some old and new palmieris

views from palmieri grand parents house in Northern France

arriving at train station, my parents are sometimes camera happy!

christmas dinner, we all sang "Tu scendi dalle stelle"!


grand ma's brother, Armando

dad's brother, Jean-Marie, please pray for him, we haven't heard from him in a long time

grand-ma Carmela with Mario and Luigi!

and ze cat

TURKISH CHRISTMAS

well actually there isn't such a thing as a Turkish christmas per se, for the obvious reasons that Christmas is a Christian holiday. But for those of us here it is a 'turkish' christmas'. May i describe it to you?

LIGHTS

We first thought that the little plastic tree in our living room would be the only visible symbol of Christmas for us in Turkey. But we were wrong! In this part of Istanbul where many foreigners live and work and shop, decorations are seen throughout the main square. One of the big Turkish celebrations -Kurban Bayram (Sacrifive Celebration)- also happens to be just a couple days before dec 25 this year and so most main streets are lit up with lights and colorful decorations, you can even see some nicely decorated christmas trees in the lobbies of some big hotels. And of course Taksim Square is overly lit up (is that english? who cares, i'm not writting an essay) but it's beautiful because lights in the night shine bright, they're happy, hopeful and inspire expectation.

KURBAN

Advertisements for 'A RAM FOR 120 TURKISH LIRAS' are seen throughout the city at this time of year. People will kill and roast for this holiday. I remember seeing big animals roasting in the middle of the streets once a year in africa, mostly in the muslim areas of the city and was facinated by it.

Last night my friend Etkin invited me for dinner. She is not a believer and is a young Turkish lady that was raised in the states. She moved to Istanbul last summer and we 'randomly' met in a store one day. Over the delicious dolma she had made we started talking about the amazing similitude with this coming up holiday and Christmas. The need for sacrifice, this 'sacrifice' phenomena found in almost every civilization that has ever existed. A universal need for atonement. And finally Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice, the perfect one- as it had to be a man to pay in man's place and it had to be God to satisfy God's justice. We have had many discussions over the last 5 months but never so deep and so clear. That night I told her how much it meant to me to share with her what my faith is about. That it is not a god I have made for myself, the result of many years of reading, meditating and inquiring. It's the God that reveals himself, the God that speaks and is very clear. It's the God of the Bible that transcends the finite and the temporal. In him we find what Adam lost. Once he decided to act separately from God he lost his freedom; he became attached to his belly button and realized he was naked. This yearning for freedom from this world, from death and from ourselves is found in this once and for all sacrifice.

PARIS

Jediah and I have been dreaming of meeting up with my parents, brother, sister and her husband at my greand parents in France for christmas but were so short of funds we were left with our dreams only... As days passed, hope started growing faint but lo and behold God had not forgotten about lil jed and sarah all the way in Turkey!!!! (surprise, surprise) A dear friend from the States announced that he wished to buy us tickets. what a treat. I think it will be great to be outside of the country for a little while. we'll return on the 4th. And so sunday we will fly to Paris, monday train to Port Boulet, then back to Paris at my sister's for a few days and finally a train to the south (nimes) to spend the begining of the new year with dear friends there.

Please pray for our time at my grand parents who are not believers. They are the best, most fun, italian old couple you could ever imagine, i'll try to upload a pic of them.

2 nights ago

we had just layed in bed, sleep was starting to take over our minds. I felt myself twitching. I was twitching like crazy, actually more like my leg and arm were violently shaking in spasms... it woke jediah up who couldn't help but ask "what the heck is going on"..... I was still half asleep and incapable of describing what was going on, all i could say is "i feel it in my brain"..... jediah told me the next day that as soon as we started talking he began feeling an incredible pressure in the air, we then even wondered if our bed was being electrocuted.... but it was all too incredibly not natural. the next second another spasm shook my body but this time i was feeling it on my neck and it started pushing against the bed. without a word to jediah he instinctively started praying outloud, i closed my eyes and saw distorted faces staring at me. had to open them quickly, another 3 or 4 times the same demon faces, i started praying outloud as well, agreeing with jediah's prayer asking God to fill our room with his presence. neither one of us remember falling asleep but that night our sleep was sweeter than ever.
The next morning we were confident that Satan had tried to intimidate us but instead he had given himself away. the intense atmospheric projections we had been experiencing lately were now clearly identified, if we ever had doubted someone was truly against us being here for God's purpose, we now knew it.

It feels great to be so weak and yet so powerful. Do you see why we covet your prayers!?


"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name"

"It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power."
John 1:12 and 1 Corinthians 15:43

prayers

asking for prayers for one of our beloved team member that needs spiritual support from all of you in a very crucial way.

so much to say...

i just can't keep up with this blog. forget about the journal i've been wanting to update since we moved here.... There's so much to say!!!!!!!!!!

today was an amazing day.....

7:15 we dragged ourselves out of bed

7:30 breakfast for 2 at the kitchen table, it's saturday morning the house is still quiet and the rule is 'enjoy while you can'

8:30 we leave the house, and walk up(i mean CLIMB UP) to Taxim Square. if you've been here you know what i mean. Istanbul is stinking built on a million hills!!! wow, i just had to let it out.

9:00 catch bus 73 to Sirinevler (lit: 'the sweet houses') found 2 empty seats on bus!

9:45 arrive at the school, pick up lesson book, greet Zubeyde the secretary (who once meant to jokingly tell Jediah to be quiet and said -in a direct translation of Turkish: Cut your voice! we had a good laugh at her expense)

10:00 lesson starts, 2 breaks and lesson ends at 1 pm

1:15 pm we grab a turkish hamburger... no comments

1:30 pm Jediah leaves for an unknown adventure (which ended up being a 3 hour walk on the majestic ruins of the walls that once surrounded Constantinople, there he met many homeless people that broke his heart, he bought some super glue -that looks and smells more like water- from one of the homeless guys at the little 'bazar' they had set up on top of the wall) hopefully we can download pics from his cellphone, they are incredible

1:30pm I show up at the cell phone store next to our work place to meet with Deniz and Rabia. the idea is to teach them english and who knows what else could come out of this. Deniz ended up being busy with customers but 5 other young guys and girls joined Rabia and I and we had a great hour learning about I AM, YOU ARE, etc and that personnal pronouns must always be used in English, contrary to turkish. I am sick = Hastayim (lit: sick am)

3 pm catch metro and tram instead of bus to avoid traffic

3:45 arrive home for quick snack and shower, zumrad and alfya are painting the last room in the house. (Larry is here from New Jersey, visiting for a few days; P Julian and Natela just left after staying with us for 10 days. pray they will be let back in Moldova)

4:30 tram to Karakoy, then ferry accross Bosphorus to Kadikoy where Umran is waiting for me.

UMRAN: please pray for her. I met her on outreach and decided to meet again for coffee. She is 20 yrs old, a university student (to become a fashion teacher), she wears the veil and very strict length of every piece of clothing yet with a touch of colorful artistry. She listened to me -as though i were an apparition from heaven or maybe something else- and found out she prays at the mosque 5 X a day, which is somewhat rare around the city of Istanbul. I told her of my visit to certain mosques and she promised to visit my church one day. We plan to see each other next week.

THANKSGIVING

FOR ALL THOSE WONDERING: WE DIDN'T HAVE TURKEY FOR THANKSGIVING
(report and pics to follow)

team life helps

visiting a mosque... ladies have to cover their heads, and it's always very special to see people praying - like that man in the background.

it's so amazing... talking with jediah and john the other night we realized that satan was using a certain strategy to discourage us. which was to make us feel disappointed, feeling that our expectation wasn't fulfilled... when in fact we NEVER had a tremendously great expectation in terms of tons of people getting saved, miraculous things and all. All we had was an expectation from God that he would do an amazing work in and through us -which is soooo happening. but the way the devil tries to project it at us is so false, yet looking so real... it was good to discern it, trample it to dust and throw it on the street. psalm 18.

TURK-CON PICS

So we just had TURK CON 07!! What a whirlwind of unbelievable moments. The combination of sessions, concerts, art exhibition, outreach, dinners, etc.. made this week remarquable.

We had about 60 visitors from Switzerland, England, Finland, the States, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Kyrgystan...

(pics of P. Matti's exhibition to be posted soon!)

Zamira and Sarah at registration

(Umid- on the above picture- just joined our team from Uzbekistan; he is an answer to our prayers, a team member that speaks Turkish. Umid studied in Turkey before he became a believer and learnt Turkish. He is working on his paperwork and findind an apartment before he brings his wife and 2 children over, please keep those plans in your prayers!)

Some times it took 2 translators depending on who was preaching!

Clasical Concert with Trio Voce from Finland.

2 of the musicians P Risto (piano) and Timo (cello)

There's no age limit to be a disciple
POT POURRI CONCERT


Ayfe and Zumeya, 2 of our students and Rudi from Holland, a fellow teacher, came to the Pot-Pourri concert. It was a beautiful reward.

(4 other students looked for the concert place for about an hour

and had to go back home..)

2 other of my friends came, Puray and her brother Kerim (they are not believers)



RAP AT A NEARBY COFFEE SHOP

(standing Johnny the V, and sitting in a beige sweater Thibault from Lebanon, originally with Swiss church in Geneva - his urgent prayer is to meet a good church there where he is studying)




Afya Yeboah, our delegation from London and Catherine from Baltimore!

Playing 'spoon game' after sunday dinner.

L to R: Zamira fromUzbekistan, Sarah, Jediah, John and Mehmet

an amazing devotion by P Matti

It is amazing how God allows Satan to come so close to us . Even when we desire to do good solely, evil is present with us. Rom. 8:21 This is discouraging, but victorious in the same time. God doesn’t give Satan a choice. He has to be present in our lives. This is a part of his judgment.He has to daily witness how the glory of God is revealed inour earthen vessels. This is his humiliation in the midst of his ostensible success. (at our team mtg he added: and God shoves Satan's face into those erthen vessels!)
I’m sure that every time when a child of God chooses to give and receive grace tons of frustration is experienced in the demon world. We don’t defeat demon armies by shouting louder. They are incapacitated by the sweet words of forgiveness. Evil is strangely present in the church too. Again, I think that God doesn’t give Satan a choice. He has to "go to church”. This is where God displays his glory today. It is not seen in the golden decorations of ancient buildings. God is glorified in human relationships, when believers choose to look beyond failures in order to see one another’s needs. “But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.” I Pet.5:10

The conference is starting tonight. HOS GELDINIZ !!

Turk-Con ‘07

THURSDAY
7 PM Opening Dinner at Dilek Restaurant, Istiklal St. 341

FRIDAY
10-12 AM Session at Richmond Hotel, Istiklal St. 445
6-8 PM Art Exhibition Opening “from my window” at Istanbul YMMO Gallery, Istiklal St. 146
8 PM Trio Voce Concert, at Santa Maria Church, Istiklal St. 429

SATURDAY
10-12 AM Session at Richmond Hotel, Istiklal St. 445
3-5 PM Session at Richmond Hotel, Istiklal St. 445
6 PM Trio Voce Concert, at Notre Dame De Sion, Cumhurriyet St. 205

SUNDAY
10-12 AM Service at Richmond Hotel, Istiklal St. 445
12 PM Trio Voce Concert, Istiklal St. 186/2
6 PM Potpourri Concert, Istiklal St. 186/2

maman...

mom, i'm so sorry i didn't call you back yesterday. And you were so kind to not even mention it... I'm so sorry and i love you so much I wanted a lot of people to read it!...

ta sarah

MIRACLES HAPPEN in THE 20th century

We got a washing machine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

A couple angels at the Cafe in Baltimore collected some money and another angel wrote a big fat check - that knocked us off our feet!
Our fingers and our backs are smiling, our clothes smell good, and rules were established right away with restrictions on water use for the washer!!! Water is not free here in Turkey. Have you heard of 3 mn showers? They work I guess. Soon there'll be 17 of us in the house..... (shhh don't tell our landlady) So we'll be reinforcing that one rule in particular!!!
My dear friend Myriam Pavlickova is arriving Tuesday!!
Please pray for all the million details that have to happen before thursday.
Pray particularly for P Matti's exhibition opening night on friday. Turish people are very fond of those and we are expecting to meet a totatlly different type of people there.
Visitors from all around the world are already arriving, thursday being the 'record day' with 25 persons arriving on that day!!!!

Welcome to TURK-CON 2007!

visa travels

Jediah and I will be traveling to Sofia, bulgaria via a 10 hr bus ride on a night bus. We'll be with the Huletts for a few days and returning on time for our EAST MEETS WEST TURK-CON! Thanks for your prayers for this trip that will allow us to renew our visas for another 3 months!

WASHER SOS!!!!

The Team House is in 'big time' need of a WASHER....

we've broken our backs hand washing over the tub

and we've almost abused the generosity of

other team members' washing machines....

Even between the 5 of us (after spending all

our moneys on fridge, beds, stove, tables and chairs,

plates and forks and last but certainly not least: the team house favorite: toilet paper ) we can't seem to put the money

together now for this last big need...

We could really use some help for the purchase of a washer!!!

An average new washer is about 500 YTL (liras).

Looking forward to hearing from you especially

if it's to let us know you'll be praying with us!

We believe in prayer more than ever! -see last blog entry

once upon the time there was a yellow cab...

Zoumrad and I have been praying and dreaming for a move of God in our area.

Last night we both came home from church with her 2 children quite late. We had a stroller and a lot of grocery bags so we hopped in a cab whose driver must have been in a bad mood as everything we said was an annoyance (where we were going was not far enough and so wasting his time, why couldn't we open our windows instead of asking him to stop smoking in the car??) anyway. when we arrived at our house, Zoumrad had to run to the little shop next door to make some change for the driver, and i tried to get everything and everybody out of the car.

Unfortunately in a dark corner on the floor of the car we forgot Zoumrad's purse...
When we realized it, we weren't sure if there was anything we could do but one thing we knew we could: we got on our knees and prayed right there in the middle of the living room with Jozsika repeating every word of John's prayer. Meanwhile I was praying my own wicked prayer in my heart: i was hoping the driver would get into an accident and the police would find her purse. I thought such a rude and mean man would never return. -Good thing God didn't answer my prayer, poor guy-

This being said I went down to the street with my engl-turk dictionary and managed to explain that "my friend - purse - in taxi - / along with a sad face". There was really nothing to do and the few neighbors gathered there agreed. One man (who owns the roosters that wake us up in the morning) was kind enough to call the nearest police station. I ran back up to the house, and in less than 5 minutes heard the bell ring and Jediah who was hanging out the window yell : ZOUMRAD, ZOUMRAD!!!
When i got downstairs the scene was out of a movie. There was a yellow cab sitting in the middle of our street under the light surrounded by a loud group of children, women and a few men and in a unanimous accord all started applauding the driver at once! As I recognized the face of the driver, I joined in the applause with a mouth wide open still grasping the scene. Zoumrad's husband was reaching in his pocket to thank the driver and children were jumping up and down. I looked at the ladies standing there and we all laughed and shook our heads. I pointed to heaven with one hand and held one hand on my heart as to communicate our thankfulness to God and they all nodded their heads.

We were like kids and felt like dancing. There was no bank to call, no credit cards to cancel, no car accident, but a beautiful celebration there with our neighbors that we have been hoping to meet for a while.

If I could have only told them that we had knelt just a few minutes ago to the God that turns even the hearts of Kings on our favor...
I am fully assured that theday will come when i will be able to communicate those very words.

.............................................
And as I write this Jediah is playing and singing "how great is our God" for a young student from Mongolia we just met 2 nights ago on the bus on our way back from our teaching jobs!

pictures are on their way

eternity

i woke up a 5 this morning with a thought that i still haven't been able to put into words. at least not the right words. so frustrating. (why can't i pull out poems or smart lines out of my hat like my dad or Ben etc...!?) i was thinking after p matti preached on the closeness of eternity- he pretended he was holding a tiny veil between 4 fingers and holding it as close to him as possible, saying: that's how close to us eternity is. Thought provoking.

I thought, time is calculated by light. Light casts shadows. When we enter the world, we enter time and automatically a shadow follows us til we die. That silouhette there on the ground is an ever present reminder of where/what we came from, of how fleeting life is and of what we go back to.

One day every man is united to his shadow in one last embrace with the temporal and dusty element and then .... eternity.

That night we heard that aunt Carly had passed away. oh to be received into the blissful eternity of God's presence!

urgent message!

wow, it's cold!!! Istanbul went from summer to a 1 week autumn to winter it seems!! Who knows for how long though! But we are soooo grateful to John for bringing our coats from Baltimore (and for Isabelle and Janet to make it happen)
We have most our winter clothes still back home and so if you know of anyone coming to Turkey in November, please let us know so we can contact them.

Turkish Alphabet:

One of the nice thıngs about the Turkish Language ıs that by just knowıng the alphabet you are able to read just about any word acurately. Here's a quick overview

a (as ın Hat)
b
c (reads lıke englısh J)
ç (read tsh)
d
e (as ın 'red')
f
g
ğ (silent letter, serves to lengthen sound of preceedıng vowel)
h
i
ı (i wıthout a dot: guttural sound like when someone punches you ın the stomach)
j (only used ın borrowed words, lıke french J)
k
l
m
n
o
ö (read as in 'duh', or the french 'eu' sound)
p
q
r (sounds lıke an R wıth a little S sound)
s
ş (read sh)
t
u (as in 'moon')
v (sounds between a V and a W)
(no X or W)
y
z

could you tell ı was usıng a turkısh keyboard!? ;)

Sorry it's been so long.........

T E A M H O U S E

The first morning after moving into the team house was one of those mornings when coffee has a crucial place in one's life. The night before we had moved all our stuff in, painted the whole entire living room, etc... I tiptoed into our for-the-most-part-empty kitchen and carefully collected our last drinkable water, poured it into the electric water boiler, turned it on and -mistake oh great mistake- left the kitchen for another morning routine... when i returned someone had filled up the boiler with contaminated tap water for showering purposes (we didn't have hot water then)
I just stood there watching and sighing over my empty coffee mug and what could have been a great coffee. i whispered with half a smile and looking up to the ceiling: "Hhhhaaaa, team house!"

SO!!! The team house!
Let me tell you about it, it's big, it's great, it's yellow and gold and green and blue and buzzing with life, and children's laughter. Jediah and I moved in a week before Zoumrad and her kids arrived. Our room is on the smaller side' so we decided to get a loft bed to have more usable space. One morning, we headed out to IKEA and as we enter the store, Jediah prays, Lord let there be a loft bed in the AS-IS section. And voila! Wouldn't you know, God had placed the exact loft bed we had seen online and dreamed of getting but had to give up on as it was too expensive. There it was less than half it's price, mostly because one main piece was missing.
Jediah came up with a solution in less than an hour and here we are now with our miracle bed.

PLEASE PRAY AS WE STILL NEED QUITE A FEW THINGS TO MAKE THIS HOUSE FULLY OPERABLE (WASHER, COUCH AND ARM CHAIRS, TABLE AND CHAIRS, ETC)

John Von Buchwald arrived yesterday, he is a great addition to this wonderful house. We had a great prayer meeting this morning over coffee.
Our landlord is a tough one! We had a few 'wrestling matches' in order to get our gas turned on, some ancient windows replaced etc. Beside that he is fine.
Our neighbors seem very kind, 2 have invited us over for coffee. Please pray for more contacts with the others to develop. I personally can't wait to go in a 'real' Turkish home and get a feel of what their home lives are like.

Here are a few more pictures:

the foyer our first meeting in the team house! I am sure you will appreciate our temporary curtains! (straight from africa!!)Jozsika sitting on our expensive furniture

taking a nap while daddy is shopping for the house Zoumrad and Leyla having coffee
picture to re-appear soon

RAMAZAN - one more week to go

Ramazan: prayers are intensified, faces are stern, drums wake everybody up -faithful ramazanians as well as the others- at 4:30 am, food is more important than ever ->eat before 5 am and eat as soon as the first night prayer echoes, advertisement for 'ramazan specials' (ie foods) fill the shops and fronts of stores.

watch this short video to get an idea of what it sounds like in some places during the prayer call / the quality is not that great, but you can definitely get an idea!

every day life

STAYING AT P. MATTI'S WAS A BLAST

A CAFE AT THE FOOT OF A GREEN MOSQUE

NO COMMENTS

IKEA SOS!

SOME STREETS ARE DEFINITELY TOO SMALL

A COMMON AND COLORFUL FRUIT STAND

BUSES DRIVE TOOOO FAST HERE!

VIEW OF AN OLD CHURCH - HEARING THE BELLS EVERY

MORNING IS A VERY SPECIAL TREAT

The sun rose on cooler Istanbul, what a relief from the past very hot weeks. We're also feeling a little better, still recovering though!... P Matti traveled to Ankara to get a new passport. He should be back in a couple days. P Joszi is back with little Rebecca. What an adorable child!
Sunday we are scheduled to finally move into the TEAM HOUSE! Today we'll be picking out paint, light fixtures and such things. And after that, one of our first purchase is going to be a fridge. Keep us in your prayers as we set out to furnish this big house, little by little, which is quite an undertaking since we have yet to figure out the best places to acquire those.
We are excitedly anticipating the soon coming birth of our nephew Levi... in a couple hours we were told!

under the weather

Jediah got sick a couple days ago (flu like symptoms) and I'm starting to not feel too good myself, please pray for prompt recoveries. Reading Watchman Nee's biography and last night's service, are enough encouragement to have great expectations from God and to not be good at 'excusing' God (when our expectations are not met-or prayers seem unanswered) on the contrary; keep on praying! If we show up before God with a spoon, He'll fill it, with a bucket, He'll fill it, with a pool, He'll fill it, with an ocean! He'll fill it.

"GIRLS CRAFT NIGHT"

Once a week, a bunch of girls meet at Irada and Niyazi's house for a fun time of crafts (here we made frames out of just about anything we could get our hands on) Yesterday we made little objects with salt dough. It is just an awesome way to casually invite ladies (believers or not) to get a taste of the body of Christ.
Irada also always treats us with her gift of baking.


IRADA, NINA, ASTRID & SARAH

WE GOT JOBS (that is 2 weeks ago, sorry for the delay)

"Active English Learning" is the name of this language school for adults. It's located about 1 hour away using the comfortable AC metro or tram; 30-40 mn in the over crowded and over heated buses, but only 20 mn in the 'formula one' mini-buses! (I screamed the whole way there the first time we got in one- it's sensational to say the least) That's me Sarah, by the way. (Jediah wanted to make sure it was clear that it wasn't him screaming in the van!) Though it's quite far away, we enjoy the change of scenery and always enjoy our time there.
The program is great. It hardly requires any preparation at all. Classes are at night for the most part (7:30 - 9:30) and each class is 2 hours of constant talking, gesturing, moving etc... except for a 15 mn break half way through. The method, which requires 13 months of dedication from the students, has very impressive results.
We're only teaching about 6-8 hours a week each for now, and don't plan to do too much more as to not take away from the rest of our activities.
We became friends with 2 teachers there, among others, her name is Sarah - from Utah and her husband's Moyad form Irak. A wonderful couple with the cutest 3 kids you've ever seen. (They remind me of my favorite kids- the Karowich's - ....i'm almost a 100% sure i got the spelling wrong) They have been looking for a church for a long time, and visited us last sunday. Unfortunately for us, they are moving back to the States soon.
Please pray for Murat, Saheed, Aissa, Rudi, Duncan, Derya, Mariam, Gozde and all the many others we are in contact with there!

waiting for the team house to be ready (+ pics of Jed's birthday below)

We just got a promotion; we moved from the 1st floor to the 4th, and from a muslim's apartment to a pastor's dwelling place. P matti kindly offered to share his 2 bedroom apart with us for the next 4 days. (does he really know what he's got himself into? ... not so sure) so this morning we moved out of our place, met with the new renters, they gave us money for the 2cnd half of the sept rent; a few minutes later our landlord joined the party, as planned, and half scared us to death.

As Jediah was pulling our contract out of his pocket he asks our landlord if he brought our deposit -which he had agreed to give us back when we left. At that moment, and in an explosion of words and gestures, Suleman tries to grab the contract out of Jediah's hands and yells:

"I will not give you your money!!"

As Jediah tightens his grip on the contract, Suleman explodes again -but in laughter this time. He thought his joke was extremely funny. ll 4 of us soon joined in the laughing though it was a rather nervous laugh on our part...
It was so easy leaving our cozy little aprt. I don't know why exactly except that we are sooo ready for more adventures. (I think the team house will amply provide us with a daily dose of adventure -smiles-)

i'm sitting at p matti's desk in his bedroom, on his computer. he is such a simple man. no pretentions at all. Jed and him left for a soccer game, like they have every sat night with a good group of Turkish guys.

P Matti's 2 desires for this fall was to have Bible College classes and a choir. Both are happening. At least one is and the other is about to happen in 3 days. Yes our first B C class is going to be held on Tuesday night! and the choir is already practicing their second song. It consists of 4 men. It's very precious. I was actually the one that brought up the idea of a men's choir. I have always loved men's choirs. I also have to confess that i was trying to avoid it at all cost...isn't that terrible? and to confess that on a christian blog. pure decadence.

PICS FROM JEDIAH'S BIRTHDAY

lunch at the foot of the Galata Tower

listening to his niece singing happy birthday!

and behind us a box of oranges fell over, the content spilling on the street and rolling down !!

celebrating with friends at the church

delicious chocolate-raspberry cake from local pastry shop

Azeri tradition wants that the birthday person gets his ears pulled once for each year that has passed. 'ouch' x 27