faith that works by love

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...

... 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

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

what is your email address? jeds_tanguaygirl@hotmail.com

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

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

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

views from palmieri grand parents house in Northern France

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

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


grand ma's brother, Armando

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

grand-ma Carmela with Mario and Luigi!

and ze cat

TURKISH CHRISTMAS

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

LIGHTS

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

KURBAN

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

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

PARIS

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

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

2 nights ago

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

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


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

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

prayers

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