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.

Moving!

It has been a bit of a crazy week. We went to the city where we are moving to rent an apartment. I thought oh it will take no time. Well after three days, a whole lot of hauling babies around,and a minor accident in which a nice Turkish lady put a new red stripe down the side of our van, we found a place. It seems like there are a lot of families in the area. We are excited but there is a lot of work to do before the big move. If you a student reading this, you should really think about visiting. We are moving to a big university city. As I tell all students, you will be a rock star(not sure if that is a good think or not). Anyway you know English and your an American. This is a city of around 614,000 but that number increases almost 100,000 when the students are in university. Pray for us as we make preparations to move.

Sharing others sorrow

It has been a pretty full two weeks. We've had friends from the states in and out of our house. I finally got some time to go visit some of my friends around the city. One of them is a man who works at a restaurant. We became friends because I always go there on my break from teaching English. His five month old son died. Apparently he got tangled up in his blankets and suffocated. I was shocked. I have a two month old myself. He made the comment, "My boy is in Heaven." I told him that I would pray pray for him. We talked about that when things like this happen everything else loses its importance. Later I thought, "He has the assurance that his son is in heaven, but he doesn't know if God will accept him." How sad! This was another reminder to me what a privilege it is to be accepted by God. The people we meet our lost souls. They are not just something to put in a prayer letter. They are not our projects. I think about some of the ministry that I have done and how reckless I've been. It is not right to barge into someones life so that you can make a friend or so that they can come to church or ride a bus etc... and not be there when they are hurting. If we truly care for their souls we will be there when it really matters. Many times God chooses to use those difficult circumstances in peoples life to give us an opportunity to show the love of Christ to them. Pray that the Holy Spirit would guide me as I continue to talk with this man.

Who are you fooling?

This is just a note for anyone who reads this and is afraid of working in what some call closed countries. Many people are afraid that people in the country they work will find out that they are a Christian worker(missionary). They go to extravagant measures to be sure to look like a true business man or something else. Even if you are a legitimate business man they will still not believe you. The fact is people already assume what you are. Everyone is a missionary for some cause or another, and every major religion(Islam, Buddhism, etc...) has missionaries. I am pretty open with people that I know. So I was at work today and my boss who is Turkish told one of my students while we were in class that I was a 'misyoner.' Now the only thing that I have ever told my boss was that I want to teach the Bible to Turkish people. Now I don't use the term because people don't associate it with a person that loves God and wants to proclaim his message to others. My boss did use the term. I told him that I don't use that term, but that I want to tell people about what the Bible teaches. The people in what some call closed countries need to see that people who love God and want to preach His message are not threats. The more open you are the better. Of course there are times when you don't tell just anyone everything. Jesus did this many times. If you remember the Pharisees asked by what authority He performed his works. He told them that if they answered his question he would tell them. So he asked them if John's baptism was from heaven or of men. They didn't answer Jesus and He didn't answer them(Matthew 21:23-27).We don't waste our words with people who aren't interested. With those who are interested we show them our hearts.