Turkey

Gobble Gobble :)
  Oh, Turkey was amazing. What a beautiful country. And so much more different than the other Asian countries we've been in! It's more European--I loved that about it. The biggest difference was the muslim community surrounding us. "To be Turk is to be Muslim", the Turkish people say... and that was one thing we knew wasn't right. All around there are people searching for something more to life than that quote. More than the empty religion they were born into without choice. So that was our prayer for Turkey--freedom.
  During our 20 days in Turkey, my team mostly went on prayer walks, worshipped, and served the community in various ways. There are very few Christians in Turkey, and because of that, very few ministries to work with. The first few days we worked with a ministry called 1881 which focuses on sharing the gospel to all 81 provinces in Turkey within 18 months. We had the opportunity to go to a province that had never heard the word of God. It was such an adventure! We had to be a little sneaky handing out Christian papers/booklets/DVDs/Bibles, and even got caught by the police once... but by the grace of God they let us go :)
   My favorite part of our time in Turkey was when we worked at Maria's Cheesecakes shop. (Check out her website here!) We spent a full day (which was not long enough at all) helping Maria make deserts, clean her shop, and whatever else she needed. Being in a place where everyone is muslim, this shop was a breath of fresh air. As soon as you walk in the door you feel Jesus. I felt like I was in an old movie where the world is a perfect place. The look on people's faces when they walked through that door was priceless. Everyone knows there's something different about that place--about Maria.
 Her vision is to provide muslim women with a good job and a peaceful working environment, and to see muslim people get to know Christ through her business. And it's working.
 Being there inspired me more than anything I've done on outreach, I think. To see someone living a completely normal life, but also living her dream, in an unreached country... she is a great example of what a long-term missionary is. And OH, the food she makes.... incredible. She taught me how to make apple pies from scratch. I wish I could work there. I know I would learn so much.
    The rest of the time we were in Turkey, we walked around many ancient ruins where Christians lived hundreds of years ago and prayed and worshipped in those places. I struggled with feeling like I wasn't doing anything meaningful, but God showed me that doing what we were doing was important for the future of Turkey. We were part of paving a foundation for missionaries to come into that land. I had never thought of the work that has to go into a place before it's possible for missionaries to frequently come and go. So it was a different type of ministry, for sure.
  I saw many beautiful places in Turkey... I feel privileged to have gotten to go.
 The team had a week of debriefing there. I couldn't believe that outreach had ended. I still can't. I'm excited for the next season of life, but also scared of not knowing what's next.
Thank you for every one of your prayers for me during outreach,,, I seriously don't know if I could have made it through without them!