I love boats...

This weekend I was invited to go on a boat trip up the Bosphorus for Byron's (him and his wife Karen have become friends of mine here) birthday. We got to ride on the U.S. Consulate boat. So I was basically on U.S. soil here in Turkey. Cool, I know! Here are some of my favorite moments of the day...

I think she wants to be just like me when she grows up! But if her parents knew that they would probably freak out, so lets not spread it around!


Being on the water is a nice break from the city.


And I'm proud to be an American...


Karen made an amazing cheese cake...


These are the fun people I spent the day with...


The next couple of weeks I will be working with a team from Florida doing a kids sports camp in a little neighborhood on the Europe side. Pray that everything goes smoothly and we can be a light to the kids and their families.

Happy 4th of July!

Well, this is my first 4th of July out of the US of A, and it was actually really fun! All the Americans here rent out this huge picnic area with a giant pool and we ate hamburgers and hot dogs and watermelon. It was very American and patriotic! Besides not being in America on an American holiday, the worst thing was there were no fireworks. There's always next year!



You will most likely never see this again!

I'm still here...

I know it's been a long time sense I've written and I"m so sorry! I've actually been really busy, but it's such a blessing. The Lord has been teaching me so much and I can't wait to tell you all about it. I'll be blogging in the next few days, hopefully, so check back then.

Sorry again for the lack of communication! And thank you for your continual prayers!

I love you all!

The Power of Prayer...

For those of you who don't know there has been a lot of persecution on the Turkish church. A few months ago a few Turkish believers were arrested because of proclaiming truth, although their charges said differently in order to give the impression of religious freedom. These men are still going through trials to determine their punishment. Yesterday, I had the privilege to hear one of these men, Hakan, speak. After hearing his testimony and the different things going on with the trails, he shared a story about prayer that he heard just recently when sharing about the trails to a church in London. Now I want to share it with you...

There was a woman from this church in London that was driving to different villages in Africa sharing truth. As usual she was driving alone to her next destination when she was stoped by four men. These four men had the intent to harm her, but just before they attacked her they were frightened and ran away. The woman was confused herself. She had no idea what had made them run in such a way. When she finally got to the next village she saw the four men who almost attacked her. Still confused at what had happen, she approached the men and asked them. They said to her that they were not going to attack her when she had thirty men around her. I'm sure they were surprised she even asked. She then became very confused and assured them that she was alone. All four men insisted that all four of them saw the thirty men and they were not crazy. When she contacted her church to tell them the story, they told her that a group of thirty men have been praying for her.

When I heard this story I got chills all over my body. I hope that it encourages you as much as it encourages me. I hope that you continue to pray for the Turkish believers, that they will continue to have strength during this time of persecution. Your prayers do matter!

Blessing...

I've been here for almost three weeks and I am just now beginning to feel like I have a purpose here. Don't get me wrong, I've been having a blast, but it has also been a struggle as far as what exactly I will be doing here. But, like I said, there is a blessing, it's Ally! She's been great this whole time. She knew how frustrated I was and talked to a few people and made it possible for me to be her specific intern so that I don't have to deal with anyone else. So now I have a specific job...yay! Right now we are getting ready for a group coming from my university, CBU, and I'm am very excited about that. Without Ally I might have gone crazy this summers. She has truly been a blessing!



This is a picture of Ally and I on a boat in the Black Sea. Just another perk of being in Turkey!

Ultimate Frisbee

Saturday we had an all day Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. There were about 50 to 60 people there and we literally played all day. And I'm not just talking about a couple of throw around games...there were six teams of seven to nine people, each team playing five one hour games, and these games are serious. These people have strategies and game plans for offense and deffense. I met so many cool people from all over the world, I even had a German guy on my team. I got worked, but I've never had so much fun playing frisbee!

This is a picture of my Ultimate Team!

STOMP...

I got to go to Stomp! Bet you didn't think that cool stuff like this could come to Turkey. It was amazing!