Answered Prayers

My CLB giving story starts at an Urbana Missions Convention back in 1987 while I was a student at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Urbana, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it, is a giant triennial conference sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a university campus ministry. At the conference, I received a small packet of prayer cards, each of which gave specific details about how to pray for an unreached people group somewhere in the world. I used those cards as prayer prompts, praying through one card each day, for many, many years. One of the people groups on one of the cards was the Fulani, a large, nomadic Muslim tribe in Africa.

Eventually, I graduated from college, got married, came on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and started serving at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. It was in Eau Claire that I made my first acquaintance with the Church of the Lutheran Brethren, when I started attending Bethesda Lutheran Brethren Church. I had grown up in a Lutheran church, but Bethesda, and the Lutheran Brethren as a whole, impressed me with their emphasis on and commitment to mission. My wife and I became members of Bethesda, and later started a small group Bible study with some of our peers. Dan and Rachel Venberg were part of that small group. They were hearing a call from God to the foreign mission field and trying to discern where and to whom God would send them. Imagine my delight and joy when I learned that God had led them to serve the Fulani people. I could hardly believe it: God was answering my prayers from many years prior, right before my very eyes, by sending some of my dearest friends as the answer to those prayers!

It was a delight to join Dan and Rachel’s prayer and financial support by giving to the CLB. Our small group prayed regularly for them while they served in Chad, we also sent care packages to Dan, Rachel, and the kids from time to time. Eventually, they were forced to return stateside. But Dan carried on his work in Chad through the connections and relationships he and Rachel had made.

We did not know it at the time, but God had something else planned for Dan. He now supports and encourages new missionaries in Chad (and elsewhere!), oversees the drilling of clean-water wells, travels around the US and Canada rallying prayer and financial support for the mission efforts of the CLB, and seeks to identify and mobilize new laborers for the mission field. We count it a privilege to continue to support Dan and his ongoing work. We support many ministries with our giving, but I can’t think of a more strategic investment to the world mission field than the work that the CLB is doing.

Jay Anderson serves as an elder at Bethesda Lutheran Brethren Church in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.