Only days after moving to Turkey, we began the process of shopping for furniture for our empty apartment.  Through that shopping experience, I became friends with one of the ladies who walked us around a showroom.  We didn’t buy furniture from her store, but she had been so nice, so helpful, and so welcoming that first day that I was compelled to respond to her invitation to come back to visit again.  I was able to quickly identify myself as a believer, and as the weeks went by our friendship really blossomed.

About 6 months later my husband and I had to do some traveling.  About two months went by with no news from her. She had started a new job, and I couldn’t get in touch with her. I had never been to her apartment, so I didn’t know where she lived. I called, sent text messages, and waited.  I just continued praying and asking the Father to bring her back into my life if He wanted my relationship to continue.

One day about a month ago my husband went to the bank to take care of some business.  While he was there, my friend came in.  She was so excited to see him!  She quickly explained that she lost her cell phone (without having my phone number written down anywhere) and wrote a short note to me with her new cell phone number. (I found out later that she and her daughter actually came to our apartment one day during those two months to look for me, but we weren’t home.) For the past month we have again had the opportunity to visit each week.

I praise the Father for the way He answered my prayer to reconnect me with this dear friend and for the way He has deepened our relationship in the last few weeks.   She is really opening up about difficulties in her marriage and family and it is very clear to her that my relationship with my husband is very different from hers.  Please pray for D. and other women like her who are so unhappy and feel so hopeless in their marriages.  Please pray that I, and other believing women, will continue to have opportunities to share the hope of JC and that He will change their hearts and homes.

I have a friend who is 18-years-old and who has never been to school. Not one day. Her father never gave her permission. She’s thin and frail and prone to being sick (maybe related to the fact that she had typhoid a few years ago). Her head hurts all the time. But her eyes are so bright and when she smiles her whole face beams. She is beautiful.

She can read and write, and so she tries to study at home. She takes public, outside tests in an attempt to pass specific grades. She told me this week that she took the middle school test and failed it. For the second time, she failed. “Don’t tell anyone,” she said. She asked me about my youngest sister who is 19 and in her first year of college. She said, “If I had been able to go to school and if I passed all the tests along the way, I could be at university now too.”

My heart hurts for her.  What will happen to her?  She has no education.  Her family does not care well for her. From a worldly perspective, her future is bleak.  I want more for her than what she will ever have.  But I am encouraged to think that I possess the one thing that she can have.  The most important thing:  the truth and the freedom and the salvation that is only through Christ.  And I think of our God and His bigness and His sovereignty and His ability to work in the darkest of places. And I think of Ecclesiastes and “anyone who is among the living has hope.” And so I pray for my friend to one day understand the Truth, to find hope in her dark world, to be one of the women who is worshipping at the Master’s feet… uneducated and poor and mistreated, yet a child of the King.

In Turkey, all men have to complete mandatory military service sometime after finishing high school or university.  This service is seen as an important part of “becoming a man” in Turkey.  It is known for a rough, dehumanizing training program followed by several of months of service, which can be quite dangerous depending on the posting.  For believers in Turkey, it is even scarier.  They are a part of such a tiny minority and most of the majority population does not react positively to them.

A friend of mine, Art*, knew that he would soon be receiving word of his date to report for training.  He had talked about it nervously a few times with me and with some of the other believers from his church.  A couple of weeks ago we were having a cookout at his church when his phone rang.  As he talked and responded his face changed from the light-hearted merriment of the cookout to a more serious tone.  When he got off the phone, he announced to the group that he would report for training at the end of the summer.  He looked nervous and a little apprehensive.

Immediately, several of the older believing men gathered around Art and began to encourage him with their stories from their own time in the military.  Some of them had done their service many years before and one had just finished his service a few months earlier.  After a few moments of heartfelt blessing, they closed by praying for him.  This was a beautiful example of the body of Christ in action.  Before my eyes I was able to see his demeanor change as these brothers illustrated the “one another’s” we read about in the NT.

From one of our young single workers:

I got to spend alot of time with our neighbors this past month.  Sometimes I get overwhelmed by their disinterest.  But they were quick to tell their friends in my presence last time I visited that we are different because we are Americans. I got to share Truth with them again in much detail about how we’re different because of Christ and why, not because we’re from America.  So, I was really thankful for that.
AND…I led my discipleship group for the first time since we started it last fall!  The girl who usually leads is gone for the summer and I’ll be leading every other week.  In the national language of course—that’s the big deal!  My language helper and i met three times the week I led (talk about exhausting) to help me prepare and practice my lesson.  And, it went so great.  I was on cloud nine!  God totally blessed the time.  He blessed my language skills and gave my language helper such wisdom to help me.  It was all Him, and really none me.  But, I just felt so encouraged that He was even able to use my language in that way at all.  I really felt like everyone walked away that night with a Word from Him and I couldn’t have asked for more.
I met with my new friend Zara*.  I got to introduce her to Beth*—from disc. group—and that was really encouraging.
So, next weekend something exciting is happening… two of the girls in my discipleship group (including Beth*) are getting baptized!  I am so excited for them and may even get to help baptize Beth*!  They’ve both been through an in-depth discipleship class through our church and I’m absolutely so humbled at being able to watch them grow from professing faith in Christ to where they are today sharing their faith and helping disciple our new friend A.J.*  It’s just been incredible.  I’m telling you, God is working over here…thank you for being a part of it!  Please lift up these girls as they grow in their faith and please lift up Zara* And Tracey* as we invite them to the baptism.  I’ve really tried to be intentional about introducing my friends to these girls, asking that God will build frienships and use them as a testimony and I just think it would be huge for these girls to see their fellow national friends being baptized and standing firm in their following of Jesus and what He’s done in their lives.  Pray that it will not only be a blessing to our church, but to these girls’ unbelieving friends that will come.  This summer, in total possibly 6 new believers will be baptized here.  I mean, i don’t know what you’re thinking, but that just gives me chills!  I love it.  Our God is so faithful.  The work is slow and it’s hard and sometimes frustrating here.  But, it’s His work and He is Sovereign and in a place where the darkness is so overwhelming and His name has never been spoken to so many among the masses, we eagerly wait for salvation here in this place and He is working and drawing men unto Himself.  Amazing.  The God that we serve is unfathomably great.  As exciting as it is, we realize that the many who don’t know greatly beyond my comprehension outnumber those that do.

*Name changed for story

Recently one of our workers (Jan*) was chatting with “Rose,” the mother of a local believer when a neighbor and friend of Rose came by to visit. Immediately it was clear to Jan that the old lady was having trouble walking because of pain in her legs, which were swollen. Jan learned that despite going to the doctor and taking different types of medicine for the past five years, she could not find relief. Her leg felt heavy and hard as metal. Jan had compassion on her. “Jesus healed many people of their sickness,” she said. “He can heal you of yours, too. Would you like me to pray for your leg to be healed in Jesus’ name?” The old lady’s countenance had an eagerness that came from faith.
“Yes, please pray for me.”

Jan prayed for her, and then massaged her leg while telling her of God’s love for her. Then she got up.
“My legs feel light!” she said. “Praise God!”
“Praise God!” Jan and Rose said together.
The lady was so overjoyed. Immediately she thought of her grandson who had begun stuttering since his parents left him five years before.
“Can you pray for my grandson, too?” Read the rest of this entry »

One of the challenges of living in a part of the world where we cannot label ourselves with the word we are most usually labeled is coming up with another understandable reason for us to be where we are. One of the things we as Americans have an ability to do that a native here might not be as good at is teaching English, and that sometimes ends up being what our coworkers do, and what we consider doing in the future, but there are other more creative things people have come up with. Some have, for example, worked by roasting and selling coffee beans to people and restaurants all across this country. (Believe me, it is good stuff, and I’d rather buy their coffee than the coffee at Starbucks!) Others have been doing all kinds of different media projects involving computer graphics, web design, video, photo, other recording, and just about any other way to either get Important things out, or involve you in what is going on over here. (They put together the Central Asia Former Soviet Union Calendar that some of you have for example.) Some have run an art studio and sold their artwork. Some have done services for foreigners, (translation: they’ve done accounting and other administrative things for our company. We all have financial reports to turn in every month, of course, and someone has to check them! And somebody has to make doctor’s appointments for people coming in from all over!) People have imported different products from here in the past. There is an international school here, and some people have been teachers there.

There are so many things that can be done, but sometimes it’s hard to find something that just FITS YOU. Since we are not “sit behind a desk” kind of people, we have to be a little bit more creative. We’ve thought a lot about this lately; what we will do when our formal language training is over. Please be in prayer about this for us, asking that God inspire us with something, whether it is already in existence or not. We want it to be something that will give us as much time with the local people here as possible. This is our desire, and this is a very big prayer need.

On the flip side, lots of the types of jobs I mentioned have needs for more personnel. If anything sparked your interest, or you have ever dreamed about going somewhere, but just don’t feel you have anything to offer, pray about that. Ask God if He might want to use you in a way you never dreamed possible.

Here is a story from one of our families that is new to the field:

Our son Matthew has had quite the experience with doctors. Unfortunately in most cases it’s been a painful experience. He had to get a large shot in his leg every day for a week. The painful part for me was that I had to hold him still during the procedure.

But me being there to hold him was also a good thing because I was right there to comfort him. He found comfort from me telling him the “Jesus hurt story.” The Jesus hurt story is the story of Jesus dying on the cross and rising again. We told this story to Matthew around Easter, and he labeled it the “Jesus hurt story.” He likes to hear it over and over, especially when anything hurts him.

What struck me was how absurd it would sound to the doctor and nurses for a two year old kid to be comforted by hearing about a man being tortured and executed. This is especially true in a Muslim context where the thought of a prophet dying is anathema. I wondered what in the world they would be thinking about me. Would they think I’m some whacked out masochist who is corrupting my son? I have to admit that in my fear of man the first couple of times I was reluctant to tell Matthew the story boldly.

But after a few times, I was sharing the story loud enough for others to hear, and it reminded me of how the strangeness and oddness of the story is also the story’s greatest comfort. Christ took on our weaknesses so that we can take on His strength.

Speaking of foolishness, fresh in our minds is the conversation we just had with the maintenance/security guy (kapija) of our apartment and his friend. My wife put it well when she said, “I feel ludicrous.” I asked her, “Because of how little language we know?” “No,” she said, “because how they must think of us.” In the conversation we admitted that we tried to pop popcorn, but it didn’t work.  They interpreted our problem of not getting popped corn as us not knowing how to do it. Of course, I’ve burnt my fair share of popcorn in the states and my wife almost burned her parent’s kitchen down, but we know the general idea. However, when it seems like we don’t know anything here because our lack of language and our lack of knowledge of the way things are done, our inability to fix popcorn fits right in.

I have another example, there’s an expression for the perfect consistency of hot tea, which literally translated means, “rabbit blood.” The tea’s color is apparently similar to the color of rabbit blood.  I tried to use that expression, but I used it wrong, and they actually believed that I thought I was drinking rabbit blood. You should have seen the look on their faces.  So here is the question that has been going through my mind, ‘what must they think about me in general if the idea of me thinking I was drinking rabbit blood came as no big shock to them?’  How many other things must I do that seem just as ludicrous?

The last week of January we had a team meeting/retreat in a sea-side town near our city.  We really enjoyed the spiritual refreshing and biblical instruction we experienced during the retreat.  One afternoon during our free time, we decided to explore the local town. As we were exploring, we were also trying to locate a pharmacy for a teammate. We turned down a road we thought would lead us to another seaside community and possibly the local pharmacy.  However, instead of a pharmacy, we discovered a farming community of about 33 souls. We don’t know for sure, but we think we were the first Americans they had ever seen! It was hard to wrap our minds around the fact that they may have NEVER had the gospel placed in their hands. Later that evening, we really felt a deep urging of the Spirit to return the next day with copies of the New Testament in their own language.  It would have been difficult to leave this area after having come in contact with a whole village and not use the opportunity to place His words in their hands.

Upon returning to the village, we were greeted by three ladies and a couple of children.  Tom Scott went with us and interestingly enough, he had only brought three of the Incil packets with him at the time. They were receptive and welcoming. They told us they love all foreigners.  One of the ladies even gave us a bag of Hazelnuts. We were thankful to have Tom with us to speak to their hearts what we were unable to communicate in our limited Turkish. Please pray that these copies of God’s Word will transform their hearts and that this little village will rise up as a village that will bring change to our region.

Just like many of the workers in our area, we are building a vocabulary in a new language as well as building relationships with our teachers and tutors.  The following is an update recently received from a worker who continues to share openly with his teacher:

I am still meeting with my tutor, Sam.  We read the parable of the seed and the sower and John 14.6 this week.  I had to look up the word for exclusive as I explained the gospel to him again.  After reading and talking, I asked him what he thought about all of that.  Unfortunately, he answered like many Americans might, “According to you that is truth, so that is good.”  Many seeds have been planted in Sam, and he has a copy of the NT.  Please pray that those seeds would find fertile ground and take root in his life.

Something really different happened recently where one of our workers serve, certainly a miracle, and he wants to share it with others:

We have been visiting with a young friend who is married with one son. He has always claimed to be an atheist and to me I feel this means that he has never had any relationship with God, and therefore just doesn’t care really one way or the other. He is an orphan and grew up in the orphanage. His situation is like another friend of mine who is an orphan. He was kicked out of his home with his two younger brothers at the age of four. Later his parents tried to get in touch with him as a young man but he would have nothing to do with them. To him he had no parents even though they were around because he had no relationship with them. I feel like this is what my friend, whose story I am sharing with you, feels about God. We have had some good discussions and have shared the gospel with him on several occasions.

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