Two weeks ago, we piled into a van along with 2 other Americans who are living in Istanbul studying people groups. Our goal was to find a certain group of people that hadn’t been reached yet in Turkey. The van was full and we were off! First two nights were spent in two different mountain towns of the north eastern corner of Greece. God was already at work; the second night, we meant to go to Xanthie but somehow ended up in Philipi! And only 2 kil away from the ruins of a once bustling city. In the morning we had a chance to visit the theatre where Paul preached and the jail he was kept in before a huge earthquake freed him and ruined the city. Later that day we headed north towards Bulgaria but not before stopping in a small mountain hunting village. Didn’t find any real leads here so kept moving on. After a few minutes driving in Bulgaria, we stopped at a small farm stand on the side of the road. Much to our pleasant surprise the old woman spoke Turkish (and so do our 2 American friends)! She pointed us towards the surrounding villages where we would find the people we were looking for. Excitement filled the van, but we had to wait until morning. We found a hotel and woke up to snow capped mountains! We split into two groups in the first village we came to so we could cover the town easier. Jeremy, Stacy, Casey and I started walking down the road. We tried talking to an elderly lady, but she didn’t understand us so we continued on until we found a group of men. We quickly found out that none of them spoke English or Turkish as they looked at us in confusement. They grabbed their friend who came over and when asked if he spoke English he said, “Yes, of course.” Obvioulsy! We told him we were a group doing cultural studies and if he’d be willing to answer some questions. He said he needed 10 minutes to finish what he was working on in what looked like a barn so we would come back.
When we returned he greeted us with a smile and the interview was on. We found out that he had been working in England for the past 7 years, but grew up in this village. Him and his cousin were the only 2 people in this village who spoke English. And guess who the other half of our team was talking to??? He informed us that the people group we were looking for didn’t live here, but in a nearby village. However we did learn a lot about the Bulgarian culture. After about an hour he took us inside the barn and we found out it was a warehouse for tobacco. All of the men in the village would be out in the fields picking all summer long and then in the winter is the time of the year when they sell it to the factories that clean and process the tobacco. His hospitality was very welcoming as we sat in a smokey room watching the drug deal go down! He walked us out and to the center of town where we ran into the rest of the village hanging out outside of their local market. We didn’t feel comfortable with all of them watching us so we walked up the street and ran into a man who took us into the mosque. While in there we found out many of their rituals. He offered to give us some tea after we left the mosque so we went across the street to a small restaurant. Along with the tea, the owner lit the grill and soon sausages were sizzling. We were pretty hungry, but realized we hadn’t ordered, it was just their amazing hospitality. Casey was fasting and debating if he should eat or not because he didn’t want to be insult their kindness. God quickly answered his prayers as the sausages were passed out and everybody received a plate except for him. The chef noticed, apoligized and wanted to start cooking more. But instead of being a problem, this opened up a door nice and wide for Casey to explain his faith. They didn’t seem very receptive to what he had to say and we realized our job is much harder than we thought. The rest of our team joined us at the cafe and we felt we made a good impression and it was time to move on. We drove pretty much the rest of the day until we arrived in a bigger town where we were able to sleep that night. God blessed us again with another amazing hotel that overlooked a pristine lake. As Casey watched the sunset by himself on the balcony God showed him a new type of joy. The bible tells us to drink freely of the spirit of joy and Casey definitely had his fill, as he was laughing for over an hour!
We drove the majority of the next day, stopping in villages as we came to them. The last stop of the day was at a gas station and we actually got to meet a person from our people group! We were going to stay there that night, but there was no rooms anywhere in that city due to a festival. We got his information and headed back to Istanbul. Five hours later we were back at the church knocking on the door praying someone was there to let us in. Sure enough we were welcomed inside and quickly passed out. Our trip felt very successful and we were so blessed along the way.
