Umid, Gulshoda, Deborah, Emmanuel and Lael

Hello dear friends,
I am coming to you again to urgently ask you to consider donating money to help Umid and his family! Last night was their last service with us and we prayed for them with joy and sadness. In faith, they have packed up everything they can and moved to Bilecik today. They do not have any money and they are trusting God to prepare the way for them.
We have had very little response to the last request we sent out (only $50) so this is one more attempt to stir your hearts. Any amount that you can give will be a blessing. We have seen how God uses individual Body members to provide in the past and He can do it again!
Thank you so much.

Thank you, Auli and Yilmaz!

This past week we as a church have had the great blessing of having Yilmaz and Auli, an amazing couple, come and visit us from their home in Berlin. Yilmaz is from Adana, Turkey and Auli is from the east of Finland. They lives clearly show that they love people and have been a great encouragement to all the young believers in our church. Their time here has been full of evangelism, prayer, fellowship, and preaching, oh and a lot of eating!! It is so great to see how God uses a godly couple to reveal His plan for reaching, encouraging, and loving people. For Yilmaz, Turks are his people. To see a man clearly have God's burden for his country and people is quite a powerful thing. There is a great sense and understanding of the vision here that has come through his preaching and fellowship with us. Please pray for this couple and their plans for the future. We want them here! It is very clear to all of us, so we are praying for God's will in these matters.

Amazing weekend! God is so good.

Saturday night dinner after Bible Class on the book of Romans

Sunday night after the rap with Yilmaz

Beautiful mother and daughter - real Bible students!

Birthday party at Tiina's

The birthday boy - Yilmaz, visiting from Germany with his wife Oulli

Urgent Need

Dear friends,
We are coming to you again with another urgent need. As some of you may know, Umid and Gulshoda (originally from the Greater Grace church in Samarkand, Uzbekistan) have been in the process of applying for refugee status here in Turkey. During that long process, they have been tirelessly serving in the church. Umid deals with most of the practical details of running the church as well as being an amazing translator and leader of the church whenever P.Matti is not in town. Their family, now three children, have brought nothing but joy and laughter to our lives! We were all happy to hear that the process for obtaining refugee status was progressing, but unfortunately, the downside is that they have been assigned to a less crowded city called Bilecik. The government allowed them to stay in Istanbul until after their child, Lael, was born (October 1st). Now they must move within a week. Umid and his family have been an amazing example to us of a family trusting in God for their daily needs. Although they do not have any financial support and cannot legally work here, they have made ends meet. Now they will have to start fresh in a new city.
We are praying that God will use them in this new place to be an extension of our ministry into the countryside (three hours away). While waiting for the next step in the process, they could be in Bilecik for one to five years. Umid has a vision to share the Gospel with the people of this town and we are excited to see God's hand reaching beyond Istanbul.
So, we are coming to all of you because we know your generous hearts and trust that God can use this. They need money for appliances, beds, cost of moving, etc. If, with all of your help, we could raise $2,000 for them, it would greatly ease the stress and uncertainty that lies ahead of them. Please consider helping this wonderful family that has and is serving God so selflessly in this amazing country of Turkey!
If you would like to donate to them, please let me know. You can easily donate by sending money to our account (Roger Robbins) through the GGWO Missions Office by mail or online (www.ggwo.com/cms). Please be sure to make a note that the money is for Umid so that there is no confusion.
Thank you so much for your love, prayers, and support. God is so faithful and we look forward to seeing Him do miracles once again!

Truth

Pastor Matti's message on Wednesday night was so great and thought provoking, I thought it would be good to post some thoughts I had about it.
The world is a hard place to live, full of evil and injustice, crawling with sinners just waiting to disappoint us or betray us - and yet we are happy! How can this be? Are we naive in our worldview? Do we ignore the facts that are all around us which tell us that there is nothing to be happy about? No, far from it. We see beyond the natural to the spiritual world in which we are already victorious! We have carefully read our Bibles and come to the conclusion that God is good and loving, there can be eternity with Him and salvation is free. That is why we are happy. Not because this earthly life is full of pleasure, but because our lives are lived for Him and He is faithful to do it! It is a genuine joy that comes from within - not the temporary happiness given by external experiences or pleasures. So when we walk into a cafe, someone's home, or our workplace, there is a joy overflowing from our countenances because we know the Truth and the Truth has set us free.

People to pray for!

Angelica (in the blue) as well as her sister and father from Syria

Karen and her aunt Irma - Armenian Turks

Levent, a young Turkish engineer

Welcome, Lael - you are loved!

Hello dear friends,
We just wanted to pass along the wonderful news that Lael was born on Friday, October 1st to very happy parents, Umid and Gulshoda. Everyone is healthy and doing great!
Thank you so much to everyone who gave and prayed for them! Because of the amazing generous Body of Christ, they were able to pay all the hospital costs. God was so faithful!