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Get to know Daniel on a more personal level. You can know his favorite meals, how he got saved, and how the Lord called him to service. If you have a question for Daniel, feel free to contact us.
Name: Daniel Elliot Simonsen
Birthday: 28th June 1998
Anniversary: 10th December 2022
Q.) What is your favorite meal?
I do enjoy anything my wife makes. 😋
A meal consisting of fried chicken, broccoli, and cheese sauce is one of my favorites.
Q.) On to more serious questions, how were you saved?
Having grown up in a Christian home, one may say that in a sense I had the perfect environment in which to get saved. I was adopted by my parents at just 8 months old and was taught the Bible from day 1 in my home. Looking back today, I praise the Lord for allowing me to grow up in that situation. As the years went by I eventually got to thinking that salvation was just praying a prayer. Well, one day (and I honestly do not remember how old I was, maybe 5 or so) I took one of the gospel tracts in the house and read through the prayer at the end and then concluded that I was saved. Unfortunately, that was not true salvation. A couple of years passed and the evidence of the fact that I wasn’t saved really began to show through. I had always been the naughty boy in the family, and I had very terrible temper and tantrum problems as a result. I can’t believe how many fits I used to throw, and the things I would do. I’m not saying that all Christian boys are perfect, but something was wrong, and I knew it. As I continued to hear preaching, I came to realize one thing - Christians live differently than unbelievers. I really began to question whether I was saved or not. So, the Lord was really working, and the big day came. I was 6 or 7 years old, (unfortunately I cannot remember the date exactly) but I came to the end of myself and asked my Dad to show me how to be saved. He went through a few verses mostly from Romans and showed me how to be saved. And at that time I remember making the decision to repent and accept Christ as my Savior. Did I pray at the time? Yes. Did the prayer save me? Absolutely not. What saved me was my repentance of my sin (Luke 13:3,5) and belief on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31) in what he had done on the cross, not what I could do for myself. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Salvation is a free gift from God. Anyone can accept it. It is there for the taking.
Q.) How did you know that God wanted you to be a missionary church planting pastor in Kenya?
At the beginning of 2016, a question that I thought may be asked of me was "What are your plans for the future?" and “What do you want to be"? As that thought was ringing in my head one evening while simply playing basketball at our home, the Lord burdened my heart for full-time missions here in Kenya. Up to that point in my life, I had never even considered being a full-time missionary in Kenya beyond the time spent in my parents' house. Well, the Lord worked through that. After fasting and prayer, I surrendered to being a missionary in Kenya.
The question then was, "Where in Kenya?" From the time I surrendered to missions, I had been thinking and praying occasionally that the Lord would let me be a missionary in the Thika-Nairobi area. I had never surrendered to be a missionary to a specific place in Kenya.
One morning in 2017, Pastor Stephen Zempel, Assistant Pastor at Falls Baptist Church in Menomonee Falls, WI, preached in our college chapel on letting God work out the impossible. I was greatly stirred during the message in this way: I had slacked off praying about where God would want me to be a missionary simply because I wasn’t really seeing God answering or leading in His Word regarding that area. That morning, I made the decision to renew my fervency in prayer and seeking the Lord in His Word for where specifically He wanted me to go. God promises many times in His Word that whenever we truly seek Him, we will find Him.
Soon after, on one evening as I was eating dinner and just thinking about how my day went, the Lord brought a thought like "Daniel, are you willing to go anywhere in Kenya? Are you willing to do anything you need to do to seek the Lord about this? Are you willing to do whatever God wants you to do at whichever place He wants you to go? Are you willing to go through anything for Jesus? Are you willing to let Him do the impossible?" Well, that evening I decided to let God do the impossible and to let Him lead me to whatever area of this country He wanted me to serve. I decided once again, but this time with fervency, to seek the Lord about what he wanted me to do in the future. I became willing to go through anything to get to Jesus. I decided to have faith and let God work everything out
Sometime later that year, one morning, I was having my personal devotions as normal and I started reading Isaiah 45. As I began reading, I sensed that the Lord was doing something. The chapter begins with the Lord’s reminder of anointing/calling and then as I read verse 2 it’s as if God was saying, "I’ll show you where, I’ll make it clear." Then as I continued reading, verses 4 & 5 really seemed to confirm that God was telling me something. Verse 6 then hit me, and I couldn’t let it go. The thought of being a missionary in Western Kenya stayed with me since reading that verse. I struggled a bit until verse 9 where the Lord basically said, “Don’t argue/resist, just submit and pray about it.” And I did. I shared that moment with my dad who wisely advised me that God may have simply been testing my willingness to do ANYTHING and go ANYWHERE for Him.
I continued to pray about it that year and in to the next as well.
Q.) What is your favorite part of ministry?
I love preaching the Word of God on a regular basis. I especially enjoy preaching through books verse by verse. My favorite Bible books are the Pauline Epistles.