Being completely new to a city and not knowing where to go or where to start is never a problem when God is running the show. We knew our plan was to get to the Gypsy neighborhoods and bring the love and joy of God, what we didn't know what where they were or how to get to them.

So there we are, all ten of us waiting on the street corner in the area that reminds me of Times Square sort of scratching our heads about where to begin. Mitko of Kazanluk goes off to get our van that is parked and we are all standing on the corner waiting. Mitko gets caught up in some construction detour and we are there for probably 30 minutes.

Just sort of milling around Mitko of Lom and Altunka of Kazanluk walk across the street and begin speaking with a Gypsy flower vendor.

"You are a Gypsy" they say to the flower vendor .

"No! No!" he denies.

"Yes! You are a Gypsy! It's okay - we are Gypsies too"

So the guy softens and admits that yes he is a Gypsy - Mitko and Altunka then continue to talk to the man and explain that we are here to spread the Gospel to the Turkish Gypsies. The man gets excited and offers us his flower helper to navigate us through the streets of Istanbul and take us to the Gypsy neighborhoods!

So just as this is arranged Mitko of Kazanluk finally returns with the Van and all 12 of us squeeze into the vehicle.

Now we have no idea what to expect and up until 2 weeks ago it was illegal to preach anything Christian like on the streets. Now it is legal, but you have to have submitted a permit request and filled out a whole bunch of paperwork, which we didn't want to deal with. So we all agreed that if approached by police we would either say we were lost tourists, or that we were visiting our Gypsy friends. And off we went!

Packed like sardines into this van we navigated the extremely steep streets of Istanbul. We saw a bakery and pulled over. We went in and made the bakers day as we purchased 100 loaves of bread (the loaves were .10 a piece!!!), put them in a bag and loaded them into the back of the van and off we took.

We only got a few blocks when we saw a homeless women sitting outside in the neighborhood. We got out and started handing out loaves of bread to the old women on the street. The looks on their faces were priceless. They accepted the bread and then would gather in to hear Mitko and Altunka translate for Georgian and Winnie. They accepted prayer and one woman who was a widow allowed us to purchase a bottle of olive oil for her. Losing the fiddle didn't stop us from singing! We walked down the streets handing out bread, singing the "HA HA" song (to the tune of the Joy of the Lord is my strength - but translated into Ha! Ha!'s) and stopped and prayed for people in the crowd that was gathering around us.

One house we stopped in front of to sing opened its front door and there stood a young boy maybe 5 or 6 watching us. All of the skin of his body looked like it had been burned off, and all that was left was scar tissue. Georgian got down to his eye level and hugged him and sang to him. The boys mother just cried with joy, moved by the love and happiness we were giving her son - who just smiled and smiled the best he was able. The boys father walked out from behind him and just started kissing and kissing the boy on the head repeatedly.

Our driver then warned us that the neighborhood we were entering into now was much more dangerous and it would be a good idea to move on. So we loaded back into the van, said good bye and traveled on through the steep streets. As we got about a block we passed a police car that was being held up by some cart in the road that was selling something. Thank you Lord for Holy Ghost traffic delays!

We traveled on about another 10 minutes and came to a large community. We weren't in the poorest Gypsy communities like we've seen in Bulgaria. There are some here as Mitko of Dobritch saw some on their drive into Istanbul - but all we had was this flower vendor to take us where he knew - and that was God's plan for the day so it was good with us!

We pulled up to this quiet neighborhood and got out of the van - which had to be a site in itself like clowns getting out of one of those tiny cars at the circus. The children approached us first and we handed them bread which they accepted with little faces of disbelief, and then bit into with great joy!

Mothers slowly peeked their heads from windows and doorways to see what was going on and were met with offerings of fresh bread.

As a crowd began to form Mitko of Kazanluk, who speaks Turkish, told the Gypsies that they were only Gypsies living in a Muslim country, but that did not mean that their God was the same as the Muslims, and that the God of the Gypsies is not Allah - the God of the Gypsies is God! They said "Really? Tell us more!" And he did!!!

An older man who appeared to be a leader/father figure in this community joined us, he led us through the streets and took us to houses where we could pray for the sick and sing to the broken hearted. The people accepted and ate our bread and listened to the Good News! Ironically we arrived in the middle of a fast. And we aren't talking about a 3 day fast or a five day fast - but this fast was a 30 day fast! Oh the hilarity of the Lord to bring fresh bread into the middle of a Muslim fast!

Many approached us for prayer - one young man asked for prayer for strength to believe in Jesus. As we prayed for each one we would then sing a rousting chorus of the "Ha Ha" song. Two old women with religious little spirits started yelling and getting angry at us for singing the Ha HA song and said we were mocking the sanctity of prayer. The older gentleman who was leading us through the town got right in their faces and told them they were absolutely incorrect - we were not mocking! We were rejoicing!

We think we see a future pastor for this community in this man. The mans wife brought tea out for us all and invited us to sit on her turkish rug outside her home. Mitko asked the man if he may return each month to minister in this community and the man said from now on you stay at my house when you come to Istanbul! No Hotel!

One young lady began sort of mocking all of our laughter - but then she couldn't stop - she got totally schwonked in the spirit and it looked as if she were watching herself lose her own mind as she couldn't stop laughing and at the same time couldn't understand what was happening to her. It was so hilarious!

One house we were brought to to pray for an old man with heart problems said that he believed in Jesus and he had papers to prove it!!! He showed us his Christian paperwork complete with Baptismal record - and the paperwork (hee hee) and records showed that he had been baptized just this past year! Oh God is so good! He doesn't leave his children alone - Imagine sending 6 Bulgarian pastors and 4 Americans to this new baby Christian to pray for him. God is so good! God is so extravagant! What love! What care! Not one person is out of the sight of the Lord. Each of His children are the apple of his eye!

We eventually had to return our flower vendor to his corner. There we purchased a whole bunch of flowers and drove back the the Gypsies we had just left to give them all flowers. They were each completely and totally amazed to see us again - and with FLOWERS!

It was then that we learned that the father figure leader man had actually lost his job that day. So we piled him and his wife into our tight van and took him to a grocery store where we purchased groceries for their whole family.

After helping them load the groceries into their house we then said our tearful goodbyes to our new family and drove off.

What a great day! We finished up with a great dinner at a fantastic little flavorful restaurant that looks like it will be able to seat 100 of us next year when we return. God plans everything so perfectly! I didn't think my heart had room to fall in love with another people and another country - talk about expanding the tent pegs. My heart feels so swollen with love that it might burst. God is so goooood!