Hi everyone! I am in TÜRKIYE officially half way through my world race mission and God is so good!! I thank God for my time in Greece a time to fully rely on the voice of the lord and what he had for us in everyday. Doing life with friends and community with people around my age is an awesome adventure, especially being surrounded by people who encourage and build me up, who continue to fuel the fire and share a passion for sharing the goodness. I truly thank God for their lives. Our day to day always looked different but it started mostly the same, in worship and the word. We woke up to morning devotionals from each other getting our day started with joy and love. We made breakfasts together and we were pretty much fueled with the word, an egg, and loads of caffeine whether it was coffee or an energy drink maybe 2 or 3 hahahaha. Then we held our day open handed to the lord and he guided us through some great moments. We met many friends on the streets of Thessaloniki Greece, an area with many college students so people we can just relate to, lots of travel students being far from home so being able to encourage and relate to them in that way was a great way to bring Jesus into conversation. We found a local small church on fire for Jesus and built a great community with the pastor there, our two boys on our team helped him in construction for building a new church in the area. Later in we got a great connection to volunteer with refugees coming into Greece from Somalia, Sudan, and all over at a place called “Care Center” . Hearing the stories of men coming and leaving their homes and families to find help was a very big eye opener. I met one man who came from Sudan on a boat to Greece and he was on this boat for a week and he said he was one of the lucky ones, that there were families on it for weeks almost months. Sitting with this man I felt his distress and a helplessness, there were many times as I watched these families coming in and out with tears in my eyes the atmosphere was always heavy in that room, giving clothes and food just wasn’t enough and bringing hope and love through Jesus is what we had to give. Putting a smile on someone’s face that day was always my goal. Week after week volunteering there one of the most rewarding feelings I received was joy from the ones who would remember me and give me giant hugs from the woman and smiles from ear to ear to see me again. The intentional relationships of just sitting and listening to stories and looking them in the eyes and simply seeing them the way Christ does, I knew this is why God sent me here, why I came on this mission was for people like that, no hope, no joy, saddened and I have something to flip the script for them. It’s a beautiful gift to know the love of the father. We loved our time at the Care Center and were so grateful God opened that door to our team. We were in Greece for about 5 weeks and then off to Turkey. We had a very long travel day to Turkey, once we arrived to the boarder we were stopped and stuck there for about 5 hours. Praise God we had no issues and arrived into Istanbul in good conditions. Our whole squad did life together for two weeks in this giant city with a population of about 15 million. All 14 of us in an apartment and again with our hands open to whatever God had for us. Living with these people are times I will never forget, again my community on the race is so awesome some of the coolest I’ve met in my life. Every day we got up to worship I would pull out my worship flags and flow in his presence with all of us just basking in him. We visited Mosques some of the biggest ones, we got to learn more deeper about Muslim culture and their religion. We got to hear opinions of islam and hear what they learn. We got to spend so much time in prayer, intentional prayer for Muslims to come to know Christ. Being in Istanbul was a beautiful time of growing deeper in community and love for one another and really learning about the nation we are living in for the next two months. And we ofocrse ate lots of baklava and consumed yummy Turkish tea. We then headed off to our ministry sites with our small teams and are now separated in three different areas in Çanakkale Turkey. My team, Shania, Jackson, Nathan, Nathaniel and I are living in a small town called Biga in an apartment with a young man in his twenties. I am loving this life God has brought me to we are blessed with a beautiful kitchen, our own bed and a common room to spend time together. We come to a local church with our ministry and it’s in a very tiny building that fits about 15 people. Our pastor Sarah is a woman who inspires me beyond words, she’s a refugee from Iran who came to Turkey and is constantly being persecuted here by young teens and children in the neighborhood. The lord has really shown me what the cost means, for her to remain calm and dedicated to his word and his mission is counting the cost and seeing him worthy. Praise God for the believers in Turkey pray for the followers of Jesus in Turkey, they are hated and persecuted. Keep our team in your prayers during this time and the people around us, Iran is a neighboring country to Turkey and with wars all we can do is pray, his time is coming his return is soon, so pray we make an impact on this mission that we can bring lives to Christ and gather more. Thankyou for your prayers and support on this mission Godbless you.