Trains- Mini buses and Language Helpers. Oh Joy.

Dear Friends and Family,
It's been 3 Weeks, hard to believe for me It seems like so much longer. Life in Istanbul is really falling into a groove for me. For the month of March I'm going to be meeting with a language helper. Because I already know the lingo fairly well this is to just fill in the holes that have developed over the years of not speaking Turkish. I'm meeting with him three times a week for an hour Monday Wednesday and Friday. On Wednesday we meet up at a McDonald's and worked on Turkish for an hour. After our time was up though he asked if I wanted to get lunch with him so we ordered something and returned to our seats and talked on less formal things for another half hour or so over our food. He is very helpful to me because he has good English so if i'm having a problem with a word I can stick the English word into the appropriate space in the Turkish sentence and he'll understand and give me the word I was searching for. I joked that I was speaking Turklish with him and consequently had to explain Spanglish as well. It just so happens that he is a drummer and goes with a friend and plays on street corners sometimes for fun. It is amazing how God has provided connections with people in this country for me and I hope that I can build those connections into a strong Spirit filled friendship.

Yesterday a few friends and I went over to the Blue Mosque area and walked around, stopping in at a few cafe's and practicing Turkish. Every Monday and Friday we go out somewhere around town and commune with Turks, it has been a true blessing. I've lost track of how many cups of tea I've had though! All quite near to each other in the area that we went yesterday is the Blue Mosque, The Grand Pazar and Istanbul University so it is full of people, young and old, and I can't wait until the weather warms up enough that we can take some instruments out there and reach people that way. The atmosphere will be perfect because we are in a hangout zone so people are looking to be entertained, but then we are also near a Islamic symbol ( The Blue Mosque) so religious matters are not to far away in spirit and in body. While I really like how we are involving ourselves with the people right now and the challenge that it gives me I am really looking forward to reaching out  to people through music.

In Christ