Exhibitions, Christmas, and Deni Leah!
The morning was crisp, cool, and exceptionally clear compared to the period of rain and gloom that had settled over Selçuk the previous week. We had prayed for good weather so that the project we had been preparing wouldn’t be dampened.
One of the first days that we had been here, we had gone on a prayer walk, asking for God’s heart for this community. Morgan had gone to a government building and had asked for an appointment to meet what she thought was the governor of the area who turned out to be a regional governor. She got the meeting and subsequent meetings after that. In the course of our 3 weeks, we asked if we could have a photo exhibition in Selçuk and we were awarded the opportunity. Planning and preparations were undertaken and we decided to use the title “Exposing Beauty” and take photos accordingly. We broke up and covered all the different aspects of life in Selçuk and the surrounding areas and came up with 38 printed images to present back to the community.
The venue was a quadrant of concrete in the middle of the city where, in the summertime it is a tea garden outfitted with a pool and fountain. In the winter, it is deserted, the water gone; but there was a river of life on Friday as we composed our photos over the provided easels. We saw the square come to life, some people attracted by the foreigners, some attracted by the crowd that was gathering. We stood around and talked to people as they came around, getting into some great conversations. Some people invited a few of us over tea and dinner, taking us to their families and friends, and opening doors for us to share with them our stories. We love Turkey!
The Christmas Party that April Joy planned for last Wednesday night was a great time for all of us to get together as a family and enjoy each others company. We had a gift exchange game, food and soda, and even watched “Elf’!
It is less than a week until the group will disperse for Christmas. Some will be going home, some will continue to travel the world, but we will all get back together soon when we resume classes in Egypt in the beginning of January. Many haven’t seen their families and friends in 9 months since the DTS started in April so pray that they will have safe travels and great times with their families. Pray for safety for the rest of us as well as we will be traveling and spending Christmas away from our families.
Sniffles and sneezes are also a prominent sound among the group. Pray that we will all be feeling better because it is no fun being sick while traveling.
Spotlight: Deni Leah
The Christmas bulbs blinked overhead as Deni and I sat down to finally have a spotlight conversation. I had put it off for far too long, but now was the time. Deni is one of the four staff members that are accompanying the students for the next year and a half.
She was originally introduced to YWAM by people that she knew from her church in Canada. She had read a book by Floyd McClung about how the base in Amsterdam was started and then found out about a program for two weeks at the same base called Summer of Service between years at Trinity Western University. Some time after graduating, she did the Beach to Bush DTS in Brisbon, Australia and followed it by a Community Counseling School with an outreach in Egypt and the introduction to Photography class in Kona. She had met Paul and Suzi in Calgary and had committed to doing the 2 year PhotogenX DTS and Around the World Track even before she had started the Photography school.
What I like most about Deni’s stories aren’t the actual stories themselves, but to see how God has worked in her life, and her joy for experiencing more of Him and His love. She feels like she has just started to understand more about God’s love and wants to be His catalyst to bring that love to all people. She is a firm believer that if people experience God’s love, they will get to know Him. She also hopes to be a bridge between her world and the rest of the world, to get people connected and involved with what is going on and the Father’s love for all of His children. To show that there is beauty and aspects of God that we don’t often see in our limited views.
She wants to love passionately and to bring change creatively, which is something that she is learning more about being on the track. She believes that this program has an anointing to challenge people; by our presence out here, and the creative result of our experiences that we will bring home and show our world.
When asked about lessons she is learning from God, there were too many to say or even write, but here are a couple of them. She is discovering that God meets us where we are; that every person, at an individual level, can say that God loves them. He cares for his corporate body, but also for every individual that makes up that body. She is also learning about commitment to God, how we as His followers should be willing and ready to undertake any tasks he asks us to do, whether we fully understand them or not. Sometimes we can follow God’s plan if it glamorous for us, but are hesitant if it is unknown or risky.
Deni has some great words of Wisdom for us as well… “Love is a choice. It’s choosing to put the others’ hopes, dreams, and desires above our own.” Learning to serve is chasing after Jesus. He came not so be served, but to serve. Our love for God is what pushes us to serve, not because we can do anything, but it naturally flows from our experience of His love. As we receive God’s love we give it away, but continue to receive it… “It’s a beautiful dance.”
Thanks for reading!
Until He returns
John Paul
Greece to Turkey; Spotlight: Sungku
[Turkish Flag; Photo: John Paul Vicory]
“When Gallio became governor of Achaia, some Jews rose up together against Paul and brought him before the governor for judgement.” – Acts 18:12. Paul stood before Gallio in Corinth in July of the year 51 AD, and PhotogenX stood in that same place in November of 2007. It was hard to imagine what the area of Ancient Corinth looked like with the mass and grandeur of the numerous colonnades and archways that were found in abundance. It was also hard to picture the kind of spiritual darkness that Paul was up against throughout his entire missionary career preaching to the Gentiles. Corinth was a port city, with incalculable numbers of prostitutes and sexual immorality, even kinds that would stun us today. The main temple there to Aphrodite contained 10,000 holy priestesses who basically were temple prostitutes. Being there and knowing the background behind the Word opened our eyes to so much more to the heart Paul had for the people in Corinth… When we see Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians, we simply see it as ‘the love chapter’, but I didn’t realize that most of the people that made up the church were ex-prostitutes and that Paul was painting a picture of what love is really like, not the perverted mess that they had been involved with (many from the age of about 12).
[Columns of an ancient temple in Corinth: Photo, John Paul Vicory]
[The last remaining pillars in the temple of Apollos, Corinth: Photo, John Paul Vicory]
Another terrific experience occurred a few days after we arrived in Turkey. We are staying in a small town called Selçuk, Turkey a couple kilometers away from ancient Ephesus. Acts gives an account of a riot that occurred in the Theatre (which holds tens of thousands of people) at the end of Paul’s 2-year stay here. The stadium was at maximum capacity with tens of thousands of angry people shouting “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!!!” at the top of their lungs for 2 hours. As we were reading the account in the Theatre, we tried to picture and hear (in our minds) how impressive and loud it must have been for the Christians were standing in front of them all wondering if they would make it out alive…
[The entrance to the Celsus Library in Ephesus: Photo, John Paul Vicory]
[Carla and Tim reading an Epistle of Paul close to where it was read for the first time: Photo, John Paul Vicory]
Over the last few weeks especially, the Word has come to life for each person as we study… A few of us even had a chance to experience the power of God on the Ferry ride from Greece to Turkey. The first leg of our journey took us from Athens to a small Island just opposite Turkey called Chios. It was about a 6 hour journey, but at the tail end of it, a demon possessed boy started manifesting by shrieking over and over again. My heart started pounding because I could sense the evil tormenting the boy of about 12. One of the trackers, Kate, was the first to go and Sarah Joe and I followed after. Kate had managed to get a little bit of English out of another member of the family (who mysteriously disappeared after the event) and learned that the boy was hungry, but his body prevented him from eating.
We asked if we could pray for him, but the message wasn’t getting through. All of the sudden, the boy started wrenching on the ground, grasping for shoes or whatever he could get his hands on and started throwing them around. Once he didn’t have anything to throw, he started bashing himself in the face with his fists, shrieking all the while. When this happened, the three of us laid hands on him and commanded the evil spirit to come out of him and to torment him no longer. After a few minutes, we all (unaware of each other) started praying the peace of Jesus over the boy and his life. Kate was holding his hand and he gave one final intense squeeze and then relaxed. His entire countenance changed. He opened his tear stained eyes and we could visibly see his bloodshot glazed eyes become white and clear. A few more of the trackers were here by this time and were around him praying as well. We sat him up and gave him water, which he gulped down and a banana and some cookies. He was able to eat! We sat there with him for a few more minutes, but while everything was happening, we had arrived in our port and had to leave. We tried to explain the love of Jesus, but our translator had already taken off before we arrived.
We had been studying Acts with David Hamilton, Dan Shannon, and Andrew York that entire week learning about how the God of the Bible is still alive and moving just like he did then. He wants to use those who are willing. We should set Acts and the miraculous that happened then as our standard today. Why shouldn’t we? Why do we live our entire lives without expecting that God desires to do the same things with us as he did with Peter and Paul. I was scared to death to go over and command evil out of someone, but God taught me so much in that one experience; about his power, but also his love for all people.
So, now we are here in Selcuk for the next little while, expecting God to keep using us to show the love of Jesus with those around us. Pray that we will be bold to move where he wants us, and also for the hearts and minds of the 99% of the Turkish people who are Muslim.
Spotlight: Sungku
[Sungku on the Ferry from the Greek Island Chios to Turkey: Photo, John Paul Vicory]
Sungku and I became roommates once we got to Greece because all of the guys were rooming together, but now in Turkey it is Sungku, Scott, and I together in one room. It is good to be all together, but I like it a little bit better to have only a couple roommates. I was excited about this week’s spotlight because I didn’t know Sungku very well before now. Before DTS, he had spent five months with YWAM as a Mission Builder at the U of N, Kona.
Sungku came to a personal relationship with Jesus when he was 13 in Korea. He had a couple of friends that were Christians, but they had never invited him to their church. The first time that Sung met the youth pastor of his friends’ church, he was invited to attend a service. Sungku is still a member of that church more than 10 years later. After military service, many Korean males venture to English speaking countries to learn English in order to get a better job in Korea. One of Sungku’s friends introduced him to a guy who had been staffing in Kona, and told him and his best friend about Mission Builders. Mission Builders is a program for young people to come to Kona and work on construction, in the kitchen, and on the grounds to keep everything up to speed. Sungku had a relationship end, like so many of us, so him and his best friend decided to commit to Kona. While he was there, he was encouraged to do a DTS, but didn’t have any money for it. He even started his lecture phase without registering for the DTS because he didn’t have the funds. Ever since then, he has been on an intense roller coaster of seeing God’s provision in his life, from getting his school fees, to his outreach fees, to a digital camera and even a laptop. God has proven himself so many times to Sungku and will have more opportunities, I am sure.
Sungku’s culture teaches him that he has to work hard for everything that he has and if he doesn’t have the money to do something, he can’t do it. Sung has been hard at work, doing what the Lord tells him to do, which most of the time isn’t a walk in the park. Getting sponsors and raising support is much harder to do, so God is constantly reminding him that He is God and can provide so much more than Sung can ever think or imagine. Because of his obedience, God has taken him halfway around the world and he will take him the rest of the way as well. Before the track started, God took him to Thailand and India. Sungku received a little bit of God’s heart for the people of Thailand especially and was able to minister to the Bar-Girls of Bangkok who are trapped in a cycle of poverty. He was able to share some incredible stories from his time there and in India.
[Grandmother: Photo, Sungku0
For the Round the World portion, Sung is expecting to see God’s provision more and more, and is relying on it. He knows that his impact will be great while he is out here in the world, but trusts that through a publication and tour, that God’s heart for the world will be shown on a much more wide-scale and influential level, penetrating the Western world. For the track, he wants to trust in God more and more, stepping out in the ways that the Holy Spirit is leading. It’s easy to let doubt creep in (in all of our lives), but important to remain grounded on the promises of God.
[Crying Baby: Photo, Sungku]
When asked if he had any advice for you, the readers, he said this…
“Step out! God prepares for us. If you don’t step out, it’s not going to happen.”
[Balloons: Photo, Sungku]
Thanks for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or respond via email. Also, if you know of people that would appreciate the email reminder for the blog, please send me their email address (after you get permission of course!).
Thank you for your faithfulness to us as we are faithful to our Father.
In Christ
John Paul
Labels: Advocate, Awaken, Photoblog, PhotogenX, traveling
