Turky Travel Team: Final Blog
Written by Clayton Neufeldt
Greetings all family, friends, and supporters:
Our apologies to all of you for the lateness of this blog, as we have been very busy and doing a lot of travelling as of late. We are currently in Istan-bul enjoying our last few days of debrief here in Turky. We are spending four days here before heading back to New Zealand on November fourth. Since arriving in Istan-bul, we have even been able to bring out all of our rain jackets and sweaters for the first time in Turky. It is safe to say we all would have gladly left our jackets un-used in the bottom of our bags.
Since our last blog, we have spent more time in Antalya, gone out east to Diyar-bikar, enjoyed the beauty of Cappad-ocia, and spent a week with a family in K0nya. It has been incredible how the father has guided all of our travels and kept us safe through many a late night bus adventure. So much has happened in these past weeks, but I will do my best to pick out some of the highlights and what the Father has been doing in and through us.
Our second week in Anta-lya was a significant change of pace for our team with Alison departing for a p@storal visit to Burrsa, and Jesse taking on the role of team leader. We moved out of P@ul and Le@’s apartment and spent the week in a hostel located near the city center. Basically our entire week was open to “Hizzy Spizzy” (H0ly 5pirit) style ministry in whatever form it came. Because of this open schedule, we all had very different experiences throughout the week, and a few of us developed some interesting sleeping schedules. Some definite highlights included Johnny and Clay sharing testimonies with some very open Slovenian tourists, and our relationship with a local pizza shop owner producing multiple 2am discussions about the Father and life in general. Eline especially enjoyed the week with a visit from her Dutch boyfriend, Nick, and her numerous fruit-full talks with Ezzra, a local woman who was saved but in desperate need of discipleship. Even with these and other significant relationships that were built, one of the biggest spiri-tual breakthroughs came in our own team. During the week we all found a new appreciation for spending time in the word and seeking the father first. We spent extra time becoming filled before overflowing to others.
Much to the surprise of the bus driver, travel agent, and our friends in Anta-lya, our next stop was in the far eastern city of Diyar-bakir. We quickly learned that this city had quite a reputation for Kurd-Turk conflicts and more Isl@mic extrmists. But despite all of the warnings and shocked responses, the Father showed himself to be with us right from the start. Even on the bus ride from Ant-alya we struck up a friendship with a local who showed us around and later came to the church for dinner. We spent the week staying at a prominent Trkish Chrch. There is an American couple on the leadership team that got us involved in the life of the chrch. We also had the pleasure of adding Kenny, Alison’s friend, to our team for the week. Our first few days in the city were largely spent with the chrch where we participated in their spring cleaning, children’s program, and pr@yer meetings. The last few days were spent doing more Hizzy Spizzy style ministry and were incredibly fruitful despite all of our warnings. We had wrship jam sessions in the park, met university students, and handed our tracts throughout town. All of these activities were met with genuine interest from locals, and the Father clearly led us to make multiple relationships in which we were able to share our faith and plant seeds to be watered. For many of us, including myself, Diyar-bakir felt much like Jonah’s Nineveh where we didn’t particularly want to go, but where we specifically felt the Father had called us. Our time in Diyar-bakir taught us to trust the Father even when others thought we were being foolish, and that the best place to be is in the Father’s will.
The last leg of our trip was split between backpacker minist-ry in Cappa-docia and staying with workers in Konya. We spent a short time of 3 days in Cappa-docia where we were awestruck by the Fathers creation and enjoyed it through hikes and mopeds. We were able to converse with a few other backpackers in the area but we were disappointed that we weren’t able to connect in a deeper way. We did, however, get to know a traveler from Italy and a few others in our hostel. Sickness also became a huge limiting factor for a few members of our team during this time.
That brings us to the last five days spent in the city of K0nya, where we were blessed to stay with a family of six from New Zealand. Thankfully, we once again enjoyed home cooked meals and tried to bless the workers in turn by spending time with their young children. The family is some of the only believers in the city, which is known for being the most religious place in Trkey and the centre of the “Mevl@na” sect of Isl@m. Our focus during this time was making relationships at the huge University on the outskirts of town. The father once again led us to make relationships in surprising ways. The guys were led to a young man named Joseph and through him a group of about 10 Trkish friends. We enjoyed getting to know them through football, computer games, and Trkish coffee. Personally, this was one of my favorite times in Turky as we spent three days in a row getting to know the group of students and being able to share some of our faith with them more naturally. The girls were also able to make friendships with some of the students on campus, and especially with the English director and her assistant with whom they met in the city as well for a meal and hanging out. Alison also had an open invitation to speak and share in the English classes, but unfortunately we had to leave this city before the next English class was happening. Our time in K0nya was the perfect way to finish out-reach satisfied and ready for debrief.
That brings us to our present debriefing in Istan-bul, and the end of our team’s minist-ry here in turky. On behalf of everyone on Turky Travel Team I would like to thank everyone who supported us, both through your prayers and donations. There is no way we could have been here without all of you, and our whole team would like to express heartfelt gratitude. The last few weeks have undoubtedly been a huge learning experience for us all, and we have seen the Father moving in tremendous ways inside the team and out. This was an experience, which I am sure none of us will forget and will shape both those we have met here, and our own walks with the Father.
- Clayton N & the rest of the TTT (Alison, Jonny G, Eline, Travis, Clay L, Jesse)
Monday, November 2, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Blog 5
Hello Everyone.
We left Diyabak-ir, Turke-y about 6 hours ago and it has been the most beautiful drive! It was a really nice week in Diy-bakir. We spent time pr-yer walking and serving the existing workers. I experienced a whole new part of T-rkey’s culture, the K-rdish people are different than the Turkis-h. My favorite parts were experiencing the atmosphere of an eastern city and seeing ancient ruins. We saw some ancient Roman ruins. The best was a bridge spanning the Tigris River. The atmosphere of the city was different because it is predominantly a Kurdish city making it different. I noticed distinguishable differences in how the people looked and dressed. Everyone tried to help us and was very generous in giving us time a similarity I have enjoyed across Turkey . Wednesday night we walked by a very large crowd, over 5000 people, listening to a Kurdish speaker. I don’t know what it was about, but we did pr-y for it in the Wednesday night meeting and I felt that it displayed a difference in culture from other places in Turkey, like Istanbul. Religion and general reception of religious thought were a little different in this city. I can’t say if it is the different people group, but I do know that the culture is affected by the more traditional aspects of eastern Turkey and is also influenced by the size of the surrounding cities.
We arrived on Thursday tired after our 18-hour bus ride. We got to the church and found it to be very nice and comfortable. The Ch-rch in Diy-bakir is very large when taken in comparison to the other churches in Turk-y. They have over 100 members and are actively working to reach the surrounding community and area. It was so encouraging to arrive on Thursday and realize that in this eastern city, where the history is black with persecution, a church is beginning to grow.
We all spent Thursday afternoon resting and preparing for our next day. After dinner we had a team meeting and went to bed early. Friday morning we had a great time of worship together and went into our week on a great note. We had a short briefing on Diy-bakir and then went on a long tour of the city. The workers in Diy-bakir did a good job of preparing us for our week in the city and gave us all the necessary information. Friday evening we stayed at the church and went to bed ready for the next day of work around the church.
Saturday we spent the day cleaning the church and playing with the children from the neighborhood. We were able have a mini camp with over 50 children! The kids were really excited and happy to meet us and were very fun to be around. Saturday night we went to a bookstand and pr-ayer walked around it, while the Turkish Christ-ians handed out Scripture, over 100 Bibles were handed out! Saturday was a great day.
Sunday we went to a picnic with the rest of the church. We had arrived on the week of their fall celebration. We had a service in the park and many people noticed☺. After the service we played many games: dodge ball, soccer, and football. To top it all off we had a barbeque in the park with great chicken.
Monday was our day off, but it ended up being a workday. We had the people we met over the last couple of days over for dinner. My friend from our bus ride to Diyabakir came and I think he was impressed with our representation of Chr-stianity.
Tuesday was spent handing out literature and the others played worship music in the local park. At one point they had about 30 people around them. We handed out over 150 tracts. Tuesday was a successful day and we felt that it was well spent.
Wednesday we finished cleaning the church, went on a pr-ayer walk and some of our group went out and spent time with the friends we had made. I heard that they all listened to the Gospel and were receptive to conversation about religion. I went to a prayer meeting on Wednesday night and spent time with the other believers from Diyabakir. It was great to be around such passionate people.
It is Thursday now and we have spent the day in travel to Capp-dicea where we are doing tourist/hostel work. It is a very beautiful region. We will be staying here for 3 days and then to Kon-ya to do university ministry. Our time in Turkey has been great, but is fastly approaching its end.
Thank you for all of your pr-yers.
In His Love,
Travis
We left Diyabak-ir, Turke-y about 6 hours ago and it has been the most beautiful drive! It was a really nice week in Diy-bakir. We spent time pr-yer walking and serving the existing workers. I experienced a whole new part of T-rkey’s culture, the K-rdish people are different than the Turkis-h. My favorite parts were experiencing the atmosphere of an eastern city and seeing ancient ruins. We saw some ancient Roman ruins. The best was a bridge spanning the Tigris River. The atmosphere of the city was different because it is predominantly a Kurdish city making it different. I noticed distinguishable differences in how the people looked and dressed. Everyone tried to help us and was very generous in giving us time a similarity I have enjoyed across Turkey . Wednesday night we walked by a very large crowd, over 5000 people, listening to a Kurdish speaker. I don’t know what it was about, but we did pr-y for it in the Wednesday night meeting and I felt that it displayed a difference in culture from other places in Turkey, like Istanbul. Religion and general reception of religious thought were a little different in this city. I can’t say if it is the different people group, but I do know that the culture is affected by the more traditional aspects of eastern Turkey and is also influenced by the size of the surrounding cities.
We arrived on Thursday tired after our 18-hour bus ride. We got to the church and found it to be very nice and comfortable. The Ch-rch in Diy-bakir is very large when taken in comparison to the other churches in Turk-y. They have over 100 members and are actively working to reach the surrounding community and area. It was so encouraging to arrive on Thursday and realize that in this eastern city, where the history is black with persecution, a church is beginning to grow.
We all spent Thursday afternoon resting and preparing for our next day. After dinner we had a team meeting and went to bed early. Friday morning we had a great time of worship together and went into our week on a great note. We had a short briefing on Diy-bakir and then went on a long tour of the city. The workers in Diy-bakir did a good job of preparing us for our week in the city and gave us all the necessary information. Friday evening we stayed at the church and went to bed ready for the next day of work around the church.
Saturday we spent the day cleaning the church and playing with the children from the neighborhood. We were able have a mini camp with over 50 children! The kids were really excited and happy to meet us and were very fun to be around. Saturday night we went to a bookstand and pr-ayer walked around it, while the Turkish Christ-ians handed out Scripture, over 100 Bibles were handed out! Saturday was a great day.
Sunday we went to a picnic with the rest of the church. We had arrived on the week of their fall celebration. We had a service in the park and many people noticed☺. After the service we played many games: dodge ball, soccer, and football. To top it all off we had a barbeque in the park with great chicken.
Monday was our day off, but it ended up being a workday. We had the people we met over the last couple of days over for dinner. My friend from our bus ride to Diyabakir came and I think he was impressed with our representation of Chr-stianity.
Tuesday was spent handing out literature and the others played worship music in the local park. At one point they had about 30 people around them. We handed out over 150 tracts. Tuesday was a successful day and we felt that it was well spent.
Wednesday we finished cleaning the church, went on a pr-ayer walk and some of our group went out and spent time with the friends we had made. I heard that they all listened to the Gospel and were receptive to conversation about religion. I went to a prayer meeting on Wednesday night and spent time with the other believers from Diyabakir. It was great to be around such passionate people.
It is Thursday now and we have spent the day in travel to Capp-dicea where we are doing tourist/hostel work. It is a very beautiful region. We will be staying here for 3 days and then to Kon-ya to do university ministry. Our time in Turkey has been great, but is fastly approaching its end.
Thank you for all of your pr-yers.
In His Love,
Travis
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Blog 4 (outreach)
Hello Everyone,
We are on a bus to Di-yabakir, a long 20 hour ride of relaxation ☺. I have been able to sleep a little, but have had plenty of time to reflect upon our second week in @ntalya. Ant@lya was much more western that the other cities that we have visited here. We were able to connect with some of the local people because of the diminished language barrier and openness to foreigners.
We started our second week in @ntalya on Wednesday, Oct. 7th. We got a great deal in a small hostel in the old town, (about 5 minutes from the harbor and 5 minutes from Hadrian’s Gate.) Wednesday we jumped right in and were able to meet some people at the beach. After our meeting these people I left and went back to our hostel. We had a long time of preparation in the morning and it was already evening. We separated and some of our team stayed back and spent the rest of the day in pr@yer, while some of us went out to explore the city and to meet more people. We shared our first day with one another over a long period of pr@yer and worship on Thursday morning. This time of preparation proved very important for our team. It gave us a foundation to witness from. Thursday I went to the beach and met some really nice students from Slovenia and Finland. We ended up staying out with them swimming in the Mediterranean until around 2 A.M., it was a great opportunity to establish relationships we arranged to meet with them the next day.
Friday morning we all awoke to another beautiful day we had our time in the morning in Pr@yer and shared testimonies from the day before. Like I said some of us met the students, while another went and helped at a Dutch school and found the children to be so happy and excited with her. ☺. We went into the day encouraged and ready. We helped the local workers set up an annual fundraiser and when we finished we all went with a friend of ours to dinner. This friend, Marvin, is the coolest guy. We saw him throughout our time in Ant@lya. He had some great stories and was willing to spend time with all of us and take us to some really cool places. For dinner on Friday night we ate in a tree house in the mountains above Ant@lya about 60 feet in the air! After dinner we drove back to a local bar where we thought there was live music. We met our friends from Slovenia there and ended up leaving because the atmosphere and music wasn’t very good. A couple of us stayed with them late into the night again and found opportunities to share. It was a great time. Saturday morning we all woke up at different times and went to help at the annual fundraiser. We spent the day helping and then the night was spent meeting new people and exploring the city. A couple of the team members were able to talk for quite awhile with a couple of locals from Ant@lya. Sunday morning we went to church (great to have a time to worship and pr@y). After church one of our team members met up with a woman she had met the week before and was able to share a lot with her. The rest of us went to a pizza place and spoke with the owner for hours until late at night. He was very interesting and we were able to share with him.
After our late nights we needed a day to rest and recuperate. We spent Monday exploring the city and doing our various activities (I slept and went running). Monday night I went back to the pizza place and spoke with the owner late into the night once again. I really liked speaking with this man he was a nice guy and was very open to peaceful conversation about religion. Tuesday I met a couple of tourists at the beach and spent about an hour with them. I told them what I believed and we spoke about belief for a while. They were very nice and actually were the ones to approach me.
Tuesday was our last day before Diyabak-ir I went around and said my goodbyes and we had a team recap time on Wednesday morning before the bus ride. We all felt that our open relational work in Ant@lya was a success and that we had made a significant impact. I was very encouraged by the whole week because our team worked very well together and we always did our work out of pr@yer. It was great to see God answer our pr@yers and help us to spread His Kingdom with love.
The Culture in Antalya was nothing like S0ke, but this week in Diyabak-ir I will definitely have many observations to share.
I hope that all of you are doing well.
In His Love,
Travis
We are on a bus to Di-yabakir, a long 20 hour ride of relaxation ☺. I have been able to sleep a little, but have had plenty of time to reflect upon our second week in @ntalya. Ant@lya was much more western that the other cities that we have visited here. We were able to connect with some of the local people because of the diminished language barrier and openness to foreigners.
We started our second week in @ntalya on Wednesday, Oct. 7th. We got a great deal in a small hostel in the old town, (about 5 minutes from the harbor and 5 minutes from Hadrian’s Gate.) Wednesday we jumped right in and were able to meet some people at the beach. After our meeting these people I left and went back to our hostel. We had a long time of preparation in the morning and it was already evening. We separated and some of our team stayed back and spent the rest of the day in pr@yer, while some of us went out to explore the city and to meet more people. We shared our first day with one another over a long period of pr@yer and worship on Thursday morning. This time of preparation proved very important for our team. It gave us a foundation to witness from. Thursday I went to the beach and met some really nice students from Slovenia and Finland. We ended up staying out with them swimming in the Mediterranean until around 2 A.M., it was a great opportunity to establish relationships we arranged to meet with them the next day.
Friday morning we all awoke to another beautiful day we had our time in the morning in Pr@yer and shared testimonies from the day before. Like I said some of us met the students, while another went and helped at a Dutch school and found the children to be so happy and excited with her. ☺. We went into the day encouraged and ready. We helped the local workers set up an annual fundraiser and when we finished we all went with a friend of ours to dinner. This friend, Marvin, is the coolest guy. We saw him throughout our time in Ant@lya. He had some great stories and was willing to spend time with all of us and take us to some really cool places. For dinner on Friday night we ate in a tree house in the mountains above Ant@lya about 60 feet in the air! After dinner we drove back to a local bar where we thought there was live music. We met our friends from Slovenia there and ended up leaving because the atmosphere and music wasn’t very good. A couple of us stayed with them late into the night again and found opportunities to share. It was a great time. Saturday morning we all woke up at different times and went to help at the annual fundraiser. We spent the day helping and then the night was spent meeting new people and exploring the city. A couple of the team members were able to talk for quite awhile with a couple of locals from Ant@lya. Sunday morning we went to church (great to have a time to worship and pr@y). After church one of our team members met up with a woman she had met the week before and was able to share a lot with her. The rest of us went to a pizza place and spoke with the owner for hours until late at night. He was very interesting and we were able to share with him.
After our late nights we needed a day to rest and recuperate. We spent Monday exploring the city and doing our various activities (I slept and went running). Monday night I went back to the pizza place and spoke with the owner late into the night once again. I really liked speaking with this man he was a nice guy and was very open to peaceful conversation about religion. Tuesday I met a couple of tourists at the beach and spent about an hour with them. I told them what I believed and we spoke about belief for a while. They were very nice and actually were the ones to approach me.
Tuesday was our last day before Diyabak-ir I went around and said my goodbyes and we had a team recap time on Wednesday morning before the bus ride. We all felt that our open relational work in Ant@lya was a success and that we had made a significant impact. I was very encouraged by the whole week because our team worked very well together and we always did our work out of pr@yer. It was great to see God answer our pr@yers and help us to spread His Kingdom with love.
The Culture in Antalya was nothing like S0ke, but this week in Diyabak-ir I will definitely have many observations to share.
I hope that all of you are doing well.
In His Love,
Travis
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Outreach Blog 3
Hello Everyone,
My team has just completed our first week in Ant@lya, T-rkey. We have 9 more days here and then we will be heading onto Diy@rbakir. Ant@lya is a place with many workers, or at least many workers compared to all the other places in T-rkey. I think there are about 100 workers here in Ant@lya and they have a few churches running through a local center. We have been blessed by a couple from Minnesota they have provided a great place for us to stay for the last 7 days and will house us for the next two days. These two have kept us busy, well fed and rested. It has been great to have someone helping us with planning while we’ve been here. Our host also has two cookbooks and cooked some great food from home ☺ it has been very nice.
Monday we arrived at their home and rested for about 3 hours and had our briefing and tour of the city. After this we had a pr-yer meeting with about 100 other Christi@ns in the area at the local center. The meeting was great and I felt so blessed and cared for because we were able to start our week on a great note. The Lord has been taking care of us as His children and is providing for us as a team. After the pr-yer meeting on Monday night we all crashed at the house, none of us had slept much the night before on the bus ride. (I have an excuse for my last update, I wrote it at 4 a.m.). Tuesday morning we woke up to a great T-rkish breakfast and to a comfortable morning of time as a team and in devotion to our Lord. Our team was able to encourage one another and grow together through a great time together. After our time together we started our work. We went on a scavenger hunt in the afternoon. This scavenger hunt entailed 3 teams of 2. The winner was to receive a prize so we all went out with high hopes. We did this to learn our way around the bus system and as a ministry. The teams went to the mall across town, the police station even farther across town, and my partner and I went to a local tourist place “the waterfalls”. We were told to take pictures of various things: camels, waterfalls, buses, people, and stores. We took all of the pictures and fulfilled our other requirements by talking with 3 people and listening to them, while telling them about what we were doing. We were able to pr-y for a man. Lastly, we all were supposed to do a pr-yer walk around a school or mosque, well everyone did, but we didn’t. We had trouble finding one. Most of us spent about 4-5 hours and arrived back at the house around 7, except for Jon and Clayton who got lost and then took advantage of their position to jump in the Mediterranean and to talk with many people. Wednesday morning we woke up and shared our stories, It was fun to hear about the different ways that the Lord used our team just in a simple game like this (we all received a prize of a chocolate stirring spoon.). We all had a chance to do something significant by our faith. After our time of sharing in the morning we had another team time it was a great preparation for our day on the town doing work by pr-yer and faith. We all went out and focused upon pr-yer and intentional sharing with those we could talk too. Some went to the park and played Frisbee and played worship music (I hear that everyone was interested in what they did.). Jon, Clayton and I went to the beach in an attitude of prayer and I was encouraged by a time we had with two Iranian men. We were able to bond; you know guy stuff, burying each other in the sand…so on. I learned a lot during that day about always being in an attitude of prayer and how important it is to have the Lord’s purposes on mind throughout the day. Wednesday was special to me because as I was swimming in the Mediterranean (for the first time!) I had revelation into how many ways we can worship our Lord throughout the day. Wednesday night I attended a Bible study. It turned out to only be me with the worker from Minnesota. I was happy to have this night because I think that we both enjoyed each other’s company and we were able to encourage one another and have a nice night together. One of the intentional ways that my team works here is by encouraging the workers that we stay with. We want to help those we are with. Wednesday was a great day.
Thursday morning we all awoke to a day of pray-r walking with another worker from Minnesota (not the ones we are staying with), it is so nice to see people from home here. We started the day with another great breakfast, Biscuits and gravy! After our very nutritious breakfast we went into a team time and devotion in preparation for our day. The worker arrived and we went with her to the part of @ntalya with the University. A goal of the workers here is to cover the entire city with prayer, walking on every street. I spent the morning walking around the streets by the university with my teammate. After this initial pr-yer walk we had a meeting and then went onto the housing side of the streets and I was teamed up with the worker. We went around and lifted up the students and asked for freedom from the many oppressive spirits in the area. Halfway through we had a hotel highlighted to us and we decided to go in. We went in and got to spend about 45 minutes practicing English with a beautiful, energetic and smart little girl. We were able to talk with 6 women and Eda, the little girl, sang for us and we were invited back to spend time with Eda. It was really cool because I know the worker will be able to spend time with her and hopefully get a chance to tell her the Gospel. It was a productive day and we all went back to our house happy and ready to rest and get ready for Friday. Friday morning we woke up early and went to a workers home to help with practical work. I did some fencing for him, organized some outdoor equipment, and scrubbed his front patio and walk. I know that we really helped him and his wife and as he put it, “we did months of work for them.” He also shared some of their stories and really encouraged us in what we are doing. Friday night my team went to a T-rkish youth service and encouraged those who were there. I remained at the house and finished our financial budget. Saturday morning we woke up to another beautiful day and time together as a team. We all were preparing for the pr-yer meeting during the afternoon. We meant many T-rk-sh believers for a meeting in the afternoon and attended mainly to support their church. After this meeting my friends and I went to some cliffs and cliff jumped into the Mediterranean. It was so much fun. There were caves to swim in and we got to jump while the sun was painting the sky red and orange over the mountains. It was a great night. We returned to the house and went to a party that our hosts were holding for the Minnesota and Wisconsin college football game. There was real American pizza, cool people, and we even went go carting later into the night. We got to spend time with a man who is attending the church in Ant@lya while his yachts are being worked on. He is a captain for a fleet of yachts and he is also a pilot. This man was fun to listen to and we spent the night go carting with him too. Saturday night was great. After a short sleep we woke up and helped with church. We were the worship team for the international service on Sunday morning. It was great. Now I have spent this afternoon resting and getting ready for our next week of work.
I am very thankful for the great weather here and I have seen our team growing together. It has been great. I also am very thankful that we have been able to learn and work for our Lord in this past week. I know that He is helping us and we are making an impact. Thank you all for your prayers.
I hope that everything is going well at home and I really enjoy reading any of the updates you send.
In Christ’s Love,
Travis
My team has just completed our first week in Ant@lya, T-rkey. We have 9 more days here and then we will be heading onto Diy@rbakir. Ant@lya is a place with many workers, or at least many workers compared to all the other places in T-rkey. I think there are about 100 workers here in Ant@lya and they have a few churches running through a local center. We have been blessed by a couple from Minnesota they have provided a great place for us to stay for the last 7 days and will house us for the next two days. These two have kept us busy, well fed and rested. It has been great to have someone helping us with planning while we’ve been here. Our host also has two cookbooks and cooked some great food from home ☺ it has been very nice.
Monday we arrived at their home and rested for about 3 hours and had our briefing and tour of the city. After this we had a pr-yer meeting with about 100 other Christi@ns in the area at the local center. The meeting was great and I felt so blessed and cared for because we were able to start our week on a great note. The Lord has been taking care of us as His children and is providing for us as a team. After the pr-yer meeting on Monday night we all crashed at the house, none of us had slept much the night before on the bus ride. (I have an excuse for my last update, I wrote it at 4 a.m.). Tuesday morning we woke up to a great T-rkish breakfast and to a comfortable morning of time as a team and in devotion to our Lord. Our team was able to encourage one another and grow together through a great time together. After our time together we started our work. We went on a scavenger hunt in the afternoon. This scavenger hunt entailed 3 teams of 2. The winner was to receive a prize so we all went out with high hopes. We did this to learn our way around the bus system and as a ministry. The teams went to the mall across town, the police station even farther across town, and my partner and I went to a local tourist place “the waterfalls”. We were told to take pictures of various things: camels, waterfalls, buses, people, and stores. We took all of the pictures and fulfilled our other requirements by talking with 3 people and listening to them, while telling them about what we were doing. We were able to pr-y for a man. Lastly, we all were supposed to do a pr-yer walk around a school or mosque, well everyone did, but we didn’t. We had trouble finding one. Most of us spent about 4-5 hours and arrived back at the house around 7, except for Jon and Clayton who got lost and then took advantage of their position to jump in the Mediterranean and to talk with many people. Wednesday morning we woke up and shared our stories, It was fun to hear about the different ways that the Lord used our team just in a simple game like this (we all received a prize of a chocolate stirring spoon.). We all had a chance to do something significant by our faith. After our time of sharing in the morning we had another team time it was a great preparation for our day on the town doing work by pr-yer and faith. We all went out and focused upon pr-yer and intentional sharing with those we could talk too. Some went to the park and played Frisbee and played worship music (I hear that everyone was interested in what they did.). Jon, Clayton and I went to the beach in an attitude of prayer and I was encouraged by a time we had with two Iranian men. We were able to bond; you know guy stuff, burying each other in the sand…so on. I learned a lot during that day about always being in an attitude of prayer and how important it is to have the Lord’s purposes on mind throughout the day. Wednesday was special to me because as I was swimming in the Mediterranean (for the first time!) I had revelation into how many ways we can worship our Lord throughout the day. Wednesday night I attended a Bible study. It turned out to only be me with the worker from Minnesota. I was happy to have this night because I think that we both enjoyed each other’s company and we were able to encourage one another and have a nice night together. One of the intentional ways that my team works here is by encouraging the workers that we stay with. We want to help those we are with. Wednesday was a great day.
Thursday morning we all awoke to a day of pray-r walking with another worker from Minnesota (not the ones we are staying with), it is so nice to see people from home here. We started the day with another great breakfast, Biscuits and gravy! After our very nutritious breakfast we went into a team time and devotion in preparation for our day. The worker arrived and we went with her to the part of @ntalya with the University. A goal of the workers here is to cover the entire city with prayer, walking on every street. I spent the morning walking around the streets by the university with my teammate. After this initial pr-yer walk we had a meeting and then went onto the housing side of the streets and I was teamed up with the worker. We went around and lifted up the students and asked for freedom from the many oppressive spirits in the area. Halfway through we had a hotel highlighted to us and we decided to go in. We went in and got to spend about 45 minutes practicing English with a beautiful, energetic and smart little girl. We were able to talk with 6 women and Eda, the little girl, sang for us and we were invited back to spend time with Eda. It was really cool because I know the worker will be able to spend time with her and hopefully get a chance to tell her the Gospel. It was a productive day and we all went back to our house happy and ready to rest and get ready for Friday. Friday morning we woke up early and went to a workers home to help with practical work. I did some fencing for him, organized some outdoor equipment, and scrubbed his front patio and walk. I know that we really helped him and his wife and as he put it, “we did months of work for them.” He also shared some of their stories and really encouraged us in what we are doing. Friday night my team went to a T-rkish youth service and encouraged those who were there. I remained at the house and finished our financial budget. Saturday morning we woke up to another beautiful day and time together as a team. We all were preparing for the pr-yer meeting during the afternoon. We meant many T-rk-sh believers for a meeting in the afternoon and attended mainly to support their church. After this meeting my friends and I went to some cliffs and cliff jumped into the Mediterranean. It was so much fun. There were caves to swim in and we got to jump while the sun was painting the sky red and orange over the mountains. It was a great night. We returned to the house and went to a party that our hosts were holding for the Minnesota and Wisconsin college football game. There was real American pizza, cool people, and we even went go carting later into the night. We got to spend time with a man who is attending the church in Ant@lya while his yachts are being worked on. He is a captain for a fleet of yachts and he is also a pilot. This man was fun to listen to and we spent the night go carting with him too. Saturday night was great. After a short sleep we woke up and helped with church. We were the worship team for the international service on Sunday morning. It was great. Now I have spent this afternoon resting and getting ready for our next week of work.
I am very thankful for the great weather here and I have seen our team growing together. It has been great. I also am very thankful that we have been able to learn and work for our Lord in this past week. I know that He is helping us and we are making an impact. Thank you all for your prayers.
I hope that everything is going well at home and I really enjoy reading any of the updates you send.
In Christ’s Love,
Travis
Monday, September 28, 2009
Blog 3 (outreach)
Hello,
My second journal will focus upon my second-third week in S0ke, T-rkey. I had many opportunities to learn during the nine days spent in S0ke. It was a once in a lifetime experience for me.
I will start by explaining my anticipation of this time. I was told that these weeks would be the most cross-cultural weeks of our trip and would present many opportunities and challenges. I anticipated a hard and eye-opening experience and was apprehensive of the potential difficulties. I was worried, but I knew that I had been doing all I could do to prepare for this.
I prepared by learning different ways that I could respect the people while here. I researched the norms of T-rkish culture: basics of the language, religion, family life, hospitality, friendship, history of the people and other general norms. I focused on the language because I wanted to be able to learn from the people here. Now, in T-rkey, I have been intentionally placing myself in the position of a student because the past two months have made me aware of the box that I use when I encounter something I don’t understand. I subconsciously constrict people as inferior to myself. This judgment shows my pride and fear of people who might know something that I don’t. I have been working hard to break these constricting judgments. I know that in judgment I limit my own ability to be a man of peace and understanding. I spend time in prayer and have been journaling about my experiences with a goal of understanding and valuing people who are different than me. These preparations have proven very important in the small city of S0ke, T-rkey
S0ke has been specifically challenging because of all the cultures I am around. The workers that we are with are very dynamic and different than what I am used to. The mom is from Uruguay, the dad from Germany and the kids are being raised in an isolated place of traditional T-rkish culture. We arrived Nine days ago and have gone on a crash course of culture.
We started right away on Friday night. We went out to see the town in our respectful clothing (women in long skirts and men dressed nicely), we were looked at in ways that would be slightly inappropriate in western culture and learned about life in a traditional T-rkish town. We arrived at the one small church and found four M-slim men, one whose wife had been recently converted to Christi@nity. It was our first day and to see M-slim men step foot in a church is remarkable. We all greeted in the normal way of touching cheeks and kissing the hands of the elderly, upon sitting we all had our tea and time of socializing. We are learning the unique ways of visiting. In the course of conversation we told our f@ith and explained that we can sing to our L0rd. The men wanted to hear us sing so we did. We had a whole w0rship time for about forty-five minutes and were able to experience the H0ly Spirit in the room. I learned a lot about the r-ligion these men held and learned that one had experienced a dream of J-sus and had seen fire on his head. They had come to the church because of these dreams and also because the man’s wife was urging her husband to come to the f@ith. I have been hearing about this dream frequently over the course of the last months. I hear that many M-slims experience dreams of J-sus over R@madan. I know that our L0rd is hearing our pr-yers and it is awesome to hear such amazing testimonies to our L0rd’s grace.
Saturday morning came and we all awoke to our usual 4:30 A.M. alarm clock, the call to pr@yer. This experience in itself sets the day of on a surreal note that screams, “You are not at home here!” After our morning devotion and worship time we spent the day in pryer and in preparation for the week to come. We prepared for the service we were to have on Sunday and we learned some more about respecting the people, proper ways to enter a household, respecting elders, and respect r-ligion…Etc. The end of Ram@dan was on Sunday and we were preparing to visit about 6 houses. Saturday was a really good day our team really came together in unity.
Sunday morning came and we went to our first house and met a very nice and hospitable family. We spoke about our homes and I observed many statements of friendship and words like I love you as common to visitors. We had learned that the religion of Isl@m values guests highly and requires hospitality. I also know that the culture is relationship based partly because m-slim people believe that all things rely on fate. Thus, there is not a point to living a fast paced life, or at least one that is on a timed schedule, no need to rush a conversation, or a visit. We left our first household with many pleasantries and spent the afternoon visiting four more households. I observed different ways that people view this holiday and I also noticed that some men allowed their wives to shake our hands and some did not, the women were always serving us and the men did nothing. The common topics of conversation were food, our homes, T-rkey, r-ligion, sport etc… Everything was mainly based upon entertaining us. We never had a chance to do our service that we planned, but we did conclude the evening with a lot of singing, prayer and encouragement for our host family and for a lonely local believer. Learning a lot here. The hospitality is inspiring and I love the respect that people show one another, but there is an underlying tension in places.
Monday morning we all awoke with an excitement. We went to see Eph-esus and had a day of rest. I sang “praise G-d from whom all Blessings Flow” in the Ancient ruins of the theater (ep-esus) in front of about 200 people☺. After seeing some of the places that Paul and other apostl-s walked we read Ephesians and Acts and went to visit the Ap-stle John’s Grave. I thought that the place were John was buried was remarkable, very pretty on a hill with many ruins to look at. We finished our much-needed day at a beach swimming in the Aegean.
Tuesday the women went to do home visits with the woman who already works in S0oke and the men worked at the church and then went to do a home visit in the afternoon. I think that we were all very blessed by these visits. Many people opened up to us and we were able to give testimony to our f@ith in every place. I know that we were opening doors for the existing workers. We also learned a lot about the culture and I learned about how to communicate and present myself in a respectful way. I understand some of the T-rkish politics and topics of conversation now. We were also able to play basketball with a member of the Turkish team. It was a great experience and I felt that we made a good friendship with the man we played with.
Wednesday morning we had our usual pr@yer and worhip time and spent time interceding for the work that is being done in T-rkey and also for our teams from Y--A-M through the world. After this time we went to the local park and started our work for the day: pr@yer walking, serving donuts and handing out tracts. We were able to hand out over 500 tracks with the 500 plates of donuts that we served the people of S0ke. It was a great day!
Thursday we spent the day working at the chrch and doing home visits. We spent the day as we did Tuesday. We went to the poor part of town and I was saddened by the way people had to live. We met a man who shared his testimony with us and we prayed for him. I had been looking forward to Thursday night. We planned on going to meet the m-slim men that we had first met on Friday. We went to the Christi@n women’s house (the one who had just been converted) and I found the men to be good company they even gave us a barbecue. We shared our testimonies with them and others who had arrived about 10 in all. We also had a time of w0rship and spent time in pr@yer for the people in the room. I believe that the L-rd used us to plant seeds that will grow and bring people to our faith. (I also ate from a fig tree for the first time, it was great!) We arrived back late at night and crashed.
Friday morning we spent the day doing home visits and then we all worked on the church. We also had our daily devotion and prayer time as a team. Friday night we went to visit the family of the only local believer. I asked the father of this woman if he liked to fish and immediately he said yes and asked, “if I’d like to sleep over and go fishing with him the next day.” (All through the translation of the local workers). I jumped on the opportunity and gladly said, yes. I was in for an adventure. Friday night passed very well. I was able to share the whole g0spel with the family and gave my testimony. After everyone had left on Friday night I stayed up late with the father and mother playing bakgammon, this game is extremely popular here and I was outmatched to say the least.
Saturday morning I woke up to another sunny day (it has been perfect blue sky weather here since we arrived 15 days ago.) I went with the man and we drove about an hour away to his friend’s place where we picked up a muslim woman her husband and their grandchildren. We spent about an hour at their house where they all spoke with one another and I just smiled and silently said pr-yers. After this time of visiting we went to a local fishing spot and got their nets (200 M.) and took a row-boat around a small bay. We caught many small fish and kept them all. I saw the ancient palace of King Mileto’s on the way back to the man’s house where I learned to clean and cook the fish. We had a quick dinner and then the local worker picked me up. As you can imagine it was a tough day because we couldn’t speak to one another, but at the same time was a great day and one I will not forget. I was told the time I spent with this man and his wife was a great witness and was rewarded by their arrival at our church the next day. After I was picked up on Saturday night we went straight to another home and visited the family friends of our workers (m-slim family).
Sunday morning we got up and prepared for our 2:00 service. We also looked forward to the goodbye barbecue that the workers had for us. The church service went well and we were able to give worship and testimony to about 15 people. We finished last minute work at the church. I spent the afternoon cleaning the small fish and cooked them for the visitors we had. After our barbecue of pork ☺ we left on the bus for Antaly@ at 11:00 P.M. and arrived safely here to a warm welcome from the workers in this city.
Everything is going well. We are doing lots of good work and have been given many blessings as we’ve been here. Thank you for your prayers. I miss you.
In Christ’s Love,
Travis
Hey everybody. This is our blog from week #2.
Saturday we had a short orientation and went over the schedule of the week with our new contacts. The majority of the day was spent preparing for the next day, which was the end of R@madan celebrations as well as the church service. That night we heard the sound of the m0sques at sunset signaling the end of R@madan. The streets went totally quiet as everyone hurried inside to gorge himself. Ironically, though no one eats from sunrise to sunset, 60% more food is consumed during the month of R@madan. Sunday we did many house visits. The celebration called B@yram is like Christm@s/Th@nksgiving/H@lloween. Families reunite from all over the country as they feast at the end of a day of door-to-door candy collecting. It was incredible to go into a city as short-termers and go straight into the Mus1im households to talk as friends with them. These workers have been laying their lives down to build these foundations for years and we were able to just walk in there and experience and build upon it. But, the Trks are incredibly hospitable and every single household we went into was armed with tea/coffee and biscuits/baklava. None of us ever thought we would be tired of baklava until then…The original intention was to hold the chrch service in the evening the service is based on the schedule of the people, who were spending the day with their families, so we had to just cancel the service altogether.
The atmosphere in S0ke was different than the other two cities. It is not a tourist town at all. One man of sixty we met had never even left the city and most people, when we told them we were staying in S0ke for nine days, gave us a big fat “What! Why?” We were having a very cultural experience as we stayed with two workers, one from Germ@ny (Hug0) and his wife from Urugu@y (M@ria). We are also getting a very good picture of Trkish customs and values in the house visits. It was also very interesting to just see how you greet, serve, and converse with guests.
Monday was a highlight of most of our lives. We took a bus to go see the ancient city of Ephesus and the burial place of the Apostle John. The historical relevance for us is obvious; we will never read the Bib1e the same; just seeing the places where the Apostle Paul walked and wrote much of the Bib1e NT letters was an experience that you can only know by experience. Ephesus took a full three hours to explore, as it was a center of trade and re1igion for centuries and is still remarkably large and well kept. There used to be a cathedral over 5t. John’s grave, not five minutes from Ephesus, but it is long since fallen into ruins. There is a castle as well, though we were not able to go in. After a morning of exploring and pondering, it was nice when we went to a beach town called Kush@disi on the Aege@n coast to spend the rest of the afternoon playing in the sea and laying in the sun. The following day was spent doing work projects on the chrch and visits to more friends. We feel it is so valuable to help the existing workers by doing more work in one day than they could do in a month and by building relationships with their friends.
Another day we hired a bakery to bring their dough and some hot oil and make doughnuts in the park for us. As we passed out free doughnuts, we also handed them a piece of paper with, for many people, their first ever scrıpture. Over 500 people came that day. After that we were able to experience the local market, which had most everyone in the town there. It was a huge canopy under which there were hundreds of little shops with everything you would ever want to buy…. we were able to practice the art of haggling and get a weeks worth of groceries for less than the daily cost of eating in restaurants.
Thursday we spent the day working at the chrch and doing home visits. We went to the poor part of town and were saddened by the way people had to live. We met a man who shared his testimony with us and we pryed for him. We planned on going to meet the Mus1im men that we had first met on Friday. We went to the Christi@n women’s house (the one who had just been converted). We shared our testimonies with them and others who had arrived, about ten in all. We also had a time of w0rship and spent time in pr@yer for the people in the room. I believe that the L0rd used us to plant seeds that night…
On the last days we were able to paint the children’s room in the chrch, put in a gutter system on the roof, do some landscaping, build a cover for the baptismal, and bless and pr@y for the workers. The last day we did the chrch service and had a sausage sizzle (BBQ) all together. They actually had bratwurst brought over from Germ@ny to cook with! For all of us, any pork is a huge treat.
It is amazing how we have started to assimilate to the culture. Most of the time we don’t even notice the five-time-a-day pr@yer call, our mannerisms and gestures are becoming more Trkish, and other things that at first seemed totally foreign and different are becoming more comfortable. As we learn more about this culture with our own, we are able to view our own culture with a more critical eye and compare the underlying assumptions of our own cultures and the Trkish culture against the Bib1e.
We as a team have taken some key steps to enjoying each other, making sacrifices, serving, and using our giftings to contribute to the group and the work being done. We also did some real bonding in the Hamams (Trkısh bath house!!). The guys went on Wednesday and the ladies on Saturday. If you don’t know what this is, Google it. It was just amazing. We also value our morning team devotions very much as we are able to pr@y for each other, wrship, do a devotion, and intercede every day. It is also just a time to debrief and tell what we are feeling and how we are doing.
Overall, these 9 days ın Soke have been a time of two-way encouragement between our team and the workers. They are simply inspirational in their commitment in the long-haul and we were able to bless them with our pr@yers and work. Thank you for your prayers and support. Love and blessings!
-TTT
PS. For those of you who want to see photos, please befrıend Jesse Coffee and Jonathan Godsey and check out theır photo albums!
My second journal will focus upon my second-third week in S0ke, T-rkey. I had many opportunities to learn during the nine days spent in S0ke. It was a once in a lifetime experience for me.
I will start by explaining my anticipation of this time. I was told that these weeks would be the most cross-cultural weeks of our trip and would present many opportunities and challenges. I anticipated a hard and eye-opening experience and was apprehensive of the potential difficulties. I was worried, but I knew that I had been doing all I could do to prepare for this.
I prepared by learning different ways that I could respect the people while here. I researched the norms of T-rkish culture: basics of the language, religion, family life, hospitality, friendship, history of the people and other general norms. I focused on the language because I wanted to be able to learn from the people here. Now, in T-rkey, I have been intentionally placing myself in the position of a student because the past two months have made me aware of the box that I use when I encounter something I don’t understand. I subconsciously constrict people as inferior to myself. This judgment shows my pride and fear of people who might know something that I don’t. I have been working hard to break these constricting judgments. I know that in judgment I limit my own ability to be a man of peace and understanding. I spend time in prayer and have been journaling about my experiences with a goal of understanding and valuing people who are different than me. These preparations have proven very important in the small city of S0ke, T-rkey
S0ke has been specifically challenging because of all the cultures I am around. The workers that we are with are very dynamic and different than what I am used to. The mom is from Uruguay, the dad from Germany and the kids are being raised in an isolated place of traditional T-rkish culture. We arrived Nine days ago and have gone on a crash course of culture.
We started right away on Friday night. We went out to see the town in our respectful clothing (women in long skirts and men dressed nicely), we were looked at in ways that would be slightly inappropriate in western culture and learned about life in a traditional T-rkish town. We arrived at the one small church and found four M-slim men, one whose wife had been recently converted to Christi@nity. It was our first day and to see M-slim men step foot in a church is remarkable. We all greeted in the normal way of touching cheeks and kissing the hands of the elderly, upon sitting we all had our tea and time of socializing. We are learning the unique ways of visiting. In the course of conversation we told our f@ith and explained that we can sing to our L0rd. The men wanted to hear us sing so we did. We had a whole w0rship time for about forty-five minutes and were able to experience the H0ly Spirit in the room. I learned a lot about the r-ligion these men held and learned that one had experienced a dream of J-sus and had seen fire on his head. They had come to the church because of these dreams and also because the man’s wife was urging her husband to come to the f@ith. I have been hearing about this dream frequently over the course of the last months. I hear that many M-slims experience dreams of J-sus over R@madan. I know that our L0rd is hearing our pr-yers and it is awesome to hear such amazing testimonies to our L0rd’s grace.
Saturday morning came and we all awoke to our usual 4:30 A.M. alarm clock, the call to pr@yer. This experience in itself sets the day of on a surreal note that screams, “You are not at home here!” After our morning devotion and worship time we spent the day in pryer and in preparation for the week to come. We prepared for the service we were to have on Sunday and we learned some more about respecting the people, proper ways to enter a household, respecting elders, and respect r-ligion…Etc. The end of Ram@dan was on Sunday and we were preparing to visit about 6 houses. Saturday was a really good day our team really came together in unity.
Sunday morning came and we went to our first house and met a very nice and hospitable family. We spoke about our homes and I observed many statements of friendship and words like I love you as common to visitors. We had learned that the religion of Isl@m values guests highly and requires hospitality. I also know that the culture is relationship based partly because m-slim people believe that all things rely on fate. Thus, there is not a point to living a fast paced life, or at least one that is on a timed schedule, no need to rush a conversation, or a visit. We left our first household with many pleasantries and spent the afternoon visiting four more households. I observed different ways that people view this holiday and I also noticed that some men allowed their wives to shake our hands and some did not, the women were always serving us and the men did nothing. The common topics of conversation were food, our homes, T-rkey, r-ligion, sport etc… Everything was mainly based upon entertaining us. We never had a chance to do our service that we planned, but we did conclude the evening with a lot of singing, prayer and encouragement for our host family and for a lonely local believer. Learning a lot here. The hospitality is inspiring and I love the respect that people show one another, but there is an underlying tension in places.
Monday morning we all awoke with an excitement. We went to see Eph-esus and had a day of rest. I sang “praise G-d from whom all Blessings Flow” in the Ancient ruins of the theater (ep-esus) in front of about 200 people☺. After seeing some of the places that Paul and other apostl-s walked we read Ephesians and Acts and went to visit the Ap-stle John’s Grave. I thought that the place were John was buried was remarkable, very pretty on a hill with many ruins to look at. We finished our much-needed day at a beach swimming in the Aegean.
Tuesday the women went to do home visits with the woman who already works in S0oke and the men worked at the church and then went to do a home visit in the afternoon. I think that we were all very blessed by these visits. Many people opened up to us and we were able to give testimony to our f@ith in every place. I know that we were opening doors for the existing workers. We also learned a lot about the culture and I learned about how to communicate and present myself in a respectful way. I understand some of the T-rkish politics and topics of conversation now. We were also able to play basketball with a member of the Turkish team. It was a great experience and I felt that we made a good friendship with the man we played with.
Wednesday morning we had our usual pr@yer and worhip time and spent time interceding for the work that is being done in T-rkey and also for our teams from Y--A-M through the world. After this time we went to the local park and started our work for the day: pr@yer walking, serving donuts and handing out tracts. We were able to hand out over 500 tracks with the 500 plates of donuts that we served the people of S0ke. It was a great day!
Thursday we spent the day working at the chrch and doing home visits. We spent the day as we did Tuesday. We went to the poor part of town and I was saddened by the way people had to live. We met a man who shared his testimony with us and we prayed for him. I had been looking forward to Thursday night. We planned on going to meet the m-slim men that we had first met on Friday. We went to the Christi@n women’s house (the one who had just been converted) and I found the men to be good company they even gave us a barbecue. We shared our testimonies with them and others who had arrived about 10 in all. We also had a time of w0rship and spent time in pr@yer for the people in the room. I believe that the L-rd used us to plant seeds that will grow and bring people to our faith. (I also ate from a fig tree for the first time, it was great!) We arrived back late at night and crashed.
Friday morning we spent the day doing home visits and then we all worked on the church. We also had our daily devotion and prayer time as a team. Friday night we went to visit the family of the only local believer. I asked the father of this woman if he liked to fish and immediately he said yes and asked, “if I’d like to sleep over and go fishing with him the next day.” (All through the translation of the local workers). I jumped on the opportunity and gladly said, yes. I was in for an adventure. Friday night passed very well. I was able to share the whole g0spel with the family and gave my testimony. After everyone had left on Friday night I stayed up late with the father and mother playing bakgammon, this game is extremely popular here and I was outmatched to say the least.
Saturday morning I woke up to another sunny day (it has been perfect blue sky weather here since we arrived 15 days ago.) I went with the man and we drove about an hour away to his friend’s place where we picked up a muslim woman her husband and their grandchildren. We spent about an hour at their house where they all spoke with one another and I just smiled and silently said pr-yers. After this time of visiting we went to a local fishing spot and got their nets (200 M.) and took a row-boat around a small bay. We caught many small fish and kept them all. I saw the ancient palace of King Mileto’s on the way back to the man’s house where I learned to clean and cook the fish. We had a quick dinner and then the local worker picked me up. As you can imagine it was a tough day because we couldn’t speak to one another, but at the same time was a great day and one I will not forget. I was told the time I spent with this man and his wife was a great witness and was rewarded by their arrival at our church the next day. After I was picked up on Saturday night we went straight to another home and visited the family friends of our workers (m-slim family).
Sunday morning we got up and prepared for our 2:00 service. We also looked forward to the goodbye barbecue that the workers had for us. The church service went well and we were able to give worship and testimony to about 15 people. We finished last minute work at the church. I spent the afternoon cleaning the small fish and cooked them for the visitors we had. After our barbecue of pork ☺ we left on the bus for Antaly@ at 11:00 P.M. and arrived safely here to a warm welcome from the workers in this city.
Everything is going well. We are doing lots of good work and have been given many blessings as we’ve been here. Thank you for your prayers. I miss you.
In Christ’s Love,
Travis
Hey everybody. This is our blog from week #2.
Saturday we had a short orientation and went over the schedule of the week with our new contacts. The majority of the day was spent preparing for the next day, which was the end of R@madan celebrations as well as the church service. That night we heard the sound of the m0sques at sunset signaling the end of R@madan. The streets went totally quiet as everyone hurried inside to gorge himself. Ironically, though no one eats from sunrise to sunset, 60% more food is consumed during the month of R@madan. Sunday we did many house visits. The celebration called B@yram is like Christm@s/Th@nksgiving/H@lloween. Families reunite from all over the country as they feast at the end of a day of door-to-door candy collecting. It was incredible to go into a city as short-termers and go straight into the Mus1im households to talk as friends with them. These workers have been laying their lives down to build these foundations for years and we were able to just walk in there and experience and build upon it. But, the Trks are incredibly hospitable and every single household we went into was armed with tea/coffee and biscuits/baklava. None of us ever thought we would be tired of baklava until then…The original intention was to hold the chrch service in the evening the service is based on the schedule of the people, who were spending the day with their families, so we had to just cancel the service altogether.
The atmosphere in S0ke was different than the other two cities. It is not a tourist town at all. One man of sixty we met had never even left the city and most people, when we told them we were staying in S0ke for nine days, gave us a big fat “What! Why?” We were having a very cultural experience as we stayed with two workers, one from Germ@ny (Hug0) and his wife from Urugu@y (M@ria). We are also getting a very good picture of Trkish customs and values in the house visits. It was also very interesting to just see how you greet, serve, and converse with guests.
Monday was a highlight of most of our lives. We took a bus to go see the ancient city of Ephesus and the burial place of the Apostle John. The historical relevance for us is obvious; we will never read the Bib1e the same; just seeing the places where the Apostle Paul walked and wrote much of the Bib1e NT letters was an experience that you can only know by experience. Ephesus took a full three hours to explore, as it was a center of trade and re1igion for centuries and is still remarkably large and well kept. There used to be a cathedral over 5t. John’s grave, not five minutes from Ephesus, but it is long since fallen into ruins. There is a castle as well, though we were not able to go in. After a morning of exploring and pondering, it was nice when we went to a beach town called Kush@disi on the Aege@n coast to spend the rest of the afternoon playing in the sea and laying in the sun. The following day was spent doing work projects on the chrch and visits to more friends. We feel it is so valuable to help the existing workers by doing more work in one day than they could do in a month and by building relationships with their friends.
Another day we hired a bakery to bring their dough and some hot oil and make doughnuts in the park for us. As we passed out free doughnuts, we also handed them a piece of paper with, for many people, their first ever scrıpture. Over 500 people came that day. After that we were able to experience the local market, which had most everyone in the town there. It was a huge canopy under which there were hundreds of little shops with everything you would ever want to buy…. we were able to practice the art of haggling and get a weeks worth of groceries for less than the daily cost of eating in restaurants.
Thursday we spent the day working at the chrch and doing home visits. We went to the poor part of town and were saddened by the way people had to live. We met a man who shared his testimony with us and we pryed for him. We planned on going to meet the Mus1im men that we had first met on Friday. We went to the Christi@n women’s house (the one who had just been converted). We shared our testimonies with them and others who had arrived, about ten in all. We also had a time of w0rship and spent time in pr@yer for the people in the room. I believe that the L0rd used us to plant seeds that night…
On the last days we were able to paint the children’s room in the chrch, put in a gutter system on the roof, do some landscaping, build a cover for the baptismal, and bless and pr@y for the workers. The last day we did the chrch service and had a sausage sizzle (BBQ) all together. They actually had bratwurst brought over from Germ@ny to cook with! For all of us, any pork is a huge treat.
It is amazing how we have started to assimilate to the culture. Most of the time we don’t even notice the five-time-a-day pr@yer call, our mannerisms and gestures are becoming more Trkish, and other things that at first seemed totally foreign and different are becoming more comfortable. As we learn more about this culture with our own, we are able to view our own culture with a more critical eye and compare the underlying assumptions of our own cultures and the Trkish culture against the Bib1e.
We as a team have taken some key steps to enjoying each other, making sacrifices, serving, and using our giftings to contribute to the group and the work being done. We also did some real bonding in the Hamams (Trkısh bath house!!). The guys went on Wednesday and the ladies on Saturday. If you don’t know what this is, Google it. It was just amazing. We also value our morning team devotions very much as we are able to pr@y for each other, wrship, do a devotion, and intercede every day. It is also just a time to debrief and tell what we are feeling and how we are doing.
Overall, these 9 days ın Soke have been a time of two-way encouragement between our team and the workers. They are simply inspirational in their commitment in the long-haul and we were able to bless them with our pr@yers and work. Thank you for your prayers and support. Love and blessings!
-TTT
PS. For those of you who want to see photos, please befrıend Jesse Coffee and Jonathan Godsey and check out theır photo albums!
Blog 2 (outreach)
Hello Everyone,
I am writing from S-oke. We are staying with workers here this week and will be able to do quite a bit of practical work for our goals. I am really encouraged by the fruit we have already been seeing in our work.
On Sunday night we arrived in I-stanbul and were able to stay in a 20 ytl a night hotel (about 13 USD). Monday morning I woke up quite early because of jet lag and my roommate Clayton and I went into T-axim Square. We spent about 3 ½ hours looking around and trying to get a feel for the place. It is not possible to understand a culture in 2 months, but we are trying to observe the norms for communication, hospitality, market place, religion, and so on… That first morning was a success. I was able to orientate myself, or at least I became more aware of the unique nature of T-rkey: the places, sounds and people. I spoke the limited T-rkish I already knew and found that the people really appreciated my attempts at their language. I was able to communicate enough to get a haircut from a T-rkish barber. He did a great job for a very inexpensive price.
After getting the haircut and buying a T-rkish coffee Clayton and I went back to our hotel and met our team for w0rship and Pr@yer. After this time we all went out into the city of Ist@nbul and spent the day seeing the sights and getting over the initial effects of jet lag. We went to the Gra-nd Baz@ar market place and I saw the Blue Mosq-ue from a distance. We had some funny stories from this first day. My friend Jesse and I explored the Grand Baza@r and we both had experiences with T-rkish salesmen.
After our day on the town we went out to eat at a small restaurant for an inexpensive dinner of Doner and Kebab (2 ytl). I went to bed early in an attempt to prepare for the coming day of briefing for our work in T-rkey,
Tuesday morning we woke early had our Pr@yer time and then met our contact for briefing. We went to his place. This required a ferry from the E-ropean side to @sian side of I-stanbul it was really fun to be crossing onto another continent. On Tuesday we learned a lot about history, culture, religion and had an inspiring message for our work. After our morning session we spent time in the local markets. I was able to learn more about the people and practiced speaking more T-rkish. After 1 ½ hours we reconvened in our meeting place and spent the last part of the day continuing our study. On the ferry ride home we saw some very beautiful views of Ist@nbul. Lots of mosques and I even saw a couple of palaces. Upon our arrival in Eur-pe ☺ we went back to “our” restaurant (we took ownership of the place) and had more Doner and Kebab. After dinner I went to the local hostel and spoke with a person from Australia. I was also able to get Internet access in this place and was able to talk to my dad and girlfriend for a little while. It was nice to talk to them because there has been so much happening lately. It was a welcome reprieve from the new things I am experiencing here. I went to bed encouraged and ready for a full day of work on the streets of I-stanbul.
Wednesday morning we woke to a day of handing out tracts, books, and pr@yer it was an adventure. We had a successful day. It was another day filled with work. I know that our team is being watched over and I have seen the L-rd’s blessing on our work. I will share testimonies later in this message. I was able to explain the truth to two men and was able to pr-y with both. Wednesday evening we spent time with our brothers and sisters from Ox-ford and took them to “our restaurant”. It was nice to have some time to say goodbye to them and to see them established in a location in T-rkey. After our time with them we took the ferry over to the Asi@ side and got on our overnight bus to Ch@nakalle (Tr0y and G@lipoli are located here).
We arrived at 6:30 and went to the hostel that we planned on staying in for the day. After checking in we had our time of w0rship and Pr@yer and decided to see Tr0y. We went to Tr0y with a focus to do our work. We were able to meet a man named Louie and took him to dinner and he stayed in our hostel with us. I also meant another man named Travis and we were able to share what our work is with both of these people. I know that Thursday was a successful day and Tr0y was great.
Friday morning we took another bus to S0ke. On our travel days we spend a lot of time in Pr@yer and dev0tion. The bus ride was 9 hours of very cool sights. We drove through the locations of Perg@mum and Smyrn@ and saw many very pretty sights of the Aege@n coastline. Upon our arrival in S0ke we moved into the places we will be staying and went for a walk around the city. After our walk we came back to our place, the Ch-urch, and found four visitors (three of them have not found our truth and one has) we spent time with them in prayer and worship. It was an amazing night and was very important to the workers here. I went to bed very encouraged and in awe of our Lord and His work through us.
Saturday morning we woke to another beautiful day and spent a lot of time as a team in prayer, worship and intercession for this place. I went for a prayer walk and we all spent time seeking the Lords direction for the day. We took a short break and listened to M@ria as she gave us our work schedule for the week. Saturday was a very special day for our team. We all looked forward to Sunday. We are going to give a Ch-urch service and will be visiting many T-rkish families to celebrate the end of R@madan with them.
It is Sunday now and I have already had more B@klava and T-rkish coffee/tea than I thought I could eat. We have had a great day. The morning was spent in prayer, worship and intercession and now we are visiting families and meeting the people. Tonight we will be giving a service. The atmosphere is different than the other two cities. It is not a tourist town. We are having a very cultural experience as we are staying with two workers H_ugo and M@ria. H-ugo is from Germ@ny and M-aria is from Ur-uguay. We are also getting a very good picture of T-rkish customs and values.
I am very excited for our team. Some testimonies of G-d’s goodness: We have not been sick or hurt past a bearable point, we are coming together as a team, we have been late for a bus and everyone pointed us to the right bus without even knowing what and why they did. We have seen G-d make appointments for our team. We have felt Him as he protects us and we have been able to overcome the spiritu@l darkness of this place in His love. I have seen him opening doors and I am sure that our G-d is before us.
In His Love,
Travis
P.S. This is a blog from my friend Jonathon.
Hello Everyone!
This is Jonathan writing. I will be giving the updates for our team during the next two months. It has been so amazing already and we are only one week in!
Last weekend we spent three days of travel. Saturday we flew to Auckland for an overnight stay before flying 11 ½ hours flying to S-eoul, Korea for the second overnight stay. That was the craziest 20 hours I have ever experienced. An early evening arrival took us to our complimentary hotel, which, for most of us, was the best hotel we have ever stayed in. An unbelievable dinner with unlimited seafood and espresso was good fuel for the night to come. After oo-ing and aw-ing over the heated toilet seats and automated rooms we left for a crazy night on the town, including an extended visit to the prayer room of Yoido Full Gospel Church, the largest church in the world with 830,000 members. Since we were traveling with the other T-urkey Team, most of us stayed out all night, before returning for breakfast, which was the best meal I have ever eaten, other than dinner the night before, of course.
I go into so much detail to try to communicate the shock we had when a twelve-hour the following day took us to I-stanbul, T-urkey, Midd1e E@st. It was contrast if there ever was such a thing. But we loved it! After most of us have spent two winters in a row playing in the snow, we found the humid Mediterranean weather pretty hot. Even on the drive from the airport to our little hostel not far from the bridge from Europe to Asia, we could see the remains of millennia of empires in the buildings and architecture…kind of reminded me of home. NOT!
Our first few days we met with some of the existing workers there. We had a two-day orientation and did some work in a very religi0us sector of the city passing out g0spel tracts and pr@ying for people. The workers here are so amazing. They are so outnumbered and so overwhelmed but they just walk in love in wisdom, pouring out their lives for the people and are seeing fruit. They are truly an inspiration. We also did pr@yer walks and I went inside a m0sque during the evening pr@yer time to do warfare.
After four days in I-stanbul, we left on a night bus to Ch@nakalle, the first leg of the trip to S0eke. We were only able to spend one day there, so we went to see the ruins of Tr0y, which was really an amazing experience. Reading the history, seeing the ancient aqueducts and seeing how they lived life was quite an experience for all of us. While there, we met a backpacker from England named Louie. We ended up showing him where we were staying and taking him out to dinner. He was a really cool guy. Clayton N. and I also had a good long talk with a Mu5lim man at a grocery store and were able to share the G0spel with him. We concluded by exhorting each other to seek truth and gave each other a copy of our H0LY B00KS.
I think we are all over jet lag now and would agree that the highlight of our trip was our first day here in S0eke, and town of 100,000 and only five believers. After an eight hour bus ride down the beautiful Aegean coastline, past the regions where Perg@mum and Smyrn@ were located, we arrived to meet with two amazing co-workers, Hugo and Maria, who have been here for three years. After an amazing home-cooked meal and a walking tour of the city, we returned to the Lord’s Home where there were waiting for us four people: three Mu5lim men and a very recent sister. We saw it as a fun opportunity to talk with some locals and maybe share our testimony, but what we did not realize was our co-workers had been building relationship with these people for months and this was a pivotal point for them. The recent sister was married to one of the men, but had disowned him until he became a believer. One of the other men had recently had a vision in which he had met and spoke with the Lord! Now the woman and these three men were here to ask questions about God. We were able to share a couple testimonies, lead a w0rship session, and read passages in the Book together. It was incredible! What was intended to be a relaxed night of resting had turned into an amazing work of the 5pirit.
Spiritu@lly we have been under attack but through that I have been seeing tangible growth in our team as we have seen the issues and confront them in a spirit of pr@yer and humility. It is very dark here, especially as we have been here during the last week of R@madan. Tonight we heard the final pr@yer call and release to eat, as well as the sound of silence in the streets as everybody rushed inside to gorge themselves in the beginning of the feasts. But we are ever growing closer as a team and learning to work together in decision-making and encouragement. I am pretty sure we have the best team ever…
If you are pr@ying for us, we have some requests. Pr@y that we would:
-Have wisdom on where to go for the remainder of our trip
-Continue to grow in love and unity as a family
-Be affective in our ministry in such a dark land
-Stay healthy and injury free
-Have wisdom on how to handle our finances and provision for all our needs
Thank you so much for you prayer and support!
-TTT (Turkey Travel Team)
I am writing from S-oke. We are staying with workers here this week and will be able to do quite a bit of practical work for our goals. I am really encouraged by the fruit we have already been seeing in our work.
On Sunday night we arrived in I-stanbul and were able to stay in a 20 ytl a night hotel (about 13 USD). Monday morning I woke up quite early because of jet lag and my roommate Clayton and I went into T-axim Square. We spent about 3 ½ hours looking around and trying to get a feel for the place. It is not possible to understand a culture in 2 months, but we are trying to observe the norms for communication, hospitality, market place, religion, and so on… That first morning was a success. I was able to orientate myself, or at least I became more aware of the unique nature of T-rkey: the places, sounds and people. I spoke the limited T-rkish I already knew and found that the people really appreciated my attempts at their language. I was able to communicate enough to get a haircut from a T-rkish barber. He did a great job for a very inexpensive price.
After getting the haircut and buying a T-rkish coffee Clayton and I went back to our hotel and met our team for w0rship and Pr@yer. After this time we all went out into the city of Ist@nbul and spent the day seeing the sights and getting over the initial effects of jet lag. We went to the Gra-nd Baz@ar market place and I saw the Blue Mosq-ue from a distance. We had some funny stories from this first day. My friend Jesse and I explored the Grand Baza@r and we both had experiences with T-rkish salesmen.
After our day on the town we went out to eat at a small restaurant for an inexpensive dinner of Doner and Kebab (2 ytl). I went to bed early in an attempt to prepare for the coming day of briefing for our work in T-rkey,
Tuesday morning we woke early had our Pr@yer time and then met our contact for briefing. We went to his place. This required a ferry from the E-ropean side to @sian side of I-stanbul it was really fun to be crossing onto another continent. On Tuesday we learned a lot about history, culture, religion and had an inspiring message for our work. After our morning session we spent time in the local markets. I was able to learn more about the people and practiced speaking more T-rkish. After 1 ½ hours we reconvened in our meeting place and spent the last part of the day continuing our study. On the ferry ride home we saw some very beautiful views of Ist@nbul. Lots of mosques and I even saw a couple of palaces. Upon our arrival in Eur-pe ☺ we went back to “our” restaurant (we took ownership of the place) and had more Doner and Kebab. After dinner I went to the local hostel and spoke with a person from Australia. I was also able to get Internet access in this place and was able to talk to my dad and girlfriend for a little while. It was nice to talk to them because there has been so much happening lately. It was a welcome reprieve from the new things I am experiencing here. I went to bed encouraged and ready for a full day of work on the streets of I-stanbul.
Wednesday morning we woke to a day of handing out tracts, books, and pr@yer it was an adventure. We had a successful day. It was another day filled with work. I know that our team is being watched over and I have seen the L-rd’s blessing on our work. I will share testimonies later in this message. I was able to explain the truth to two men and was able to pr-y with both. Wednesday evening we spent time with our brothers and sisters from Ox-ford and took them to “our restaurant”. It was nice to have some time to say goodbye to them and to see them established in a location in T-rkey. After our time with them we took the ferry over to the Asi@ side and got on our overnight bus to Ch@nakalle (Tr0y and G@lipoli are located here).
We arrived at 6:30 and went to the hostel that we planned on staying in for the day. After checking in we had our time of w0rship and Pr@yer and decided to see Tr0y. We went to Tr0y with a focus to do our work. We were able to meet a man named Louie and took him to dinner and he stayed in our hostel with us. I also meant another man named Travis and we were able to share what our work is with both of these people. I know that Thursday was a successful day and Tr0y was great.
Friday morning we took another bus to S0ke. On our travel days we spend a lot of time in Pr@yer and dev0tion. The bus ride was 9 hours of very cool sights. We drove through the locations of Perg@mum and Smyrn@ and saw many very pretty sights of the Aege@n coastline. Upon our arrival in S0ke we moved into the places we will be staying and went for a walk around the city. After our walk we came back to our place, the Ch-urch, and found four visitors (three of them have not found our truth and one has) we spent time with them in prayer and worship. It was an amazing night and was very important to the workers here. I went to bed very encouraged and in awe of our Lord and His work through us.
Saturday morning we woke to another beautiful day and spent a lot of time as a team in prayer, worship and intercession for this place. I went for a prayer walk and we all spent time seeking the Lords direction for the day. We took a short break and listened to M@ria as she gave us our work schedule for the week. Saturday was a very special day for our team. We all looked forward to Sunday. We are going to give a Ch-urch service and will be visiting many T-rkish families to celebrate the end of R@madan with them.
It is Sunday now and I have already had more B@klava and T-rkish coffee/tea than I thought I could eat. We have had a great day. The morning was spent in prayer, worship and intercession and now we are visiting families and meeting the people. Tonight we will be giving a service. The atmosphere is different than the other two cities. It is not a tourist town. We are having a very cultural experience as we are staying with two workers H_ugo and M@ria. H-ugo is from Germ@ny and M-aria is from Ur-uguay. We are also getting a very good picture of T-rkish customs and values.
I am very excited for our team. Some testimonies of G-d’s goodness: We have not been sick or hurt past a bearable point, we are coming together as a team, we have been late for a bus and everyone pointed us to the right bus without even knowing what and why they did. We have seen G-d make appointments for our team. We have felt Him as he protects us and we have been able to overcome the spiritu@l darkness of this place in His love. I have seen him opening doors and I am sure that our G-d is before us.
In His Love,
Travis
P.S. This is a blog from my friend Jonathon.
Hello Everyone!
This is Jonathan writing. I will be giving the updates for our team during the next two months. It has been so amazing already and we are only one week in!
Last weekend we spent three days of travel. Saturday we flew to Auckland for an overnight stay before flying 11 ½ hours flying to S-eoul, Korea for the second overnight stay. That was the craziest 20 hours I have ever experienced. An early evening arrival took us to our complimentary hotel, which, for most of us, was the best hotel we have ever stayed in. An unbelievable dinner with unlimited seafood and espresso was good fuel for the night to come. After oo-ing and aw-ing over the heated toilet seats and automated rooms we left for a crazy night on the town, including an extended visit to the prayer room of Yoido Full Gospel Church, the largest church in the world with 830,000 members. Since we were traveling with the other T-urkey Team, most of us stayed out all night, before returning for breakfast, which was the best meal I have ever eaten, other than dinner the night before, of course.
I go into so much detail to try to communicate the shock we had when a twelve-hour the following day took us to I-stanbul, T-urkey, Midd1e E@st. It was contrast if there ever was such a thing. But we loved it! After most of us have spent two winters in a row playing in the snow, we found the humid Mediterranean weather pretty hot. Even on the drive from the airport to our little hostel not far from the bridge from Europe to Asia, we could see the remains of millennia of empires in the buildings and architecture…kind of reminded me of home. NOT!
Our first few days we met with some of the existing workers there. We had a two-day orientation and did some work in a very religi0us sector of the city passing out g0spel tracts and pr@ying for people. The workers here are so amazing. They are so outnumbered and so overwhelmed but they just walk in love in wisdom, pouring out their lives for the people and are seeing fruit. They are truly an inspiration. We also did pr@yer walks and I went inside a m0sque during the evening pr@yer time to do warfare.
After four days in I-stanbul, we left on a night bus to Ch@nakalle, the first leg of the trip to S0eke. We were only able to spend one day there, so we went to see the ruins of Tr0y, which was really an amazing experience. Reading the history, seeing the ancient aqueducts and seeing how they lived life was quite an experience for all of us. While there, we met a backpacker from England named Louie. We ended up showing him where we were staying and taking him out to dinner. He was a really cool guy. Clayton N. and I also had a good long talk with a Mu5lim man at a grocery store and were able to share the G0spel with him. We concluded by exhorting each other to seek truth and gave each other a copy of our H0LY B00KS.
I think we are all over jet lag now and would agree that the highlight of our trip was our first day here in S0eke, and town of 100,000 and only five believers. After an eight hour bus ride down the beautiful Aegean coastline, past the regions where Perg@mum and Smyrn@ were located, we arrived to meet with two amazing co-workers, Hugo and Maria, who have been here for three years. After an amazing home-cooked meal and a walking tour of the city, we returned to the Lord’s Home where there were waiting for us four people: three Mu5lim men and a very recent sister. We saw it as a fun opportunity to talk with some locals and maybe share our testimony, but what we did not realize was our co-workers had been building relationship with these people for months and this was a pivotal point for them. The recent sister was married to one of the men, but had disowned him until he became a believer. One of the other men had recently had a vision in which he had met and spoke with the Lord! Now the woman and these three men were here to ask questions about God. We were able to share a couple testimonies, lead a w0rship session, and read passages in the Book together. It was incredible! What was intended to be a relaxed night of resting had turned into an amazing work of the 5pirit.
Spiritu@lly we have been under attack but through that I have been seeing tangible growth in our team as we have seen the issues and confront them in a spirit of pr@yer and humility. It is very dark here, especially as we have been here during the last week of R@madan. Tonight we heard the final pr@yer call and release to eat, as well as the sound of silence in the streets as everybody rushed inside to gorge themselves in the beginning of the feasts. But we are ever growing closer as a team and learning to work together in decision-making and encouragement. I am pretty sure we have the best team ever…
If you are pr@ying for us, we have some requests. Pr@y that we would:
-Have wisdom on where to go for the remainder of our trip
-Continue to grow in love and unity as a family
-Be affective in our ministry in such a dark land
-Stay healthy and injury free
-Have wisdom on how to handle our finances and provision for all our needs
Thank you so much for you prayer and support!
-TTT (Turkey Travel Team)
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Outreach Kick Off (Letter 10)
Hello Everyone,
I am updating this blog from S-eoul, K-orea! We left O_xford on the 11th stayed in A-uckland, NZD on the North Island and then left for S_eoul at 9 A.M. on the 12th. We flew twelve hours and arrived in S. K_orea at 6 P.M. The K_orean airline that we flew on has given us seven hotel rooms for seven people! It’s GREAT! I am going to explore S_eoul.
I did not sleep at all last night ☺ Seoul is a crazy place. We got to see the largest church in the world with 830,000 members. We flew into S-eoul at 6 P.M. and went directly to the hotel and FOOD, which was provided by Korea Air. The hotel was really nice. We had a buffet with Lobster, sushi and all kinds of authentic K-orean foods (I have no idea what I ate, but it was good). After the dinner we took the subway for an hour ride into center city of S-eoul. We found the church and spent time there talking with a man who was preaching and praying outside. After we spoke with some more people we went into one of the 24 hour prayer/worship meetings that the church holds and spent about an hour there listening to prayer and worship in a different language. Some of my team members were bored, but I really liked observing the different ways that the people of S. K-orea pray and worship. I saw that they do not stand or kneel the way some others do and also observed the different attitudes in worship. There was an intensity/focus in this meeting that I have never seen before.
After this time we went on another adventure (as you can imagine 14 foreigners in the middle of huge city with trouble communicating). We asked around and found out the place to see was a part of S-eoul called S-ungChong. So we then tackled the feat of finding cheap transportation and after about a half hour communicated with a couple of taxi drivers and got very good rates ($2 American per person). Upon our arrival in Sung-Chong (not sure on the spelling) we walked around and encountered university party life at it’s best. We did our best to love and to avoid the places that were not safe and evil. We ended up taking a ton of pictures and then setting up on a busy corner and playing soccer with a stuffed animal that one of my friends won. It worked great. We were able to attract some people and I heard that one of my friends got to share his testimony and faith with a man.
Around 3:00 A.M. we took another cheap taxi back to the church and attended the prayer meeting for another half hour (I could feel the Lord’s presence in the room). At 3:30 the main sanctuary opened and we went to see what it looked like. It was beautiful and huge. I spent about an hour praying and sleeping there. At 4:30 we decided to make the trek back to the subway and on the way we saw about 150 people praying in a circle in the middle of a street! Wow, what a crazy night. I knew that the Lord was guiding us and I am happy to say that I know we spent our time here in S. K-orea well. Even though we are all tired it was worth it. We will be able to sleep on our upcoming 12-hour flight. I know that the spiritual and eye opening experience that we had strengthened members of my outreach team and myself for our ministry in Turkey.
Now to continue our story we arrived at the subway at 5 and found out that it didn’t open till 5:30. After transferring from one train we waited for an hour until 6:30 to start our hour-long journey. This second train was full and I have one of the funniest stories from it. I was sitting next to one of the only open seats, well a Korean man about my age sat down next to me and immediately fell asleep. He ended up sleeping on my side for most of the trip. It was hilarious because he couldn’t even open his eyes he was so tired so I just had to sit there, while he slept on me, drooled and made himself comfortable. My friends thought it was hilarious. I have many pictures and videos from this ride.
Upon our arrival back at the hotel we ate another fabulous meal on the Korean Airlines. I proceeded to enjoy the hotel and it’s luxuries (Workout room, Sauna and nice shower for the next hour.) I am excited to get on my flight to Turkey and SLEEP!
This experience was an answer to prayer for me. I had been praying for truth and a time to fill myself up before outreach. Well, even though it wouldn’t seem that staying up all night would be the best way to do that. I know that the Lord arranged for it because I was forced to focus upon him in new ways for the entire night. This helped to open up some of the boxes/lies that my worldview, beliefs, and enculturation put on the God of the Universe.
We leave for I-stanbul at 2 P.M. (another 12 hour flight) ☺ LOTS of stretching. I am very excited to arrive in T_urkey. We will be staying in Istanbu_l for 3-4 (13th – 18th) days getting acclimated and doing various types of ministry and then we will head to Sok_e (19th-26th) we will be doing cross-cultural ministry there. Sok_e is going to be very interesting there are very few believers (only 7). From Sept. 26th-28th we will be in S_elcuk (Ephesus) we will be touring the ruins of Ephesus and focusing on friendship ministry with tourists.
From S_elcuk we will head to Antalya (Sept. 28- Oct. 7th). Focusing specifically on friendship ministry with tourists, but in all of these places, except Selcu_k, we are staying with existing believers who will also point us to practical ways that we can serve the people (cleaning, building, service etc…).
After our time in A-ntalya we do not has set plans, but some potential places are: T-arsus, A-ntakya, D-iyabakir, Ne-vsihir, A-nkara etc…
I am very excited to be in T-urkey continuing the Lord’s work. We had a great send off in NZD we spent the week in prayer and worship. We also had a commissioning ceremony and we were all prayed over and blessed. A man from the North Island, Matt, came down and spoke to us about team work and important principles of being a team member. I know that we all learned a little from him and were reminded of a lot of important lessons about being polite and selfless as a member of a team.
I think our team will work well together. We are growing together and have spent quite a bit of time in prayer and worship together. Some of our team verses are: Colossians 4:2-6, Hebrews 13:15-16, 18; John 13:34-35; Colossians 3:12-17; 1 Corinthians 15:18; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:31b-33; Isaiah 35:1-2 (The Joy of the Redeemed).
Our team vision: We will remember our first love. It’s all about love. It’s all about family. We will be devoted to purity and holiness. We will be faithful to the Lord and to each other. We will bear one another’s burdens and seek the good of others. We will be intentional in our actions and in our words because our lifestyle is our witness. We will be wise with outsiders and do good to them. Our conversations will be full of grace and seasoned with salt. We will encourage the discouraged. We will seek out the chance to encourage our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and will share the love of God with travelers. We will burn for Christ as we have passionate, strong, intentional times with Him. Our eyes are fixed and focused on Christ as the author and perfector of our faith. We will be an OVERCOMING team. We will be free! We will acknowledge, honor, and know the Trinity (Father, Son and Spirit). We will move as the Trinity moves. We will use the word of God as our foundation and sword of the Spirit, which brings life, joy, hope, and peace. We believe that the wilderness and desert will be glad! And finally, we will ENJOY THIS JOURNEY and ENJOY GOD and ENJOY EACH OTHER!
It is obvious how great this time serving the Lord will be if we keep these principles. Please pray into our team as we reach out into a very dark place in our world.
Sincerely,
Travis
P.S. Everyone please wish my girlfriend, Bethany a happy birthday!!! (Sept. 12th)
I am updating this blog from S-eoul, K-orea! We left O_xford on the 11th stayed in A-uckland, NZD on the North Island and then left for S_eoul at 9 A.M. on the 12th. We flew twelve hours and arrived in S. K_orea at 6 P.M. The K_orean airline that we flew on has given us seven hotel rooms for seven people! It’s GREAT! I am going to explore S_eoul.
I did not sleep at all last night ☺ Seoul is a crazy place. We got to see the largest church in the world with 830,000 members. We flew into S-eoul at 6 P.M. and went directly to the hotel and FOOD, which was provided by Korea Air. The hotel was really nice. We had a buffet with Lobster, sushi and all kinds of authentic K-orean foods (I have no idea what I ate, but it was good). After the dinner we took the subway for an hour ride into center city of S-eoul. We found the church and spent time there talking with a man who was preaching and praying outside. After we spoke with some more people we went into one of the 24 hour prayer/worship meetings that the church holds and spent about an hour there listening to prayer and worship in a different language. Some of my team members were bored, but I really liked observing the different ways that the people of S. K-orea pray and worship. I saw that they do not stand or kneel the way some others do and also observed the different attitudes in worship. There was an intensity/focus in this meeting that I have never seen before.
After this time we went on another adventure (as you can imagine 14 foreigners in the middle of huge city with trouble communicating). We asked around and found out the place to see was a part of S-eoul called S-ungChong. So we then tackled the feat of finding cheap transportation and after about a half hour communicated with a couple of taxi drivers and got very good rates ($2 American per person). Upon our arrival in Sung-Chong (not sure on the spelling) we walked around and encountered university party life at it’s best. We did our best to love and to avoid the places that were not safe and evil. We ended up taking a ton of pictures and then setting up on a busy corner and playing soccer with a stuffed animal that one of my friends won. It worked great. We were able to attract some people and I heard that one of my friends got to share his testimony and faith with a man.
Around 3:00 A.M. we took another cheap taxi back to the church and attended the prayer meeting for another half hour (I could feel the Lord’s presence in the room). At 3:30 the main sanctuary opened and we went to see what it looked like. It was beautiful and huge. I spent about an hour praying and sleeping there. At 4:30 we decided to make the trek back to the subway and on the way we saw about 150 people praying in a circle in the middle of a street! Wow, what a crazy night. I knew that the Lord was guiding us and I am happy to say that I know we spent our time here in S. K-orea well. Even though we are all tired it was worth it. We will be able to sleep on our upcoming 12-hour flight. I know that the spiritual and eye opening experience that we had strengthened members of my outreach team and myself for our ministry in Turkey.
Now to continue our story we arrived at the subway at 5 and found out that it didn’t open till 5:30. After transferring from one train we waited for an hour until 6:30 to start our hour-long journey. This second train was full and I have one of the funniest stories from it. I was sitting next to one of the only open seats, well a Korean man about my age sat down next to me and immediately fell asleep. He ended up sleeping on my side for most of the trip. It was hilarious because he couldn’t even open his eyes he was so tired so I just had to sit there, while he slept on me, drooled and made himself comfortable. My friends thought it was hilarious. I have many pictures and videos from this ride.
Upon our arrival back at the hotel we ate another fabulous meal on the Korean Airlines. I proceeded to enjoy the hotel and it’s luxuries (Workout room, Sauna and nice shower for the next hour.) I am excited to get on my flight to Turkey and SLEEP!
This experience was an answer to prayer for me. I had been praying for truth and a time to fill myself up before outreach. Well, even though it wouldn’t seem that staying up all night would be the best way to do that. I know that the Lord arranged for it because I was forced to focus upon him in new ways for the entire night. This helped to open up some of the boxes/lies that my worldview, beliefs, and enculturation put on the God of the Universe.
We leave for I-stanbul at 2 P.M. (another 12 hour flight) ☺ LOTS of stretching. I am very excited to arrive in T_urkey. We will be staying in Istanbu_l for 3-4 (13th – 18th) days getting acclimated and doing various types of ministry and then we will head to Sok_e (19th-26th) we will be doing cross-cultural ministry there. Sok_e is going to be very interesting there are very few believers (only 7). From Sept. 26th-28th we will be in S_elcuk (Ephesus) we will be touring the ruins of Ephesus and focusing on friendship ministry with tourists.
From S_elcuk we will head to Antalya (Sept. 28- Oct. 7th). Focusing specifically on friendship ministry with tourists, but in all of these places, except Selcu_k, we are staying with existing believers who will also point us to practical ways that we can serve the people (cleaning, building, service etc…).
After our time in A-ntalya we do not has set plans, but some potential places are: T-arsus, A-ntakya, D-iyabakir, Ne-vsihir, A-nkara etc…
I am very excited to be in T-urkey continuing the Lord’s work. We had a great send off in NZD we spent the week in prayer and worship. We also had a commissioning ceremony and we were all prayed over and blessed. A man from the North Island, Matt, came down and spoke to us about team work and important principles of being a team member. I know that we all learned a little from him and were reminded of a lot of important lessons about being polite and selfless as a member of a team.
I think our team will work well together. We are growing together and have spent quite a bit of time in prayer and worship together. Some of our team verses are: Colossians 4:2-6, Hebrews 13:15-16, 18; John 13:34-35; Colossians 3:12-17; 1 Corinthians 15:18; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:31b-33; Isaiah 35:1-2 (The Joy of the Redeemed).
Our team vision: We will remember our first love. It’s all about love. It’s all about family. We will be devoted to purity and holiness. We will be faithful to the Lord and to each other. We will bear one another’s burdens and seek the good of others. We will be intentional in our actions and in our words because our lifestyle is our witness. We will be wise with outsiders and do good to them. Our conversations will be full of grace and seasoned with salt. We will encourage the discouraged. We will seek out the chance to encourage our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and will share the love of God with travelers. We will burn for Christ as we have passionate, strong, intentional times with Him. Our eyes are fixed and focused on Christ as the author and perfector of our faith. We will be an OVERCOMING team. We will be free! We will acknowledge, honor, and know the Trinity (Father, Son and Spirit). We will move as the Trinity moves. We will use the word of God as our foundation and sword of the Spirit, which brings life, joy, hope, and peace. We believe that the wilderness and desert will be glad! And finally, we will ENJOY THIS JOURNEY and ENJOY GOD and ENJOY EACH OTHER!
It is obvious how great this time serving the Lord will be if we keep these principles. Please pray into our team as we reach out into a very dark place in our world.
Sincerely,
Travis
P.S. Everyone please wish my girlfriend, Bethany a happy birthday!!! (Sept. 12th)
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