Turkey

Since I have 9 minutes before Heroes starts and I had two comments about Turkey, I figured I should probably write more. (I'm really good at picking up obvious clues).

Wellllll..... in the beginning of 2008, they had an interest meeting at our church for the short-term trips that New Life offers each year (usually around 12 to the different countries where we support full time missionaries). And I went and was immediately drawn to a trip to Turkey which centered around prayer and worship. I went home and prayed about it and felt the Lord tell me to "wait until next year" (much to my dismay).

So, I did, and now it's next year and here I am!

I'm so excited about this trip. A young couple from our church moved there in 2006 I believe and has been working there doing relational evangelism and basically praying for the country of Turkey. They spend the majority of their time during the day praying and worshipping and basically getting to know people. Apparently the people in Turkey are very friendly and very easy to get to know and welcoming. Jeremy is a musician and leads worship and Angie does a lot of ministry with children and girls. I don't really know them very well at all. I met Angie briefly when they were here last November.

I imagine that the majority of our time in Turkey will be spent doing what they do: worshipping, praying, and getting to know people. We'll also have a little time for leisure and taking in the TONS of history there, but mostly just praying.

The reason why I'm so very excited about this trip is because Turkey is going to be the first Muslim country I will visit (other than Israel, which never seems to count in my mind). I haven't been to a place where you really can't just evangelize freely on the streets and say whatever you want. The thing that makes me so excited is the possibility of just being used by the Holy Spirit completely outside of my own talents and abilities. I mean, if I have any effect whatsoever or any divine opportunity with someone in Turkey, it will no doubt be because of the Holy Spirit. What else could it be??? It's like a challenge.

The Perigos (the couple there) have a strong belief that all major moves of God started with massive amounts of prayer. I'm just lookign forward to joining them in some small way to believe God to do something great in Turkey.

Wooooo hooo.... oh my goodness, I'm so looking forward to getting a new stamp in my NEW passport :)

June 10-21.

And now I must go watch Sylar become the great man he's supposed to be.

Not really an update...

I wish I was the kind of person who just cared about all the silly little things that happen on a day to day basis. I'm sure my blog would be much more interesting and consistent. And while it's true that I find a lot of excitement in the everyday, mundane happenings in life, it just doesn't ever seem blog-worthy. Most of the time it's fleeting anyway and I go back to thinking about whatever recent thing I've been thinking about in my internal processor mind.

Anywho - today I read this article and it just broke my heart. It reminds me of an account of the genocide in Rwanda that I heard recently about reconciliation between the murderers and the victims' families. I always wonder what I would do with the "kill or be killed" command.

So, don't read this article if you're hoping for something light and fun! ;)

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/03/04/darfur.rape/index.html


On a much happier note and more update-ish, in case I haven't told you yet, I'm going to TURKEY this summer! It's with a short-term missions trip from our church. I'm very excited. I had to mail in my passport to get it renewed - it's amazing how fast 10 years went by...