Good News for work visas

Well I received an email yesterday with a link to an article. I've posted the link below. For those of you thinking about moving to Turkey, if this comes to pass it could potentially make life much easier. There is a new man who took charge of this department and he's making sweeping changes. The claim is that you will get a 'yes' or 'no' answer in a month. I waited over a year to find out they rejected me. Also if you notice what the article says, it claims that they don't want to leave much to individual employees to decide. This would be great. I heard in years gone by in regards to getting your work visa it was pretty much up to the guy reading your paperwork. We'll see what happens.

Good news for work visas

Lost a Hero

Today Bro. I.D. Riddick pastor emeritus of my home church went to be with the Lord. He was the pastor of our church for twenty years before he retired. He didn't really retired though. I didn't know much about him until he moved back to our home town and taught in our bible college. He was in his seventies at the time he taught. He loved going to yard sales. Not because he liked to shop but so he could witness. He couldn't go door-knocking with us so that was his way of passing out tracts and talking to people. He never stopped talking about how good God was and warning people about Hell. He loved people so much. He loved his church members. Even when he stepped on their toes they knew it was because he love them. He's rejoicing in Heaven now, but we will miss him. Pray for his wife. They were married 63 years.

Family Camp

Things are going well in our new city. Sunday we got back from a family camp. There were believers from three different Turkish fellowships there. The main speaker, who is also a pastor here in the country, has had a hand in starting each of the three fellowships. He is a Spanish man and has been here for 24 years! He came in 1985 and was put in prison 2 or 3 times. His longest time in the slammer was 16 days. Most people would have left after that. When he first came his sending church in Spain dispersed and he was left to the work of his hands to support his family. It was encouraging to see this man still in the country. Many who have not gone through what he has have left, but he no doubt following God, stayed! The camp was nice. We enjoyed meeting the Turkish believers. I always ask them their stories. One thing rings true in all of their stories. God's love and the love in the church affected them. I believe it was Jesus who said, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John 13:35

Embarrassing moment

I'm sharing this with you because it has a good ending. I was doing some follow-up work today so I called a person with a name that I thought was a woman's name. Now everyone always says ask a national before you do something. So I asked my friends was this name a man or woman's name. They said it is a woman's name. I call this person and say, "Hello can I talk to Ms. Nikki?" "Who?" the guy on the other line says. "Ms. Nikki." "Miss?" He asks. "Yes! Nikki." I say. He says I'm Nikki but I'm not a Miss. Oops! Not really what you want to do when you're going to ask someone how they liked their book, but it broke the ice. The good news is that this young man from the southeast wants to meet a Christian. So I'm working on that. I'm glad he didn't get angry with me and hang up.

A young man named Hope's story

Here in this country Hope is a man's name. I have been in contact with this young man for about 2 weeks now. He requested some books from the website so we sent them. After that he wanted another book so that is when we started correspondence. He said that he already believes in Jesus Christ as his Savior. This is what he says happened after that. This is all according to him. I have no reason to think he would be making it all up. All of this took place in about a 4 month period. One day his mother put the Koran in front of him and he pushed it aside and pulled out his New Testament. His mother called for his father and his father hit him and broke his jaw. Later they sent him off to a different city to sit at the feet of the teacher at the mosque. He still didn't change his mind and he was kicked out of his house. He went to another city where his grandpa lives and his grandpa gave him some traveling money. Sometime after he left his uncle and his dad came with a gun to supposedly kill him(His grandpa told him this. He had already left). He told the military police but they said they wouldn't interfere in family matters. Throughout this period he was attending a fellowship in Istanbul. He then came to the city that we moved to. The day he came was the exact day I happened to be in the city getting the electric and water turned on for our new apartment. He was at a bible study the night we met. He couldn't find work in this city so he went back to his city to try to find work. This is the time he contacted the website. Keep in mind we didn't know each other. Not until two days ago did I realize this was the same guy I had met just weeks ago. Now we have been corresponding. I have tried to encourage him with scripture. He told me Romans 14:8 really influenced him. Look it up. It is a good verse to remember. He wanted to know what repentance meant. To the best of my knowledge I explained to him what repentance means. There is a totally different concept of the meaning of repentance in Islam. Please pray for courage and strength for this young man and that I could be an encouragement to him.

Back in the modern world!

Wow! What did we do without phones and internet? We were without both for about a week and a half. We are getting settled into our new place. Not before some excitement. Sunday Angie had a kidney stone. She was in a lot of pain but thankfully it passed the same day. So Sunday night we made the drive to our new place. Here is a view from our balcony. We are on the tenth floor.


Braxton is fitting in nicely. He has already convinced the kids around here that he is crazy. I took him out to play and he ran around in circles for 15 minutes. He has been a huge help to me during the move. The pictures below tell it all. Oh yeah, by the way that is me he is sitting on.


We look forward to sharing this new city with you.