There are always opportunities

Once a week on Tuesdays there is a church that does an outreach in the city. They usually offer soup or tea for free form 2:00-5:00. Before everything starts we pass out some flyers. We want people to know there is a Turkish church in their area and that they can come and talk whenever they want. Here are some of the questions we get asked: "Why is it free?" "Do you get paid to do this?" "What is in the soup?"

Three young men showed up to eat some soup. One of them has been coming regularly. I asked them what they thought about the Bible. They told me that they had read it a little. One of them asked if the Bible had been changed. Now what they are taught here is that all the Christian elders got together at the first Council of Nicea which is Iznik, Turkey, and decided which books to include in the canon and which ones not to. Actually here the story is even worse. Many Turks will tell me that they stacked all the books on a table and the ones that fell off were not included in the canon. So before I came to Turkey I could have cared less about what happened at the Council of Nicea. We have to be ready to answer people. So I explained to this young man what really happened at the council of Nicea. It had nothing to do with the canon of the Scripture. I explained to him the congruency of the Bible. He actually wanted to stay longer and talk but his friends wanted to go. I hope to see him next week.

Yesterday I was sitting on a park bench studying when someone came and sat down by me. I didn't say anything, but about 5 minutes later this young man asked me what I was studying. I told him and he asked me how I make decisions in my life. This was an interesting question. I told him that I try to live by what the Bible says. Then he told me he was an atheist. This led to a long discussion about what happens after we die. I also explained to him why being good is not enough to be accepted by God. I hope to contact him again and talk some more.

God gives us opportunities to speak of Him everyday. We need to be sure we are ready.

It has been way too long!

I know it has been way too long since I've written. So I will not attempt to fill you in with what has been happening the past few months in one blog. I'll start with the most recent news.
We have another baby boy. His name is Blake Eren(similar to Aaron) He was born May 18, 2009. He was 8.1 lbs. and 19.5 inches. Praise God! He and his mother are doing great.
That same week I found out that because my college degree was not accredited the Ministry of Education denied my work visa. This means legally that I can't teach English without an accredited bachelors degree. This kind of through me for a loop.
At that time we were and we still are planning on moving to another city in the summer. I had planned on transferring to our companies branch there in the city that we would move to. So that idea is out.
I'm not sure how God is leading. I'm just trying to follow. After the news that I shared with you above, I decided maybe I should try to get a student visa by studying at university. So I crammed for the SAT. I hadn't done math in 10 yrs. A week and a half of studying wasn't enough to trigger my brain but it helped some. I took the test this past Saturday. I believe I did well enough to apply to university. Here are some thoughts I had after reflecting on what has happened.

1. I've taught English here for a year and a half. This job was no doubt from God. Why is it being taken away? Not sure, but since I had been teaching English I didn't have to worry about that part on my SAT!

2. Also had I not got the news that my work visa was denied two weeks before the SAT I would not have had a chance to take the SAT or apply to university.

3. I'm different. Some or you say, "Yes we know." As I sat in the classroom with 100 other students I thought about what they probably wanted. They wanted to get a good score so they could go to a good American university which in turn would help them make more MONEY. I don't want any of that. I want to tell them that there is more to life than money and things. I want to tell them about Jesus.

Happy New Year

Well I hope all of you had a merry Christmas. Now it is on to 2009! I'm really looking forward to what God has for our family in 2009. Let me update you about the past few weeks. We went to a city about 5 hrs. east after the Sacrifice Holiday. It was coooooooooold. Negative 5 degrees to be exact. We spent the weekend with my Turkish helpers family. It was a great cultural experience. They were so nice and fed us more than we needed. Even though this city has a population of about 300,000, it is different from the big city that we're used to. On Friday most people actually go to the mosque. The streets were virtually silent. Nothing like Ankara. On our return home we had quite an adventure. We were literally in the middle of nowhere and Angie accidently shifted from 5th gear to 2nd. We sat on the side of the road in the cold for an hour waiting for a tow truck. Thankfully, he gave us a ride back to Ankara, because all of the buses were full due to the holiday. Unfortunately, riding in the tow truck turned a 5 hour drive into almost 8hrs. All is well that ends well! At least that's what they say.

The International Protestant Church had a Christmas program in Turkish. This was an opportunity for people to bring their Turkish friends to hear a clear presentation of the Good News. My helper joined me. There was a small choir that sang, a man gave his testimony, and there was a message. The program clearly presented why God sent His son Jesus to earth. I think there were about 300 people there. It was standing room only. At the end of the program they gave all the guests a book in Turkish about the meaning of Christmas and a CD of Turkish Christian music. My helper was impressed with the program. Be in prayer, that God would use what people heard that night to change their lives.

Again Happy New Year to all of you! I pray that God would show you more of His grace this year as you live your life in faith to Him.

Blood Everywhere!

Here is a quick cap of the Sacrifice Holiday. According to the news there were 2,555 wounded over the holiday. This is largely due to the fact that most people don't know how to go about killing an animal with just a knife. So people's hands, arms, and legs get cut. Also there is the animal factor. It doesn't really like to be tied up so there were a lot of people wounded by kicks from animals. The news showed almost everything except the slice of the animals neck. The city only allows the animals to be killed in a specific place. You can probably imagine blood was everywhere. There were little boys playing with cow heads, men skinning animals, etc... Nothing for the squeamish. It reminds of the sacrifices that God called for in the Old Testament. It was not a glorious job that the priest had. They had to kill the sacrifice and blood no doubt flowed. It was that blood that God required to cover man's sin. I'm glad we don't have to sacrifice anymore. The blood of Jesus Christ, the ultimate sacrifice, put an end to the sacrifice of animals. Still, we live in a country where people either out of tradition or for religious purposes sacrifice. They don't believe in the sacrifice that Jesus made.

New Website! Crazy Day!

I know it has been forever since I've blogged. I have a lot to catch up on. Also continue to check in on the blog. I'm going to put some videos of Braxton's 1st birthday party. There is a website called Yasam Sozu that we would like for you to visit. We know you can't read it, but you can see what you think about the general look of it. Right now it allows people to download the written or audible Bible, they can also read the Word, and get a copy of a New Testament if they'd like. Please give us your opinions. We are praying that God would use it to allow us to disciple men and women all over this country.

Now the crazy day. God blessed us with the ability to acquire a vehicle. This car needed an inspection. Now everywhere you go in this country you have to wait but I think this is a little excessive. I got up and was at the inspection place by 6:30. Already I was 148 in line! I'm not joking. The first hour of waiting was calm. At about 7:30 my entire day changed. I got some water laid my car keys on the seat and shut the door. I didn't push a thing. My doors automatically locked. Uh Oh! I was in trouble. Immediately I called the locksmith. He got there but the line had already started moving. I lost valuable places in line. I was the show. 20 Turkish men gathered round to tisk tisk me with there voices while watching the locksmith. The locksmith got the door opened and robbed me in the process. Not really! It seemed like it though. Long story short. I waited from 6:30 in the morning until 6:00 p.m. at night to get my car inspected. There were some bright spots to the day. I can't believe that God allowed me to wait 12 hrs. in vain.

I spoke Turkish all day. That is wonderful.
I made some new friends. After waiting 12hrs. with a bunch of guys you learn a lot about one another.
I was able to share a simple meaning about what it means to be a Christian.
I made it on TV for the second time. The reporters asked me if I had ever seen anything like this and what it was like in America. I told them and at 8:00 p.m. that night I and my friends were on the news.
A man spotted me 70 turkish lira. I didn't have enough since I had to pay the locksmith. This was a bright spot and quite possibly the reason God allowed me to wait for 12 hrs. This man helped me with the entire process. We will see what God wants to do with the relationships that were made.
If nothing else God taught me a big lesson in patience.

Another one on the way!

Angie is 7 weeks pregnant! We went to the doctor today and heard the baby's heartbeat. Please keep Angie and the baby in your prayers.

Circular Argument

Yesterday my teammate and I went out together to talk to some security guards that he had met. They are a bit of a captive audience as they have no other place to go. So they were bashing America and saying lots of other meaningless things, when I told them all of the bad things that happen in the world are because people have a heart problem. This got us on the topic of 'religion'. They immediately said the Bible has been changed. I told them no it hasn't. I showed them what Jesus said in Matt. 5:17&18. They were surprised that I had the Bible with me. So I told them if the Bible has been changed, tell me when, who, how, and why. They said they would bring their Koran tomorrow and we could bring our Bibles. It was a duel. We set up some rules where they spoke for 30 minutes and we said nothing, then we would speak for 30 minutes and they wouldn't say anything. They didn't follow the rules, but we were respectful.

So today we met. They started. They went way over their 30 minute timetable. They read a lot of different verses trying to claim that the Koran says the Bible has been changed. Actually the Koran doesn't say that. It says that Jews and Christians have distorted God's Word with their tongues. Nothing about physically changing it. Now for my partner and I the point was not to argue but get to the Gospel message. Here is what I laid out to them: First I just talk about how powerful God is. Then I said:
God cannot change.
You can't separate God's Word from God. So God's Word can't change.
The Bible hasn't been changed.
They responded that God allowed the Bible to be changed so that He could send a better book. I told them that then makes God like man. Almost as if God said, "Oh, this book is no good. I need to do a better job." I said many other things, but there's no need to list all of them. Anyway, they just kept going around and around with the same argument. It was actually very irrational at time. I just wanted to go on to what I had prepared to teach them. Actually one of my friends uses this method. I wanted to show them the principle that Jesus taught that the Law, Psalms, Prophets, and N.T. were actually one book. I then would go through the principle of why the prophets sacrificed. They took a lot of time without letting me talk. Finally I said, you have been talking for hours. It's my turn. They admitted that they had taken my right. So finally I was able to present this principle. God encouraged me because there were three guys that came and listened who were not workers. This is really the reason I shared this presentation. I was fed up with the guys I had met. I didn't want to cast my pearls to the pigs. The other men men listened. One guy kept interrupting me asking me why we don't sacrifice anyone. This was the exact point that I wanted to make. I promised him, if he would listen I would tell him. I don't know what God will do with His Word. We hope to go back regularly to let them talk to show them that they don't really have that much to talk about. At the same time, we want to communicate Christ to them. Pray that God's Word would fall on good soil. I'm so glad that as Peter said, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy..." The Holy Spirit gave me such joy as I reached the conclusion when John says, 'Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." I then asked them if they thought Jesus would agree with John's witness. Some said no. In Matthew 20:28 Jesus said that He came to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Enough said!