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!

Prayer Requests

I am so glad that God cares for His children and knows exactly what they need. The Lord knew I needed some encouragement and this week has been just that. I visited the area where we first lived when we came to this city. It's about 40 minutes from where we live now. I have some friends there. We began talking about how life was going. We made our way around to what Christians believe about fasting. I explained what the Bible says. My friend told me I was number 1, and the only thing that would be better was if I were Muslim. He told me he didn't want me to burn. I told him the same. It sounds weird but were friends we can talk like that. Anyway, I explained to him and the man listening that what I tell them is not my own theory. It is from the Bible. We talked about many things. In the end, my friend asked me if I could give him a Bible as a gift. Of course I told him I could. That is the prayer request. I'm praying that he will be willing to meet regularly to study what he will read. So that was just God reminding me that He is still at work.

I had another great opportunity today to explain why we needed Jesus to give His life for our sins. My language helper started asking me all kinds of questions about what is different about the Bible and the Koran. What an opening. I wish I was articulate enough in Turkish. He repeated to me what I was trying to say. So at least he understand. Pray for this also. He's one of my language helpers. So we spend a lot of time together.

More from Our Trip

So just to remind you this is news about a trip my partner and I took to the south of the country. Just as God was with us when we went and visited our first city, he was with us on the second. At first, I thought we would not get to meet anyone on the second leg of our journey. I couldn't contact anyone who was actually in the city we went to visit. We decided to visit Tarsus. The home of the Apostle Paul. The information they gave about Paul was very accurate. We visited his well and the supposed area where he lived. Don't ask me how they know this. So it wasn't until the morning that we were on our way to the next city when I got a call from a man we wanted to talk with. Our friend from the church we had met in the previous city had given a local pastor my number. He met us in the city we visited and talked with us and answered our questions. This city probably has a population over 650,000 people and has a university that has 23,000 students. Many people migrate from the east of the country, so the culture is a mix of ethnic Turks, Kurds, and even Arabs. This is definitely a city that needs more work in it. The highlight of the trip was to be able to sit down with 3 young Turkish believers. These were teenagers from 17-19. We sang hymns, prayed, and even played UNO with them. Talk about so weird UNO rules, they had them. We asked them some questions. I asked particularly if they thought there was a fear among their countrymen to even ask questions about the Gospel, Bible, and Jesus. They said that there is fear. Fear that they will lose their job, be disowned, or general persecution. This fear can be so hindering that they feel it is better if they just don't talk about it. The exciting thing is that there are those who despite fear, God has gripped their heart and they step out and find the truth that is in God's Word. Pray for us. We desire to be in the city where God wants us.