With God's Presence There's No Such Thing as a Language Barrier

What an amazing day! And one completely filled with the Holy Spirit. Wow. My heart continues to grow for the want to share with others. Especially lost Turkish students. You want them to know. To understand what Jesus has given us. God is using me, and the rest of the team to share the Gospel. He wants people to know the truth, and He wants us to spread the good news. After today I want to change my way I live at home. I want to share God's story in America too. With my friends. With the random person I'm sitting by on the bus. Why not? You may be the only chance they get, and you may in fact change their life. My heart has been softened and my brain strives to leatn more so that I can teach others. It is an incredible feeling. The feeling of the Holy Spirit inside of you. The feeling of true satisfaction. Of true love. Of want.

We started the day with a devotional as a group, where a few of the STINTers (short term internship in missionary) led us with some spiritual questions to challenge our minds before we went out to campus to share. "I will bless you, so that you can be a blessing to others." God wants us to reconcile in Him. We can glorify Him by sharing His word. But we must remember that we are only here to plant the seed. The fruit is up to God. The ultimate result is up to God. All we can do is be the one who shares the Hope that He brings. Here in this country we are able to give the people an opportunity to know Christ. We are here to plant the seed.

Today just as Allison and I were beginning to become frustrated with not finding anyone who spoke English, God showed up. We had just scanned the whole top floor of a cafe know as Mimoza and half of the ground floor when we met a group of three girls who told us we could sit with them. When you ask someone here if they speak English, "yes" can mean a lot of things. In this case it meant that one of the girls could speak minimal English. However, we were able to communicate in writing. So...we had translating dictionaries out, we had Google translate, and the table was covered with paper to write out our conversation. It was fun. Challenging, but fun. And God was very present. Working through both Allison and I to communicate with our new friends. As we were sitting there, talking about family, school, hobbies, friends, I was praying in my head that God would give us the opportunity to turn the conversation into a spiritual one. And before we knew it there were 7 or 8 people surrounding us, and we were sharing the Gospel. What? When the heck did that happen? Literally that's how it felt. Five minutes ago we were having a hard time talking about when they were going to school for and then before I could even blink God was working through us to show these people the love He has for them. An English Bible, a Bible in their language, pictures which drew out the Gospel covered the table. The students were grabbing the Bible from each other, each wanted to read the verses we had showed them. Typing Holy Spirit into Google Translate..hmmmm? Wonder how that one turned out haha. But seeds were planted. Questions were stirring. God was at work.

This group of students were very open to learning about Christianity. However, because they were born Muslim and their families practiced Islam, they considered themselves Islam. They told us that they believe what we are saying is true, but not for them. It is true for us, but not for them. I can't really explain how hard it is to tell someone who doesn't even know Jesus, that He died for all of our sins. Not just us as Christians sins, but ALL of our sins. Everyone's sins. Everyone's. Yeah...this was difficult. But with God's presence and the Holy Spirit filled in our bodies we were able to share the Gospel and get the phone numbers of our first Turkish friends.

Because isn't that the point? To be the God's light in the darkness. To glorify our Savior, Yes. It is. And I am so thankful. So blessed. And at this time, after today, I think about the day it all started for me. I miss you Jake Wasserburger....but thank you for showing me what life in earth is all about.

Read Genesis 12:1-3

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