Girls DO play soccer in Turkey!

As some of you may know, I have played soccer my entire life and its something that I have a passion for - passed on faithfully from my father to my brothers and I. But when we moved to Istanbul, I was prepared for the fact that womens soccer would be hard to find here. We've been here about a year and a half and it took that long to find them! When we first moved here, I asked everyone I came across if they knew of any girls who played soccer...but after all the incredulous looks and even laughter, I started to stop asking. But God is faithful! I met a girl at Bosphorus University who knew of a girl's soccer team. I made some calls that day and two days later I was playing a full field outdoor soccer game in a beautiful stadium with a great group of girls! I wanted to share this because it blessed me so much that God cares so much for me that He would bless me far beyond what I expected!

Word of God Revival - Thoughts from Roger's Message this Weds.

The outworkings of an internal revival:
1. To be quickened
2. To be refreshed
3. To be renewed
4. To be constantly filled with the Holy Spirit
5. To have the Word of God as the standard for our thinking and emotional responses.

In Ezra 9:8-9, the Lord promises to revive Israel, to set up a house of the Lord God, to repair the desolation and to give them a wall in Jerusalem.
When people think about revival, they think of large groups of believers coming together in a new way. But its important to remember that we all need to have a personal inner revival in our hearts daily! Our revival comes from understanding what Christ has done for me, who His is and what He is doing in my life right now. A revival is the Word of God being revealed in us, to us and being expressed through us.
There are moments in our lives when we feel like we want to faint, to give up, to go our own way or the easy way - but that is the most important time to go to God and be revived! In II Corinthians 3:17-18 and 4:1, we are changed from glory to glory by the Holy Spirit, we are given a ministry, and we are filled with mercy so we faint not. The beauty of revival is that it can happen in a moment. Its not a process. Yes, growing in maturity as a believer is a process. But being quickened by the Holy Spirit is not a process. Receiving God's mercy and being refreshed by it is not a process. It can happen in a moment! Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty and in a moment we can be changed from glory to glory because of that liberty. Satan hates to see the power of God change us in a moment, to see us tenderly pulled up from the dirt in a moment and to see us be renewed in the grace that has saved us in a moment.
Revival can be a daily miracle and it comes from a fresh faith - knowing I'm saved, knowing I'm redeemed, knowing my sins are paid for, knowing I'm a child of God and knowing my Redeemer lives.

Our local produce vendor, Abdulraman. This is Liz's favorite spot in Istanbul!

Soulwinning on the steps of St. Antuan

May Newsletter

Hello all,
We just emailed out our May Newsletter. If you did not receive it and would like to - just send us an email and I will add you to our mailing list. Thanks!

Pastor Matti's Exhibition Opening Reception

The Real Secret!

"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him." Ps. 25:14

"The truth and sincerity of God to his people appears in the openness and plainness of His heart to them. A friend that is close and reserved, deservedly comes under a cloud in the thoughts of his friend, but he who carries, as it were, a window of crystal in his breast, through which his friend may read what thoughts are writ in his very heart, delivers himself from the least suspicion of unfaithfulness. Truly, thus open-hearted is God to His saints: "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him." He gives us His key, that will let us into His very heart, and acquaint us with what His thoughts are, yea, were, toward us, before a stone was laid in the world's foundation: and this is no other than His Spirit (1 Cor. 2:10-11), "One who knows the deep things of God;" for He was at the council-table in heaven, where all was transacted. This, His Spirit, He employed to put forth and publish in the Scriptures, indited by Him, the substance of those counsels of love which had passed between the Trinity of Persons for our salvation; and so that nothing may be wanting for our satisfaction, He hath appointed the same Holy Spirit to abide in His saints, that as Christ in heaven presents our desire to Him, so He may interpret His mind out of His word to us; which word answers the heart of God, as face answers face in the glass."
-William Gurnall in Charles Spurgeon's "The Treasury of David", A commentary on the Psalms