Naomi the star of Turkey!

Naomi, with her blonde hair and big eyes, is quite popular here in Turkey. She gets patted on the head at least 10 times per day. She is given free things almost anywhere we go. The most precious moment was in Cappidocia last weekend. Naomi and I were happily walking back to the hostel when she tripped and fell in the uneven sidewalk. She was crying super hard as I carried her inside with a bloody knee. The young man who worked at the hostel jumped into action. He said in broken English, "I help you" and the next thing he had out the first aid kit and was cleaning her knee, putting medicine on it and bandaging it. He then went to the kitchen and got her an ice-cream bar. Within minutes she was all smiles. These experiences will be some of my most memorable from this trip. The kindness of strangers so far from home is comforting and so loving. I am thankful for these moments.

Hospitable Turkey

We arrived last Monday in Istanbul, Turkey. We were blown away at such a beautiful and fascinating city. John and I both voted that it might be one of our favorite cities. We got to explore and soak in the history and fascinating streets for two days before our long bus ride to Ankara, the capital and our home base for two weeks. We visited the largest mosque in the entire Islamic world and had an amazing time of learning together as a group. The stories of this day are worth an entire posting by itself at a later time. :) God is good! Our contact here has introduced us to some incredible Turkish people who have welcomed us and taught us about their country and culture. We are still blown away as a team that we are blessed to have these experiences and get to learn by being right in the middle of these different cultures. Over the weekend we took another long bus ride (getting quite used to these and thankful that there are 25 super fun and loving college students to entertain Jack and Naomi!) to go to Cappidocia and were absolutely blown away at Gods creation. It's jaw dropping looking at the formations of the earth and the caves that nomadic people lived in thousands of years ago. Then these caves were lived in by the persecuted Christians years and years later. There are still carved out churches and frescos of Jesus and angels. You could see the elaborate secret cave homes and tunnels. Jack and Naomi climbed and explored for hours.
Unfortunately John got his first taste of food poisoning but we are so thankful that he got well very fast. Please be praying for others on the team who are recovering from colds. This team has become like a traveling family and it's such a praise to have this unity and support around us.
And the Turkish people make us feel comfortable and at home here. They are warm, hospitable, super helpful, smiley, loving, and adore Jack and Naomi. Daily they are patted on the head, have their cheeks squeezed, are given a little toy, asked questions and just stared at with huge smiles...and of course Jack and Naomi are eating it up.

Good bye Russia

I am packing up as we leave very early to leave Russia in the morning. As I reflect on our time here I wanted to highlight a few things...
The church that hosted us were a body of amazing people. They housed and fed us for 11 days and were such a joy to worship and pray with. Immanuel church holds a special place in my heart as it reminded me very much of our Saddleback Covenant church body.
The people from Mercy Ministries...Paul, Sergei and Olia have amazing hearts for the Lord and servant hearts for Gods people. it will be a sad good bye tomorrow. Thay taught and imparted a lot to me and I am so thankful for the opportunity to be around them.
Our times in the boardinghouse and orphanage were incredible for our family. For me personally it was hard to see so many kids with out a mother or father. As I walked around the baby orphanage I found myself just praying constantly for these little ones. There was a special room for the disabled children that mainly remain in their cribs most of the day. Most were sleeping or blankly staring as the nurse told me they were in a vegetable state. But one little girl had her full mind but was paralyzed. Since she is an orphan she is left at thus facility with nurses helping her but not able to be near her at all times. They have dressed up stuffed bunny in a nurse costume so when they are not there she has someone to look at. As soon as I leaned over her crib, this 2 year old little girl just lit up. We spent only 10 minutes together but she smiled and made cooing noises the whole time. She loved peek a boo. She was precious to me and I know the Lord loves her beyond what we can conceive. It broke my heart to leave her alone with only the bunny to look at. This moment I realized that much of what we will see on this trip is going to break my heart. Lord please be with this little girl tonight who I don't even know her name. Please give her a peace and joy that only comes from you. Thank you for letting me meet her.

Milk

The past few days all Jack has been craving has been cold milk. I have been proud of the kids for trying so many new foods. Naomi has liked the soup and cucumbers of Russia but other than that both of them have had a hard time with potatoes as the heart of most of our meals and the milk is always warm. So this morning Jack woke up and said, all I want today is some cold milk, can we please try to find some. So we took our usual bus towards the church and got off one stop early to go to the store. We found ice cold milk, batteries and some gum all while being stared at because we were speaking English. We went to check out and I handed the woman our credit card just to have it not work. It randomly doesn't work at some places in Russia for some reason. So I scrounge up the little cash I had with me and had to return all the stuff but had just enough for the milk!!! Yah! As we walked to the church I was laughing inside at how funny and different this experience is right now...I have no money left except for bus fare, I have no phone on this trip, we are wearing the clothes that i washed in the sink last night, and it's 11am and we are walking down the street in Vladimir so happy with our milk :)

Praise

Thank you for all your prayers yesterday. It was amazing to see everyone use their creative gifts to be a blessing at the boarding house yesterday. Macho did his games with the children which seem to translate into every culture or language we are in. The kids were very serious, timid and didn't want to participate at first. Then within three minutes almost every child was up holding hands with the team in a big circle. We were repeating funny songs and dancing around and it was a joy to see the kids feel free and fun! Then Mai with some of the team, led songs like "Deep and Wide" and we taught the kids the motions. They were loving it. Then it was time for the big play. Brock within just a short 1 hour prep time, created an amazing play of Daniel and the Lions Den. John got to play King Darius and did quite a job. I saw his VBS experience coming out. Jack and Naomi got to play the lions. :) Sergei translated while Brock narrated and the team acted out each part. It was AMAZING and I had goosebumps the entire time. I felt so far from home, sitting in the yard of this boardinghouse in rural Russia, but yet it felt like home and all the years of telling stores to the children in a small room of our church in Mission Viejo. God's stories are amazing no matter where you are telling them. After the drama, Brock told the kids that we need not fear, that God watches over us, and that we can trust in Him at all times. We then spent the rest of the time doing the kids chores along side them, painting, harvesting potatoes and of course some soccer. That seems to be a universal bonding game no matter where we go! In fact Jack has turned into quite the up and coming soccer player. :) I am so thankful for this opportunity and all that it's teaching Naomi and Jack as well. They are learning to serve others and they are learning by watching this team dive into whatever project or opportunity is laid before them. Just yesterday I saw Naomi sitting on the swing at the orphanage and some little boy her age came up and she got off, motioned for him to sit, and then proceeded to push him on the swing. This may seem small but it meant a lot to me. Naomi can't speak to these children as they all speak only Russian, but she is able to help them in little ways and she didn't have to be told by me to get off and help this boy. She just did...and minutes later I saw her run down the hill to pick potatoes with some of the girls. Then I looked over and saw Jack making up a game of throwing apples with the boys from the orphanage. This all makes my heart so happy and I felt a renewed sense of thankfullness that we are getting to be on this journey as a family.

Prayer

Please pray for us today as we head to a non Christian boarding house. We will be working, playing games, music and a drama to share the gospel. Thank you

Russia

After 25 hours of being in the air and over two days of travel we finally made it. We felt very thankful that the longest distance of travel is over and that it went far better than we had thought it would go. This team of students is such a blessing to be with. They make the adventure so amazing and so much fun for Jack and Naomi. A fascinating part of this journey is going to be seeing the similarities and the major differences between all the cultures we are going to see. I felt strangely at home right when we arrived in Russia. I think this is because Vladimir is such a special place for my sister and I have heard her talk about the people and places for so many years. Its pretty amazing to now be here! The heads of Mercy Ministries Paul and Sergei have been incredible and the church here accepted us so warmly. The women from the church have made us the most amazing meals and we eat as a team in the basement of the church. We have felt very taken care of. We spent the day harvesting potatoes at a boardinghouse and also played with the children. We will be going back next week to do music and drama with the kids and share the gospel. Worshipping together with the Russian congregation has been a highlight as well. Last night during our thursday night worship time the men that live in the church came down to join us. It turned into an amazing Russian/English prayer and worship time...it was so powerful and we ended in singing You are the God of this City in a dark church praying for these Russian men to shine Gods light in this city! Thank you Lord!