tanguays in zambia, africa

LANDMARK!

2012-01-28T15:01:00.002+01:00

soooooooooooooo I finally SUCCESSFULLY made Nshima!! And a 'whole' nshima at that, called 'roller nshima'. It brought back so many memories. it was like being back at my parents house in Togo 15 years ago. Peanut sauce and some chicken YUM!! even those that weren't a big fan of nshima enjoyed the meal.
pictures below are just fr the web, to give you an idea of what it looks like.\

COPPERBELT!!

2012-01-26T13:00:00.012+01:00

here we are in the Copperbelt of Zambia visiting the amazing Speedys.
[Copperbelt Province in Zambia covers the mineral-rich Copperbelt, and farming and bush areas to the south. It was the backbone of the Northern Rhodesian economy during British colonial rule and fuelled the hopes of the immediate post-independence period, but its economic importance was severely damaged by a crash in global copper prices in 1973 and the nationalization of the copper mines by the government of Kenneth Kaunda]

P.Adam and Melinda Speedy

KITWE is one of the main cities of the Copperbelt area, North of Zambia.
We left Lusaka Tuesday on a cool early morning. Picked up Kennedy at a filling (gas) station on the way, and off we were on our FIRST african-with our own car-road trip as a family! 5 hours later and no incidents whatsoever, only beautiful countryside, cows and a Welcome to the Copperbelt sign....

... we finally hit Kitwe, second biggest city of Zambia of about 550,000 pple. As we got on one of it's main roads, we got pulled over by the police for supposedly speeding. Jediah tried to talk himself out of the fine ($180,000 -> $35) but the officerjust gave him a cold shoulder. Now. these guys had just knocked at the wrong door. this was part of our food money for the week and i wasn't ready to see it go down somebody's unofficial pocket.[remember this is africa] Mama bear got out of the car with her 2 cubbs and showed up at the window of the officer who had been sitting and playing on his phone the whole time. "Hello officer, I just wanted to ask you for mercy and let you know that this money is our food money, we are not like other Muzungus, blabla bla" Oh boy, i could have insulted him in 15 languages and the reaction wouldn't have been anymore virulent. To make a long story short -after scolding us for treating them like ignorants of the english language for using a word in their dialect and for accusing them of corruption - he told us we could go. [understand; we could go without paying a dime, or a kwacha in this case] I think the most offensive part of it all was that it was woman addressing him. But as Jediah put it, the 'insult' got him distracted from the real offense. With sighs of relief we resumed our journey and arrived at the Speedys dwelling place.

Directly accross from their house, a miracle awaited us. The owners hd agreed to let us stay -free of charge- in their 'cottage' for rent for a week or 2! They even furnished it with 2 beds, a couch, a table and chairs, and a refrigerator! Along with a few items generously supplied by Mindy and a few we brought, we feel very much at home.
Our bed has an amazing mosquito net with a frame at the top, just all perfectly convenient, invented by some genius if you ask me. I want one like that for my birthday. [JED!]
You have to have slept under a regular net in a mosquito infested room to truly appreciate the difference.

So. Kitwe. Yes we are considering it being our next move. So far it's only been blessings. Soon i will post photos taken on outreach and at a bible study in one of the lady's house. Kitwe-ans seem to be a spunky, open, generous, happy pple. They speak Bemba. Bulishani? How are you! Toatotela! Thank you! I'm sure i am totally misspelling those phrases. But i am sure P Adam will correct me (lol)
And so besides a few upset stomachs, we are loving our visit to the Copperbelt!

It rained like crazy yesterday. View fr the living room window.

LUSAKA LIFE

2012-01-23T08:53:00.004+01:00

breakfast dinner w/ the Armans!

WE'RE DRIVING!

2012-01-10T11:02:00.016+01:00

yup! we have finally found a car!!! after MANY many MAAAAAAAAAANY negotiations, and almost buying a car whose odometer had been tampered with (Jediah figured it out seconds after he had signed the papers -and so proceeded to rip them up) and looooots of prayers and waiting and invaluable help from P Bernard Ntalasha, voila!

it's a Spacio Toyota, a little beat up -even has a non-professional paint job, but looks great from a distance! and doesn't have any major issues -that we know of LOL- so we are just out of our brains estatic! :)

Thanks to all those who helped and prayed!!

here in our living room, praying after signing the contract.

3 times a week we walk up (we'll drive up fr now on!) to P Renaldo's house for team mtgs. Though we would get there all sweaty, those 25 mn brisk walks were most of the time quite enjoyable. 7 am. Slight breeze, blue skies, streets are already bustling (splg), Phil&Tedds stroller is perfect, Liliana is ready for her fist nap and Kezia is singing away the ride. Jediah and take advantage with nice talks or prayer time. Occasionally arguing. hey! no one's perfect.

most roads are dirt roads, and most of those have more potholes than actual road!
the last stretch of road (pic below) before P Renaldo's street has actually been 'fixed up!'

This precious lady, Charity, sells tomatoes, donuts and eggs. On New Year's Eve, her little shack got burnt down...heap of ashes behind her on pic. We helped her by providing whatever we could to build it back up. (she already had most of the wooden frame)

[for bigger view of the pics just click on them]

safety is so relative

2012-01-02T08:07:00.006+01:00

We live in a somewhat safe area (some areas in baltimore were way more dangerous!!! )but still, crazy pple are everywhere. Apparently the neighbors directly behind us have had the police called on them before for drug use etc.
The wooden doors on our house are very flimzy and could be knocked down -i'm sure of it- with one single kick. A few months after we moved in we were able to get metal guard doors put it, which does help our sense of safety, especially at night. This morning i found the kitchen door that leads to outside open -as well as the guard door! both unlocked... God really is our security :)

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Team meetings have been SO rich! on thursdays p. renaldo shares a devotion and we talk abtout visitations, upcoming events etc. while all 4 little girls play outside under the watchful eye of Patience.

Here are a few thoughts gleaned.
God has "sleepers". Like certain not-so-famous foreign agencies, that have sleepers set in strategic places. Someone that goes to school, works, live like anyone else, totally blended in and seemingly a nodoby- until ..
Nehemiah was a sleeper. A cup bearer. So mundane. But it was for God's glory. [i can't get over that amazing concept!]
And then one day -bing! Nehemiah started thinking of his people.
Even the events that seem accidental are ordered by God.

photos of last week

2011-12-30T12:55:00.003+01:00

keep moving boys......!

2011-12-29T19:47:00.004+01:00

so today the girls decided to go to their favorite market. Mandevu.
it's a bit crazy. (african market and crazy? that's just an oximoron.)
p chris dropped julie, sylvie and i off and gloup! here we are engulped (is that a word?) in this row after row of tiny open shops, here curtains are hung high, there men's shirts from all over the world -and worn by who knows how many pple before they got there?!?! how exciting is that?! (not!) then it's our fav spot, 3 big piles of clothes, all 5 pin each. $1. next to that i found 3 awesome tunics/dresses for 10 pin each. yup that's my kind of clothes shopping.
After being preached at by a guy totally drunk, finding a single tall curtain to make curtains for my kitchen and a lot of hand sanitizer we met up with p chris and headed for the other side of the market to visit Fred and Eunice. It was such a sweet time. and because mosquitos are feasting on my legs right now and i'm not getting up to find the spray -it's too late anyways- i'll just tell one small story of our time there. here we are in their over heated living room... sweating bullets. liliana is starting to get antsy, time to feed. when it's that hot it's almost impossible to do and stay decent. so! i decide to relocated to the kitchen that opens to the backyard. clouds are gathering for some imminent rain and so theres a cool(er) breeze coming thru. Eunice sits a tiny stool in one corner by the door, and in a few seconds lili's stomach is filling up nicely. that's when i notice that right there across from me are 2 boys sitting in corner!!!!
Me: hi!! and explode laughing.
next i'm concentrating on pple walking by, most are too hurried to realize there's a muzungu sitting in the doorway of this very poor house and not only that but she's breasfeeding. ouuuu! exciting. (lOl) a group of 4 boys walk by, 5 seconds later they are walking by again . and another 5 seconds and here they are again! this time a little slower... Keep moving boys!
it was quite the experience.

FACTS abt Zambia & AIDS

2011-12-27T20:28:00.003+01:00

The history of HIV and AIDS in Zambia

[The last 2 paragrahs are shocking...]

(...)By the early nineties it was estimated that as many as 1 in 5 adults had been infected with HIV, leading the World Health Organization to call for the establishment of a National AIDS Advisory Council in Zambia. According to Stephen Lewis, the UN's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, throughout the 1990s the government was ‘disavowing the reality of AIDS’ and doing ‘nothing’ to combat the problem.7

The new millennium signalled a marked change in political attitude and, according to Stephen Lewis, ‘an entirely new level of determination’8 to confront the epidemic. The National HIV/AIDS/STD/TB Council (NAC) became operational in 2002 when Parliament passed a national AIDS bill that made the NAC a legally-established body able to apply for funding (the prospect of a large World Bank grant provided much of the necessary motivation). At the passing of this bill, the NAC became the single, high-level institution responsible for coordinating the actions of all segments of government and society in the fight against HIV and AIDS and is in charge of guiding the implementation of the National HIV and AIDS Strategic Framework (2006-2010).

In 2004, President Mwanawasa declared HIV/AIDS a national emergency and promised to provide antiretroviral drugs to 10,000 people by the end of the year. Having exceeded this target, he set another to provide free treatment for 100,000 by the end of 2005.

Government ministers and officials at all levels are now much more willing and able to talk about the epidemic. Even former president Kaunda has changed – he is now one of the most vocal and committed AIDS activists in the country. In 2008 UNAIDS reported a stabilising of Zambia's epidemic and some evidence of favourable behaviour change.

The impact of HIV in Zambia Unlike in some countries, HIV in Zambia does not primarily affect the most underprivileged; infection rates are very high among wealthier people and the better educated. HIV is most prevalent in the two urban centres of Lusaka and the Central Province, rather than in poorer rural populations.

The collapse of copper prices in the 1970's weakened Zambia's economy and saw an increase in the number of men seeking work away from home. The movement of miners, seasonal agricultural workers and young men between rural areas and urban centres has been shown to spread HIV to new areas. Zambia is now the most urbanised country in sub-Saharan Africa, with only a third of its population living in rural areas.

The impact on women

Although the HIV epidemic has spread throughout Zambia and to all parts of its society, some groups are especially vulnerable - most notably young women and girls. Among young women aged 15-24, HIV prevalence is nearly four times that of men in this age category.

A number of factors resulting from gender inequality contribute to the higher prevalence among women. Women are often taught never to refuse their husbands sex or to insist their partner uses a condom. In a Zambian behavioural survey, around 15 percent of women reported forced sex, although this may not reflect the true number as many women do not disclose this information. In addition, young women in Zambia typically become sexually active earlier than men, with partners who will be on average five years their senior and who may already have had a number of sexual partners.

The impact on economic productivity

The impact of AIDS has gone far beyond the household and community level. All areas of the public sector and the economy have been weakened, and national development has been stifled. As Zambia's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper acknowledges, "the epidemic is as much likely to affect economic growth as it is affected by it".

The loss of workers due to AIDS can lead to a large reduction in a nations economic productivity. Agriculture, from which the vast majority of Zambians make their living, is particularly affected by the impact of AIDS. A decline in the number of individuals able to work at the crucial periods of planting and harvesting can significantly reduce the size of the harvest. AIDS is believed to have made a major contribution to the food shortages that hit Zambia in 2002, which were declared a national emergency.

The impact on children

A road sign in Zambia confronting the "virgin AIDS cure myth"
Children have been much affected by the AIDS epidemic in Zambia, where 120,000 children are estimated to be infected with HIV. However, being HIV infected is not the only way that children are affected by HIV and AIDS. In 2009 there were 690,000 AIDS orphans in the country and AIDS orphans made up half of all orphans in the country. Children may be abandoned due to stigma or a simple lack of resources, while others run away because they have been mistreated and abused by foster families.

In 2003, it was revealed that increasing numbers of child rape cases were being fuelled by the "virgin cure" myth (which wrongly claims that sex with a virgin can cure AIDS). A 2005 study by the Applied Mental Health Research Group (part of the John Hopkins School of Public Health) reported that child sexual abuse was "a major problem" among the HIV-affected population of mothers and children studied in Lusaka, Zambia.

christmas a day early.

2011-12-24T15:47:00.006+01:00

People in Zambia seem to wonder why Christmas is on the 25th. Of course it's just a date. They also celebrate it on that day but it seems that many raise the question.
Sunday is going to be a busy day, so we decided to have our family celbration today! Thanks to some gd parents and great gd parents we had a bunch of really nice presents to open! Kezia got a beautiful bike.

Matthews is a taxi driver that parks a couple meters from our house from he's not working. He's been taking us places and giving us a little bit of a deal. Today we went to meet his family. I'll try to uload some pictures that will speak for themselves. They are church goers but when they heard that our church was having a dinner after the service they decided to all come to our church tomorrow! :) it'll be great to have them there and maybe God will touch their hearts in a special way.
When we walked in their one room house (separated by a curtain to make 2 rooms (one is the living room/dinning room/kitchen and the other half the bedroom for all 6 occupants...)the children + one neighbor were sitting on the floor in a corner, and their mom and the youngest girl on a chair. After we sat down in their shabby looking but well kept little place, Matthews proceeded to introduce his family to us. "This is my wife Esther, and this is my eldest Mandarine." To which she stood up and shook our hands. "This is the second, Adia" same protocol. "My son Moses" "And the last born Sarah" The little 2 year old was too afraid of our white muzungu faces to even lok at us at first. It made her parents laugh! We had baked 3 dozens of mini muffins and little by little the word got out and 5 or 6 more neighbors joined in the party to get a taste of these funny looking treats. The children had apparently never heard the 'story of christmas' and so we proceeded to give them the long version even as we were sweating bullets. Liliana proceeded to add to the story in her own way and they were all surprised to see a baby wearing nothing but a diaper.
Babies in zambia are always -did i say always?- covered from head to toe and i mean hats, socks, sweaters etc NO MATTER WHAT the temperature... Yeah, sometimes it's disturbing.

Still haven't learnt how to make nshima (spelling correction on that word) but the other night i made a peanut/tomatoe/garden egg sauce west african style and invited our landlady and 'her pple' to join us. they brought the nshima and some other delicious side dishes. Sace made with leaves of green bean plant. Pumkin plant leaves, etc it was super tasty; one of the best meal we've had in Lusaka yet.
She has two children living in America with their families, and after the meal we talked abt the differences of raising children between the 2 continents.

I found out more abt some traditions surrounding a death. wow. i'll tell more later as my little princess is waking up, asking for 2 lattes please.

we're dying, you know

2011-12-17T20:21:00.007+01:00

we were waiting for a taxi to pick us up to go to church a couple days ago, when our landlady stepped out of the house as well, she had just been informed her cousin had been found dead. she was headed over their house where the yound daughter was alone with the dead mother.... she was weary but i think it was mostly in anticipation of the long days ahead. a few hours later we met again in the yard and she was just stopping by the house to gather some 'beddings'. She was to sleep at the funeral home tonight... urgh. gotta love traditions. Her cousin was HIV positive and had finally succombed to AIDS. With a sad smile on her face she added, we're dying here in africa, you know.
Her words simply echoed in my ears for a while. my brain felt empty and the echo even louder. I thought of the crazy statistics i had read abt the devastation of AIDS. I would have to double check it but i remember reading something abt Zambian life span being just around 30.... If you ask the typical young girl here how she imagines her life/or would like her life to be, she'll tell you she wants to have a baby. And so they jump in the arms of the first man -often already HIV positive- and there you are. another statistic. absolutely head spinning.
jediah and i really have a desire to get more involved with the younger pple in the church. just get them out, playing volleyball, get ice cream, talk...

KEZIA - kezia made a new friend today, little 6 y old Chisanga. She wanted to play doctor and kept asking her to lay on the ground ! lol The girl wasn't into it. So instead they played soccer.

SHIMA - my efforts to learn how to make 'shima' have yet to be rewarded. maybe next week said Kamwendje.

SPECIAL W.E - Jediah has been in Kitwe (6 hrs north) to visit the Speeedys. Left friday morning, will be back monday. So far so good on this side. staying busy. but def. saving the spiders for him when he comes back.

Today was a special session for 'women in leadership'. It ended up being a 5 1/2 hr long session but it was sooo good. P R really hit the nail on the head. About 10 pastor wives showed up. Such precious ladies. i didn't bring my camera, but will try to upload a pic of one of the pastor and his wife. P Paul and Agnes.

PR spoke about the what and why and how of being a pastor's wife, is it a choice, a calling? then there was a lunch break with some great food a couple ladies had cooked. Loneliness was mentioned. A P's wife must not depend on her husband's walk with God. If she does so one day or another it will eat her alive. Then 2nd part of the session, then some questions.At the end, all the ladies received a token of appreciation. A beautiful chitenge (african clothe). i love mine!
the girls did great. kezia played mostly on a blanket next to me and liliana was an angel between feedings.

Oh and tonight, Kezia and I decided to save the mosquitos we kill every night and put them in a little jar. just for fun. might have to switch to a barrel very quickly...

CHIKI - So that chiki(aka running stomach) i had, turned out to be violent, man! Body throbbing all night, i thought i had malaria at some point. 24 hrs later i was much better but it definitely took a couple more days to feel entirely better. Charcoal caps, imodium, and lots of water, baby!
And thank you Lord that none of my babies got it.

SCHOOL - I started 'school' with Kezia. nothing major. but she is so into it. When we 'pretend school' (in her words) I'm teacher Sarah and she's Audree :) all in french. we learn letters, numbers, draw, cut, paste, the whole thing.
When we were done the other day I asked her if she wanted to help me make dinner. She called me teacher sarah and i explained that now we were not playing pretend anymore and that she was home with her mommy. Her face lit up and she said: Thank you for picking me up from school mommy!
wow. a child's imagination. who needs TV??!

oh and another thing Kezia asked us this week (last week it was; do we have a tv)
-> Can we go to the park? jed and i looked at each other... uh.... well, there are no parks here, honey..! interesting realization.

This is a picture of her bangs (on a not so humid day!!) SHE CUT THEM HERSELF BTW......

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Quote of the moment:
IF I WOULD JUST ENGAGE THE SPIRIT, I WOULD REALIZE THAT GOD IS IN IT!

one week ...

2011-12-13T11:06:00.003+01:00

today jediah is getting Liliana added to our Zambian visa. Lots of paperwork, copies, forms, pictures. I'm home, running between bedroom and toilet.... urgh. yeah.
So it's been a week. We're unpacked, back in business, house decorated for christmas, sleeping on normal zambian time. One of my goals this week is learning how to make chima (hopefully once and for all) it's the type of recipe that you pretty much eye ball, + everybody has a different way of explaining it... enough said. i'll just have to watch our neighbor make it a few times to draw a general conclusion on the matter. Chima is a polenta type of dough, it is white and made of water and finely ground maize. It's economically wonderful and quite the filler... Our kind landlady had planted some vegetables behind our house while we were gone and so now we have an aboundance of an equivalent of spinach, a growing plant of eggplants and a large 'bush' of basil and a few onions i think. We're thinking of planting sweet potatoes next. Such a great feeling to be eating out of that little patch!

Another blessing: an american family stayed at our house while we were in the states this summer (they were adopting a little zambian boy) and bought a washing machine which they offered to leave behind if we would just split the costs with them! now that's a luxury and a 1/2.
Kezia asked the other day: do we have a TV? when she heard we didn't, she was just in utter shock; but why??! she asked
ha! welcome to this side of the world, kezia. you're in for more surprises!!

Thanks to the Armans she has a big girl bed and even beautiful and girly sheets and comforter left behind by our summer renters! it's just amazing as i had totally forgotten to bring some with us.

Tuesdays, wednesdays and thursdays we walk (with girls in double stroller) to P Renaldo's house for team meetings. it's a 25 mn brisk walk each way. Meetings start with 30 mn prayer,then 30 mn message, either cd fr balto or devotion by PR himself. Our girls play together under the watchful eye of Patience, young lady who lives with the Browns.Except for Liliana of course. we just make her take notes of the messages for now.

[bathroom interlude; uho! kezia has the chiki too...]

Our big preoccupation right now is to find a vehicule. Please keep that in prayer, it would allow us to be soooo much more mobile -of course- and overall make it a lot easier to get places as a family, visit pple where they live etc.

That's all -for now. i really hope our connection will be better soon so we can upload pictures. until next time!

2011-12-07T10:45:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone! we made it safely. the 17 hr flight with one refueling stop in Dakar Senegal, wasn't as bad as we thought it might be. A south African girl next to us 'babysat' Kezia for hours! that was a God sent treat. They served us breakfast in the middle of the night and then dinner a couple hrs later. left us discombabulated. We spent the week end in Pretoria, stayed with amazing friends Jako and Joh-Ann (parents to be in 2 months!), enjoyed a weather in the 80s and meeting up with the body of Christ in Pretoria. And beside the fact that the girls have been waking up at 3am and Liliana is still fighting a cold, we are so excited to be back in Africaaaaaaaa!

lately...

2011-09-29T03:27:00.000+02:00

LILIANA is here!!!

2011-08-31T21:00:00.003+02:00

Liliana Faith Tanguay was born on 8/8/2011, 7lb12, 20 1n.
It was an amazing experience, completely different than the first. Sarah applied principles from the hypnobirthing method and was able to deliver without an epidural. Recovery was faster, went home next day! Kezia is super proud of her lil sister and such a gentle helper for mommy.

ONE DAY AT THE BEACH...

2011-06-16T20:19:00.008+02:00

Sarah and Kezia were playing in the sand..

Mom: Who made the sand?
Kezia: (very matter of factly) Jesus
M: and who made the oceans?
K: Jesus
M: and who made Kezia?
K: (even more matter of factly) you.

Big smiles exchanged between mom and dad.

M: but how did you grow in my belly?
K: Jesus put me there!

so sweet

BALTIMORE LIFE

2011-05-24T20:14:00.005+02:00

exactly a week ago, we were landing on US soil, after a wonderfully long trip. 2 10 hr flights and a 22 hr layover in london. the long layover turned out to be a blessing. -thanks to Kathy Corbiere- we spent it in a charming/inexpensive little hotel in the suburb of the city right accross from a park -with such lovely cherry trees, the cherries were alllllmost ripe- and THE best breakfast i can remember ever having/ which came as a shock since we were on british territory.... i mean, i'm french come on! :)

We are absolutely BLESSED to have been able to come back to our appartment -as we left it- furnished and ready to go /the cherry on the top: a FULL refrigerator thanks to an amazing mother-in-law...!
and a car that works! The transition has just been sooo smooth. We are very thankful.

Last saturday morning I took Kezia to visit our dear Gemma at the nursing home. She remembered her from last year. When she saw the building she said: This is where she is in her bed! the pictures are from last yr, i didn't have my camera this time. I just love to watch kezia give of her joy and love to 'miss gemma' and learn to minister that way. She did give a hard time to a sweet old black lady who called her baby; kezia frowned at her and said: I'm not a baby i'm a girl! :)
Last time we had brought her a little flower to put in her hair, she glowed! and this time we braided her hair and took her out on the patio, she kept putting her hand on her chest and letting out a huge happy sigh, her eyes taking in the birds, the clouds, the trees and flowers.

We love miss gemma sooo very much...

Tomorrow we head out to West Palm Beach to visit some dear friends. The church there has been supporting us this year and we are so incredibly -once again- blessed. Pray that our car will make it, that kezia will have a special grace for the car seat-after not using one for 6 months! and for $ to cover the whole trip. We are also hoping to visit the Clearwater church and stop by some relatives' in north carolina, and the Saddlers (Rob and Sally, for those who remember them!) probably on the way back.

WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT MONTHS WITH YOU HERE IN BAL'MORE!!!!

one more WEEK on Zambian soil for this season!

2011-05-08T07:53:00.005+02:00

Apologies for such a long time of no posting! our internet connection has been plying tricks on us....

The Zambian winter has started! So far it's around 50-55 in the mornings and evenings.... Okay this photo is not Zambia, but needless to say we were blessed to be able to purchase a space heater!
This season will continue until aug-sept then the REAAAALLY hot season hits!

Today we're looking forward to....

* FOOD FELLOWSHIP sunday (all the satellite churches gather once a month for a service and a meal together!)
* Packing the house up this week
* Eating our 'last' nshima at neighborhod 'restaurant'
* Hanging out with friends before saying bye for the summer..

Finally flying back to Lusaka on Wednesday, but here is south africa still, for another 2 days

2011-04-03T16:23:00.010+02:00

yes we're still in South Africa! and having a little too much fun... :)

2011-03-27T16:43:00.012+02:00

KEZIA and THANDO!

JEDIAH preaching in Nellmapius under a tent and under the rain

BRAAI night (bbq) at Jako and Joh-Ann's after a paint the house day
(we just moved in their house after staying almost a month at P Jabu and Buyi's lovely place!)

JAKO and the first batch of unbelievable meat!

JOH-ANN and her brother

LAST MONDAY was a public holiday and the Zwanes took us to a park with wild animals, the scenery alone was worth it and we also saw 3 of the big 5!

SOUTH AFRICA!!

2011-03-09T11:29:00.006+01:00

Buyi, Rene, Thloki and Sarah after church on sunday

Sunday morning service under tents in Nelmapius, a poor area on the outskirts of Pretoria

Girls bible study night!

i can see the smoke...

2011-02-20T13:06:00.004+01:00

sunday morning. driving to church with the armans in their zam-mobile.(please pray that they can sell it soon)
it's 8:29 and already very hot out, kind of unusual. can you believe we all 4 adults and 3 children fit!? all windows are open. we get on the main road. the girls are commenting on the huge "bus blanc" next to us. At the next light it's sitting ahead of us. when the light turns green it lets out the huggest, blackest cloud of exhaust. of course we're all too late trying to roll our windows up.
from my window i see the smoke of a thousand buses which no mechanic has ever touched...

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Nshima and pumkin leaves sauce. Typical Zambian meal. yummy? hmmmm.... filling definitely :)

2011-02-06T18:33:00.003+01:00

well... have been trying to upload pictures for a while and each time i do i loose our -already weak- connection.... will have to come up with another plan.

Thank you for checking our blog. There's so much to be grateful for. Our lives these days are spent being faithful to the team schedule; getting to know the Zambians and our surroundings and learning a little nyandja here and there...

For those who don't know yet, our family is growing. Baby #2 is due august 4th, Lord willing. We will be in the States by then. And after over 2 months of serious nausea and vomiting and being confined to my bed.. i am finally getting better!!

Monday, I went with a group of ladies to accompany a bride-to-be to try her dress on. We walked deep in the heart of a... i guess you could almost call it a slum, but not as trashy or crazy, just reallly really poor. I finally felt like i was truly back in Africa. I have no pictures to show you but the whole experience was memorable. I told Sophie " I love this place, there's nothing to love but i love it." Maybe it's the familiarity of it, the memories that come with it.... Little zambian boys calling out Muzungu! muzungu! (white man) and we'd reply Mwana Mwamouna wa blacky! Little black boy! after which they'd burst out laughing :)

We got to a house, just raw cement bricks on the outside and inside. A few windows but none were open. You could barely see your way to the main room where we were led. There was sitting a widow and her daughter making favors for a wedding in a room so dark it took us a while to adjust. We had been told they also have wedding dresses for rent. With much effort a window was opened and some light poured into the room, lace curtains were draped over the walls all around the room, a tv entertainment center covered with their little confections intended to support a family of many children with a dad recently passed away. Our precious Devote, a lovely lady from Burundi getting married next sunday and who speaks not a word of english and barely of nyandja, tried a few dresses on and finally one was the right one. The price was way beyond her budget but upon learning we were all either missionaries or pastor's wives etc, the owner gave us a much more affordable price.
On the way back to where our car was parked, we bought some bananas and boiled cassava on a little market, walked by a carpenter's shop busy making multi-plugs out of wood (save for the cord of course), heard the noise of many hammers beating the heck out of huge old metal containers - to turn them into who knows what creative thing-, almost gagged passing by those aweful dried caterpillars (they are supposedly delicious, but I will never know)and laughed at Justina's reply to a very insistant young bus driver...

We're excited about Devote and P. Victor's wedding next week end! a great missions minded couple.

until next time...!

Through gates of splendor....

2011-01-03T09:48:00.003+01:00

I just re-read Elisabeth Elliot's account of her husband's and 4 other men's massacre in her first book Through Gates of Splendor. As motivating and insightful and powerful as the story is, it was her comments written decades later at the end of the book that struck me this time.

Referring to God's conversation with Job, she wrote:
"On and on the unanswerable questions went, overwhelming the man on the ash heap with proofs of divine control, origin, generation, legislation, authority and wisdom. Job's only reply was that he had none."

There is a weakness in our faith when we measure God in a situation and imagine the only "fair" outcome that would make sense of our trials. The only way the murder of the 5 young missionaries (all married with children) could make sense in our understanding of God's dealings with men would be for a revival among the people that killed them to take place.
There wasn't one.

"Where were you when i laid the earth's foundations?"

She goes on to write: "For us widows the question as to why the men who had trusted God to be both shield and defender should be allowed to be speared to death was not one that could be smoothly answered in 1956 nor silenced in 1996. God did not answer Job's question either. Job was living in a mystery-THE MYSTERY OF THE SOVEREIGN PURPOSE OF GOD-and the questions that rose out of the depths of that mystery were answered only by a deeper mystery, that of God Himself."

Praize God their death sent a wave of missionary revival around the world to a certain degree but even beyond that, praize God for their widows who lived the verse
"Though he slays me I will trust Him."

4 DOORS DOWN

2010-12-24T09:03:00.002+01:00

JUST heard from owner that he's agreeing for the price we asked! now we'll just have to settle the rest of the details.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS and Merry Christmas!

UPDATE

2010-12-17T09:06:00.004+01:00

HOUSING:
Well... so far nothing specific has come out -long story- BUT a couple days ago the owner of a 'cottage' (smaller house behing bigger house, called servant quarters back in the day) just a few houses from the armans knocked on our door. We are scheduled to go look at it this morning... The location is even better!! I hope the price is great too! They even have a chicken coop in the back :)

WEATHER:
We are finally getting a break from the rain after 2 weeks of almost constant rain. Heat is also back but it's been staying in the low to mid-80s. Zambia is generally on the cooler side and has even been named the 'air conditioned african country'!

HEALTH:
A few of us are a little under the weather, some with chiki (diarrhea) others with nausea and callia and poema with a cough. Life goes on, P Chris made everybody French Toast on this beautiful day off (As Fridays are on Zambia Team) Right now the girls are playing outside and the parents are catching up on the net -thanks to neighbors internet connection which we can connect to every now and then!

VISITORS:
Julie's mom is here visiting for a few weeks!

CHURCH LIFE:
We are getting more involved with visiting church members, it's quite something to see people in their environments. Last week, Julie, Sophie and I visited a precious church member who through tears told us she was once married and had been recently tested positive for HIV. Her frail body and constant sicknesses testified to the horror of the facts... In Zambia, 1 out of 5 people have AIDS and the ratio is even higher in urban areas...
Imagine; life expectancy is 33.

POTENTIAL HOUSE!!!!

2010-12-13T18:27:00.002+01:00

Ok, so after walking in the neighborhood for 5 hours today and knocking on every single door, Jediah finally came upon a property with a duplex, each with 2 bedrooms. They are asking for more than we can afford but T.I.A! (THIS IS AFRICA) and we're going to meet with the owner tomorrow to bargain :) Please PRAY that he would be touched by God and give it to us for the price we can afford!!! The location is right (close to P Renaldo's house) safety is good (property has wall all around) and though the kitchen only has a sink in it, no cabinets etc, the entire place is in great condition!
We are somewhat in unbelief -yet believing- but if this works out for us it looks like we could move in in january...!! Which beats the 3 long months it took some team members to find a place.
The Armans place is a miracle, so we have faith ours can be too!

NO SCAR?

2010-12-11T08:44:00.005+01:00

by Amy Carmichael

"Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,
Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned:
Hast thou no wound?

No wound? no scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole: can he have followed far
Who has nor wound nor scar?"

...............................................

I have a dear friend in mind who lost a little
baby at the early stages, and the scar that it
leaves on the heart...

I have a dear pastor friend in mind who is hurting from
beloved members who are rejecting and turning against
him after decades of friendship, and the wound that
it inflicts....

But can he have followed far
Who has nor wound nor scar?

I WOKE UP IN AFRICA

2010-12-05T05:07:00.021+01:00

wow.
i just have to say wow again...
so many things are just so amazing and others scarry and others discombabulating...!!

well first the ARMANS are absolutely amazing,

They had a room ready for us, with a mosquito net on the window, curtains on the window, anair mattress and even a small shelving unit. Being with them on our first days here is suuuuch a blessing. We're asking them questions all day long and they are relentlessly passing on their locally acquired knowledge and wisdom to us like a slow drip IV...
CALLIA told me last night with a face too cute for words: "I'm so happy that you came to this country!"
Kezia and the girls are great playmates, of course it's taking some adjustment. there are lots of NOOO's!! and MIIINE's!! flying in the humid air...

Another amazing: the Zambians are such a friendly people. Their kindness struck me particularly at the airport, dealing with immigration and missing luggage officers.

The scarry part so far, was outreach. well not outreach itself but the context. Rainy season started a couple weeks ago. Standing there at the intersection of 2 muddy roads, with pot holes filled with filthy water, trash on the sidewalks and a daughter in flip flops, with feet waiting to jump in a puddle(wh she did) and fingers eager to pick things up from the ground and then put them in her mouth...(to only name a few) i must admit that hour and a half was a little traumatising.
I just decided to give myself room for growth and acquired tolerance, which will surely come at some point. There was no need to proove anything, no need to try to be a super-womom. Frustrations can be real and God knows we are but dust! Other team members were encouraging as well. We are so blessed to have friends here. What a huge difference it makes!

Discombabulating? will go into that later. it's sunday morning, 7:oo am, the sun's been up for an hour. And so have Callia and Poema :)

BWI AIRPORT - 10 suitcases, 6 carry ons! (got to check 5 for free!)

PROCRASTINATING GOING THRU SECURITY :)

WELCOME TO ZAMBIA! after 2 overnight flights and a 12 hr layover in london...

KEZIA, CALLIA & POEMA

SIGN SAYS: WATCH OUT FOR FALLING AVOCADOES!

BLUE BARN, a non-typical place to hang out

THE SEARCH FOR AN APPARTMENT HAS BEGUN THRU WALKING IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD ASKING AROUND, BUYING THE NEWSPAPER AND PRAYING REAL HARD :)

FRED AND EVELYN visiting the Armans

OUTREACH NEARBY THE CHURCH

NATASHA, peeking over the wall.

D.DAY - 9!

2010-11-22T00:58:00.010+01:00

MISSIONARY SENDING AWAY PARTY!!!
So many great friends came (so many more couldn't come)but
it was such an edifying night!

THANK YOU Don & Janet for cooking and organizing it and making it beautiful!
Cathy Burinsky for all the yummy food and help!
Tiffany for helping get the house ready!
Laurel & Bruce for the fish chowder and lovely sign!
and everybody else who contributed....!!!

We had a 'sending away box' and our friends' generosity
totally overwhelmed us. So God does know our needs hun?!
This whole adventure has been miracles after miracles; our
traveling this summer, buying plane tickets etc...

WE ARE SOOO VERY BLESSED.

WE HAVE OUR TICKETS!!!

2010-11-10T22:04:00.009+01:00

Many, many thanks to all who have made this possible!!!!
Those who prayed, whose who helped financially and those who volunteered hours (and more hours)and sweat for that last minute 'miracle job'. And for Micah Cane who passed the job on to Jediah.
WE ARE SO IMPRESSED WITH GOD -ONEMORETIME.

Itineray

BRITISH AIRWAYS 30NOV BALTIMORE MD
LONDON 905P 915A BA 228 TUESDAY BALTIMORE HEATHROW 01DEC
N ECONOMY AIRCRAFT: BOEING 767-200/300

BRITISH AIRWAYS 01DEC LONDON LUSAKA 635P 640A
BA 255 WEDNESDAY HEATHROW 02DEC
N ECONOMY AIRCRAFT: BOEING 767-200/300

Leaving on a tuesday and arriving on thursday! with 2 overnight trips and 1 12 hr layover!!!

Booked with:
BON VOYAGE TRAVEL
191 BELCOURT LANE
AURORA OH 44202
Our friend Cathy is a great and reliable travel agent.
Cathy Corbiere #1.508.851.0313

...........................................................................

KEZIA, SPORTING MOMMY'S LATEST COMPULSORY CRAFT: organza flowers :)

I ve been going back and forth between packing and making organza flowers!
I am planning to sell them as a MISSIONS FUND RAISER!
I hope they sell! <:)

What's UP with the Tanguays?!

2010-10-02T19:03:00.011+02:00

well, we have gone on 3 road trips this summer (combining vacation and visiting of friends, relatives and churches) a total of 7,000 miles!!

including a few days in rockport ME with the fantastic Umsteads,
a couple days on Monheegan island for our anniversary,
a short visit to family vacation home in Bethel ME,
4-5 days in Montreal Canada with the unforgettable Dadidis family,
and a night and day with the Marvelous Moores in Malta, whom we MUST visit again before the year is over.

we're certainly busy with a certain little person..... lol

jediah turned 30 this year!

And the latest about the Tanguays is that we are moving to Zambia this Fall!!!!!(our goal is to be there by November) It started 15 yrs ago when Jediah first visited Africa and picked up earlier this year, weeks before jediah graduated from bible college. We were anxious to find out what God had in store for our family!
We are excited to join the Lusaka team with a 1 year commitment but with the desire to establish ourselves there for a long term work.
P Renaldo Brown is the leader and has an amazing wife Charity and daughter Linda.
We also have other good friends on the team that's already there, Sophie from Cyprus and the Armans, P Chris, Julie, Callia and Poema.
During this month of October we are focusig on raising financial support. Our goal is to be ful time missionaries and so for that reason we need the help of our friends and families to make it there! We will most likely have a paypal link on this blog at some point, but donations can also be sent to GGWO Missions Office 6025 Moravia Park Drive, Baltimore MD 21206 (memo: Jediah Tanguay)
We are so thrilled about this new adventure and will keep you posted through this blog!

CALLIA AND POEMA ARMAN

LINDA BROWN

ever so relentlessly

2009-11-05T14:21:00.004+01:00
The 5th Proverb this morning was so piercing and yet sweet.
wisdom is crying again. "drink from your own water! why should your springs run in public places?"
are the sources of my life found in common place, thoughts originated in the flesh, in something as good as human rationality, or natural morality... the discernment of right or wrong has never brought forth Life.
can the dreams i have for my life be found on a computer screen or in a fantasy book? what a waste of goodness! such goodness He has for those who walk uprightly, He multiplies and makes blossom, He enriches and adds no sorrow, He encourages the weary and enpowers with divinity.
The promise of a kiss from God bountifully suffices every yearning the human heart may feel.
Oh the carefulness of His gentle, gentle love, the faithfulness of His commitment to our relationship, the determined perseverance to relentlessly draw me back to the Springs of my life.

2009-09-20T23:51:00.000+02:00

Urgent Call to Prayer: Signs of the Times
Convergence
It is critical that the church in America understands the times and what needs to be done now. The natural things speak of the invisible. Natural happenings on the earth are revealing something that is going on in the spiritual realm. There is a great spiritual conflict with a rising tide of Islamic boldness being manifested. Several happenings are converging this week. First of all, our President has recently proclaimed, honored, encouraged the Muslim holy days of prayer and fasting called Ramadan. He was very silent on the National Day of Prayer but very vocal on the support of Ramadan. Interestingly at the same time a major Christian leader of the Emergent Church called for forty days of fasting and prayer in the same Ramadan period with the goal that the church will better understand our Muslim friends. We are all for understanding but we must have spiritual discernment as to the spiritual dark powers that are being invoked into our nation.
Cause for Concern
At the same time, on the 25th of September, Muslims are calling for a Muslim Day of Prayer in Washington DC (http://www.islamoncapitolhill.com/). They are calling for 50,000 Muslims to gather and pray on the DC Mall. This is the exact word of one of the Sheikhs who is leading this historic gathering, “Muslims should march on the White House. We are going to the White House so that Islam will be victorious, Allah willing, and the White House will become into a Muslim house.” These are not empty words. They speak of a dark spiritual intent and a coming day of great trouble to America.
A Divine Moment
Now one of these events is enough to awaken us to this significant throbbing moment, but when they all converge it becomes a massive spiritual alarm that must be responded to by the praying Church. However, I believe in this moment of divine providence God has raised up on the stage of history a little “Esther” that if we pray and fast for her she could be a major voice to expose the dark under-belly of Islam and radiate a bright hope for a day of salvation for Muslims in America.
Headlines
On Monday, Rifqa Bary, a young 17-year-old woman, will be in the headlines of US news. Four years ago, while living in a very devout and radical Muslim home, Rifqa met Jesus in a powerful way as her savior. She hid her conversion, began praying secretly, and began hiding her bible from her parents. Then, on Facebook, her love for Jesus was exposed to the radical Muslim community in Ohio. Rifqa’s father demanded that she renounce Jesus or he would kill her as is commanded by the Koran. As a radiant believer in Jesus she refused to renounce her Lord and fled to Orlando where she was taken in and cared for by a Christian Church and family. Now, the father is appealing to the courts to bring her back under his custody. Major television networks have already covered her story. How must the Church of America respond in this moment for our sister who is a part of the Body of Christ?
A Major Sign
This convergence, I believe, is urgently summoning us in the midst of the rising tide of Islamic influence in America to recognize that our God is above every god and that if we return to Him with all of our hearts and call upon Him with fasting and prayer then God could use what the enemy meant for evil to bring about a great day of salvation for Muslims in America, of which Rifqa is but a major sign.
Here is The Call
First of all, we cannot be passive as a Church to let these kinds of developments go on without being challenged in the spirit. Our fight is not against Muslims, it is against principalities, powers, and forces of darkness. We are calling the Church of America at the end of Ramadan, from September 21st through 25th, to five days of concerted prayer. On Monday, we must pray that God would grant supernatural wisdom to the courts so that the testimony of Jesus would be proclaimed and that the best situation for Rifqa and her family would take place. We must pray for Rifqa to be bold in proclaiming Jesus that even thousands of Muslims would hear and be awakened to the love of Christ. She has already said that this is not about her but about many Muslims coming to Jesus. We must pray for her lawyers who are being bullied, threatened, and challenged on every side. On Friday, September 25th, the Muslim Day of Prayer, we are calling the Church of America to fast and pray that Muslims would be moved by the Holy Spirit, convicted by the testimony of Christ, and even be visited by Jesus in dreams. We must pray that God would restrain the spiritual powers behind Islam and grant us the great awakening that we desperately need for America.
Let us hear the call to prayer and not miss this moment,
Lou Engle The Call

thought provoking/ by p matti

2009-09-02T18:19:00.001+02:00
JUST ONE FACE?
Jesus told his disciples to “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,which is hypocrisy...” Lk.12:1Is it really possible to live our life with one face only?Isn’t it unwise?Hasn’t God given us an ability to mislead and cheat in orderto protect ourselves?What does it mean to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves”?Matthew 10:16Didn’t Rahab leave us an example of a person who was led by Godto lie and therefore was later promoted and honored by God fordoing so? Joshua 2Can we lie at least to bad people, if not to the righteous ones? Jesus was not just full of truth, He is the Truth. John 14:6He identifies Satan as the Father of ALL lies. John 8:44I don’t believe that Rahab had to lie in order to save the spies.She was not honored for her lies, but for her faith.Spiritual discernment and wisdom sometimes look like lying.Even the expression of our faith looks like a lie in the kigdomof darkness. When a Spirit filled believer says that he is a newcreation , Satan accuses him for lying and living in a denial.All statements of faith look like lies to the faithless world. We don’t need to lie in order to help God out.However, when facts are distorted and used for evil we should obey God more than men. Acts 5:29When the 12 tribes returned from their mission, ten of thembrought back the facts. Numbers 13, 14They were the majority and they all agreedin their testimony. Joshua and Caleb brought a contrary report.They looked at the same place with the eyes of faith and gavea positive report. Were they lying? No, they were simply looking beyond the visible, beyond thefacts in order to see the truth.

“ON APPREND QUELQUE CHOSE TOUS LES JOURS”

2009-08-10T02:42:00.003+02:00
FRENCH FOR "WE LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY."

Sunday 2 pm, it’s time for an afternoon lunch. Something quick, something tasty. Nothing comes to mind… Gotta brainstorm, what’s in my fridge? ha! Today it’s more like ‘what’s not in my fridge’…. Eventually a few things stick out (not literally) Leftover brown rice, tuna, something creamy, some herbs, stuffed into a couple tomatoes over a bed of lettuce, a little bit of corn sprinkled... That should work. Hmmm… only one precious slice of bread left. Dilemma, dilemma… share it with hubby or not? Zat is ze question. Us frenchies have to have bread with salad. It’s not really an option. Its like, do fish swim.
While I tragically consider that thought I put the lettuce on the counter; some spinach leaves, and a mix of iceberg lettuce, cabbage and carrots. There’s something – rather there are many things I can’t stand, such as dragging feet, whining, being sticky on the beach, not understanding how something works, weak coffee, and let’s just say this is a very non-exhaustive list. One more: lettuce that’s become brownish on the edges. Need I say more?
I started looking through the lettuce mix to pick out the few surviving leaves... As I throw the unworthy ones on one side of my counter, it occurs to me that the leaves that were clumped together weren’t brown at all. My interest levels rises, one eyebrow arches. What’s the secret? Oxidation?.. The leaves that were detached from the other ones had more chances to be exposed to air/oxygen… and so the moral of the salad jumps at me; there’s strength and protection in the bunch, don’t isolate yourself!
I’m smiling at myself. When I was a teenager my mom would always find a ‘christian’ analogy for any movie we’d watch. (if you know someone who does that, you’ll know just what I mean) I would secretly roll my eyes… but thank you mom; I guess I still got something out of it, that we can learn something everyday! Like the brown lettuce principle…

I had a good lunch and an even better lesson.

and P.S. Half a slice of bread was just right.

wow. we live in a wicked world. but what's new

2009-07-28T16:40:00.001+02:00
Throwing children into oncoming traffic: The truth about AutismBy: Kenneth Stoller, MD, FAAP with Anne McElroy DachelTuesday, April 24th, 2007
I have been a practicing pediatrician for over 20 years. I saw my first child with autism in the early 90’s, before that I had never seen an autistic child, and I never saw an autistic child in all my years at school. The boy was 4 years old and you could see the frustration in his face as he wanted to speak but nothing intelligible would come from his mouth except shrieks of anguish.
As I studied his tortured face, it was as if there was an old time telephone switchboard operator inside his head trying to plug in the correct phone cables but not being able to complete the call. This family had known me from an old practice I worked at in another city, but they had traveled to see me because they trusted me and were looking for answers that no one seemed to have for them, but I too had no answers and I could see the mom was greatly disappointed. After the family left my office I poured over a few dusty textbooks and wondered if I had just seen a very rare disorder, a disorder that affected one child in 10,000 children’s autism.
I had been involved in pediatrics for a decade by the time I saw this boy and it wasn’t as if I had no experience working with rare disorders. I had been able to identify a boy with Fragile-X syndrome and his mom ending up starting the Fragile-X support group at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles.
I had noticed there was a strange upswing in children with attention disorders and impulsivity problems. I wasnï¿½ï¿½t a neurologist, but had studied with one of the finest at UCLA. While I was still a pediatric resident I spent time in his office where he helped me study the parade of unusual maladies that was starting to afflict children. I considered myself a closet neurologist, because that was what I had really wanted to specialize in, not pediatrics, but during my neurology rotation in medical school I learned some discouraging news. The attending neurologist, whom I greatly admired, had taken me on rounds for the first time and I watched him brilliantly explain to the family of a stroke patient how he had figured out where in the brain the blood clot had lodged. Then he stood up and walked out of the room and I asked him what therapy he was going to prescribe for the patient so he could recover from his stroke, “therapy?” he said, “there is no therapy.”
Well, I scratched neurology off my list, the diagnosis was only meaningful if you could offer a treatment and it seemed neurology had few treatments to offer.
My second patient with autism came to me in the mid 1990’s, but to my relief the purpose of the visit was only to treat worms. I dutifully prescribed the medicine for pinworms and went on to my next patient. Later that afternoon I received a call from the autistic boy’s mom who wanted to know what was that medicine I had given her son for pinworms. Her boy was starting to make eye contact, show affection and communicate with his family. She said it was amazing! I told her I didn’t really know what was in the pinworm pill but immediately prescribed enough pills for her son to take everyday for a month (normally you only take one or two pills to treat pinworms).
I called up the pharmaceutical company that manufactured the pinworm pill and spoke to one of their technical staff. They told me the pill worked by blocking the transport of molecules of a certain size from crossing cell membranes, so in the case of the hapless pinworms they were unable to absorb the sugars they feed upon in the lower intestines of their victims.
What did that have to do with this boy’s newly found improved behavior? Either one of two things were going on:
1) the drug was either blocking a molecule that shouldnï¿½ï¿½t be passing across the gut to the blood and then the brain and that molecule was having a drug-like affect on the brain, or;
2) the drug was blocking a molecule that normally crossed from the gut into the blood but in certain children these molecules had a strange drug-like affect.
I made several calls across the country to find a researcher who might be interested in this serendipitous finding which could be an important clue into this disease, because no where had I found anything saying that the guts of these children were involved in their disease. Unfortunately, no one I talked to was interested.
Testifying to Congress...
In May 2004, I had been invited to testify in front of the Government Reform Committee to discuss new developments in treating children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. I had been invited because of the work I was doing with hyperbaric oxygen in treating brain injured children, including fetal alcohol syndrome. Hyperbaric oxygen is where oxygen is given under pressure in chambers that are used to treat scuba divers who get the bends. I and several other physicians had found that hyperbaric oxygen was returning functionality to the brains of affected children.
Sitting next to me was a physician who told the story of his son who had become autistic after receiving vaccine and how he discovered his son was retaining toxic heavy metals, specifically mercury. Over the course of a year this physician had given his son a chemical to pull out the mercury and his son began speaking again and in fact jumped on his dad’s lap and addressed the Committee members having been restored to be a healthy boy without any signs of his autism.
In the 1990’s I had known there was a problem with many of the vaccines because they contained the preservative Thimerosal (50% mercury) and I had discouraged many parents from getting vaccine containing Thimerosal.
There is no safe level of mercury, and it didn’t make sense to inject the most toxic non-radioactive element on the planet into children, but I never made the connection between autism and mercury. I knew what Thimerosal was because while I was in college my brother had a very bad reaction to the Thimerosal that used to be used in contact lens solution.
I was taken aback that something so obvious had not registered with me, but I didn’t realize that I and my physician colleagues had been subjected to a disinformation campaign to make us think there was no connection between mercury and autism. It has been known for sometime that mercury was causing autism, but someone was running interference. The question was who was running interference?
In February 2007, the watchdog agency on America's health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), made the official announcement that a breath-taking one in 150 kids is autistic in the U.S. If you go to the CDC website on autism (http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism) you’d see lots of pictures of smiling happy children with autism and we’d be told that autism spectrum disorders are “a group of developmental disabilities defined by significant impairments in social interaction and communication and the presence of unusual behaviors and interests.”
You won’ t be told that for many parents autism is a nightmare from which they never wake up. “Significant impairments” can mean that a child is violent and self-abusive, non-verbal, and physically sick. You won’t be told that this is a medical disease where most autistic children have significant inflammation in both gut and brain including colitis, super-infections and severe food allergies.Even though autism affects one in 90 boys (four boys affected for every girl) in the U.S., the CDC can’t seem to tell us exactly why. The CDC states, “We still don’t know a lot about the causes of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). Scientists think that both genes and the environment play a role, and there might be many causes that lead to ASDs”.
The site also doesn’t mention that only one in 10,000 children in the 1970s, and one in 2,500 in the 1980s were autistic.
More- http://www.bolenreport.net/feature_articles/feature_article058.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

oh vaccinations! we all thought you were for our good?!

2009-07-26T21:32:00.004+02:00
this is going to be boring for those who are not interested in the topic of vaccinations, if that's the case please skip!

...........................................................................................................................................................................

This is a comment following a thread on Katie Tompkins’ wall on facebook. I just didn’t want to put such a lengthy note on her wall and since a few pple had previously asked my opinion on the subject here it is.
I’d like to say first that regarding vaccinations, each parent has to do their homework and make a decision based on their own personal convictions.

vaccinations are an extremely controversial topic – to say the least , and they are also very relative to what kind of medical education you have been exposed to. I know my mom vaccinated us 3 when we were kids but she said, she would never vaccinate us with what she knows now.
The hard part is that pple that should know, ie. medical professionals, don’t know for the most part. And let’s just say that SOME people in the medical field are so ....brain washed (what other word is there?), it's really sad. some of them though are amazing and stand for what they've discovered to be the truth and they've got the tough job, they have to face an entire world; we usually only face a handful of people (peds, and in-laws lol!)

And all this is just the little bit I’ve personally discovered on the subject – it’s not exhaustive, I’d be glad to learn more from anyone who reads this – if it’s from personal and thorough research.

i do agree with all the comments that were posted on katie’s wall: each parent stands alone before God for their decisions for their children.

but i disagree abt vaccinations having no links to SERIOUS disorders. historically speaking the multiplications of the immune system related disorders COINCIDES with the time when vaccinations started being administered 'in bulk', and to most children under age 2. of course there are cases when non-vaccinated children caught some diseases, but there are trust worthy studies that show cases where children that were vaccinated became more vulnerable than other ones. my own brother was vaccinated against whopping cough and litterally -no kidding- almost died of it. he had had all the follow ups...
Some ‘mandatory’ vaccinations only cover half of the different forms of the viruses for one disease…… hello?!?! So what are our children to do if they catch the ‘other half’? die? No they’ll survive because us parents can prepare them to face viruses with a strong immune system.

and yes some non-vaccinated child(AS WELL AS A VACCINATED CHILD) will maybe die- to go to the extreme- of some disease but this is what the whole topic revolves around, in my opinion:

PEOPLE DO NOT DO PREVENTION THESE DAYS! (what i mean by that is taking whatever is necessary to keep yr IMMUNE SYSTEM up- for adults and kids too, and little ones especially)
we live in such a corrupt world where most foods are completely depleted of vitamins and such, which are essential to maintaining a healthy immune sys.

a child whose immune system is protected, has a million more chances NOT to contract a virus (or at least to naturally combat it with success) than one that's vaccinated.

and as an FYI, white, regular, processed SUGAR is one of the leading causes for disabling kids’ (and adults’) immune system.

As far as our daughter goes (now 10 mths old) we've been giving her colloidal Silver (*see note)ever since she was a few weeks old. She had contracted thrush and by the time I realized the prescription wasn’t going to help, her tongue looked like it was covered with cottage cheese and her feeding was very painful. To make a somewhat long story short, we put her on colloidal silver and pro-biotics and cured it completely in less than a week. She’s been on the Silver ever since (in smaller doses of course).

A few other points I’d like to make on behalf of the no-vaccination …
since when is ONE remedy good for all? I thought each child had a unique body structure and genetic design (of course now they realize that kids that have asthma should not be administered vaccines) And since when can politicians impose something that has to do with medicine on the people? When did they go to medical school?..
I won’t even go into all, I mean ALL the links that have been found between vaccinations and autism, (the fact that the syndromes of autism and the syndromes of mercury poisoning are one and the same says a lot) ADHD and other immune system related dysfunctions… It’s absolutely mind bottling.

It’s one thing for vaccinations to be reinforced when there were plagues and deadly epidemics, but to force them on people, or rather little children, in countries where we have the means to treat most diseases, and especially knowing some of the life threatening side effects of those vaccines is not acceptable.
don't get me started on the financial side of vaccinations.

I know this note is not exhaustive or even remotely thorough (and I’m probably forgetting something I meant to say) but this is what I’ve discovered so far, and what time allows me to put down.

Oh and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t put your kids in any school if they’re not vaccinated. Of course schools will give you a hard time but for example in the state of MD (do the research for where you live) a parent can legally excuse their child for either ‘medical or religious reasons’. There are ways to make this be a ‘religious’ affair. Not by quoting verses and chapter but by going back to the principles and laws of nature ordained by God. (more on that next time :)

*Colloidal Silver in a nutshell -How It Works
The presence of colloidal silver near a virus, fungus, bacterium or any other single celled pathogen disables its oxygen metabolism enzyme, its chemical lung, so to speak. Within a few minutes, the pathogen suffocates and dies, and is cleared out of the body by the immune, lymphatic and elimination systems. Unlike pharmaceutical antibiotics, which destroy beneficial enzymes, colloidal silver leaves these tissue-cell enzymes intact, as they are radically different from the enzymes of primitive singe-celled life. Thus colloidal silver is absolutely safe for humans, reptiles, plants and all multi-celled living matter.

I buy mine at health concern (towson,md) the best brand name seems to be the 'sovereign silver'

my sister's lil' boy is born!!!!

2009-02-16T20:15:00.003+01:00

Fabien Edem is 7lbs and 19 in!!

CONGRATULATIOOOOOOOONS!!!!

COLLOIDAL SILVER... just amazing.

2009-01-25T06:35:00.001+01:00
How It Works
The presence of colloidal silver near a virus, fungus, bacterium or any other single celled pathogen disables its oxygen metabolism enzyme, its chemical lung, so to speak. Within a few minutes, the pathogen suffocates and dies, and is cleared out of the body by the immune, lymphatic and elimination systems. Unlike pharmaceutical antibiotics, which destroy beneficial enzymes, colloidal silver leaves these tissue-cell enzymes intact, as they are radically different from the enzymes of primitive singe-celled life. Thus colloidal silver is absolutely safe for humans, reptiles, plants and all multi-celled living matter.

Product Quality
Many brands of colloidal silver are inferior. The highest grade is produced by the electro-colloidal / non-chemical method where the silver particles and water have been collided, i.e., dispersed within and bound to each other by an electric current. The super-fine silver particles are suspended indefinitely in demineralized water. Ideally, colloidal silver is clear to a very slight golden yellow. Darker colors indicate larger silver particles that tend to collect at the bottom of the container and are not true colloids. If a product contains a stabilizer or lists trace elements other than silver, or if it needs to be shaken, it is inferior. If a product requires refrigeration, some other ingredient is present that could spoil. Some brands with high concentrations of silver may actually not be completely safe. High concentrations of silver do not kill disease germs more effectively than the save range of 5 to 15 parts per million (ppm.).

Ingesting Colloidal Silver
Taken orally, the colloidal silver is absorbed from the mouth into the bloodstream, then transported quickly to the body cells. Swishing the solution under the tongue briefly before swallowing may result in faster absorption. If only small doses of colloidal silver are taken it may take three to four days for silver to accumulate in the tissues sufficiently for benefits to begin. Colloidal silver is completely eliminated form the body by the kidneys, lymph system and bowls after several weeks. If routinely exposed to dangerous pathogenic germs, to have continuous protection, some recommend a regular daily intake of colloidal silver. In cases of minor burns, an accumulation of colloidal silver may hasten healing, reducing the possibility of infection and scar tissue. (A fine spray mist or compress soaked in colloidal silver can also be very helpful.) It is believed by many in the natural healing arts that the lives of millions of people who are susceptible to chronic low-grade infections can be enhanced by this preventative health measure.

Chronic or Serious Conditions
One teaspoon of 10 ppm. colloidal silver equals about 50 micrograms (mcg.) of silver. One to three teaspoons per day (50-150 mcg.) is generally considered to be a "nutritional amount" and is reported to be safe to use for extended periods of time. Amounts higher than this are generally considered "therapeutic amounts" and should only be used periodically. In cases of illness, natural health practitioners have often recommended taking double or triple the "nutritional amount" for 30 to 45 days, then dropping down to a smaller, maintenance dose. Amounts from 3-32 ounces per day have reportedly been used in acute conditions.
I am actually giving some to my 4 months old daughter and so far it has cured her from a very acute case of thrush (which prescribed medication didn't do anything for) and has kept her healthy though in close contact with sick babies and her parents sick with stomach flu at christmas!

a thought - by p. matti

2008-11-30T01:40:00.000+01:00
the rock
We need a rock, a foundation that is bigger than our life.Psalm 61:2If we limit ourselves to our own understanding and abilitywe will be frustrated and troubled.From the platform of faith we see further.It seems like God always invites us out from our own circles when we get overwhelmed by our circumstances.He leads us to step into his presence.He somehow encourages us not to worry about thosethings that sooner or later will pass away and be no more.He wants our souls to prosper.Man’s subjectivity gives him a false security. People often speakabout their intuition, their ability to know people at first glance.They trust their own heart and encourage others to do the same.The reason why human heart is described to be more evil thanany other thing is it’s subjectivity. Jer.17:9Most of the endless misunderstandings and other complicated relationship problems are rooted in subjective hearts.Jesus did not come to this world to look for people’s opinions.He took the blame on himselfand became the rock that helps us to see beyond the nonsense all the way to eternity.

kezia is 2 months old!

2008-11-27T19:04:00.002+01:00

to make you lauh!

2008-11-22T16:43:00.001+01:00
HOW TO LEARN CHINESE IN 5 MN

That's not right...Sum Ting Wong
Are you harboring a fugitive?...Hu Yu Hai Ding?
See me ASAP...Kum Hia Nao
Stupid Man...Dum Gai
Small Horse...Tai Ni Po Ni
Did you go to the beach?...Wai Yu So Tan?
I bumped into a coffee table...Ai Bang Mai Ni I think
You need a face lift...Chin Tu Fat
It's very dark in here...Wai So Dim?
I thought you were on a diet...Wai Yu Mun Ching?
This is a tow away zone...No Pah King
Our meeting is scheduled for next week...Wai Yu Kum Nao?
Staying out of sight...Lei Ying Lo
He's cleaning his automobile...Wa Shing Ka

Pete is in heaven

2008-11-05T20:19:00.004+01:00

............ WE WILL FOREVER MISS YOU............

lobster anybody?

2008-10-30T18:09:00.006+01:00

2008-10-19T13:41:00.003+02:00
a quote by Albert Einstein ... food for thoughts

"Nature shows us only the tail of the lion. But I do not doubt that the lion belongs to it even though he cannot at once reveal himself because of his enormous size."

14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist. He is best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass–energy equivalence, E = mc². Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect."[1]
Einstein's many contributions to physics include his special theory of relativity, which reconciled mechanics with electromagnetism, and his general theory of relativity, which was intended to extend the principle of relativity to non-uniform motion and to provide a new theory of gravitation. His other contributions include relativistic cosmology, capillary action, critical opalescence, classical problems of statistical mechanics and their application to quantum theory, an explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules, atomic transition probabilities, the quantum theory of a monatomic gas, thermal properties of light with low radiation density (which laid the foundation for the photon theory), a theory of radiation including stimulated emission, the conception of a unified field theory, and the geometrization of physics.
Einstein published over 300 scientific works and over 150 non-scientific works.[2][3] Einstein is revered by the physics community,[4] and in 1999 Time magazine named him the "Person of the Century". In wider culture the name "Einstein" has become synonymous with genius.

week 2

2008-10-03T19:20:00.014+02:00

my parents think i have the cutest feetsies
with mamilie Isabelle, tata Melo and mommy

with tonton Seb

a kiss for Kezia and.....

...a smile for mommy

dad's catching up with bible college classes, all in perfect equilibrium...

i sleep next to my parents, and sometimes they take me in their bed when i can't stop crying.

that's me pretending i'm sleeping

KEZIA AUTUMN TANGUAY!! she's here!

2008-09-25T01:44:00.005+02:00

2008-08-06T17:13:00.011+02:00

HAMPDEN CHURCH!
The 2 young men in the orange t shirts got saved with Jediah about 2 months ago and have been at everything ever since. Pray for Brandon and David!

also known as the 'BRANCH MINISTRY'!2 church members, Charlemagne on the left, a pillar! and Charlie
our deaf church member!
we're desperate for a translator for him.
Sweet Susan! amazing soulwinner

Shelly, our faithful monday bible study member,
also a fantastic hairdresser!
BEAUTIFUL MISSIONARY FAMILY! Ben, Susanna, Camden and Levi
this is Hampden too.
Keep this blooming work in your prayers.
Sunday 11AM church in the park
Monday 7:30 PM bible study in different homes
Saturday 10:30 AM outreach

32 weeks

2008-07-26T00:04:00.005+02:00
this is not our house! ;)

TENNESEEEEEE!

2008-07-10T17:03:00.008+02:00

RAP AT THE WILECZEK'S!
4TH OF jULY FUN
CHRISTIANA, TENNESEE ggwo CHURCH!

3 AWESOME MEN

SINGING OUR 2 FAVORITE TURKISH SONGS

The Impact of Coca Cola

2008-07-08T17:14:00.001+02:00
I don't know who came up with this information, but it's worth thinking about it even just for thought provocation...

91% of the world's population has heard of Coke.
74% have seen Coke
51% have tasted it

only 10% of the world's population has heard the Gospel.

some news

2008-06-06T20:33:00.004+02:00
3 days ago, the founder of the GGWO ministry (of which we are a part of) Pastor Carl Stevens, passed away. What a deliverance for his old and weak body, and all those years of serving God and his people and anticipating meeting his Lord in heaven! We are sad but greatly rejoicing with him!
His 'face to face' service will be held on june 14th at 2 pm in Baltimore. Let's really pray for his dear wife Barbara and the family.

Jediah, along with a large group are headed to Marlboro, MA for the weekend. There's a Missions Conference organized yearly up there. Also Julie Delouis and Andy Lange will be married tomorrow at Rock Point State Park! P. Matti arrived last night. What a treat to see him this morning! Let's keep the exhibition in prayer. The reception / opening night is on the 19th at 6 pm.

Jediah and I moved back in to our apartment last week and are enjoying our little nest up on Frankford Avenue! We've already been given a beautiful craddle and crib. It's nice to have a Father who knows exactly what we need..!

2008-05-09T00:16:00.006+02:00

it's a GIRL!! (kiz, fille, bambina..)

mom eating a homemade french waffle,
and look at who's in her belly!!

baby tanguay doing a back flip.... we laughed so hard when we saw it on the sonogram screen!!

18 weeks to go, and the best is yet to come...

:-D .....or..... ;-)

2008-05-08T16:07:00.003+02:00
A lot of you are asking: So is it a boy or a girl?
Come back tomorrow and you might find out. We're going today for a sonogram...!

Family from AZERBAIJAN going to TURKMENISTAN for 2 weeks

2008-04-19T13:25:00.006+02:00

Dear friends! Please keep us in your prayers as we are planning to go to Turkmenistan in the beginning of May. Pray that God would cover our trip, give us travelling mercies and keep us healthy. (most of the cities they want to visit are a 5-6 hour drive away from the main city) Also pray for Divine appointments, our ministry there and souls to be saved! Pray for God to cover all our expenses for this trip. Thank you!
Pastor Tahir, Inna, Nathan and Caleb Hudaykuliyev

we made it!

2008-04-16T13:29:00.004+02:00
so....! Jediah and I arrived in Baltimore safely monday night. Many people were surprised to see us already (some decided that since we were here Convention had already started!) but there wasn't more surprised than Jediah's mom and dad who certainly weren't expecting to see us sitting on their back porch, hiding behind newspapers at 10 pm. It was delightful to see their reaction. Somehow it feels like we never left. Is that why it's called 'home'? Home base is certainly the place for us right now. ABD yesterday was fantastic. Unfortunately I slept through half of it as it was already 2 am for me... P Schaller mentioned P matti's trip to Baku at both the lunch rap and the night class. He seemed so inspired by the testimony of his time there!
So we are staying with my parents for the time being, and boy is that a treat. They are so fun and edifying and caring. We were able to get our car back right away which is an added blessing and allows us to be everywhere for everything.

After a week of packing - my best packing experience ever - and saying goodbye to everyone we know in Istanbul God gave us a sweet travel time and an added blessing. On the second plane from Franfurt to Dulles, we were asked to move to other seats and ended up sitting next to a wonderful man, a minister, with whom Jediah spoke for quite a while. At the end of the trip he handed us some money to 'help get us started' ($100!!!) Needless to say that God is a timely God.

If you live in Istanbul and you're reading this, make sure to write us an email soon. We had such a great time with Niyazi and Irada just before we left, what an amazing couple they are (see www.istanbulggprayer.blogspot.com for specific prayer requests for them)
Can't wait also to hear from the KURDISTAN team, and specifically from Becky/ pumkin/ mouthful.
:)

written on a day when the team house seemed to be beyond my capacity! (you will recognize Amy Carmichael's "My Quietness" Poem, slightly modified)

2008-04-13T17:53:00.004+02:00

Where is My Quietness ?
By Sarah Carmichael

O Thou Who art my quietness, my deep repose,
My rest from the kitchen, my holy and steep hill, Fair is The small bedroom, where I hold me still.
Back let them fall from me, my clamorous neighbors,
Languages multiplied;
From crowding meals and meetings of sense I flee, and in Thee hide.
Until this team house be overpast,
Thy hand will hold me fast;
What though the tumult of the storm increase,
Grant to thy servant strength, O Lord,
and bless with peace.

2008-04-09T17:30:00.000+02:00

des nouvelles en francais...

2008-04-09T09:36:00.001+02:00
En ce moment le temps nous joue des tours, un jour le vent nous gele les os, le lendemain le soleil nous chauffe la peau, alors les rhumes se multiplient, mais aussi les fleurs et les bourgeons qui ne savent pas trop quoi penser du temps, eux non plus. Les cafes sortent leurs tables sur les trotoires, les criards des minarets semblent etre encore plus forts et envahissants, a travers les fenetres entr'ouvertes, le marchand de legume avec sa camionette de la 2eme guerre mondiale etale ses fruits et legumes en bas de notre fenetre et crie a tue-tete. Mais le printemps, on aime!
Jediah a rencontre un peintre Turque qu'il observe de temps en temps quand il est dans le voisinage. Ma voisine, 'the cat lover' ou 'the lady with the red hair', comme on l'a appele pendant longtemps jusqu'a ce qu'on lui demande son nom (m'enfin!! il etait temps) m'a emmene au cinema avant-hier. Tout en Turque, tabi / 'bien entendu' , ce filme a ete tourne a Istanbul meme. Malgre tout, il ne fallait pas etre trop genie pour comprendre le scenario, dont le hero, a ma plus grande horreure, devient un fervent musulman et enfin un terroriste. Je n'en croyais ni mes yeux, ni mes oreilles. Les gens autour de moi ne semblaient pas etre alertes.. heureusement, les dernieres minutes du film revelent les vraies intentions de chacuns et montrent le soit-disant hero en personnage faible qui s'est fait dupe par une mafia iranienne... ouf. je respire...
Jediah et moi planifions de retourner a Baltimore en Mai et d'y etre jusqu'a la naissance du bebe prevue en septembre.

Istanbul Colors

2008-04-01T08:52:00.005+02:00
The above painting was done by a new friend of mine, who happens to be quite famous around these parts; his name is Ahmet Fazil Aksoy. We met on Easter Sunday early in the morning as the church gathered at one of Istanbul's most scenic parks with a great view on the Bosphorus. He was up on the hill catching the moment on his canvas. Across the Bosporus to the right is a silhouette of Hagia Sofia and the blue mosque crowing the hills of the golden horn, to the left the Asian hills of Kadikoy. Follow the water between these two scenes into the mouth of the sea of Marmara, round the Princes' Islands and top it off with a chain of mountains edging the horizon and far side of the sea. What a view! Ahmet has traveled the world during his painting career of 30 years and he believes Istanbul is the most scenic city in the world. You'll have to come and decide for yourself. It's hard to catch on camera but his paintings do quite a good job. He has a website - click on WORKS to see nearly 300 of his paintings. Consider leaving him a comment saying you are a friend of mine. http://ahmetfazilaksoy.net/v3_plt/platin.aspx?platinID=33&section=1&lang=ENG That morning I was privileged to watch him paint for over an hour while he instructed me on what brands of paint, what size brushes, and type of canvas to use. He also gave me numbers for his friends where I could buy discount supplies. Then we made plans to meet again so I could learn more. To my surprise he called me the following Thursday early in the morning and said - I'm over at the park if you'd like to come watch. We had the best time together - as he painted and talked about his trips in the states and I sat on the back of his white mini-van. I had the biggest smile the whole time as I couldn't get over how personal God is to build me up like that. I love to do oil paintings - but it has been so long that I have forgotten how. I don't know if I'll paint again but it was so much fun to think that God may touch this man's life. Pray for him, perhaps there will be much more to the story.
Jediah

EASTER WEEKEND

2008-03-24T16:30:00.016+01:00

SATURDAY NIGHT: 1st Concert in Onay Sanat Cafe, in the heart of Istiklal Street

Here Jediah and his good friend Faruk. Please keep praying for his salvation!!

Elina flew in from Finland with her violin and her gifts to serve us during this Easter Season. She beautified the choir and added a wonderfully heavenly touch with her music.

My friend Umran (on the R, with scarf) who lives in Kadikoy on the Asian Side came for a little while with her friend, Nur, before heading out to another concert in Taksim. Umran is a fan of Rock music - she plays in a band and so i'm sure our concert was not what she was used to! On top of that she is a devotted muslim and i could tell she was a little uncomfortable when P Matti was preaching; it's amazing she even showed up. She is so sweet. Please keep praying for her.

Our neighboor, Nazife, came to the concert as well, with very little notice.

The next morning at 6:30 am, Nazife and her sister, Aynur, were both waiting outside our house to come with us to the SUNRISE BREAKFAST in a Park nearby.

L to R:
P Matti, a great Turkish man (oops, i forget his name) Jediah, Sarah, Aynur, Zumrad and Nazife. Nazife then attended the church service at 11 am and showed up for the 2cnd concert, sunday night, with her daughter, Shebo. Shebo's both an artist and a flight attendant with the Turkish Airline. She asked me if we could meet to pratice her english and she'd help me with Tukish. Neither her nor her mom are believers.
There was no sun for our sunrise breakfast, but P matti spoke on seeing the invisible; it was a perfect live illustration!!! Later we noticed a famous Turkish painter up on the hill, he was painting the same scene we were looking at but his had a sunrise ;)

today...

2008-03-17T17:39:00.005+01:00
Well, today was such a poopy day. I know that's not what you came to hear about, but sorry, that's just how it is. Should I blame it on the hormones? maybe i should and stop wondering.

We did have a great prayer meeting with the ladies from the church this afternoon (Dr. Liisa fr Finland, Margot fr Chermany, Irada fr Azerbaijan, Alfiya and Zamira fr Uzbekistan, and yours truly from where i come from; all speaking the universal english language)

We have a great and busy weekend coming up in honor of the celebration of Easter:
Concert Saturday night (Elina is flying from Finland for that occasion, with her violin of course) I think we'll try to keep her here. Not for the violin; I have my reasons.
Sunday Sunrise breakfast in a nearby park. 'Bring your breakfast, tables and benches are provided. and sunrise"
The view is sublime from there, it's going to be sweet.
Then regular AM service at 11 and another concert at night. The concerts are happening in the Santa Maria Church and in the Onay Sanat Concert Hall on Istiklal for those who are familiar. Great spots to invite friends.

Last night our corner grocery owner told jediah he'd be interested in the breakfast in the park. (you might remember him, he's the one that looks like Joe Murphy, but is not AS good-looking as J.M.)

Jediah just left for Eminonu (2 tram stops away) to meet Taygun for 'Cay'.

Last sunday morning was a remarkable service. P Matti spoke about the value of meditation and defined it in clear terms for our new believers. Good refresher for us 'old' believers as well.
"Without meditation (masticating on words) Bible reading becomes mechanical." Wow. that's a major revelation :)
And so we live our lives by e-v-e-r-y Word that God spoke, and still speaks. It's a good life, like Matt Sliva would put it.

one tired pregnant woman

2008-03-15T21:35:00.000+01:00

nothing less than a miracle

2008-03-15T21:26:00.004+01:00
for those of you who knew that we had some serious problems with our return tickets, here's some shocking news: it's all good; we have return tickets for may 19th.
ok, ok. so with all of you praying it's not so shocking.
but still.
The situation was soooo messy... one manager from United said we had been completely erased from their system only showing a return ticket reserved for june 17th that could NOT be moved and threatened to discharged us if we didn't stop insisting.
There are many reasons why we wanted to be back in the States waaay before that. (one of them being that a group of 15 people is moving in our house end of may... )
Tonight when Jediah called for one last desperate attempt to get the date changed, he 'happened' to talk to the most helpful agent ever.
Well... thank you for praying...

Team Turkey and friends

2008-03-13T13:58:00.000+01:00

GREAT EXPECTATIONS!

2008-03-03T15:32:00.004+01:00
We've had great expectations for this years Euro-Con for sometime now. Last week, our plans changed spontaneously. We were planning to go for just 3 days but suddenly it became clear that wasn't going to work for us. With exactly enough money to purchase the cheaper tickets to Vienna, we decided to move on Faith! :) Saturday we arrived in Vienna for the Vienna-Con with P. Barry Quirk- guest pastors Steve Andrulonis and P. Drew. Great men of God from Vienna were there also like P. Pavel, P. Arpi, and P. Dragon.

The first night we checked into the youth hostel and made our way to the evening concert, where we were so built up by the inspired, vibrant, and tallented group of young and older from Budapest, singing with all their hearts and faith! The opening message by P. Drew floored me, it was all that I had been desperately needing to hear and I was ready with pen in hand to hold onto those precious words.
Isaiah said "Woe is me, I am a man undone"- "Who is telling you that Isaiah? Let those other high thoughts be delivered from you. Then the angels took a 'LIVE coal' off the alter. We need to be TOUCHED WITH A LITTLE LIFE HERE! God wants to take the you out of you. There are other high thoughts- but we are to think soberly- Let this mind be in you! Cast down every thought that exalts itself. We know nothing as we ought to know it."

Well the morning message by Pastor Foster was amazing also "take the simple simplistic answers of the bible and dip in the river 7 times!" Let's get wet all over. Let's continue in faith. Commenting on marriage counselling he said "Maybe some couples should come out to church and develop a capacity in their soul to deal with some of those huge overwhelming issues like passing the salt." :)

P. Barry had compassion on me and found a place for me in the van back to Budapest. And there was a spot for Sarah in one of the cars. We arrived in Budapest and are staying with the Schirmers- P. Jim and Marta (who went on a couple day trip leaving us their beautiful appartment all to ourselves- what a sweet short relief from the team-house!!) God knows our personal needs!
Our faith is desperate these days, and God is so very real and prescious.

Oh one last very incredible miracle. Sarah has been sick in bed for over one month - with all day extreme morning sickness, she has not even been able to go to church except once. She has really been praying and believing for a miracle for this trip. SHE GOT HER MIRACLE! The night before we flew to Vienna she was feeling great and it has been the same for two days now as we've travelled all about Vienna and Budapest! Pray for the rest of the week.
WE LOVE YOU ALL, THANKS FOR YOUR FRIENDSHIP! And thank you to all those who with their support made it possible for us to come to Budapest!

GOD GIVES REAL HOPE

2008-02-29T00:26:00.004+01:00

It's always hard to lose someone. I'm sitting in John's old room here in the team house. It still has that hiker smell to it which was so fond of John :) Hope is such a wonderful thing. As long as there is hope we can conquer anything. We are planning and preparing for our Easter weekend celebrations which will be entitled "God gives Real Hope!" There will be concerts, services, and a sunrise breakfast. Pray with us for this time. And check out our new prayer blog at http://www.istanbulggprayer.blogspot.com/
Much love, In Him, Jediah

JOHNNY THE V

2008-02-23T10:16:00.011+01:00

JOHN'S FIRST DAY IN ISTANBUL, A BIT JET-LAGGED THERE, BUT ONE OF HIS DREAMS COME TRUE.
CAN YOU TELL WHO THIS IS?!

AFTER OUTREACH, EATING 'BALIK' AT A LOCAL TURKISH RESTAURANT

JOHN CALLED THE TEAM HOUSE
'THE INCUBATOR OF LOVE' - ICL for short
and he called his 7m2 bedroom
'his slice of heaven'!

ON SUNDAYS WE OFTEN HAD NEW BELIEVERS OVER THE TEAM HOUSE FOR LUNCH. john and jediah doing dishes was always quite a sight for our Turkish guests!

JOHN ARRIVED IN TURKEY IN SEPTEMBER 07.
HE BROUGHT A BREATH OF FRESH AIR TO THE TEAM AND A PRAYER REVIVAL AT THE TEAM HOUSE.
FOR WEEKS HE QUOTED A MOVIE AND JOKED TOGETHER THAT HE'D 'MADE THE TEAM'
(southern accent please) AND THEN WOULD ASK JEDIAH "WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE THE DADDY TEAM?!"

He blessed the Istanbul church and team with leading the weekly outreaches, appointing and leading prayer meetings, filling in for P Josef's bible college classes, singing with our little group for services, being 'uncle john' to jozsika and becky, (he eventually became known as such by the rest of the team house!!) spending inumerable hours with potential disciples, cooking breakfast with jediah for our 7 pple team house meeting (a delicious omelet, which we found out later consisted of nothing short than 25 eggs), daily studying Turkish - with a frown on his face and with Amber's notes, playing silly spoon game and laughing our heads off, hooking us up on Super Food, talking with us for a while in the kitchen and sharing in our experiences and dilemnas together...
John is to us a hero, a true friend, a real man, an example, a brother of Faith and we are so thrilled that his GREATEST DREAM and LIFE GOAL has come true.

"And John saw Jesus"

2008-02-20T15:16:00.000+01:00
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Phil. 4:4-7

in heaven

2008-02-19T14:11:00.001+01:00
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, Behold, The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
John 1:29

you outta check this website and watch the trailers

2008-02-18T19:25:00.001+01:00
http://www.expelledthemovie.com/video.php

talkin bout my day

2008-02-13T20:55:00.004+01:00
I woke up feeling a lot better, finally very little traces of sickness. This is how my day went-
After a shower and a delicious egg breakfast made by my lovely, unbelievably sweet wife (she's feeling much better in the mornings now but still rough at night). I headed out to the choir practice, P. Matti has a new vision to sing once a week in a Catholic church on one of the busiest avenues of Istanbul called Istiklal Caddesi, where a great number of inquisitive turks come by to visit throughout the day. Father Ruben gave us permission to sing in his church once a week. After the choir practice, we had our worship team practice for the night service. And then headed over to the local print shop which gave birth to our long awaited bi-lingual expandable song books, as we are constantly translating new songs into Turkish and adding them to our repertoire, stopped by a friends paper shop (whom I have invited to many events, but he has not been able to come as he works many hours like many turks in Istanbul) to pick up the covers and headed home for an hour of silence and bible study, and some rest with Sarah. I grabbed a chicken sandwhich and headed out in the wet evening to gather with the saints in our prescious little office building! The worship team put the song books together and it was already time for service. It was a small group, which is rather an exception in these days of growth. The message was about the presciousness of our lives and individuality before God! - our freedom of choice that really defines our humanity. "You will be you forever!" A quote from P. Schaller on grace hour sparked the continuation of this message from last nights bible school class.
I led the worship service with the awesome team- a nigerian drummer, and assistant songleader, and three girls from azerbaijan and uzbekistan. Then played guitar for the offering, and got back up to share an introduction on making time to be quiet with God :) - Gabriel a Ghanian who was recently saved on outreach at the Catholic church (now in Bible School) wanted to walk home with me after the service. He spoke the whole way about things God has been "saying" to him. I listened in amazement and with great joy. It made me think about many friends in Ghana- and their simple hearts of faith that leads to profound truth.
And just as I am finishing this entry I received a SMS from Faruk- I met him the second day we arrived in Turkey, and have been investing in him since. Looking forward to the day when he'll make the best decision of his life!

Faruk: "Hey, can u say the thing about love which is from bible. You know it is valentin s day tomorrow. What was the page number?"

Jediah: "Yes look for 1 Corinthians - chapter 13 Isn't the bible the best love story ever! happy valentines day"

Faruk: ":) great ! thank u so much. Happy valentines day too

scuba diving - notes from abd class

2008-02-10T21:51:00.000+01:00
When you take someone scuba diving for the first time, they might flip out. "Once you're so deep down what do you do as an instructor?" (p schaller asking Ismo) "You grab their hands firmly and look at them intently in the eyes, never loosing eye contact. Slowly they calm down under the influence of your confidence."
And to look at the face of God - so much better than Moses who only saw the 'after glow'.
He's ever looking, quietly ministring.

Please Keep Praying...

2008-02-09T18:02:00.000+01:00
The devil is after our health... I woke up this morning as if I had gotten sick all over again.
It's so interesting, as P. Matti says, because it's right at the threshold of great things God is doing through us here in Turkey. The music ministry is taking off, so much joy, freshness, peace, ect... and so many other things. Okay, thanks YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS! Sarah has still not caught what I have and that's a miracle since we lie in the same bed nearly all day.
jedi

Thanks for the prayers!!!

2008-02-09T02:12:00.000+01:00
Yesterday Sarah and I suddenly felt better after what had been the worst day prior to that. We nearly lost our marbles, then like a breath of fresh wind, we knew people were praying for us. Sarah wasn't nauscious all day, and I felt much better. We are still struggling with both a cold and the nausea so please keep our health in prayer!

I really felt like we were at the end of our capacity to be here, once again. But then I cried out and said God if you want us to stay here in Turkey than you need to make both of us feel better immediately. It's funny, but he did just that the next day. I seriously was already making plans to come home. Then He spoke and I realized once again he had a great purpose in our sickness. He is teaching us absolute Grace, where we can't do anything but God gets all the glory. I am so happy to be here in Turkey. It's not a place I feel or ever felt called to, but I understand that God has placed us here for such a time as this, to do something here, but especially to do something in us. I couldn't help but think of the apostle Paul and his 14 years after he was saved where God was working in him and not yet through him. Yes God is working through us but honestly the greatest work is what's taking place in my heart and mind.

Jedi D.

Need your prayers!

2008-02-04T15:48:00.000+01:00
Hello friends, we need your prayers especially these days. Sarah has "morning sickness" it's actually all day and night sickness- very challenging. She's been in bed for the past two weeks. Today I am very sick with some kind of flu - I've been in bed all day too. Please pray that Sarah won't get sick with whatever I have on top of being pregnant. In spite of the challenges, we are staying very encouraged with the body life here, and listening to messages from Baltimore.

IBI - Istanbul Bible Institute, started up again last week with a full load of classes- 15 credits, and many students: 2 Nigerian disciples - Cliff and Shelter who sing and play drums for our worship services! 2 Sisters from Iran- Tannaz and Sheila who have been with us since the first conference in 2003. A turkish Pastor from another church and his two friends who long for deeper doctrine and attend all the classes. Yves- our faithful French/Swiss/Cypriot friend who is loving the word of God and also teaching us Turkish twice a week. Gabriel - a new friend from outreach, who hasn't missed a thing since P. Julian met him three weeks ago. Miriam - our dear fellow missionary with another ministry, she translates Niyazi's class from Turkish to English. Fanny - from France who is here for 5 weeks, progressing in her English acquisition. Many Turkish visitors - who come as they please. And 12 Team Members make the Istanbul Bible Institute quite a notable event!

Please pray also for the plans for Euro-Con. That many who would like to go from here would be able to.
Jediah

A NEW HEART - with a New Vision

2008-01-30T12:02:00.000+01:00
Yesterday we had our first doctor's appointment and we were able to confirm that there is indeed a little alien in our midst! :) As if all the puking, nausea, and tiredness had not already confirmed it... There's nothing like seeing that little shrimp on the screen, and hearing the heart beat for the first time. Sarah said it sounded like a night-club in there (we'll have to educate him/her in healthy music listening habits early on). This little beating heart, reminds us of how we need to daily nurture this New Heart of Faith that God has placed within us.

Ezekiel 36:26-29
A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall heed My ordinances and do them.
And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
I will also save you from all your uncleannesses, and I will call forth the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine on you.

And a New Vision - We are meditating daily on the imporatance of continuing in the new vision from God! Our old hearts have "hardening of the Categories" but our new heart if pumping with the vision and burning from God! We can easily think of ourselves in very hard ways, and think we are useless, and unloved, but God is thinking so much greater. Let's allow Him to stir His New Vision within our New Heart!

Jediah

faith that works by love

2008-01-29T12:27:00.000+01:00
Hello to all you faithful readers, and friends around the globe. We miss you, and are thinking of you today. I am thankful to God for you... as I share my heart with you.

Faith that works by love...
It's amazing how much sense our faith makes as we continue with God by faith! It's so amazing often that we are tempted out of excitement to throw it all on a young inquirer without any thought to his person, and if he can bare what will be said. I had just such an experience today and it broke my heart when I realized the situation. I frankly apologized and tried to recover what was important, and minister to this precious one where he was at. I thought I did a terrible job, but as we approached our point of departure, he spoke. "There is something that I really appreciate about Christianity.' he said 'The openness that you have with others. I think you can call it the love of Jesus, or openness and we don't have that in other religions and cultures. I also saw that in my mother who was a christian."
I was touched, and I responded, "I think you saw what I wanted most to tell you but could not communicate with arguments, It's the love of Jesus that changed my life."

Think of who God has placed in your path, they are most definately there to be loved. The gentleness of the Holy Spirit will give the gift of faith bound-up in love. We can see that faith is motivated by love!

Please pray for my dear friend and me, His name is Tomo. He walked from Switzerland to Istanbul this past year, and he may be staying with us for a bit before continuing on his journey. I am praying he will find something with us and perhaps begin a different kind of journey.
It's great to write after such a long time. I plan to write often.
God's power is in Prayer!
Jediah

DID YOU HEAR...

2008-01-22T08:38:00.000+01:00
... THAT WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A BABY?!!
(sometime in September)We appreciate your prayers for perfect guidance for the exciting and scarry upcoming months! :)

poem written by P. Mechti Suleyman

2008-01-22T08:35:00.000+01:00

Because of love there’s hope for man
Because of love he smiles again
His life has purpose to fulfill
He now can pray and care and build

He is no more afraid to die
He sees God’s face unvailed with smile
He realizes he is loved
He’s friend to Christ, he’s son to God

He now is thankful for the Cross
God has forknown him, this he knows
Christ has provided all he needs
God covers him on earth and leads

God’s life has now replaced man’s dark
Christ’s resurrection makes him walk
Now he has power from above
Now he’s endued with caring love

He’s wisdom now that comes from love
He can be patient and up front
Enjoys he quietness a lot
But when he speaks - God can be heard

Christ came for me to give me life
That would be different from mine
Words can’t depict my inner bliss
My soul is thriving – I’m released

Moreover, Christ has promised me
To lead me on and never leave
I am secure, I’m fulfilled
In God my life with Christ is hid

God’s love is warm inside my soul
The Holy Spirit’s gentle so
He sheds Christ’s love within my heart
He feeds me doctrine from above

I set my mind on things above
Discovering unfading love
I gaze into the Word of Christ
His righteousness does make me wise

My heart is ruled by Finished Work
My mind considers Christ enthroned
Convictions fill my conscience out
Emotions mine are healthy, stout

When You abode alone on high
Back then You had me on Your mind!
You couldn’t live detached from me
You died so I am now redeemed.

you asked for more comments Rachael? here is one just for you

2008-01-20T19:51:00.001+01:00
what is your email address? jeds_tanguaygirl@hotmail.com

my belly dancers story disappeared, so this post is now officially called "TOMO"

2008-01-10T13:54:00.000+01:00
last tuesday, 11:30 am

Jediah, Jongil and myself roll downhill to the Findikli Tram Station. The air is very cold and Jediah can't help think of Tomo who only owns a pair of hand-made flipflops for shoes. We're going to see him today for lunch and we'll offer to buy him a pair of warm shoes. 15 mn later we get off the tram at the Sultan Ahmed stop. A few blocks up on the left we find the "Tree of Life" hotel, well... 'hotel' is a big word. We climb 3 flights of dirty stairs, books written in Japanese are piled up on the 2cnd floor, an old Japanese man opens his door and stares at us ignoring our Merhaba. Jongil silently prays his last hour will not be in this Japanese building. On the top floor we find our friend Tomo, waving excitedly through the blurry window of the old french door. We can't decide what's making it blurry, grease marks or smoke or both.

Tomo is half Swiss and half Japanese, about Jediah's age, he grew up literally around the world, and last May set out to WALK around the world with the goal of ending in Japan. He arrived in Istanbul at the begining of december and the very same day johnny the V met him in Karakoy, our outreach spot that day. They decided to meet again the next week at the same time which turned out to be an easy date for both to remember 12/12 at 12pm. Since then we've stayed in touch with him and invited him over our house for lunch and a lenghty conversation, going back and forth from the bible to his beliefs of God. He soon after met the owner of a japanese hotel in Istanbul needing a receptionist and saw it as an opportunity to make some money and to have a place to live.

When Tomo stepped out of his 'office', we were relieved to see a new pair of sneackers on his feet! At a nearby Turkish restaurant, we sat on the second and secluded floor and were able to open our bible; jediah shared beautiful principles from the first chapter of Genesis. "And God said let US make man in OUR image." God -1 God in 3 persons- was going to create a thrichotomous being 'in his likeness'. So here we are, BODY (the part of me that is world-conscious) SOUL (self-conscious) and SPIRIT (God-conscious). No wonder we are complex beings... :)

After a sweet time of much talking and eating some delicious meat Pide, we headed out to the area of the Grand Bazar, one tram stop away.

south of france friends

2008-01-06T16:14:00.000+01:00

CARL AND his sister FANNY
Carl got saved last year january 27th!
Fanny is coming to Istanbul for a month,
she'll be staying at the team house!

some old and new palmieris

2007-12-29T11:13:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-19T22:38:00.000+01:00
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

2007-12-15T21:31:00.001+01:00
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

2007-12-13T13:47:00.000+01:00
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...

2007-12-08T20:10:00.000+01:00
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

2007-11-28T20:25:00.000+01:00
FOR ALL THOSE WONDERING: WE DIDN'T HAVE TURKEY FOR THANKSGIVING
(report and pics to follow)

team life helps

2007-11-26T21:28:00.000+01:00

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

2007-11-14T09:45:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-11-08T10:38:00.000+01:00

Playing 'spoon game' after sunday dinner.
L to R: Zamira fromUzbekistan, Sarah, Jediah, John and Mehmet

an amazing devotion by P Matti

2007-11-08T10:16:00.000+01:00
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...

2007-11-06T20:16:00.000+01:00
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

2007-11-04T17:43:00.000+01:00
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

2007-10-28T17:49:00.000+01:00
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!!!!

2007-10-25T14:49:00.000+02:00

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...

2007-10-18T17:51:00.000+02:00

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

2007-10-17T20:54:00.000+02:00
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!

2007-10-16T11:08:00.000+02:00
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.