Hello Everyone
Hello all, and welcome to my (very past tense) Turkey blog!
Life Update
At this point in time we had switched teams and headed to Cappadocia Turkey. We stayed in a second story apartment in a small town, right beneath the sweetest family. I shared a room with 2 people and we had our own washer and dishwasher. For this country we had set plans to pray over everything we could and be intentional with it. It was a crazy time for me with the culture and also a time of working through things I was angry about that were buried. The Lord told me He had adventure for me in Turkey and He did not lie. I had a lot of fun in some very beautiful places.
What’s it like in Turkey?
The people: The people of Turkey are quick to befriend you and once you are their friend they want to invite you to things, show you around, help you out, play games with you, cook for you, have tea with you and everything in between, which is very sweet. From my experience, plans are rather not needed as you will be invited to anything at any time and you should say yes. (This was very stressful for me because I couldn’t balance rest and people time with it being true).The people of Turkey also love to walk or ride motorcycles and during the day you would see people out and about always.
The clothing: It is very much westernized, but tourist shops sold flowing pants so you would see that around.
The weather: It was rather cold when we got there (it even snowed once) but it did warm up with some lovely sunny weather after a while.
Other: Turkish ice cream is DELICIOUS and I prefer it over American. It is made with goat milk and it denser and more sticky than Ice cream and I LOVED it. I did not love the tricks they play on you as they serve it too you. One time of fun is all the time I need. After that I just want the ice cream.
There are very few Street dogs and they also often have their ears tagged and are pretty well fed. But there are TONS of street cats and they are in less good condition
We could see hundreds of hot air balloons from our house each morning!
What’s God doing in Turkey?
This place is stunning and there will be SO MANY pictures, so scroll as you please.
First category! Adventures!
Night 1! We got in and met our amazing hosts and house family.
Day 1 Pigieon valley. Our amazing house family has a daughter in tourism and she took us on a tour the very next day, which was so sweet.
Day 2 Love vally and the BBQ. We got to meet the daughters friends and do a cookout together till late and it was fun.
Underground city! One adventure day we took a trip to one of a couple of underground cities. There were so many rooms and it was multiple stories deep. Early Christians probably lived ther amongst others.
Walk to the top of the hill adventure. We walked around our town doing ATL and met a couple people. One of whom we started a friendship with!
Another hill adventure, but a short hill lol. Funnye prayed on our start of this mini adventure that we find this flag fast and God had us there in like 5 minutes.
Another “hill” a Mesa top to watch the sunrise with the visiting 10/40 teams and then a tour around old churches. It was so cold out that morning that I used someone’s quilt they had carried along to stay toasty. The churches had a lot of art that I was not allowed to photograph, but was beautiful.
Morning balloons. Our house host took us to see the balloons get filled when he saw how interested in the balloons we were. We had to wake up at like 4:30 to get there it time. It was so ind of him and it was amazing to watch.
Early morning visiting the filling balloons
Hiking Rose and Red valley with a friend. God had helped us make a friend with someone whose car we had dug out of the mud and we were able to meet up with him and have intentional conversations on a hike.
We went hot air ballooning!! our family hosts daughter secured us a ride on a ballon and it was so fun and beautiful. We flew over Love valley.
My birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉. My friends loved me very well and made the day extra special with meals and snacks made just for me and lots of intentional time spent together.
Going to see the rock camel. I went once with Dezarae and once with the team. With the team our amazing host graciously stoped for us to have a fun tourist moment. With Dezarae, we had met someone who we had been praying for by name, without having known him (someone added a name to the prayer wall that was on her heart, but we didn’t know anyone by that name at the time) and it was so amazing to see the person God had put on our hearts to pray for.
Tea time with a friend God led us to during ATL! 💕 and the dinner we had as well. It was DELICIOUS 😋😍 God led us to such a sweet person and we were able to share God’s love with her through actions. (She showed us how to tie headscarves or fun one day)
Second category! Ministry!
The church we helped with. They were moving locations so we helped clean up and clean out the old one. We also shared testimonies each service and I was able to help with kids ministry with Fran. It was a huge blessing to us and the same for them.
House visit family! We met with a lovely family once a week and spent time with them intentionally. They were a kind and generous family and encouraging them in Christ was our honor. (Their cat had kittens so I added some pics). We did lots of activities, games and explorations together and it was a great time. (I also did a pet photo shoot with their pets. It’s also included because they look fire)
Last category, the beautiful Town we lived in and all the fun we had! Just some random pics to show off the nice place we lived. The first picture is a Turkish breakfast spead.
spread.
The time was full of encounters sent by the Lord and even more opportunities to pray for people behind the scenes. I am so grateful that it is God who changes things and that its not up to me. I pray the lives we touched encounter Jesus in radical was in the future.
Fundraising Update
I have been so blessed by everyone, so much so I had no need unmet in Turkey. Thank you all for what you have given ❤️
Spiritual Update
As I said before I was working out some past anger but also some recent anger too. A bad mood taints everything. I was trying to work on what “dying to yourself” really means and looks like too at this time. The Lord was really revealing that I had more He wanted to walk me through and since the circumstances brought them up, He wanted to use them for my betterment. We also started doing a confession and repentance session every day to share with eachother in humility what we need to apologize for to others or God and then we all got to come beside to love and support eachother. It was beautiful and one of my favorite additions ever because of the tenderness and unity it brought. I told them of my anger and apologized (a lot) and they loved and supported me in it. This period we were all asked to be like Mary not Martha, from the Bible story, and sit at God’s feet, not try to be doing things for Him. And I think we honored that request pretty well as we did a prayer wall, prayed and read the Bible in the morning and would add the people we met to the wall to be prayed over.
If Albania is where the flower bloomed, then Turkey is where it dropped its petals. I definitely was shown the things in my life I needed to drop, and I started to let go of some in Turkey. Nepal was prophecied to be a place of peace and rest, so I was excited!
Prayers
You can pray for the family that lived above us 🥰 and every person we met. Please pray that they have dreams and visions of Jesus and are able to interpret them or have them interpreted, so they can understand it.
Pray for the people following Islam that the Lord moves and softens their heart and opens their eyes to know that Jesus wants a relationship with them and has more for them in life.
Also pray that the leadership in Turkey does not limit tourist entry
Answered Prayers
All colds were healed and we were in physical health as we battled in the spiritual.
Thank you
Thank you for your patience! There is more to come!
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