Turkey 2010 – Day 8 – Tuesday 17th August

Today’s blog is written by Emily. Only our second day in Izmir and God is working and moving yet again! Rolling out of bed to a bowl of cornflakes was a very exciting start to the day, didn’t think I could miss cereal quite as much I have seemed to! An early start saw us heading to the church for a prayer meeting, which was well worth getting out of bed for! The enthusiasm and expectancy of God continuing to move in Izmir and the longing of the spirit to breakout was so encouraging. Prayer was lifted up especially for the group of new believers due to be baptised on Sunday, that they will not be like coal (receive the spirit but then quickly become cold) but that they will be liked diamonds (retract and reflect the light of Christ continually!). The group then prayed over us for a renewed energy and spirit, which was so needed, and for increased boldness knowing that Christ is in us! Amen!

After a YUUUUMMY plate of Turkish food we headed over to a different area of Izmir on the ferry. Whilst sitting in some necessary shade we did our daily devotion. We looked at John 9, the cure of the man born blind, which brought about the discussion of fear. In the passage, how the blind man’s parents are scared of being expelled from the synagogue by the Pharisees and how this fear of rejection is also very evident in the culture in which we are currently working and staying in. We then set off treasure hunting, Ella, Neil and I came across many of our clues but not one of the people we approached spoke any English. We finally saw a guy with white Nike trainers on (one of our clues), he was with a girl who replied “a little” to our question, “Ingilizce biliyor musunuz?” (Do you speak English?). We told them we were followers of Jesus Christ and that we wanted to tell them of the love Jesus has for them both. We offered them the church’s card and asked if they had heard of it at all. To our surprise the girl had not only heard of the Lighthouse church but had visited!! Out of the 4 million people in Izmir, God had put us face to face with people who were familiar with the church and open to hearing about Jesus, confirming once again that He is the all powerful, all knowing and living God!! We then offered them a New Testament and got them to read John 3:16, leaving them with the knowledge that God sent his only son for them both individually and promised we would pray for them. An incredible afternoon!,

A quick pit stop at our host’s houses to refresh and change, and then off to a picnic with one of the Church’s house groups. Sharing food, conversation and a game of Frisbee brought about once again a fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ living in Turkey.