Christmas!

I thought I would post some pictures and the happenings of our Christmas season here.  It was a blessing and one in which I could truly meditate on Christ, His humble birth, His life, and His purpose in coming.

  Stockings I made for the Team

        










                                                                 Our christmas trees

Christmas Eve was spent with our STINT team, our ICS team leaders and their children, 2 couples and a single guy from another missionary company, another 2 couples from another organization, the local Pastor and His wife and their children.  We all brought food and it reminded me so much of the beloved Church pot-lucks! Afterwards, we celebrated the gifts and talents God has given each of us with a 'variety show.'  People sang, did plays and puppet shows, played music, and told Christmas stories.  It was a beautiful evening completely focused on Christ!

                                                   Getting ready for singing some hymns!

 

                                           Watching an Australian Jingle Bells Puppet Show!

Christmas Day was simply our team of 7 and the Eaves (the ICS couple).  We went to their apartment and spent the day enjoying company, eating together, opening our secret santa presents to each other and watching A Christmas Story.  For most of us, it didn't quite feel like the Christmas season without Ralphie and his quest for the Red Rider Air Rifle! :)  Afterwards, the Eaves, Katelyn, Lindsay, Travis and I went to the church were the believers got together and did a small gift exchange, sang songs and later watched a Nativity Story.  It was so unique to experience this with national believers and share in the joy despite many language barriers and cultural differences!

                                              The girls and our matching snowmen socks!

                                                   The Eaves and presents fro America!

The Sunday was a great day for ministry.  The sermon at church was completely oriented to seekers.  Historically, church is the most full on the Christmas service and this year was no different. In fact, this year there were more people in church than ever before! God is at work in this City!  I was able to continue playing piano for the 'worship band' at church and it was a joy to be a part of it that day especially! To share in the joy we have in Christ through worshiping Him, bringing others before Him in worship, and sharing the Truth of the Gospel through song was an amazing experience. One I will not soon forget!

Praise God for the birth of His son! He came and He came to seek and save those that were lost, including me, you, the people of this country, and those of the world!

Time is flying by

It's that time of year already. Tonight I leave for our Mid-Year conference to be refreshed in the word and with fellowship of other believers! Fortunately for me, the conference is held in Spain! It will be wonderful to be able to understand and communicate whatever I want in a foreign language without trying to understand and later explaining that I only know very little of the language.  I'm excited for the mental break!

This past month has been busy, though, which is always surprising this time of year.  God always has plans and many opportunities to share Him with others, for which I'm very thankful! January is notoriously a slow month because of final exams and students here actually get a week long holiday meant for just studying.  So the majority of the students we meet with want to spend all their time studying for exams.  However it has been during this month that we've gotten a clearer glimpse at where some students are at on their journey to understanding who Christ is.  We've had some girls really show interest into researching truth! Not to the extent of only studying the Word of God, but a comparison study of the Kuran and the Bible. Praise God for this great opportunity to clearly show Truth against a lie  that has seized the hearts of millions of people here. Pray God will use this mightily in these women's lives!

Noel Kutluması

The second weekend in December we had Christmas conference for all the cities here with teams and students.  It was the second year that our city has attended and we were able to bring 5 students with us.  We brought 3 men and 2 women.  The men are all very spiritually interested, interested in knowing more, investigating more, and researching more.  The 2 women that came were very different from each other.  One is neither interested nor disinterested. She wanted to come to spend time with us and see what Christmas was about.  The other girl is a student from Africa and she is a believer.  For her the weekend was an encouragement and it challenged her to study her bible more and share her beliefs with her classmates.  

It was encouraging for our team because we were able to see over 120 students from around this country praising God, desiring to grow closer to Him and know Him better, and wanting to spend time in a body of believers.

Its so easy to loose focus and think that what we do isn't making a difference.  But in reality, God is at work here and just this weekend is evidence of that.  He is constantly stirring in people's hearts a longing for Himself and we get the awesome privilege of sharing Truth, the amazing Love of Jesus and the beautiful Grace of God with students.  God is most certainly at work! Praise Him!

    

Noeller Mutlu

On Saturday we decided to plan our weekly meeting with a Christmas theme and then we wanted to have a small Christmas party afterward.  It was such a fun day and most of the students who decided to come were there for the discussion.  Due to timing of students showing, meeting them, and getting the talk and discussion ready we started about 45 minutes late.  At the time it didn't seem like a good thing but because it was later, everyone we invited was able to be there for the discussion.  The pastor of the local church also came and was able to participate in the discussion.  Amazingly enough there were many more girls there, which is so unusual! But for the students that came it was the first time the gospel was shared clearly and in their own language.  With some of them, we didn't know before where they were exactly with spiritual things mostly because of language barriers.  We're so thankful the pastor was there to answer questions and for the students to see a believer from this country!

We also played a game called "Pass the Parcel" in which everyone ended up with a small gift.  We decorated paper christmas trees and three people got a prize.  We iced christmas cookies, shared a meal together and ended the night singing Christmas carols.  Our friends thought the night was beautiful and we're so thankful for the opportunity for our students to clearly hear the gospel!

Update!

Much has happened in the last month. I'll be looking forward to updating this a bit more everyday for the next few days! A brief month in review: We spent time with many old and new students.  God provided amazing conversations.  We had a Central Asia dish and experienced something new of the culture.  We celebrated Thanksgiving.  We took our first VISA trip.  We took students to Pamukkale for a Christmas conference.  Many good conversations have been had.  Many questions brought up by students.

Continue to pray for God's work here! Its exciting to be here! I can't believe I get the privilege of doing what I do especially here! I thought earlier today, I have an apartment in Turkey! How did that happen? I get to tell students about Christ! How did I get so lucky?

Trick or Treat!

On Friday we celebrated Halloween with our Turkish friends! We told people to dress up and we also some goodies from the States like candy corn and the like.  There were 26 of us in the house and we had a great time just talking about life, playing games eating candy corn and roasting smore's!

About the costumes: Well as it turned out the only people in costumes were the foreigners... which included our entire team, another american with another organization here and Dave and Ros's children!  Our friends thought we were crazy but they had fun trying on parts of our costumes!

About the food: We had candy corn which our boss brought as a surprise for us.  At first they weren't so sure if they liked it because it wasn't hard candy but it wasn't jelly-like... but in the end almost all of them decided they LOVED it!  We also roasted smore's... In the guys' apartment there is a fireplace.  Our first thought was to use that and roast them, however it seems the chimney isn't open.  So after almost smoking ourselves out of the building we roasted marshmallows over the stove! The turks also LOVED the smores...

We're looking forward to more socials with our friends both fun and spiritual in content. Praise God for Friday night and a time where students saw that things can be fun without partying or having much planned!

Patience is a virtue!

Last year every time I had to wait for basically the only bus near us that would take us where we needed to go, I thought, "You really must a lack of patience in my character God."  I waited for the B24 for hours last year.  I would see all these other buses come by multiple times before the B24 would come by the first time.  This year when we were in the process of moving I always so thankful that I would not need to wait for the B24 this year, though its route still goes by our new apartment!  

Well, it seems I still need to work on patience and it seems God is once again using the Turkish bus system to show me that!  Last week I was on campus and waiting for the B44/a to come by so I could go home.  When I first got to the stop I was so happy I wasn't going to be waiting to take the B24, especially at 9pm.  Its only scheduled to come to campus once (or maybe twice) more before stopping for the night.  Much to my surprise I saw a B24 come by almost immediately.  I thought that was strange but didn't think much of it.  After about 20 min. of waiting I thought surely the B44/a would coming.  However the next bus that came was the B24...AGAIN!  I still did not get on this bus because I was certain the B44/a would be coming momentarily.  However after waiting for another 25 minutes I was wishing had gotten on that bus but my stubbornness stopped me.  I saw headlights in the distance and the  loud hum of a bus muffler and was excited that I'd finally be getting on my B44/a to go home.  But... it was the B24, AGAIN! I saw it, waved it down and climbed on board chuckling and thinking in my head, "Lord, You're funny! You have a such a sense of humor."  I thought my patience had grown some but still realizing I had much further to come.  I also thought I'd never wait for buses to the extent I did last year with the B24 but as it turns out, I'm still waiting for buses like I did last year with the B24 and the Lord sends me the B24 to get me home!  It seems I still have more to learn... but to remind myself to wait patiently, I've now written on my BuKart (bus card) cover "PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE."