Eventful months! Our wonderful Lord is working, and we’ve seen much fruit for His honor and glory.
He’s blessed the time invested with Him in His Word every day, giving texts and fresh truths to help in preaching and teaching and in our own lives. He’s answered prayer in many ways. He’s given insight and understanding when we needed it to serve missionaries and others with their complicated needs.
He’s blessed soul winning in an unusual way. With the COVID-19 restrictions, we’ve been visiting contacts on the streets of a south suburb of Chicago. By God’s grace, we’d already knocked on all the doors in the area, and now we’re visiting on foot, praying that God will open doors between visits to safely speak with others outside and within health guidelines. During these two months, the Lord granted the joy of leading 10 to Christ. One Mexican couple had just arrived from Guadalajara to visit family. On another day, we were delayed and directed providentially, so we walked by a house where a truck driver was just beginning to mow his small front lawn. He shut off his mower, listened intently, and prayed to trust Christ as his Saviour with great joy. A few minutes earlier or later and we would have missed him. In the Sunbeam Department (which Lana leads), a 13-year-old boy was deeply convicted of his sin during the week and trusted Christ as his Saviour in Sunday school the next Sunday. Our God is wonderful!
He’s blessed discipleship. Joseph has been riding the bus faithfully and has been growing in the Lord. He has a great desire to reach his neighbors with the Gospel. He visits with us sometimes. On one day, we saw one saved, and the Lord gave four new contacts for the bus route. Like all of us, he has problems, and as God enables us to help tangibly, he honors God by testifying to those he meets of God’s goodness. I’ve often been amazed and convicted by the evident grace of God in his life, giving him the courage to keep going and the patience to endure great affliction with a good, joyful spirit.
He’s blessed us. By God’s grace, we’ve been able to tackle some work that needed to be done on the house. Since we got sick with COVID-19 last weekend, he’s been helping us to begin to recover.
He’s blessed the ministry. It appeared we would not have Candidate School this year due to the pandemic; but the Lord intervened and directed, so during July, we prayerfully prepared. Four couples and two single candidates attended, and God blessed with a wondrous, sweet spirit. We’re now working to finish the remaining work for their appointment as new missionaries.
Please pray for His continued blessings on us and the ministry. This pandemic has reminded us that nothing is guaranteed here on earth. Everything could change tomorrow. Obedience to God is so vital (Jeremiah 7:22-23). We need to pray and work while we can. Please pray for:
1. Joseph’s spiritual growth, and that the Lord would providentially direct and bless efforts to help him with some complex and long-term challenges. Also, pray that God would be glorified in the whole neighborhood, with obvious fruit that only God can produce.
2. Our recovery from this virus. We’re doing what we know to be right and best; but it has hit hard, and we’re so very
aware that our futures are in His hands.
With our deep gratitude, love and prayers,
Dan and Lana Siemer
