It's A Great Day To Be A Missionary!

Hello All,

Today began (after our team devotions) with a lovely German breakfast at Atam and Seta's apartment. They are Turkish believers and friends of Paul and Kathy's. We have met them on previous trips to Duisburg. Their apartment home (very few Germans and especially Turks ever own a home...only the very wealthy), is bright and cheery,very modest and full of love and friendship toward us foreigners. Atam is a leader and lay pastor in the Turkish church. One of Paul's dreams is to establish a Bible School for Turks. If the Die Brucke mortgage could be paid off, this would free up resources to make this school a reality. Please pray that God would provide in this way. Atam shared his testimony of how he came to faith in Christ. It was a journey of violence, fear and eventually, a walk forward at an evangelistic meeting. Our fellowship lasted over two hours...they longed for us to continue our visit. However, preparation for our afternoon classes (4:00 p.m..) awaited us.

All of our students returned today, plus two others. Yeh!! That's a good sign! All of us on the team felt prepared and more confident today. We were prepared yesterday, too...just not as confident. Please pray for Selin, Banu, Beyhan, Tyrone, Berna, Melek, Ezgi, Mert, Bunyamim, Renata, Dagmar and Christel. Our students are a mixture of German's and Turk's. We love each one. It is great fun!

This evening, we enjoyed a leisurely dinner at the Die Brucke. It felt good to have time together as a team with no committments. Did I mention that we laugh a lot? After Paul and Kathy returned from their meetings, we continued our fellowship. Needless to say, we were all a little punchy!

We again emphasize that we are so humbled by your prayers. God is working in this place. We continue to hear miraculous God stories. Praise God, He is working in the world! Oh, I almost left out that we sat in on a Bulgarian Bible Study last night here at the Die Brucke. Other Turkish friends were there also, leading the study. It is quite a story of what brought these dear Bulgarian Turks to Germany...fear of their daughters being kidnapped as they enter puberty to become a wife and mother. They are uneducated for the most part and a good many are tutored by Paul and Kathy. They work long hours for very little pay, taken advantage of by some Germans. Their love for Jesus is evident and some have recently become Christ followers.

My bed is calling...good night!
Jan

P.S. Tomorrow we will post some pictures of our students.