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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

pictures are on their way

eternity

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

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

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

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

urgent message!

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

Turkish Alphabet:

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

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

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