name, but I have been praying for YOU.  Now, where are the others like you?  Bring them to me!”  I was so encouraged by this encounter.  Sometimes it seems like nothing is changing on the West Bank, but that conversation gave me a glimpse into what God is doing behind the scenes.  He is answering the prayers that I pray at the Hard Times every day.  Maybe I don’t see all the answers yet, but He let me see that He is working in the Muslim community, which helps me to trust Him in the areas I can’t see yet.

I want to thank you all for your prayers for me and ask that you would continue to pray for Steiger’s ministries on the West Bank.  I see such amazing people here whom I love so much, and I want them to experience the true life, love, joy, and hope that God has to offer, rather than settle for cheap imitations.  Would you even pray simply that God would answer the prayers I pray while I sit at Hard Times every day?  That would mean so much to me, because those things are the deepest cries of my heart.

I am also happy to report that I recently moved into a new apartment with two friends, and things are going very well.  I also started a job a few weeks ago!  I am working as an administrative assistant at the corporate headquarters for Target Corporation, in downtown Minneapolis.  While it is a good job and I am extremely grateful for it, it is going to prove a real challenge to find time for all the ministries I want to do.  A number of events have shown that God wants me in that position for now, but I must admit that I find it frustrating to spend so much time doing things unrelated to what I believe really matters.  One of my foremost goals now will be to increase my support base so that I do not have to work full-time for long.  I will write more about that endeavor in the future.  Thank you so much for your prayers and support; you are a real blessing to me!

Take hold of the life that is truly life!