Arrival in Istanbul, Turkey!

Hey everyone!

It has been a while since we’ve had a chance to give you guys an update and a ton has happened so… here goes.



THE INTERNET HAS BEEN SLOW SO THERE WILL BE MORE PICTURES TO FOLLOW WHEN WE CAN FIND A FASTER CONNECTION, SORRY.

The Lecture Phase of our DTS was over and it was time to take off for outreach! We said goodbye to all our friends in Kona as they were preparing to fly all over the globe on different outreaches of their own. We flew out from the Big Island and after 24 delirious hours en route, we touched down in the city that straddles Europe and Asia – Istanbul, Turkey.


We had another team of our friends land with us in Istanbul but they had an 11 hour layover before continuing on to their final destination of Iraq. Instead of sitting at the airport, they decided to come with us to kill some time. Gabriel, our contact, helped us negotiate a taxi-bus ride (all in Turkish) and we were off! All of a sudden we arrived at a ferry boat that was supposed to take us across the Bosphorus (a body of water that divides the city, Europe on one side – Asia on the other). However, the seas were too rough and they weren’t running the ferry. We then jumped into a city bus with our awkwardly massive amounts of luggage and proceeded to find another ferry where the seas would be calmer. A huge accident happened in front of us and after being stuck in traffic for a while we were rerouted, and finally caught a ferry to the Asian side. The fun didn’t end there though. Gabriel got into an argument with another taxi-bus driver who was trying to rip us off – but eventually, the driver took us to our destination! Praise God!

Gabriel and I, hangin' on the ferry

The food and tea (cay) are the bomb!

Our time in Istanbul has been incredible! We didn’t really have a structured plan of what we were going to do but the Lord had told us a few things during our times of prayer in Hawaii:

1) We would be filled with joy and people would be attracted to our joy
2) We would have divine appointments with English speakers and University students.
3) We would bump into the people God wanted us to meet while sightseeing, traveling around and just being tourists.
4) With nothing planned – we would have tons to do!

God is so faithful! Everything He told us has happened exactly as he said! This has been especially amazing for me (Luke) because my #1 prayer coming to this DTS was “Lord I want to learn to hear your voice.” Before coming to YWAM, I would have passing thoughts come through my mind and I would instantly dismiss them as “being from me”. But I began to realize that these thoughts were really God speaking into my mind! So if you get a passing thought and you think it may be God – just STEP OUT IN FAITH!


Ok so here is a little taste of what has happened so far…We were introduced to a British guy named Steve (aka crazy Steve) and he gave us a basic orientation of Turkey. He was totally radical! He is cutting edge when it comes to evangelism and we were totally encouraged to be as bold when sharing our faith. Well, we had no language
ability, so he gave us tracts to hand out (yeah, I know, kinda cheesy in the West but they totally work in Turkey where everyone you encounter has NEVER HEARD the good news about Jesus!). We were also given a bunch of Gospel’s of John in Turkish, so we were totally equipped!

For sake of brevity here are a few highlights:

We were all goofing around and laughing on a public bus and we caught the eye of Savas. He spoke very little English but we exchanged phone numbers anyway. He called us the next day with the help of his friend who spoke great English. They took us around the city, to their University and they became our best friends in Istanbul. We shared about Jesus with them and gave them the Gospel of John! They were so open!

The church where we were staying asked us to share something in their Sunday service. Ray talked about his heart for Turkey, I gave my testimony, and Bethany and Hanne played a worship song for everyone.

We went sightseeing on the Euro side and met an Iranian refugee who spoke English. He seemed a little agitated at first but when we talked about God and gave him a tract his whole countenance changed! He softened right up!

We met a guy who owned a carpet store and he invited us in for tea. His cousin was there and he spilled his guts to us about his dissatisfaction with Islam, his unhappiness with his job and his sinful past. We came back and brought him gifts and of course – the Word of God.

The Lord has blessed us like crazy here! Everyday I am blown away that I get to live this life – walking hand in hand with Jesus, loving him and loving others! It almost seems too simple but He really wants us to live this way!

Well… we are off to Northern Iraq. Until our next update – We love you guys so much and are praying for your lives to be full of joy and blessing. See ya!