Over to AJ...
Jason J
INTRO: "THE PORK RUN"
Visas need to be renewed every three months, which means for us.... a day trip to Greece!!!! Nothing hugely exciting, but a visit to the Island Kios provides us with a welcome opportunity to stock up on Bacon and other Pork products to take back to the land of Poor-pork-substitutes.As soon as I stepped into the town of Kios I felt an immediate difference. The feeling was of a Sunnier, happier place. The feeling was so real. I can only put it down to the spiritual forces active in the countries. Not that I'm saying Greece is a land of thriving vibrant Christianity, but all the same, it is religiously Christian and not under the shadow of Islam.
Welcome to next enthralling publication of "The Asia-Minor Times". Hope you enjoy reading about my experiences as much as I've had living them.
BYE ALEX!!!
Alex, the last Singaporian in our STINT team has returned home to begin Staff training. That leaves me alone with the two Americans - arg!Alex was in charge of material distributions for the ministry, the task of which I have now inherited. I have to keep track of all the Bibles, Videos, Audio Cassettes, booklets and bible study materials and make sure they are readily at hand for the various locations where ministry is taking place. Yesterday for example, was spent lugging 120 kg of bibles around in preparation for the Spring Break.
SPRING BREAK COMING.....
"What is Spring break?" I hear you cry. A team of about a dozen Americans, yes, MORE Americans, are about the descend on the sleepy town of XXXXXX to do lightning, military style drops of large quantities of bibles at various locations and clear outta here before they get arrested!The theory goes something like this: They choose a crowded area, and two 'Angels' are stationed nearby to watch for unwanted attention that may arrive so they can whisk the team away before anything happens. The spring breakers (named because of the American university spring break holidays), then enter the location and break open their large backpacks filled with bibles, distributing them to anyone and everyone nearby. After their packs are empty (about five minutes), they move on to a fresh location.
It is aimed at getting a bible into the hands of as many students as possible, so when us STINTers talk to them on campus, there is a good likelihood that they may have read the bible before or already sought out a church in response to reading it. Already, I often come across people who have received and read parts of the bible; this can make our work much easier.
EVAN
I am sure you remember our friend Evan, who was greatly distressed by the International name of our organisation - not a name we usually bandy about, but due to unfortunate circumstances came to his notice. To bring you up to date, I called him the following week and the matter didn't seem concern him at all. It was as if Evan didn't remember it as ever being a problem for him. In fact his behaviour in several issues seems to be very Schizophrenic, swinging from one extreme to another.Someone suggested to me it might be a sign of demonic influence, now I think this could very well be true. He says he feels a great struggle within him between himself and Satan - a struggle I am praying will lead him to NEEDING to accept the power only Christ can give to overcome. He also says other strange things which leads me to believe his struggle with Evil is very real. Please keep Evan in your prayers.
SUBJECT: RE: RE: FWD:
(Questions you asked me by email)
Ramazan: Some sharp people noticed I spelt Ramazan as such rather than the orthodox way "Ramaddan", to my knowledge there is only one country in the world which uses the alternate spelling. No prizes for guessing which one.... Look out for Kurban Bayrami.Newsletter layout: Several people pointed out how much they liked
the snazzy layout I use for the last newsletter. Well, I'll let you in
on a little secret - Newsletter designs come courtesy of my friend Jason;
all thanks and tenders for contracts can be sent to [email protected]
NEW BELIEVERS’ STUDY
We have begun a new bible study with three new believers who live in our suburb, and they are currently sitting in the other room at the time of writing. It's exciting to see new believers make friends and being able to grow in their faith as brothers together. It is God's providence that the three became believers around the same time and live fairly near each other.To test the sincerity of their faith (not really, just as a joke), we cooked up a meal for them using Pork brought back with us from Greece. I guess its a good way to see if there are any fundamentalist muslim spies in our midst!
Two of the new believers, "Tamer" and "Filan" are already sharing their
faith with friends and it is exciting to hear their stories. The photo
shown is of some new believers sharing their faith with muslims at our
weekly Yeni Yasam seekers meeting.
CONVERSATIONAL SOUNDBITES
"No, I've never heard the Gospel before, I didn't even know any Christians back home" my Chinese friend said to me. "Well, this is an ideal place to find out. I think one needs to consider carefully if it is true or not, because I believe our relationship with God is something to be taken very seriously" I replied. Later on that day at Yeni Yasam, he prayed to receive Christ."Life is empty. No girls like me, everything is pointless," Erdogal confessed to me, sounding like the book of Eccelesiastes. "I think many people feel like that, because without knowing God - life is empty" I replied. Erdogal has been touched by my friendship and is keen to come see a Turkish church service, even though he claims to be an atheist.
"Will you try to convert him to Islam?" my Chechneyan classmate asked the Syrian I was speaking with. The truth was, the Syrian who's muslim friends all assume he is a devout, religiously-fulfilled Muslim (solely by virtue of the fact that he's Syrian), had just recently received an Arabic bible from us and was quite excited to read it.
PRAYER POINTS
Praise:
New believers study: They will grow together in ChristNew House: Praise God for our success in finding a new house much closer to campus. Please pray now that we can get the phone connected!
Prayer:
Evan: That God will allow no harm to come to him, but can thwart Evil in bringing him to a point of accepting Jesus.Spring Break: Success in the bible drops and protection from any adverse reaction from aggravated people.