LONG DAY. I walked to the cultural center early for my quiet time and then finish work on the sermon for tomorrow...but it was locked. Walked to Starbucks for the air conditioning and planned to just buy tea, but they didn’t have any tea, so I ordered the next cheapest thing (besides coffee, which I don’t drink) and it cost me 7 TL (Turkish Lira). Oh well. After that, I checked the door again...still locked. Walked around the Kalieche, did a bit of shopping, and returned again...still locked. But I noticed a familiar motorcycle this time and knocked. Erkan, one of the pastors, opened the door and I came in. Not much sermon prep time left as the women soon arrived for the Women’s Conference we were leading. Suzy, Jehanne and Katie were involved with the conference, while Mike, Bobby, David and I were in charge of child care. (Pretty risky putting all grown men in charge of a passel of little children.) David and Katie soon arrived after a morning at the beach with some other teens.
Child care turned out to be surprisingly easy. The conference was four hours and I was thinking, “How will we keep them entertained for four hours in this heat and humidity...and outdoors to boot?” Well, there were only 3 girls, one boy and a baby, so that helped. Then somehow the slide apparatus and swords made out of balloons (we managed to find another unopened package of them) fully occupied them for the first hour and a half. Then lunch and the craft time for the women took up another hour and a half, leaving only the last hour, and the left-over craft supplies kept the kids busy until it was all over at 5pm. Piece of cake. Mike and I then cleared the outside tables of food and dishes...washed, dried and put everything away...so at the end of the day the women wouldn’t have any clean-up to do.
The retreat itself went very well, with Suzy leading the first hour and half, Katie getting everyone started on the craft options, then Jehanne taking the last hour with a testimony and teaching. Some worship singing and prayer wrapped up the day. Suzy worked very hard planning this retreat time, and has been brilliant in coming up with supplies to keep the children entertained and educated during Sunday School and the two teaching times (Parenting Class and Women’s Retreat) in which we provided child care.
The evening was spent at Erkan and Belgin’s home (one of the pastors and his wife, who is now the new cook for the cultural center) in which we feasted on a great dinner, followed by a great dessert (ice cream and baklava), and then conversation which lasted until 11pm. We heard the testimonies of both Erkan and Belgin, which moved us once again to the beautiful way that God works in the lives of those who seek him.
Tomorrow is our last day in Turkey, and our time with the Turkish church will conclude with the worship service. We will take the remainder of the afternoon to debrief our time here prior to leaving, then enjoy one last meal with our host families, pack up tonight, then fly out Monday morning at 7:50am. That means the van picks us up at 4:30am. I will post one last blog tomorrow night, then the next time to hear from us will be in person.
Feeling richly blessed,
Charlie
Noel Baba (Father Christmas), aka Bobby, fending off an assault of balloon swordfighters.
Closing the women's conference with prayer.
Precious little Kaira sharing a "Ho,Ho, Ho" moment with Noel Baba.
Group shot just before we prayed together to end the evening.
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