Trip to North Africa

I had a great time in North Africa visiting a friend of mine. Over seven days I was able to see what God is doing throughout the country. Men are being trained, believers are gathering together, and souls are being saved. In fact, while I was there a young woman put her faith in Jesus. I'll be sharing with you some of the things that I learned. Here is a link to some photos I took. I'm not good with a camera, but at least you can see the landscape of the areas I visited.
Slideshow

Thankful for God's Protection for a Friend

Today I was able to chat with one of my friends back in Turkey. He was on his way to a city in the southeast part of the country when the bus he was riding on crashed. Because he bought his tickets late, he was in the back of the bus. I was really thankful because some people were injured and there might have been 1 or 2 deaths. All of these people were sitting near the front. I started our conversation with this line, "I saw the picture of the bus crash. I'm glad you're ok. God's hand was on you." He then said that he was not afraid to die. I told him maybe he should be afraid to die. From there we talked about how death was separation from God. I was able to chat with him over Romans 2:14&15. Then he moved on to the fact that he actually wished he would have died. He said he was tired of life. We then talked about the life that we can have when we know the Creator God. It was really an opportunity from God. I have shared the Gospel with him before, but I often wondered if he was listening. He was this time. I wanted him to think about how good God is in providing a way of salvation for mankind, and also for protecting him. I do pray that God would let my lost friends live long enough to trust Christ. Pray that God would use the bus crash to cause my friend to think about eternity.

The Summit

This June will be 8yrs. since the Lord worked in our hearts to be involved in world evangelism and take the Gospel to another country. It was a Baptist Camp for world evangelism put on by bcwe.org that God used to convict our hearts. This year we had our first opportunity to attend the Summit, put on by the same organization, in Pigeon Forge, TN. It was such an encouragement to see how God is using men and women in Peru, Chile, Argentina, North Africa, China, etc... It was just as encouraging to see the young men and women who are preparing to go into all the world. It was a conference that focused my mind on the heart of God to begin the new year. Let me encourage you to take some time visit www.bcwe.org, subscribe to the blogs of God's servants around the world, and get excited about what God is doing.

Earthquake Relief Efforts

Here is a letter from some of the Christians who have helped in the earthquake relief effort. Continue to pray for the needs in this area.

It was decided that they would focus efforts in Van and the nearby villages that have not seem significant help. 
A group of local believers, Iranian UN refugees, and others from Ankara and Istanbul have been providing food service every day for up to 700 people since October 29th. Money from gifts has been used to partially fund that(amount N/A currently).
A team of 6 from the Diyarbakir Church made repairs to the Van church and some houses, provided more tents to some needy and served wholeheartedly where needed.
Over the last week 3 doctors from Antalya(Dr. K.), Ankara and Duzce(Dr. K.) and other medically trained persons were in Van distributing medicines, and seeing patients--350 people received medical treatment.
One group from India is planning to partner with in-country workers/locals to put together up to 100 winterized living shelters.  Additional funds for this project will be needed.
Even though the main purpose of these relief efforts has not been evangelism, six people came to faith in Christ in the last 10 days

Beside those;
50 Tents were set up for homeless
70 sleeping bags were given out,
100 people received warm blankets,
250 people received clothing help.
4 believers who have served non-stop since the first earthquake have been given 800TL each to help with their needs.
A van has been purchased with relief funds(approx $10,000) for use in food and supply delivery.
2 insulated container-type living units(3mt x 7mt) have been purchased since the second earthquake(Nov.9th) left the houses of believers in Van unlivable. Their price was 14,250 TL(about $9000) including shipment and they are expected to arrive on Wednesday, Nov. 16th.

Meeting with a College Student

About a month ago I mentioned a college age girl that had contacted us and wanted to meet. Below is what my teammate wrote about the meeting. Please pray for this young girl.

My family and I traveled to a nearby city to meet with a university student there who wanted to learn more about Christianity. She said that she has been interested in Christianity for several years. When I asked her about what she believed, she told me that she was believing in Jesus Christ as her Savior. However, she was a little confused about doctrinal beliefs because her first contact with Christianity was through the Catholic Church. Since that time, she has done her own research on the internet. I explained the difference between salvation by faith and salvation by works and also talked about how Baptists and Catholics have important differences in belief concerning the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. She had brought her roommate with her to the meeting, and her roommate listened closely to what we talked about, especially the fact that Christians do good works because they are saved not to become saved. I gave the girl I met with a Bible, the New Testament on MP3, and a few Turkish hymns on MP3. She later said that she was very encouraged by the meeting.

Back in the States

Just over a week ago we made it make safely back to the states. It was a little crazy once we got to Chicago. We went through Customs and for the second year in a row I was randomly chosen to be questioned. I have no problem with this, but it caused us to miss our flight. I waited 40 minutes so I could be asked 5 questions. The whole time my wife was stuck with our three kids. One was yelling, "My stomach hurts!" for a solid 30 minutes. The other didn't want to walk and the baby was crying. It was not good for my wife. When I finally came out she cried. Thankfully there was a flight 1:30 minutes later. So we finally made it home at about 9:00 p.m. We'll be keeping you up to date on our time in the states. Right now, we are visiting a church that we feel God is leading us to. We would appreciate your continued prayers.

I'll be talking in some public schools next week in Mississippi. Pray that God would give me some creativity to think of how to weave the Gospel in to my time in the classes.

Update On College Student

Well we were not able to meet with the college student I mentioned in the previous blog. She said it seemed like her mom knew something was up so her mother made her go to another city where they had some things to do. We have chatted over the internet with her. She is definitely different from the others that we are working with. She said she believes that Jesus died for her sins. She said that she had a fear of Hell. I asked if she still had one. She said no because Jesus suffered for our sins on the cross and when we believe in Him we don't have to fear Hell. It is hard to know someone's heart without meeting them but from the way she talks she has a testimony of belief. She has a lot of questions but they don't come from a skeptical heart. I did ask her about how she fell in love with a Catholic priest without meeting him. She said since she was 12 she has been researching Christianity. It sounds like most of the information she has is from Catholic sources. She wrote to this priest for years not sure if this was before or after she ran away from home. Thankfully this priest was not in love with her. Trust me I was getting scared as she was writing me her story. I thought, "Oh no what kind of crazy mess is this." It appears that we will wait to meet with her until she goes to school, which is next week. We pray that we can discern what her relationship with God is and how to best help her.