Hey hey hey!
We are wrapping up our time in Turkey, it’s been wonderful & busy all at once!
This week we had an opportunity to do several prayer walks, which led us to playing the guitar and singing some worship songs in the park 🙂 It was so fun & something really cool happened too. As we found ourselves in a park singing, & a couple people nearby started watching, listening, and one started to video tape too! One of the songs we were singing with the guitar was called Good Good Father (classic!!) & this led to a conversation with a woman about the song showing God to be that good, good father to the people of this world. We also were able to get coffee with a man & his daughter & had an opportunity to share a tid-bit of what that song meant to us & who we were as followers of Jesus. It was such a cool time (loving the guitar too!)
The following day I decided to bring my guitar to a coffee shop where I needed to work on some personal logistics. Here, at their closing time I decided to play a few tunes & before I knew it, there were several people listening & stopped from off the streets to listen. This led to another wonderful opportunity to share with those people what I was singing about-that being Jesus!!!! Man, this stuff brings me so much joy.
As our time in Turkey is coming to a close, I realize we have made some awesome relationships here, specifically with the small church community. I wanted to share with you a glimpse of our hosts life story of coming to know Jesus.
LIFE STORY: Our host grew up in the country of Bulgaria- Raised in a communist family.
There he was taught in high school that Jesus was actually not a real figure-but rather a myth. But this did not last for long. In his young adult years he went to a university and also worked for the military later on. Within those years, he started to wonder if there was more to life. He was searching for truth. He decided to dabble into all kind of different religions and spiritual paths, including witchcraft.
In college, he met a few new friends who would consistently invite him over to discuss things of the bible. He said that for 3 months straight, they had conversations after conversations with each other about the Christian Faith. Though he did not know it exactly then, this was the start to something life changing. Within 4 years of searching, seeking, and having faith conversations with other people, He finally decided to go to Church, and there, he experienced something extraordinary. This man claims to have experienced the power of Holy spirit through a real life encounter. From what I gathered with him in conversations, he said “He felt God’s power through his whole body and started vibrating for over a half hour”. He expressed that he could not move & later on walked out of the church believing that “God is so much more powerful than we understand” (Upon hearing this I was like Wowwww! So wild & amazing-i have seen simmilar experiences before back in the states too). Apparently, that encounter changed his life forever. Shortly after he decided to commit his life to Jesus “officially” & then began bible studies which eventually led him into a ministry occupation, serving the Bulgarian people near the black sea.
While still living in Bulgaria and ministering to the locals, he received an unexpected vision from the Lord stating that it was “Like a real life movie”, believing that it was from God calling Him to the country of Turkey to love on the people there with his whole heart. After several other confirmations, he decided to make the move. To this Day, this pastor has been in Turkey just a little over 5 years. Its a true honor to partner along side him & his family these past two weeks.
Also, This guy is still in contact with several of his college buddies who shared so much of the love of Jesus with him through word and action.
Man, what an encouragement he was to hear his story, but to also think of those people who shared the love of Jesus intentionally with him during those college years. May we never underestimate what God can do in conversations & solid friendship. Soooooo good! & that is a wrap for his story for now. Have more questions? Feel free to reach out & I would love to share more details with you.
VLOG: Attached to this blog is a quick video of our adventure day, exploring different Biblical Cities that Paul the Apostle checked out. Please do enjoy. (the man in the hawaiian shirt is also the man I just shared that small life story glimpse with).
COMING UP: Looking forward… we are headed to Istanbul tomorrow-for this I am so excited because I will be potentially connecting with a branch of the international house of prayer! We will be in Istanbul for a few days so we can reconnect with the squad. From there we will head to Spain, but on the way to we take a quick pit stop in Athens, Greece. We are pumped to check out more Biblical History there. Eeeee!
Thank you for tuning in, as always, never hesitate to reach out. I would love to hear from you and pray specifically for you in any way!
Keep on keeping on,
Kailey
