People often ask us, “So what do you do every day?” I’m always at a loss to know how to answer that question and last Monday was good example of why.
I got up at 5 am to be at the foreign police by 7 am. After three hours of standing in line and then going from desk to desk, I was told that no answer had yet come from Ankara about my residence permit and so I should come back again in another 30 days. Better than deportation at least. PRAY: That I would be granted, like Dave, a five year residence permit.
On the way back home via tramway and two buses, I stopped at the bank to get money for the Kazakhstan tour and then I shopped for food for dinner guests, going to a grocery store that offers a free service back home. I had seven plastic bags so that was helpful. But the driver, apparently intending to set his land speed record, clipped the end of a car in front of him as he was turning. Because this is Ramazan, the month of fasting, when everyone is more irritable both drivers jumped out of their vehicles and began to pummel one another. A crowd quickly formed to pull the two guys apart and everyone parted with no apparent blood or other trauma.
Back at home the food bags stayed on the floor for hours because I had emergency emails from the ad agency that puts in our newspaper ads regarding the new ad we are doing for the More Than Dreams DVD. We wrote back and forth for an hour until we agreed on the ad as well as payment plan - we are tripling for this month the size of the ad that we normally use.
PRAY: For amazing fruit to come from this special four weeks of newspaper advertisements!
One great thing about working at home is that you can work and cook at the same time! And it’s just as well - in between browning chicken pieces and chopping vegetables for salad - I was working with our travel agent on tickets for TACO team members for the tour in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan - a combination of concerts in schools, prisons and in the open air. PRAY: For God to increase His kingdom through this month of tours in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan!
Our TACO team girls came over for dinner, together with a visitor from the US. While we were waiting for Priscille to come from her language lesson, Ashley worked with me on a logo for a new training ministry I’m starting called “Yanaş” (means - come alongside) while Michelle worked with Dave on details of the Kyrgyzstan tour (Michelle will lead that one). Then we all ate dinner, during which we had phone calls from friends in England who had recently been deported, my sister in the US and a delightful call from Raymond, a short-termer who was with us for two months and who was calling from Canada to say hi. He got to speak to five of us at once!
Priscille and Lou Ann went home, I washed dishes and then tried unsuccessfully to access the live feed of the funerals of two of our team mates who died in a traffic accident in Canada two weeks ago. Please PRAY for Lizyanet, the mom and wife, who has lost her whole family.
Dave, Ashley and Michelle went to the airport at 11:30 pm to pick up Dustin and Katie who arrived at midnight - Dustin is our world famous unicyclist and he and Katie (who dances) will be with us for seven weeks touring Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Northern Iraq. All in bed by 2 am and up again at 7 the next morning to serve breakfast and send these guys off to the airport.
An ordinary person doing ordinary things for an extraordinary God who gives supernatural results! A good example is the pic above - some of the women from our CP school. Seven women from seven different countries - South Africa, Malaysia, Scotland, Mongolia, US, Germany, South Korea - ministering in seven different countries. God is amazing.
"The Lord gives the word and a host of women brings the good news!"
Psalm 68:11
Love, Pam
