Turkey part 1 of 2!
So we (all 26 of us) drove into Istanbul turkey from Albania on February something or another. We had a debrief there in Istanbul in a hostel that was also a bar, restaurant and karaoke. It was a really crazy time but a lot of fun. We had the chance to debrief our time in Albania, worship together, learn together, do some Devo roulette, pray over our time and spend time in community with all of p squad!
Then from there we all split into our different placements! My team went about 5 hours from Istanbul to a little town called Biga, in the province of Canakkale. While we were there we didn't have much in the way of an organization to work with so we had a lot of ATL time! And it was Soo good. We got to meet so many people there that simply invited us in. Into their homes, their friendships and their lives. It was really a privilege and such an awesome opportunity. We got to learn more about the culture and religion and in turn they got to learn about ours. It was an interesting position we were in, while there we were told to not mention the missionary word.The M word there means something akin to a terrorist. We were to be students that study culture and religion. And that actually opened up a lot of door for us.
We got to hand out many bibles, talk openly about our faith and religion, intercede for them and in general spread the Good news in Turkey!
Every few weeks we got to visit another team in Canakkale and got to partner with them and their mother church in youth events and English classes. It was really fun but Biga was our home. We all really loved it there. It's just a small town but the people have hearts of gold and we learned a lot about the warmth that is Turkish culture there.
We went into impromptu house visits, village excursion, coffee dates and so many more places. The Lord really blessed our time there. I felt like we got to plant a lot of seeds. We know that God is faithful and will continue to water those seeds how He sees fit.
All in all, our time in Turkey was such a beautiful time full of color, laughter, love, light and warmth. This is only turkey part 1, stay tuned for part 2 about holy week, Ramadan,iftars, house hopping and churches!!
Love you all!
Jordan D.