God is so gooood!

We flew into Istanbul and checked into our hotel where we received a message that was awaiting us from a local pastor asking Georgian to preach at his church tonite. What a wonderful welcome into this brand new city!

As Georgian rested for the service tonite, Winnie and I went out to do a little looking around. Istanbul is a HUGE city with over 17.5 million residents, which during the day can include up to 20 million with commuters and tourists. Imagine our shock and surprise when we got out of our cab in the middle of the city and ran right into all of the Mitko Pastors and their wives eating lunch at a Turkish Cafe!!! Hallelujah! That's a wild miracle in itself! We called Georgian to come and join us and we all fellowshiped and relaxed at this cafe and then took in a little sight seeing at the local markets and Grand Bazaar.

It's funny how you think things should be just because you've seen them the way Hollywood has portrayed them. In my foolishness I was expecting Istanbul to be like Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark - when in fact the city is more like New York City if anything. Its like a parallel universe New York city - that is as large and sprawling and expansive as LA - and as steep and hilly if not steeper than San Francisco at every turn. It is also a wild Muslim Disney land of sorts, with perfectly manicured lawns and bright bursting fountains and flowers wrapped around the Mosques that decorate the skyline with their tall pointy spindles.

As Winnie and I traveled through the bazaar looking for the spice market we kept coming across strange little stores selling prince type outfits for little boys. We had seen a young boy dressed us as a little prince when we exited the plane at the airport earlier this afternoon and wondered what it was about. After passing the third 'little prince' shop on our search for the spice market we stopped to ask the store keeper what the outfits were all about.

"Birthday?" "Event?" we asked.
After unsuccessfully speaking to us in Turkish the man finally made two 'snip' 'snip' motions with his fingers.

It took us a moment and then -- "OH!" We realized! "Circumcision! At 13 years old?!?! Yikes!"
ISHMAEL!!!! How wild to encounter the modern result of Abraham's works thousands of years later, still in effect! Oh Praise God to be grafted into the children of the promise, instead of the children of works!

After a horrible mishap that afternoon where we lost Georgians 100 year old violin and 12 of his Bible translations and 20 years of notes in the trunk of a taxi (keep praying for their recovery please!) We went to visit The River church in the hustling bustling center of Istanbul which was the closest thing to Times Square that I've ever seen this side of the world.

It was a great service and awesome awesome message and one of my favorite moments was when a young Ethiopian girl came forward to receive Christ into her heart. Isn't that just like the flavor of God? An Ethiopian gets saved in Turkey at an English speaking church being preached at by a Bulgarian! HAH!