THANKSGIVING

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

team life helps

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

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

TURK-CON PICS

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

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

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

Zamira and Sarah at registration

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

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

Clasical Concert with Trio Voce from Finland.

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

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


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

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

and had to go back home..)

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



RAP AT A NEARBY COFFEE SHOP

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




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

Playing 'spoon game' after sunday dinner.

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

an amazing devotion by P Matti

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

The conference is starting tonight. HOS GELDINIZ !!

Turk-Con ‘07

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

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

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

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

maman...

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

ta sarah

MIRACLES HAPPEN in THE 20th century

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

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

Welcome to TURK-CON 2007!

visa travels

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

WASHER SOS!!!!

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

we've broken our backs hand washing over the tub

and we've almost abused the generosity of

other team members' washing machines....

Even between the 5 of us (after spending all

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

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

together now for this last big need...

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

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

Looking forward to hearing from you especially

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

pictures are on their way