Merry Christmas!

Angie made me wear the hat! Angie, Braxton, and I hope you had a great Christmas. Although we are 6,000 miles from our families, technology helps us feel closer. We also had a nice Christmas dinner with our teammates Isaac and Elizabeth. I don't know why but Braxton wanted to sleep through the gift opening. Braxton is now 13lbs. and nearly 23 inches long! We hope you all were reminded this Christmas of what a great gift God gave us in His Son Jesus. What an amazing thing to think that God loved us so much that He would give His only Son to save us! It is that gift we want to give to the people in Turkey.

Earth Shaking News!

Here is another picture of Braxton. He is now 4 weeks old. The fact that we gave him the middle name of Emre has been great so far. The Turks love it and they always ask why. So it always gives us a good opportunity to meet new people.
Well we felt our first tremor yesterday. That's the earth shaking news. I was sitting having my Turkish lessons when the ceiling fans in our apartment started shaking. I thought well its no big deal and the house just kept shaking. Right about the time we were getting ready to go outside it stopped. The actual earthquake took place about 60 miles southeast of Ankara. It was a 5.7 earthquake. There were no deaths just a few houses were damaged.
Yesterday was also the first day of a four day holiday called Kurban Bayrami, which is the Sacrifice Holiday. Meaning Turks will buy a sacrifice and have it slaughtered. They were showing all kinds of lambs, goats, and cows on the news yesterday. I was thinking they have no idea what they're in for. Our neighbors actually brought us a whole bag of freshly slaughtered lamb. It was a very nice gesture. Traditionally the family that sacrifices is not supposed to eat of the meat. They are to give it away. Nowadays though most people in Turkey sacrifice and put the meat in the freezer for later on in the year.

Saying No

To all you millions who read this blog, I'm sorry it's been so long. Little Braxton is very healthy. God has provided him with a very good set of lungs. I mentioned that I had a possible job opportunity as a part-time English teacher at a very well known company. It seemed like this was a great opportunity to get a work visa. So I started the training process. This is a great company. There were a lot of pluses to this job. There were also minuses to this job. Bottom line, God showed me that this isn't the right time. Angie and I don't need a work visa until April of 2009. Who knows what God will do in the time between. I need to focus on my language. My language is my job at this time. I'm here to communicate the Gospel. I can't do that well if I don't know the language inside and out. In the end, I had to call my potential boss and tell her the situation. My allegiance is to God, not to some company or to a process. When I think of eternity, things become very clear. A friend told me that sometimes what is good is not always best. I look forward to seeing what God's best is for us. I said no to a good opportunity in a lot of people's eyes. Sometimes saying no is what God wants.