Merhaba from Paris!

Thank you for your prayers for our mission to the Turkish people.  This has been a whirlwind trip so far. We arrived in Brussels, Belgium on Saturday morning and were met by our Turkish national partner and translator, Leyla and her brother, Gabriel.  That day was spent sightseeing and visiting in the homes of Leyla’s family and friends from Turkey.  We enjoyed sharing, eating (a lot!) and laughing with them and we were glad to hear the testimony of the mother of one of our friends who was visiting from Turkey.  She spoke of personally leading three muslims to Christ just in the last couple of weeks and she also spoke of her burden to share her faith with others.  That was an encouragement and a challenge to us to share our faith when we return home.

We were also amazed as we they told us of how Christians in Turkey are put in prison because of their witness for Jesus and yet they boldly continue to share their faith without regard to personal safety.

On Sunday we joined with Leyla and her family in worship at their church.  The pastor blessed us by sharing the main reason that we all came together that day — to glorify our Lord.  Gary Peevy was privileged to thank that congregation for praying for our church and our mission to the Turks and telling them more about this work.  After the service was over there was a time of tea, coffee, treats and fellowship and we enjoyed visiting with everyone there.  We were especially touched by a young muslim woman, Ebru, whose husband is a Christian and who attends the church, but she has not yet decided for sure about her relationship with Jesus Christ.  If she decides for Christ and makes public her decision, her family will disown her. She asked that we pray for her.

That afternoon we arrived in Paris by bullet train and enjoyed seeing the Eiffel Tower and taking a cruise on the Seine River.  Beautiful!

Leyla’s sister, Fedva, has traveled with us to Paris and has been such a blessing.  She regularly calls Shukru and his wife and is such an encouragment to them.  She wanted to come with us in order to meet them in person and share more.

Today we’ve visited again with our friend, Omer.  He is a former muslim who came to Christ in Korea.  He shared with us about his loneliness and how he doesn’t know any other Turks in the city who are Christians.  He feels isolated in his faith.  Please pray that he will be encouraged in the Lord.

We also saw our friends, the Antioch family, and will go one evening to worship with them at their home in a suburb south of Paris.

Please continue to pray for us.  It looks like we will need to travel south of Paris by train for several hours to see Shukru and his family.  We don’t think he will be able to get off work to come see us in Paris.

Also pray for Lokman, his wife, Fatma, and their friend Ridven.  We shared Christ with them last summer and feel that they are close to accepting Jesus.  Pray that they will have time to see us while we are here.

Thank you again for liftiing us up!

Gary & Tammy Bailey, David and Misty Porter, Gary and Nancy Peevy