Pavel & Klara Steiger's Prayer Letter

Though the fig tree should not blossomand there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

We send our greetings in our Lord to all of you from the midpoint of our seven week Home ministry in Arizona and southern California. Last time, during our 2004 Home Ministry Assignment (HMA), we visited our supporting churches and individuals in northern and central California. This way we renew our relationship with the supporting churches and individuals we are in touch with our newsletter. Some of "our churches" are 100 years old and we see that even churches have their life cycles. Some churches thrive; others struggle. We detect that people and pastors move on, Mission Committees change—"only the Steiger's are still around". We follow up the churches we contacted in previous years and make a contact with some new churches. We continue in the well known, lengthy process of getting to know each other. HMA takes a lot of preparation, net working and prayers. The general rule still applies—it takes "seven" personal contacts before the ministry partnership moves ahead. There is much more than a short Home ministry trip. Our media ministry commitments do not allow us to come for an extended period of time as needed to improve the ministry budget for HCJB World Office in Prague due to the recent dollar devaluation.

Let us share with you our typical HMA schedule. We were met at the airport and were greeted with many hugs. Next day we attended morning Bible study, were given car keys and drove to our Phoenix "home base". The same day, we were reunited with our friends from Houston. Together we attended the theological seminar: "How to love Old Testament." With our Houston friends we were introduced to retirement communities and the lifestyle of snowbirds in RV parks. Following days and weeks were full of various appointments. Most of the time we had at least one ministry related event or meeting a day. Some days we had up to five meetings. In the evenings we attend various programs like Saturday night worship service, prayer meetings, lectures, classes, Sunday's worship services, Sunday school classes, etc. We met with a number of our supporters and new pastors in the supporting churches. One of the highlights was the three couple reunion with our old time missionary friends we knew back in Indonesia. Jeff Gulleson greatly influenced our lives when we were considering full time mission service. Later on Jeff went through a personal hardship. The Lord led him into the insurance business. His more than 20 year personal experience in missions made him an expert in serving missionaries and pastors living overseas, as well as short term missions groups. We are pleased to know that an increasing number of churches, missions, individual missionaries and pastors are using his service. His office now supports about 10 Indonesian, African and other missionaries in remote places of the world. Indigenous missionaries cost less.

If you have any church, missions or personally related medical health and life insurance questions or needs, e-mail Jeff Gulleson at: info@gninsurance.com view the web site at: www.gninsurance.com or call: 866.636.9100. You will get the best Christian service we know of.

SPECIAL MINISTRIES BLESSINGS:
Ken Ham's Creation Seminar and an incredible weekend DARE2SHARE conference for teenagers were just awesome. Anyone desiring to experience teens revolution, to have young people and their leaders really fired for the Lord, check www.DARE2SHARE.org and see their tour schedule. The "small conference" attendance is about 3000 people, large 8000 and growing. During the outreach in the community teens collect tons of caned food for the homeless (usually enough for the whole year needs) and sign up to sponsor from 100 to 500 children with Compassion. D2S ministry is endorsed by the Focus on the Family, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Compassion and us.

We do not envy, but wish, that Christians in Czech Republic would have same opportunities and show the same interest and enthusiasm for Christianity. How we pray that they could experience the same friendly atmosphere as our brothers and sisters in the USA.

OUR OBSERVATIONS
As we seek for new support, churches and individuals, we see with "fresh eyes of a visitor" the changes in worship and ministry outreach. The JOY, variety and willingness to serve overwhelmed us again. How we desire to bring the same enthusiasm, involvement and to stir the willfulness of Czech churches to get out of their buildings. True, Czech churches do not have any staff to take care of numerous ministries, however, a lot can be done with a better attitude showing love and appreciation for the lost and for each other.

Christian radio feast, especially during first jet lag nights, was stimulating. Being filled by the messages on Christian radio brings in Godly thoughts and ideas. Also, the introduction to US satellite broadcasting was exciting. New technology is great. We are right in the middle of media ministry possibilities.

PRAYER CONSIDERATIONS:
In our last letter we shared with you the deteriorating financial situation in the ministry account in light of the US dollar devaluation. January contributions were on the low side and the Czech and Slovak ministry budget reserve is practically gone. Please, understand that WE ARE NOT SEEKING PERSONAL SUPPORT. Personally, we are debt free and our personal needs are minimal. Under the circumstances, we were considering giving up even more of our personal support in favor of the ministry account. However, it is not so easy to do. Pavel explored the possibility to take an early Social Security retirement. As self employed he can work only 45 hours a month and make no more than $12,000 a year to qualify for it. He meets neither criterion. So, he must wait for full SS retirement in February 2007.

On the other hand, we were especially encouraged by the attitude of new churches to present our needs to their people as ongoing or one time Czech and Slovak projects. There are some exciting results and possibilities:

Flagstaff Christian Fellowship will help us to finance weekly translation, recording and potential broadcasting of its Sunday sermons. Expository preaching is a tremendous blessing to readers of our Christian digest. We pray for their satellite and Internet broadcast. We praise the Lord for moving this project ahead. Explore them at: www.fcfonline.org

Bethany Church of Long Beach may present to its people our project to sponsor fully or partly our Slovak weekly broadcast.

First Evangelical Free Church in Tucson contributed for one month of Slovak broadcasting.

INDIVIDUAL PROJECT NEEDS:
Broadcasting and follow up ministry: Radio broadcasting in Slovakia needs from $300 to $600 monthly ($200 rent for studio). Because of excellent response from listeners we have an opportunity to buy an additional 15 minutes. One or several sponsors can help to share the cost. This is a far reaching ministry covering about 80% of Slovakia. It is also shared in Serbia. We have about half of a million listeners. Some of them request audio tapes, CD or MP3 recordings, and written transcripts.

Magazine publishing: We are looking for sponsorship of printing and/or mailing expenses for The Battle for the Soul. Quarterly cost of these two items is about $4,500 for both Czech and Slovak versions. About half of the cost is for the postage. As of February 2005, the postage went up again. It is now 12 times more than what it used to be 13 years ago. The magazine is reaching thousands of readers and for many it is the only source of Christian growth and fellowship. About half of this ministry is financed by the local Christians..

Translations: This is an ongoing project. There are a number of excellent articles and booklets in English. All these texts may be used four fold: printed, placed on web site, recorded and broadcast. Our desire is to produce each year one volume of "Pocket Theology." To translate one standard 180 character page costs about $6.

Ministry hardware and software upgrade: While we were in Arizona we received a message from our web master—the server named "earth worm" is dead. Actually there was a smoke and to get everything in working order it took several days and some unexpected expenses. Except one PC, on which the main development is done, we have still been using Windows 98. Our extensive Internet and planned streamlining broadcast requires large hardware and software upgrade. We need a new laptop. About $2,500+ is needed annually.

Prayer letter printing and mailing cost comes every other month to about $300. Individual once a year contributions would free some funds to cover small expenses needed elsewhere. We value your prayers and we love to communicate with everyone who is interested in work in one of the most atheistic countries in the world—the Czech Republic.

Internet and web pages ministry: the monthly fees are about $200. This is a very powerful tool to reach unchurched people, especially the younger generation, who does not seek answers to their questions about Christianity in the church. Through extensive web page ministry they can access hundreds of articles, topics and audio messages. All that is available for Czech and Slovak speaking people around the world. Last year we had more than 50,000 visits and the number is growing.

Salary for two employees: Our two employees are working as true servants of God for a very small salary. Each of them costs around $700 per month and they net about $350.

PRAISES
Unexpected gift: While we were in the US, Gabi received a special gift for the Children's radio ministry. We already have several hundred radio programs placed on the web pages. Some of the programs were also published in printed form. This special gift of almost $2,000 is dedicated for publishing the complete set of children programs. Gabi worked on the digital sound project for a long time and we are happy that it can be preserved in printed form and distributed to the local churches and families.

Excellent Mission Festival in El Camino Baptist Church. We were blessed and challenged with number of ministries serving around the world. The financial help with HMA expenses helped us to come.

SATELLITE BROADCASTING PROGRESS
(Latest news from TWR)
Czech and Slovak office reads as follows:

Lengthy preparations of all needed documents, after almost five years of hard work, were submitted for the final hearing to obtain broadcasting license. Now we are waiting for the invitation to appear at the hearing. We pray that the license will be granted. We ask for your prayers that our teams of coworkers and partners can start the new phase of the radio ministry. We, as TWR CZ, came to the conclusion that if the satellite broadcast license is not granted, we will start daily Internet broadcasting. This was always in our mind as a back up option. Internet ministries are on a steady increase. In January we had about 5000 visitors who listen to some of our programs. We trust that the Lord will grant us both broadcasting ministries—satellite and Internet. The programming is done both in Czech and Slovak languages.

We praise the Lord for all the lessons of patience, perseverance and trust that all our work and ministry is in His hands. We trust that He will lead us through His path that He already prepared. For us, it is big and overwhelming task and with Him we proclaim:

I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. `Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?´ Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.´ (Job 42:2-4)

We thank to all of you who pray and financially support the Radio ministry undertaking.

THE LORD IS OPENING DOORS
Home ministry challenges, personal contact and networking with all of you is always dynamic, inspiring and exciting. We are looking forward to PRAISING HIM in light of the opportunities we are entrusted with. Please PRAY for Czech ministry and help us if it is on your heart!

Annual HCJB European Conference and HCJB board meeting will be held in Prague first week in June. As of now we have 50 confirmed reservations. This is a time consuming logistic job to do.

* Dear brother Steiger,
My name is Pavel S., I am a single man, 32, no children and I live and work in N. I became a believer in 1992 while I was serving in the Army. I used to be a zealous Christian and I was active in the church in Z. After I moved to another town because of my job, I was searching for my new spiritual home, but I did not find one in neither of two local churches here. It would be a long story, but I am not a Charismatic. … Because I lost the contact with Christians, my faith got weak and I walked away from the Lord. This is what happened during past seven years. Now, when the Lord draws me back, I am longing to be in contact with zealous Christians. I need to be discipled by someone and be encouraged, that I will not fall away again. Since it is not possible in person, I am looking for someone, who can be part of my special walk with Christ through ICQ and e-mail. I would like to serve Him—I can do some translating from English and I am musically gifted. Please, can you help?
God bless,
Pavel S. from N.

* Greetings, dear Steiger's and best wishes in this year. I have a big favor to ask. We are preparing a project for sponsors to adopt orphaned children from Sri Lanka. Right now we are working on this adoption project and we need to get factual information about the country and people. We discovered on your web site Klara's wonderful report from Sri Lanka—"Weep With Those Who Weep and Rejoice With Those Who Rejoice." We would like to ask for permission to offer this inspiring material to the potential sponsors to download it. We have your HCJB web service listed as a media partner and we would acknowledge your kind permission.
International Needs office is serving in the area since 1976. Our educational project was recently slightly changed. From January 2005 1/7th of donated funds from sponsors is used for mission work in given country. The change came because the help to children is provided in the countries where International Needs also provides mission service. If you would like to know more, we will inform you.
Thank you for the consideration. I am looking forward to your reply,
Sincerely,
Petr Horacek, director of International Needs, CZ.

PRAYER OPPORTUNITIES:
The Czech ministry budget for new ministries and maintaining those existing.

New HCJB couple to join us as Eurounion hub personnel seeking new opportunities in broadcasting and related ministries. Dworak's are raising their support and we are looking forward to meet them in Prague during the HCJB Euro and Board meeting in June.