Hello again!

Just to keep y'all updated (yesterday was a big day)...I was able to show the Chronicles of Narnia movie to my two students and their mother. Last night i was able to give them a copy of the book in their language and explain all the symbolism in it. i had lifted up this opportunity yesterday and asked that i would be able to share with boldness but also with gentless and i was really enabled to do so. i shared the message, all of it, but in a way that didn't estrange them or turn them off. I think they really got it! They really seemed to understand what i was saying and when i explained who the lion in the book was one of the girl's faces lit up and she let out a sound of surprise and excitement. They started reading the book as before class was over and i told them to remember what it meant every time they read it. Awesome.

Also last night was the night we celebrated the girls in my d-ship group memorizing psalm 19! All of the girls (and me and my teammate) got it memorized! i honestly don't think i've ever been prouder in my life of someone else. Think of the committment these girls showed! What i myself do here might not last, but His word remains forever and i Ask that what they learned this semester will keep changing these girls' lives for years to come!

Please be lifting us up as we prepare to leave this week. It' very hard to leave knowing there's still work to be done over here and it's almost unbearable to leave knowing that my students still don't know the truth. Please be asking for strength for us and for wisdom as we still try to share the truth with them.

I'm excited so excited to see all of you when i get back! Be prepared to keep getting updates though! There are a lot of thoughts i want to share when i don't have to worry about how to word things and say them safely! Peace!

Hey again! This might be one of the last updates you get from me while I'm here! Crazy! I wanted to tell everyone how God has been proving himself faithful over here and also a few more ways that you can be lifting us up before we go.

Many of you know that I had the equivalent of about $300 stolen from me about a week and a half ago. This money was part of the monthly stipend i get for being here. I use it for food, taxis, and other necessities, so it going missing was really discouraging. I needed that money to live on for another 2 weeks! I saw how much i lacked faith when this happened. I knew God could provide, but my initial reaction when this happened was to panic. I decided to stop worrying and just pray and ask that God would provide. And He did. My teammate gets a monthly stipend too and so we just shared it. I don't know how it has lasted as long as it has, but God has really multiplied it and stretched it almost without our even realizing it. I appreciate those of y'all who have prayed for this situation as well. God is so good and so faithful.

As my teammate and i wrap up our work here, we ask that you'd be lifting up a couple classes that we are very strategically planning to share the message. On Wednesday, i'll be showing The Chronicles of Narnia movie to my two students who are sisters. I will also be giving them the book and explaining the message, the allegory, behind it. Also on Wednesday, my teammate will be sharing her story (t-mony) with one of her students. These are really great opportunities and chances for the message to clearly go out.

Also just keep our mental sanity in your prayers. I always get really anxious when i get ready to leave somewhere or finish something. I am having the same problems here. I couldn't tell you what i'm anxious about, but there's just a general sense of anxiety that is making me want to check out and stop focusing on the work here. If i ever needed to be concentrated on the work here, it is now. Thanks always for your prayers. See y'all soon!

Helloooooooo!

Just wanted to update everyone on how things went on Saturday night with the songs and such. It was amazing! I was able to bring all the lyrics to the songs i sang and i was able to sing a song in their language! Singing and speaking in their language is so important. They know English well enough, but not at the level where something i say or sing in English can really connect with them. They knew exactly what this other song meant and i think (and hope) that it really stuck with them. It also opened doors for me to bring my guitar back again and sing more songs! I am so excited! Maybe the coolest thing that happened was that the 9 year old sister, as i was leaving, asked me if i knew any Britt Nicole songs. She said she really likes Britt Nicole! Britt Nicole is a C singer and i thought it was really strange that this girl had heard of her, much less liked her or listened to her at all. I am so excited that this door has already been opened! This could bring some awesome opportunities for me to explain the lyrics to her and since she already likes her music, she will continue to hear it and continue to remember what it means! Awesome!!!!

Besides that, not much has been going on. The last few days have been holidays over here (i feel like they have waaaay more holidays than we do) so i haven't been teaching and i've really been bored out of my skull. Today i start teaching again, so i'm really thankful for that. Our d-ship group is going great! We're starting to wrap up and talk about how now that i have taught them, it is their job to go and teach others. We're still memorizing Psalm 19 and i am so proud of the progress they've made and their committment to keep going. I keep Asking that they would be reminded of it every day and that they would see some way to apply it to their lives. I told one of the girls the other day that she will never regret putting His word into her heart and mind!

Thanks for praying for me! I need it these last few weeks as i try to finish strong. Col. 4:2-6

great opportunity!

Hello Again!

A wonderful opportunity has just opened up that I want y'all to know about so you can be praying about it! I told y'all in my last blog that my students loved the song "New" that I let them listen to, and when they found out I played guitar, they wanted me to bring my guitar to their house and the play that song for them. I did last night and they loved it so much that they asked me to bring it back and play more songs for them. I told them that most of the songs I knew were about JC and that they probably wouldn't know any of them. They weren't phased at all by the subject of the songs and they asked if i could print out the lyrics and bring them so they could learn them! WHAT?!?!? Not only did they ask me to bring these songs in their house, they asked me to leave the words with them! What an amazing opportunity! I am currently in the process of selecting strategic songs that they will like but also will clearly present the Message. I also know a song about JC in their language, which is even better. Please be lifting up this awesome opportunity that I will have on Saturday.

Everything else is going well. We are having open doors with all of our students, but this family seems especially open. Thanks again for your encouragement and prayers for me. I will continue to need your prayers this month as i wrap up the work here (it feels like i just started). Thanks! Love you all!

Erin

I just realized that somehow all of my last blog didn't get posted. Sorry. Hopefully y'all got the picture of what i was saying. Haha.

We are continuing to have open doors with several of our students over here. The two sisters that i have mentioned several times are proving to be proabably the most interested students that we have. Every class we have with them (we have class with them 3 times a week) they have some kind of new question or we are able to get into some kind of good conversation. This is so exciting! On Monday we had a class where we talked about music and i specifically chose a few songs to listen to that i thought would bring up some good conversations. We listened to the song "New" by Bethany Dillon; they loved the song, but were kind of confused by the lyrics. They asked to know what the song meant. I was able to explain to them that the song was a prayer, that she was thanking God for making her new. I think they found this very interesting as they don't have this concept in their faith. They begged me to give them the song, so i'm going to tonight. Just Ask that everytime they listen to the song they will remember what it means. Their mother the other night also started asking questions and my teammate was able to engage in a really good conversation with her. This was surprising to both of us as we haven't seen any interest in her before. God is really working. We are also starting to teach a new family, and had the first class last night. We were worried that it was kind of late in the game to start a new class, but my teammate assured me last night that they are very interested in what we have to say and that even in the first class she had some great opportunities with them. This is nothing short of a miracle. Keep praying for our other two students as well.

Our d-ship group is going really well. The girls are still full of really good questions and are really interested in learning. We faced some problems with them when we had to deal with some of the stuff that happened at the sleepover we had last month, but we are beyond it now and i am really proud of them. Keep praying for them. They are putting themselves into a lot of bondage just with the stuff they put into their minds. This week we are going to talk about media, so pray that they would choose to listen to the truth instead of the lies the world gives.

Finally, just pray against discouragement for my teammate and i. Pray that we would have peace and be rested, and pray that we would be "bold enough in Him to speak as we should." I was hit the other day by the reality of Col. 1:6 over here. It is absolutely true and is being lived out before my eyes. Keep praying. You might not see the results, but you can trust that God is at work.

Hello again!

I can't believe October is only a week from being over! The more time i spend here, the faster the time goes by. Everything is still going well and ever since last Wednesday when i was able to share with my two students about the Christmas story, i have had so many more open doors with them. First of all, i was able to give them a Book in their language. It's not a full Book, actually, it's a Children's Book, filled with stories and beautiful pictures. If they had known what it was, they probably would not have accepted it, but since it is in the form that it's in they were very interested in it and liked it a lot. They've also asked a lot more questions that i've been able to answer and explain. We got to talking about funeral customs for believers and i told them that we often sang at funerals. They thought that was very strange and asked about it. When i thought about it, i had to admit it was kind of strange too, but not when you think about the hope that we have! I explained this to them the best i could. If you could Ask just one thing for these girls, please Ask that they would continue to have questions and that i would have wisdom in answering them. I have another student too, but it's really difficult with her because she speaks absolutely no English and i know only a little bit in her language. She knows what i believe and how i act, but it's difficult because i want to communicate it verbally with her so bad! Please ask for opportunities with her too. Our goal with our students, besides of course getting to share with them, is to leave as many materials in their language as we can before we leave. We can say a lot while we're here, but His word is much more powerful than what we can say, and It can speak long after we're gone. It's such an encouragement to know that "[His] word that comes from [His] mouth will not return to [Him] empty, but will prosper in what [He] sent it to do and will accomplish what [He] pleases." It's so wonderful to know that whatever else happens while we're here, God has already promised that His purpose will be accomplished!

Besides all that, everything is going pretty well! Our d-ship group is still great, the weather is still slowly, but surely, cooling off, and we have our last public class tomorrow (that might not sound like a good thing, but it is....for so many reasons). Please continue to pray for me and my teammate. Often when the work is going awesome and is at a crucial point, the enemy does his best to discourage and to

Doors are opening...

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to update everyone on an amazing opportunity i had last night with two of my students! They are the two sisters that i have been tutoring in the family that we have gotten close to. I had told them both a few weeks ago that i loved Christmas and that it was my favorite holiday, so on Monday, they asked if i could teach them about Christmas the next class. i agreed, not even realizing what a great opportunity this would be. As i was preparing, however, it dawned on me what an open door this was. i realized what they had inadvertantly asked to hear about! So last night i had an opportunity to share about Christmas with them. We made paper snowflakes, listened to Christmas music and talked about traditions, but we centered the lesson around the real Christmas story. We read it aloud and talked about what it meant. I explained to them that this story was the reason i love Christmas so much. i explained to them that it was real, unlike all the other Christmas stories like Santa and elves and everything, and that it was important to me. They understood the Christmas story pretty well, but the oldest girl wanted me to explain it a little more. I did, but also told her that i could probably find it in her language if she wanted me to and she said that she did. What an open door! She asked me to bring the Word into her house and she didn't even know it.

Last night i wanted to cry as i heard them reading the Christmas story out loud. Just to think that the truth has probably never even entered their home before, and there they were last night, reading it in the middle of their living room! Just read Luke 2:10-14 and imagine hearing it read by someone who has never heard it before! Some amazing things are going on over here! I just wanted to update you and thank you for lifting me up! Please continue to do so! Some pretty huge doors are opening over here!

Erin

About halfway through....

Things are still trucking on over here. I think the longer I'm over here, the less and less updates I'll have to give and the more and more prayer requests I'll have. We are still privately tutoring, still having the public class, and still having the girls' d-ship group. All are going pretty well, but all need prayer.

We've developed really good relationships with these women that we're teaching. On Thursday night, we hung out outside of class with the family that we have been getting to know and we had so much fun. We also met about 15 crazy college students the other day randomly and hung out with them for the whole night. Those girls were awesome. We also really love the ladies that are in our Monday classes and have gotten to be really good friends with all of them, one in particular. It has occurred to me, though, the more i build relationships with these women that the main goal of my being here is not simply to build relationships. If that were the case, then i have done what i came here to do. I love these women and have become good friends with them. But i have been thinking a lot lately about their future and their destiny when this life comes to an end and it breaks my heart. Unless something changes or divine intervention happens, their future is grim to say the least. With this in mind, i have been even more diligent in lifting them up and looking for opportunities with them. I wish i could say more, but the language i would have to use in doing so prevents me. Darn it. Haha. Please join me in asking for something to change and something miraculous to happen in the lives of these women.

I would also ask you to pray for our girls' d-ship group. I mentioned in my last blog about the sleepover we were going to have and what a great opportnity it would be. It certainly was a God-given opportunity but it didn't exactly go as planned. That night our eyes were opened to some of the things that they are doing and dealing with at 13 years old that i never would have dreamed of. I was honestly a little disappointed but mainly just grieved at how they are voluntarily putting themselves in bondage at so young an age. Decisions they are making now have the capacity to ruin their lives. We have addressed these issues with them and explained to them how they have a higher calling than the world. They are followers and they are called to act on it. Please keep us and these girls in your prayers. We need wisdom on how to handle these situations and they need changes in their lives. These girls are still so great. They are continuing to learn and to apply it. The problem is what this represents for the rest of the youth in this country that are believers. These girls are the cream of the crop and they are dealing with these things; this does not bode well for the rest of the youth here. I love these girls so much and am, as Paul said "jealous for them with godly jealousy."

Those are the main things you can be praying for us. We are about at the halfway mark with our time here and i can't help but feel that what we're called to do will take longer than the time we have here. I'm not worried though. I'm taking one day at a time and doing what i know i am called to do each day. I'm really enjoying my time here, this is an awesome opportunity on so many levels. God is so good. Lately i have been overwhelmed with that fact.

Love you all!

More posts...just giving the people what they want

Hi!

Thank you all for your encouragement and for your prayers! Your prayers are certainly changing things over here! Less than two weeks ago we were bored out of our skulls and now we are busy, busy, busy and loving it! We are continuing to teach the family that i told y'all about in the previous blog three times a week. They have six children and although we are only officially teaching the mom and one of the daughters, we usually have the majority of the family sitting in the living room for the two hours that we teach. It has opened up tremendous doors in our being able to reach out to them! On Monday, they asked if they could hang out with us outside of class! That is a huge step in our being able to develop a relationship with them! We're meeting them tomorrow night to eat dinner and just spend time with them! That is a tremendous opportunity for us and it has opened up so fast! So please remember us tomorrow night (tomorrow morning your time. haha).

We also began the public group class that i mentioned on my last blog. Monday was our first class and we had 3 ladies, which is exactly what we expected. Our supervisor explained to us beforehand that anyone that came would probably be almost literally a scout, sent by other women to find out if the class was good. He said that if they deemed it worth everyone's time, they would tell all their friends, and that we would have quite a few more women next class. So...i guess we'll see! The great news about this class is that it has gotten us 2 more students that want to be privately tutored! My teammate tutored on of the ladies today and i will tutor the other one on Sunday! These are excellent opportunities!

The d-ship group is also going really well! The girls are continuing to learn, to memorize scripture, and to have fun doing so! One of the girls actually asked us all to have a sleepover at her house on Friday night. This will be a great opportunty to continue to build relationships with these girls and for them to hopefully see the Disciple's life lived out.

I've got a couple things that i hope you'll keep in your prayers as you remember us. First of all, and thankfully, the weather is getting cooler here (meaning that the temps are now in the 90's, haha). This is great, but with this change in the weather is coming quite a bit of sickness. Our supervisor, language teacher, and our language teacher's daughter are all getting over colds and fevers and my teammate is having some problems as well (we're praying she's not catching the same thing). It's also causing my allergies to act up and i'm getting some really bad headaches during the day. Just pray for our health. Also there have been some issues between teammates that have arisen and need to be completely resolved. Nothing big, but something that could cause problems if it isn't dealt with fast. The last thing we want is for any of us to lose credibility in front of our students, so please, keep us in your prayers.

It is truly an honor to be entrusted with the task that we've been given. Thank you all so much for keeping us in your prayers! Love you all!

Quite a bit has been happening....

In case the title didn't give it away, quite a bit has been happening round these parts since my last blog. For about the first four weeks i was here, i'm not gonna lie, things were downright frustrating. Classes would not work out with any of our students; none of them would commit. About a week ago, i was supposed to have my first student, and she called an hour before class to cancel. Such was life for a while. We were enjoying the d-ship group (which is still going amazing!) and our language classes and we really saw some cool things happening Spiritually, but we were really bored and really ready to get started. For a while we thought that we would just never end up teaching. After my student cancelled, i really think i lost all hope. All of a sudden, though, everything started changing! On Sunday we got set up to teach an English class once a week for several students at a time, as our one-on-one strategy had so tragically failed. Then last night we got a call saying that we had 2 students who wanted to start today - a mother and her teenage daughter. We had our first class today and it went so well! They are a very open, warm, and hospitable family who are very eager to learn English, and just as eager for us to learn their language! We will be privately tutoring them 3 times a week and will be teaching a public class once a week starting Monday. We have continually asked for these opportunities and they are finally here! Please continue to pray for us and for these wonderful opportunities that we have! We hope and have asked that through these opportunities we would really be able to reach out to some of these women, so continue to ask for that as well for us.

As i said earlier, this d-ship group is amazing! The way it has worked out shows how much God has orchestrated it! We have 5 girls, ages 11-15 coming; they are so excited and are learning so much! It brings me so much joy to see them learning and applying what they have learned in every day life! Our study is on the truth, and we are focusing specifically on filtering out the truth from the lies that our culture and media feeds us. Of course, the way we filter it is through knowing the Truth, and letting the truth set us free. We had our third study on Sunday and, as we studied the truth about ourselves, i was overjoyed to see how many examples they gave from the media about the lies that we hear about ourselves everyday. Through what we were studying, they were able to combat those lies with truth from the Word! We are also memorizing a verse a week from Psalm 19 over the course of this study, so that by the December, we will have the whole chapter memorized. We're working on verse 3 right now! Keep these girls in your prayers! There is such a lack of d-ship for youth here and the enemy would love to keep these girls in the dark! They are truly being counter cultural by choosing to know and memorize the Word and apply it daily.

Thanks so much for your thoughts, prayers, and encouraging texts, emails, facebook messages, etc. i am really loving my time over here and am feeling at home and full of joy and peace. Discouragement comes with the territory of being away from home and doing the work over here, but when i am discouraged, it is truly y'all's prayers that get me through! So, thank you so much and keep praying!

Two and a half weeks in...

Hi again!

Hope everyone is doing well over there! I have been here in my place of service for two and a half weeks now and am adjusting pretty well I'd say. The heat is a little difficult to adjust to and Ramadan has severely altered the schedule over here (and peoples' moods too...turns out you get a little cranky if you don't eat in 115 degree weather for a month!) Anyway, Ramadan is almost over, Eid is about to start, and I'm getting used to customs, security issues, and the weekly schedule over here. Sadly, i haven't been able to start teaching yet! Our job description has changed a little and we will now be tutoring ladies one-on-one. This will be a great move as far as allowing us to easily build relationships with them, however, because things are so crazy with Ramadan and Eid, none of the ladies want to start until next week. Though we were frustrated at first, we are now using this time to prepare, to learn language (we started language classes last week), and start a d-ship group with our supervisors' and language teacher's teenage daughters and some of their friends! It's amazing how i was taken out of the US and put into another country only to find out that i'm still passionate about the same thing: d-ing teenage girls! We had our first group on Sunday night and the results were so overwhelming. They loved the group and the study, learned so much, and asked if we could have it every week! Please continue to pray for this group as we'll meet every week. Pray for me as i teach and the girls as they learn, grow, and change. Also, please be praying that we would learn the language well so that we will be able to better communicate with the ladies we will be teaching, and pray for our students, as we will begin teaching in (hopefully) a week or two.

One last request before i go. I'm sure many of you have heard of the pastor in Florida who will be burning Qur'ans on Saturday. As a person and a Christian, i am appalled that fellow believers would preach such hate and drag the name of our Lord through the dust in this way. As a worker in this part of the world, however, i am shocked by the foolishness of this act. Does he even realize what danger he's putting his fellow Americans overseas in? Please keep me and all the workers in this part of the world in your prayers these next few days. I am not as much worried about the danger as i am the rift that will be formed because of this one act. For people like me, who are trying to establish peace with Muslims, this could really hurt any headway that has already been made, or any attempts in the future. Please pray for safety, wisdom, and peace for us these next few days.

Everything is going really here; i'm enjoying the change and really love where i am living. Thank you all for praying for me thus far. I love you all!

Erin

Hey everyone!

I am just finishing up orientation in Istanbul and am finally preparing to actually head to my place of service tomorrow! Yay! The past week and a half has been different than I had thought it would be. I think most of us like to feel like we have some kind of control over everything that happens (I know I really do) and I've spent most of the last week and a half at the mercy of someone else, completely unable to control anything. Our internet wasn't working, I don't speak Turkish, this city is enormous and I have no idea how to get around, and I have no idea what my schedule looks like. All of that was kind of difficult for me at first, but I've gotten over it and this has really been a great way to start off this semester! I've had fun, gotten to see this amazing city (I will have pictures up on facebook soon), and have learned a lot (a snippet of which I will be sharing momentarily). But I'm pretty excited to get out of here and head over to the M.E. so I can unpack my suitcase (I HATE living out of a suitcase) and actually start working. Please continue to lift me up. Being in another culture is extremely tiring, even more so when you're trying to learn in addition to everything else you're taking in . I am also about to begin work on another language, and am getting ready to start teaching. Lift up my students, my partner Stacy, and myself, and ask that we would have open doors! As I said last time, also try to keep Is. 40 and 55 in your thoughts!

Now for the snippet I promised...I have (understandably) been thinking a lot about "m" work in my time here. I have heard (and probably said) so many times "I can be an m just as well here in the U.S. as I can in another country." I agree wholeheartedly with statement, but I don't think most of us live that way in the U.S. (I know I certainly don't). I've been observing a lot of the m's here. They aren't different from any of us; they have regular jobs, families, all kinds of different friends, and they live much like we do. The only difference is that they live intentionally, where we often get so comfortable we don't even realize that we're not living the way we have been called to live. It would be just as easy for an m in another country to forget their calling and live life selfishly as it is for us, but they see being an m as a part of their literal and figurative job description; oftentimes we don't. This has certainly been a challenge for me to live intentionally wherever I am; to think carefully about what I say and do and to follow the leading of the H.S. I hope this challenges you as well! Thank y'all for lifting me up!

One week before...

Hey everyone!

Just thought I'd update everyone on what's going on with me before I leave (which is in 8 days...by the way). These last few weeks have been much more difficult than I expected. I am really being tested emotionally, spiritually, physically, and even academically. It hasn't been easy so far, but I am thriving by relying on His power. Just remember me as I will be leaving soon; this next week is just as crucial as the weeks that I will be overseas. This is a week of intense preparation! Lift me and my teammate up as we prepare. Ask that we would be ready, full of peace, and not fearful or overwhelmed, and of course, for safe travels. Also ask that our friends and families would be full of peace and not fearful or overwhelmed; I know they'd appreciate that!

Also, I have been reading Isaiah 40 and 55 a lot recently; think about these passages as you lift me and my teammate up.

Thank you all so much!