Hos Geldiniz!

Well, after many hours of traveling and waiting we finally made it! I was hoping to make it on here earlier to send an update however I forgot how things can work in this country! I seem to break the internet every where I go.  It works in our apartment until I try and sign on. Then I thought I'd enjoy a cup of coffee at a cafe while updated everything and everybody.  I'm remembering what its like to be flexible!

I'd like to share with you my travel experience here.  It was quite the trip!
First my flight left at 10:52am from Des Moines.  Another teammate and myself left from there and we were meeting the rest of our team in Chicago.  My parents and I get to the airport in plenty of time after stopping at my favorite coffee shop one last time for 10 months.  We get to Des Moines with plenty of time to spare.  However once there I find that I'm unable to check-in for my flight.  After waiting some minutes I finally caught someone's attention at the ticket counter.  After searching and calling of airlines she informs me that I was reserved on these flights but I was never issued an e-ticket.  I frantically begin calling the man who bought the tickets for our team.  Ring, ring ring.... voice mail! He wasn't there.  I thought, "What am I going to do? My flight LEAVES in less than an hour."  The woman finds the number of the travel agency and the Lord graciously put me in touch with our agent.  I proceed to tell her the situation.  All I hear is silence... She says she'll call me back as soon as she can.  Finally about 20 minutes later she calls me back and informs me that I know have been issued a ticket.  I have 30 min. to go through security and get on the plane.  Luckily its a small airport and it was a Thursday morning.  Not many travelers!  Praise God he allowed things to pan out that way and get me here.

From here we met the rest of our team in Chicago and traveled to Frankfurt Germany.  The flight was 8.5 hours which can go by quickly with 2 movies, a TV show, many snacks and my iPod.  From Frankfurt we traveled to Istanbul and safely arrived in the country around 1:15pm.  We knew from here we needed to get our city and thought a bus would be easier with all of our luggage.  We find a bus and buy our tickets only to realize we had to wait 5 hours before we could get on our bus! We passed the time by asking each other questions, playing UNO numerous times with different rules, and cards!  Our bus finally left at 8pm.  From there we were on the bus for 1.5 hours then the bus went on a ferry for about 30 min. then back on the road again for 2 hours (all the while making numerous stops to drop off and pick up other travelers).  By the time we arrived in our city it was 12:15am.  All city buses were done running for the night and we realized our city is the only city in the country that doesn't offer Service buses from the station to our final destination.  We had to take taxis! But we finally made it to our apartment a little after 1:30am and sent the men on their way to their apartment.  Once there we stuff ourselves and all our luggage into the elevator only to find at the top that we could not get our apartment door open.  We tried for 15 min. then called people in the States who lived there last year to find out the "secret trick" to get the door open.  By the time the day was over and done with and we were sleeping in bed it was after 2:30am.  Travel was about 31 hours and we slept for about 4 of those.  We were exhausted but we were safe and all our luggage miraculously made it! PRAISE GOD! Thanks for your prayers!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I'm leaving at 10:52am headed back to the Middle East! I can't believe its already time to go back! I was thinking today and I realized that I'm so excited to be going back to share Jesus with those who have never heard! What a privilege it will be to once again meet with women and share Jesus with them (most of the time, for the first time)!

There are so many things that I have to be thankful for in going back and I praise God! My support came in so I've been able to enjoy my last two weeks with friends and family; we have an apartment to go to once in country; students from last year are excited for us to return; we have 4 new people on the team who are excited to live there and share the gospel with men and women there! Praise God for His goodness, for His willingness to let us be a part of Him reaching this country for the gospel, for providing ALL our needs and more!

I do have a few prayer requests for our initial days in country.  Please pray that God would grant us safe and smooth travel.  Pray that the beginning adjustments to life there would be as smooth as possible and we have fun learning the city, culture and language (for the new people) and enjoy remembering and being a part of the city, culture, etc. (for those of us returning).  Pray the setting up period would be smooth so we can get onto campus when classes start at the end of September!

Thank you! Next post will be from the Middle East!

Nearer, nearer

The days are getting nearer for our departure! The exact date is still unknown, but at this point it seems that it can be any day! I've been slowly preparing to go, but yesterday I bought the things I need to take and will pack today! This way, any day they tell us to be ready to go, I'll be ready!

The Lord is graciously moving in my heart preparing me for yet another year there! I was walking with my mom last night and we were talking about my leaving.  I was sharing that I think God still is prepping me, moving in my heart, bringing me excitement.  She reminded me of what I'm going to do and the need that is there! I'm going to share the hope found only in Jesus Christ with 71,995,000 people who don't know that! When I think about it in those terms I'm humbled that God chooses to use people to accomplish His will but what a privilege to be a part of something like this!

Pray He would keep working in the hearts of me and my team members readying us for an amazing year seeing Him work in our lives and lives of students all around us!

Ready for another year

I will be leaving for the middle east for another year in just over a week! I can't believe that I've been home for the summer and its already time to go back again! I've had a great summer with my family and friends which makes a little more difficult to go back.  I'm excited by faith right now, but now as soon as I begin to meet with students from last year and new students I will remember why I'm excited to be there and will love it!

Heart for the Lord

Today we had our new weekly discussion group at the Kultur Evi (Culture House) which is the building the local church uses for meetings and sunday school.  We never know who will come especially with the culture here.  Our friends say they will come but don't.  They only say they will come to not hurt our feelings. 

There are 2 people though that always come! They are 2 young men who are believers.  One is 27 and the other 17.  These two are so excited and encouraged to see young college students come and discuss things of the Lord.  The 17 year old definitely has a heart for the Lord and for his people to know Him.  During one of our ice breakers we were sharing something that maybe not many people know.  He was the second person to go and chose to share his testimony! What a brave young man! Its so encouraging to see him take steps of faith and trust the Lord to use his life even among our friends! Praise God! Its good for us to see with what we're doing now and what our the Lord may do with our work in the future with our friends! 

Vision

For the past 4 days we had a group of students from the US come visit during their spring break! Its always fun to have visitors, especially Americans since we don't see very many of them besides ourselves.  Not only is it refreshing, it is always encouraging.  

For one reason or another God brings people to this country.  Sometimes its just out of curiosity, maybe a mentor or bible study leader has asked them to check it out, or maybe God has laid this 

country on their heart.  In this last group there were 3 men and 2 women.  One guy is on staff, Vince, and used to serve in Turkey for 6 years 6 years ago.  He and his son, Reed, came who is just about to start university. These two came to see what ministry looks like here especially since we're pioneering a new city.  The staff guy especially was excited to learn and understand more of what God is doing here because he as spent time serving in this country and understands the longevity of working here. The other guy, Scott, is a junior in college and he came on this trip because he heard about Turkey and just wanted to check it out.  The two girls that came are both from the U of M.  One is an intern, Elizabeth, the other a freshman, Lia.  Adrienne and Elizabeth are really good friends and it was fun for Elizabeth to see her and to see what overseas ministry looks like compared to serving on a college campus in the States.  

Lia heard about Turkey and when she was researching things to do over spring break God wouldn't let her forget Turkey.

As you can see each person came for different reason, however God did something in all of their hearts! Last night we had a sharing time and the people on the trip shared about their 4 days in our city and their time spent with students and on campus.  Scott and Reed went out by themselves and found some english speakers and they both got to have really great conversations and were able to share the gospel clearly.  Its so encouraging knowing that they might have been able to share with someone who just heard the Truth about Christ for the first time, but Lord willing they have planted a seed! Vince shared how he again was struck with the need for workers to come here and share Christ.  All of this sharing has just made me realize what a privilege it is to serve here and to be a part of what God is doing.  It also made me think about the reality of the spiritual climate in Turkey.

We live in a city of about 2 million people with somewhere around 70 known believers and almost half of those believers are workers! This is just a tiny glimpse of what its like all over this country! God knows the need and He is still working through dreams and visions to reach these people but He still chooses to use us and wants to use us, to bring us into His work! I'm so thankful to be here and for this moment, this year in my life, there's no where else I'd rather be.  The center of God's will is a good place to be! There are challenges and struggles just by living here but the comfort of being held securely in the Lord gives me more than enough strength, courage and endurance to continue to "run, with perseverance, the race marked out for me." (Hebrews 12:1)

Merry Christmas! Noel Mutlusi!

Merry Christmas from our "family" here in Turkey to yours!  I can't believe its already that time of year where we specifically celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Being away from all the hustle and bustle of the christmas season has allowed for many opportunities of relaxation and reflection.  It has been a fun time to focus completely on why christmas is celebrated in the first place and to really praise the Lord for sending His Son.  

When you take away presents, family, general christmas spirit, festivities around the town, caroling, church pagents, etc., the only thing left is the true reason, Jesus Christ.  I'm thankful for the time God has given me to focus on Him and truly celebrate His son.  He's shown me how much joy can be experienced through truly and sincerely celebrating the miracle of the birth of Jesus Christ and through joining with the saints and angels in giving thanks for his gift to us.  A gift that was given to a completely undeserving earth, but through the Love of God he lavished goodness on His creation.  Praise be to God.  

Some fun things the Lord has allowed our team to experience this christmas season have been:

1.  Noel Kutlama.  This was a christmas conference we could invite our friends to and that people from around the country attended.  It was sweet to see his followers from around this country, both national believers and other workers, celebrate his birth and learn more of why we celebrate this time of year.

2.  SNOW!!! Noel Kutlama was on Uludag (pronounced Oo-loo-dah) which is a ski resort.  It actually looks quite similar to a ski resort in Colorado or other mountainous states in the U.S.  When we arrived there was absolutely no snow and it wasn't even cold enough to snow.  It was a little disappointing but we resolved that during our free time we'd find something other to do than ski.  Well on Saturday morning when we woke up there was about a foot of snow on the ground! It was like waking up to a fresh blanket of white snow on Christmas morning.  It was so fun and an answer to prayer which was cool for new believers and seekers to experience; to see that God even cares about little things!

3. A feeling of family with each other.  This christmas will be very different for everybody on our team.  It is the first time we've been out of the country during this time of year and away from family.  But God is good and has knitted our team together in unity as a small body of Christ, like a family.  We are buying presents for each other, having a Christmas day "feast" and singing Christmas songs to celebrate the birth of our savior!

I think it is fair to say that this year God has truly shown all of us how to truly rejoice and celebrate Christmas.  He has blessed all of us and given us each other as family for this time and place to celebrate the birth of His son, to celebrate Christ humbling himself and coming to Earth as a baby to save men from their Sins.  Being here, sharing the Love and Light of Christ in a place full of darkness has made Christmas all that more important for all of us!