GOD GIVES REAL HOPE

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

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"

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

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

http://www.expelledthemovie.com/video.php

talkin bout my day

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

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...

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!!!

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!

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