Pray for the New Years Conference in Helsinki

By the grace of God, two Turks are in Finland right now for the New Years conference! Please pray for their time. For Alp, that he would be strengthened in his faith and grow as a disciple. For Yagmur, an unbeliever, that she would see her need for a Savior and receive Christ!

Each face is a soul that needs God

Life in Istanbul

Annual Christmas Choir Concerts were a Success!

Cyprus Missions Trip - another white harvest field!

We had the joy and honor of having Mat LaFlamme join us on our trip to Cyprus last week. We flew into the Northern "Turkish" side of the island (if you don't know the history/politics of the region then you can google it!) and then found our way to the border crossing which splits the city of Lefkosia (or Nicosia or Lefkosa) in half where we walked through a UN buffer zone and crossed into the Greek side of Cyprus where we somehow miraculously managed to meet P.Chris Moore.
The rest of the week was full of soulwinning, amazing Cypriot hospitality, great food, and yes, the occasional beach visit. And the most consistent thing throughout all of this was the incredible amount of laughter! Who said missions trips aren't fun?? P.Chris Moore is an amazing man of God with more spiritual vision that he can handle and we were honored to be a part of this pioneering trip with him. We traveled to at least four different cities, driving on the left hand side of the road with the steering wheel on the other side of the car, with the hand of God preserving us!
Needless to say, Cyprus needs Greater Grace. There are small evangelical congregations with beautiful believers who opened their homes and hearts to us. But the island needs a Greater Grace church and Bible School. We really believe that the grace-oriented Finished Work message can transform this island into an amazing place where great disciples and missionaries are born!
There is so much more I could say about this trip...we came back overflowing with joy and gratitude for the amazing opportunities God continues to give us.

View from the Train to Bilecik

One of the many sacrifices we saw on the way...
The men hang up the animal (cow or sheep) to bleed it out.
Part of the ritual is that there should be not one drop of blood
left in the animal. Then they butcher it and the ladies prepare it.


Farming villages

Vineyards and farmland

Our Church in Bilecik!

Gulshoda, wonderful wife and mother

Umid and the birthday boy, Emmanuel

The latest trend on Team Istanbul - knitting!

Emmanual - King for a day.

Liz with Lael and her big sister Deborah.


As you may of heard, last week our beatiful team members the Irgasheva's moved their family of 5 to a small town 4 hours outside of Istanbul. Yesterday the Istanbul team took the day to visit Umid and the family for the first time since they left. Umid and the family are known as great pioneers here in the church and in their past mission fields in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. This seemingly sad move is seen in all of our eyes as a great opportunity to reach futher into the heart of Turkey. Yesterday was the "Kurban Bayram" which is the scarifice holiday in the islamic calendar. All the way on our train ride to Bilecik we saw small villages, one after another making their scarifice to God with cows and sheeps. Men crowded around a bloodly field or street center, gathering the meat from these animals and making feasts and giving the meat to the poor. You could sense the very short excitement of it all but within hours as we enter the streets of Bilecik there was no joy and singing in the streets. Only a sense of dissatisfaction. A secret emptiness without any promise of change. Nothing that could be used to carry people through their lives. It was business as usually. The blinds were back on all of the eyes. And there we walked the streets buying gifts for Emmanuel because it was his birthday. Knowing full well in our hearts of the Joy of our Salvation and the Promise of eternal life through the eternal sacrifice Jesus the Son of God. We celabrated Emmanuel's birthday, prayed, fellowshipped, laughed together, and some crying and then left the same night to return to Istanbul. As we left that night we all sang Christmas songs at the train station knowing of our beautiful Savior and what He is and can do for this great country, Turkey. Keep Umid's family in prayer as they have already begun to reach out to their neighbors with the Gospel. Also for the government's acceptance of all their papers and for permission to put their kids in a Turkish school.