Turkey 2010 – Day 4 – Friday 13th August

Todays post is written by Becky. Today we’re feeling it. The heat and different climate and the excitement means we’re all pretty tired today. We dragged ourselves down to the tasty-as-ever breakfast and headed out bright and early to church for a day of manual labour! The team were asked to paint a wall, mow the large and somewhat overgrown garden, wash the windows and re-grout the tiles on the roof terrace. We’re very grateful for sunscreen and ‘su!’ (water!)

We ordered fresh ‘laumachan’ for lunch– (tasty Turkish pizzas!) from a local place to be collected at 12.30. Neil and I went to pick up lunch for the ravenous team. We met the friendly baker and through broken Turkish and wild (and comical) gesticulating we established that he knew what we wanted, but he had not made it! He started flinging around dough and flour with flourish (no pun intended) and told us he would be 10 minutes. 40 minutes later we set off with our warm nourishment packed up- but in the meantime we ended up sitting with 2 plain-clothed police officers as they had their lunch! As they uttered odd English words and we our poorly accented Turkish words, we managed to establish that Istanbul was awesome and so was football. Not bad. After lunch Neil led our daily devotion looking at John 4- the Royal official who believes in Jesus enough after hearing about him to journey to find Jesus and seek healing for his sick child. He had heard and believed straight away- this study inspired the team in our prayers, and reminded us of the reason that we are here in Turkey.

All too soon after our lunch, we set out back into the heat to carry on with our tasks. The dingy peeling wall was gradually transformed into an even smooth white border that framed the garden. The building is not a small one – 4 storeys high – and it had a LOT of windows. There was a great amount of leaning dangerously out of windows, climbing ladders and polishing out smears, but finally they were done. The grout was completed (and Chris’ knees were ok!). Ladders were put away, rollers and brushes rinsed, and we trudged back to our hotel around 5.30. What a privilege to serve the church here with doing practical jobs that would have taken 1 or 2 people ages. It’s our prayer that the church continues to shine as a light here.

After showers and rest, the team are enjoying free time tonight and tomorrow morning (yay lie-in!).The team is enjoying banter and games of uno before setting off for a kebap and ice cream on the beach tonight for some relaxation. And who knows what God has planned this starry evening in a town in the lands where the gospel first was spread.