I am currently on board a train headed to Athens, Greece where we will be boarding a flight to Barcelona, Spain on the 11th. This month I am with team DreamWorks, and I am considering myself to be “the man on the moon.”
Get it?! Thought it was pretty clever..
Side story: In Spain we will be walking the Camino de Santiago, a world-famous pilgrimage that entails backpacking all the way across Spain. Our route will include a little over 200 miles of hiking. This is meant to be a time of reflection over our last 10 months of the race. While being a month of reflection it is also important to remember that millions from all over the world come year in and year out to do this hike. They come in search of something whether they realize it or not. Pray for open hearts and opportunity for fruitful conversations as we meet people along the way.
We left Istanbul, Turkey two days ago and got to have a one day lay over in Thessaloniki. That’s right, the home of the Thessalonians.
Side story: We were able to visit the monastery where legend has it that the Apostle Paul preached, and where he escaped over the wall in the middle of the night to flee the city with Silas. How cool! Even cooler, we met a guy named Mike from the states who had just moved to the city for a one year Greek program. After our brief interaction with him, he ended up asking us if we had a bible to spare. Unfortunately, we were packing light for our trek around the city and all we had was the app on our phones (never underplay having a physical bible on hand!). We did however end up going out to dinner with him and were able to encourage him. He will now be on the hunt for an English bible to get his hands on. What a cool interaction to have on a day sightseeing!
Now onto the purpose of my blog, to tell you about my time in Istanbul, Turkey. I spent a little over two and half weeks in Istanbul. We were connected with a ministry host (whom will remain unnamed for safety purposes) that spent four hours each day in prayer and worship. Outside of this time we did ev@ngelism work (e-work) with them, as they had recently began an English club and were trying to bring people in.
Each day of the week our host had a different prayer topic. The topics ranged from things like praying for the sex trafficking in Istanbul, praying for the lost in Turkey and across the Middle East, praying for the persecuted church, and much more. What I loved about this host is that they prayed directly out of scripture, allowing you to turn to these versus and pray with them. They also invited anyone up to the mike to pray on the topic of the day if we felt the Lord had placed something on our hearts. Shockingly enough I found myself up there a time or two leading prayer. It was an awesome time to be able to step out of my comfort zone.
I ended up meeting a friend from Turkey during our first night of English club. I became fast friends with him as we had all the same favorite Netflix TV shows in common. After meeting up a few times for coffee or sightseeing we had gotten into some deeper conversations. I knew he was a Muslim interested in the Sufi Order and he knew I was a Christian. This allowed for some cool open dialogue. He agreed with me that the Quran tells its readers that the Torah (Old Testament) and the Incil (New Testament) should be read and that their teachings are good. After a simple ask he agreed that he would do a study over the book of John with me. Ultimately we were only able to get through chapter three, but hey I got take him through one of the most impactful verses out there.. I think you know the one I’m talking about (John 3:16). I even got to leave my friend with a Turkish bible in hand, and of course I intend to remain in touch with him! He may even be reading this blog, in which case, what’s up dude!
Turkey was definitely a favorite month. It has been so exciting to be in an area of the world where the Gospel spread like crazy over 2000 years ago and has impacted all of us. I pray that just as it spread with such momentum back then that God would continue to produce that momentum across the world today. Prayer requests as always for safe travels, open hearts, divine appointments, and for the growth of seeds already planted.
