Exciting Updates from our Cross-Cultural Workers

Sometimes nostalgia creeps in during the spring for me.  The lilac bush outside my mom’s front door remind me of bringing fragrant bouquets to my teachers every year.  

Spring also brings the memory of Eric and I moving to Vegas 14 years ago!  

While Eric worked at Nellis Air Force Base, Laura worked at starting motherhood with Eva and then Malachi, (Tricia Coblentz took pictures at his birth!).  We enjoyed playing on the worship team, teaching Sunday School, being in and leading small groups, organizing women’s retreats, (even the one where the women had to share beds), and making deep friendships. We laughed and learned a lot those three years.  

When we moved away, the friendships and discipleship from John and Angela stayed dear to our hearts and so it was a no-brainer for us to ask Summit Ridge to be our sending church when we moved overseas to the Middle East to work with Muslims six years ago. John, Angela, and SRC have met the challenge and exceeded our expectations of sending us well.  They have gone to our organization in Florida twice to learn how to send, John came out in our first term of service, they have led us through the darkest storms of life, and rejoiced in the highest highs.

As a church you, SRC, have committed in prayer for us in ways that fill the sails of our ministry overseas.  You are truly interested in us, you read and respond to our newsletters, you support us financially, and you care for our children.  We have needed you more than we expected and you have been the answer to how God cares for us.  

Last February our visa’s continued to be denied over and over and we wondered what God was doing.  We tried every angle to stay in country even though the door was closing.  We tried a student visa, Eric got his Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA), so that he could get a job and get a work visa.  

Our entrance back in country was banned multiple times during this process.  As the denial for visa’s rose to 90% for foreigners we began to see the trend very clearly and pursue what God might be calling us to in other locations with Muslims.  We researched countries where Tks live so that we could work with the same people and the same language.  

Last month we made room in our hearts for the country of North Macedonia working with Tks there.  Oh!  You don't know where that is either?!

Currently, of the over 100,000 Tks living there, only one believer lives among them and there are no missionaries reaching them. A team asked us to join their team and reach out to the Tks.  Eric visited the country, city, and team we will join and we heard over and over how God was stirring among our people but no one was there to yield the harvest.  

During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” Acts 16:9
 
The local Macedonian pastor, the single believer out of the Tks, and the team, begged us to come and begin the work among them. We caught the excitement and now are so thrilled to be moving there in July.

There is an immediate need and opportunity for us to fill with the Tksh Med Students studying abroad.  They desperately need English since all their classes are taught in English.   Eric started an English speaking company with another worker moving like us who has his Masters in ESL and had an English school in Tky and they will provide English lessons to these Turks.  This establishes us in the community, allows us to meet a need, and immediately gets us into our people group.
 
We also hope to start the internet ads about reading a Bible in our city as soon as possible (remember when we shared at the prayer time?), and the local believer wants to help us with the follow up.

Our kids will also be attending the most amazing international school. This school is taught mostly by Americans but hosts students from many countries.  This school specializes in helping kids like ours who are living in one country but from another.
 
In four weeks we get on a plane headed back to pack up our belongings in Tky, sell our big items, do some hard goodbyes, and then move.  

There are some major financial implications for our move and the kids’ education.  We need $33,000 in one time gifts to cover the moving costs.  Additionally, we are looking for 40 more monthly givers to allow our kids to go to the international school.  

Would you consider a one time, or monthly contribution to help us get to the Tks of N. Macedonia?  Click this link to begin your giving.  

“Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”  
May your giving be like lilac branches in the spring and pour fragrance on the work among Muslims.  We are so thrilled to partner with you and share the work of God with you overseas.

~The O's